Last week I spent some time in the front yard with my 6" Dob, checking out the Moon and Jupiter. This inspired me to dust off the old 12" Lightbridge and head out this evening. And dust it off I did! I had not used it in maybe 10 months or so. The poor thing had cobwebs in the lower tube assembly and was quite dusty. Anyway, after a quick dusting and de-webbing, I packed it up and took off to one of the more popular observing spots in Austin, Texas - the Mansfield Dam.
One other chap turned up, who had a nice 12" LX200. He was good company but I wondered what happened to everyone else I used to see out there. A good clear night used to attract quite a crowd. Oh well, maybe another time.
Anyway, after a very quick setup including collimation, I had a great few hours under the stars. It remained very clear and despite the Austin Clear Sky Chart indicating strong winds, it stayed relatively calm through the evening. The other chap swore he saw a few meteors here and there but they remained elusive for me.
Highlights of the night included:
Neptune! (Found it using the SkySafari iPhone app!)
Comet Garrard (faint at magnitude 7.8 but it looked great with my 22mm Panoptic)
The Double Cluster
M13 (Very nice tonight, tons of detail!)
Jupiter (All four moons visible, with the Great Red Spot visible as well)
Star Cloud in Sagitarrius
M57 Ring Nebula
A few other small open clusters
A great night out indeed. I need to more evenly split my time between visual and photographic astronomy and be sure to enjoy the simple pleasure of actually looking at the objects directly.
Another clear night in Austin, Texas. That's two weekends in a row and a very welcome end to a long period of cloudy skies and social engagements. I took the kids out to the Mansfield Dam observing site for a few hours of fun and games. I took the 12" Lightbridge and the 6" Skyquest for the kids to look through.
There was a crescent moon up through around 11:30 or so, so deep sky faint and fuzzies were pretty hard to observe. Seeing was also around 3/5, so planets and double stars were not the best but viewable. Still, I got a fair few objects in my scope and they looked pretty decent. This included M27, M57, M31, Double Cluster and various open clusters that were part of my Caldwell Catalogue hunt. I also observed quite a few meteors which I guess were the tail-end of the Orionid shower, some of which were quite bright indeed.
One of the other chaps (Jared, who comments here occassionally) brought along his relatively new CGEM mount. I've been thinking about reconstructing an Astrophotography rig based on either the Orion Atlas or Celestron CGEM mount. He pleasantly showed me the set-up procedure which included the uncannily easy polar alignment method. It takes me about 30 minutes to perform this using my Milburn wedge on my LX200, and that is AFTER setting the scope up, balancing and leveling. He was done with the polar alignment procedure in about three minutes, and that's astrophoto ready! The mount looks great, too and the menu system on the computer (and options contained therein) are excellent. So, it's time to consider getting one of these beasts. I have an idea in my head of the overall setup I want, and the CGEM compliments it nicely.
I also spent some time with another chap looking at his C14 mounted on the CGE mount. That's a really heavy-duty mount and beyond my requirements at this point, but still a very impressive setup. The views through the C14 were outstanding. It was able to resolve quite a few faint galaxies, even with the moon out.
The dew kicked in with ferocity after the moon set, so I packed up and took the kids (now sound asleep in the back of the car) home. All-in-all an interesting night (oh, except for the part when my kids knocked my binoculars on the ground...) of observing and toy reviews!
This weekend was the New Moon weekend. Somehow, some way, the Gods cleared the skies and presented Central Texas with excellent viewing conditions. A friend of mine booked a camp site for his pop-up trailer/caravan at the RV park next to the Canyon of the Eagles observatory site, along with another mate of his. We spent Friday and Saturday night up there, and had an excellent time.
I took both my LX200 for astrophotography, and my Lightbridge for visual work. I had a few targets that I wanted to revisit for AP work, and also wanted to start hunting down the Caldwell Catalogue objects. I found myself often going between both scopes while also just staring up at the nice dark sky. I bought a tarp cover to put on the ground, which worked out very well. The observing field is covered with burrs, and I was tired of getting pricked all night while moving around the scopes. The tarp on the floor did a great job of protecting me while I heard other astronomers curse as they suffered the onslaught.
The Orionid meteor shower was ramping up to its peak, which occurs in a few days time. Still, I think they were coming down at a rate of around 10-15 per hour, maybe more. Most were pretty ordinary, but several were quite bright and left short trails after them.
