This is a late report from the night of 21 Jun. Skies were forecast to be above average and I wanted to get my Brandon 94 out on the g-11 to check out some globulars and open clusters...with a few double stars thrown into the mix.
The Brandons were manufactured by Don Yeier of Vernonscope from 1987 to 1990 and used early Roland Christen triplet
APO lenses as well as a number of parts interchangeable with the Unitron brand. These parts included the 3″ alt-azimuth and equatorial mounts, focuser, and the objective lens cell. I've found it to be a great performer! Eyepieces used for the evening: Brandon 48mm (13x); TV 22mm Panoptic (29x); TV 10mm Radian (64x), and TV 3.5mm Nagler Type 6 (183x).
I started the session checking out some of the brighter available doubles to include: Mizar/Alcor (Ursa Major), Agieba (Leo), Rasalgethi (Hercules) and Porrima (Virgo). Porrima was a press at 183x, but the separation was clearly discernable.
Other objects observed by constellation included:
Hercules - M13 and M92
Ophiuchus: M10, M12, M14,
IC 4655, and
NGC 6633
Scorpius: M4, M6, M7, and M80
Lyra: M57, STF 2470 and STF 2474
Another very nice evening at the eyepiece of a great vintage scope!
Dave