Session on Tuesday (9-27-22)

[terrynak]

Clear skies again, so I got out the Meade AZ60-T (60mm F/5.8) on the NexStar GT mount again:

The widefield views I get using my 32mm Plossl (11x) are wonderful. Among other objects, I looked at:

• M11 (OC) – visible even at 11x.

• M71 (GC) – even though nearly overhead, barely caught a glimpse of it at 39x and 56x with AV, so very difficult from Bortle 9 skies.

• Jupiter – sharp disk at 56x; the transit shadow of Ganymede just visible on the disk.

• Saturn – beautiful at 56x with Titan visible with AV

Just great to see that this scope is now in good working order, after being an almost “useless” scope in my stable for so long. Now I have two 1.25” wide-field ‘fracs available for use, the other being the Orion Short Tube 80A:

Had a lot of problems with this scope initially but was eventually able to improve its performance after fiddling around with it for 6 months before actually doing any observing with it. Learned a lot about tweaking refractors from working with this scope.

[John Baars]

Since you were tweaking the refractor: If you have any coma left in the centre , here is what you can do:
viewtopic.php?p=114261&hilit=Correcting+Coma#p114261
I did it too and it was quite satisfying.
p.s. Add spacing with alufoil. The foil is typically 1/100 mm thick. So by folding you'll get 2,4, 8,16, 32/00 mm

[Bigzmey]

Nice session with small fracs Terry! They can be lots of fun.

[Lady Fraktor]

Nice you could get out with the refractor Terry.
Maybe if it gets enough photons it will grow to a 80mm f/7

Before shimming the lens as per John excellent article, check that the focuser is in alignment with the lens.
With these small aperture, short tube refractors they only need to be out of alignment slightly to show what looks like coma.

[Makuser]

Hi Terry. A nice observing session with the Meade AZ60-T (60mm F/5.8) telescope. I like the short focal length refractors for their bright, high contrast, and wide field views. Thanks for your excellent report Terry and I hope that you get more opportunities to get out under the skies soon.

[terrynak]

Since you were tweaking the refractor: If you have any coma left in the centre , here is what you can do:
viewtopic.php?p=114261&hilit=Correcting+Coma#p114261
I did it too and it was quite satisfying.
p.s. Add spacing with alufoil. The foil is typically 1/100 mm thick. So by folding you'll get 2,4, 8,16, 32/00 mm

This is super helpful John! I never thought about adjusting the spacing between the two objective lenses to fix coma!

Previously, I would try to shim the objective or focuser end of the OTA to try to improve the collimation on a refractor.

On my Orion ST80A, the star diagonal that came with the scope was mis-collimated as well, so I bought a dielectric star diagonal for it (which I use occasionally on other scopes).

Nice session with small fracs Terry! They can be lots of fun.

Yes - they are ideal grab and go scopes for vacations, especially if going to more southerly locales. Just bring a regular photo/video tripod as well.

I did this on my first trip to Australia. I brought with me a smaller version of the Meade 60AZ-T, the 50AZ-T (50mm F/7). I just "threw" the scope into my large backpack and still had plenty of room to spare.

Nice you could get out with the refractor Terry.
Maybe if it gets enough photons it will grow to a 80mm f/7

Before shimming the lens as per John excellent article, check that the focuser is in alignment with the lens.
With these small aperture, short tube refractors they only need to be out of alignment slightly to show what looks like coma.

Thanks Gabrielle!

Yup, I always try to adjust the front or back end of the OTA to see if I could fix the alignment. As you said, it's more of an issue with fast refractors.

Hi Terry. A nice observing session with the Meade AZ60-T (60mm F/5.8) telescope. I like the short focal length refractors for their bright, high contrast, and wide field views. Thanks for your excellent report Terry and I hope that you get more opportunities to get out under the skies soon.

Thanks Marshall. Even in my Bortle 9 skies the wide-field views using a 32mm Plossl with this scope at 11x looks amazing. It's unfortunate that short-tube 'fracs weren't readily available in the past when we were kids. Besides the breathtaking views, it would have made star-hopping a lot easier.

[helicon]

Thanks for the interesting report Terry with the 60mm frac. You indeed are proving that little scopes can offer some great views like their larger cousins, congrats on catching M71 from the city and also the transit of Ganymede - pretty cool, also you are the recipient of today's VROD so congratulations!

[kt4hx]

Well done on the VROD for today Terry.

[John Baars]

Congratulations on the VROD!

[terrynak]

Thanks for the interesting report Terry with the 60mm frac. You indeed are proving that little scopes can offer some great views like their larger cousins, congrats on catching M71 from the city and also the transit of Ganymede - pretty cool, also you are the recipient of today's VROD so congratulations!

You're welcome, Michael! Thanks again for the award!

Well done on the VROD for today Terry.

Thanks Alan!

Congratulations on the VROD!

Thanks John!