With respect to my hunt for Caldwell objects, I picked off a few objects, mostly around the Cassieopia region. I need to verify a few more and then will update my logbook. It is a great way to learn about objects outside of the Messier catalogue, and moreso a great way to learn your way around the sky.
Anyway, two nights out in the cold. I have lots of image data to go through and if any of it comes out nicely I'll post it to the blog.
My new 12" Lightbridge turned up yesterday morning via Fedex ground delivery. Talk about an exciting day! I raced home at lunchtime to inspect the contents of the two boxes and make sure that the primary and secondary mirrors were okay and intact (I had read about bad experiences in this regard). The mirrors were actually okay, and the scope was very well packed.
While I was supposed to only inspect the boxes during my lunch break, I decided to go ahead and build the base before heading back to the office. This really didn't take long at all, as I had built two Dobsonian bases before (once for my Dad's 10", the other time for my Orion 6".). I was done in about half-an-hour or so. The plywood constructions seemed just fine, and because this Lightbridge was the "Deluxe" model, I had to insert some steel roller bearings on the azimuth bearing, which was really a no-brainer. Having put the base together I quickly assembled the truss tube which again was easy and straightforward. I looked at the beauty of it before having to head back to work. Overall, it was a slick-looking scope. Movements on both axes seemed very smooth, and the scope didn't try and run away from me at all.
Unlike most astronomers who buy new toys, I was blessed with clear skies last night. When I got home I packed the car and headed to the local popular observing spot. I was joined by a good mate of mine, Scott, who brought along one of his high-end refractors and goto EQ mount. It took me no longer that 10 minutes to put the scope together in the field, which includes putting the mirror cell ring into Dob mount, attaching the truss tubes and then attaching the top ring which includes the diagonal and focuser. I had some trouble collimating, but that's because it had been a while. Luckily, Scott was able to help me out and had an excellent alignment configured in about five minutes or so.
For an out-of-the-box experience, the scope performed wonderfully. Movements on both axes were very smooth. I had read the scope was a bit top-heavy, and that when users placed heavier 2" eyepieces into the focuser, the scope would tend to sink a little bit. Meade has apparently gotten around this by adding a tension adjuster to one of the altitude bearings. This worked just fine for me, and I put it on a real test using a 35mm Nagler. The scope pretty much stayed where I wanted it to with each object I viewed. I was also able to nudge the scope carefully when tracking objects with ease, although at times there was just a little stiffness on the altitude axis but I attribute that to an overtightened tension adjustment. So, as far as mechanics go, the scope was great.
Optically, the scope exceeded my expectations last night. I found the crayford focuser to be very smooth indeed. A dual-speed focuser would be nice (I believe this options comes with the 16" model) but the supplied standard crayford fits the bill just right. The sky conditions were about a 3/5, with occasional high level, wispy clouds rolling over from time to time. The first object I went to was M42, the Great Nebula in Orion. It was the best image I have ever seen of the nebula, with the scope clearly showing very detailed nebulosity and clearly depicting the inner trapezium group of stars. Very nice! I then moved onto Mars. For some reason I didn't expect a good view, but with my 10mm Radian (giving me 152X magnification), Mars was big, bright, and had a very nice level of detail. I could easily see some surface features and barely make out the ice cap. The color was also very, very good, giving me a nice orangy-red, sharply-defined disc. I then "surfed" around various Messier objects including M31, M35, M37, M38. All were very clear and sharp. The Double Cluster was exceptional, with pin-point stars and a nice wide field with my 22mm Panoptic. In all, the scope gave me lovely bright and contrasty images, which is exactly what I was looking for in a big light bucket such as this. I did not use the light shroud that I purchased last night, but I think it would help create more contrast when in use. I'll try it next time.
Many people like to modify their scopes. I don't really see much to modify at this point. I would like to replace the standard collimation screws with a Bob's Knobs-type setup which I believe one can purchase for around $50.00 or so. I also wasn't too fond of the included illuminated reticle finder. I much prefer an optical finder, so I'll probably just use the 8*50 right-angle finder I use for my 6" Dob moving forward. There's also the potential to add some digital setting circles but I am in no rush for that. I want to be able to find objects myself for a little while and get to know the sky a little better. Other than that, the scope is perfect as is.
My initial impression is that the Lightbridge is a well constructed, easy-to-use scope that offers wonderful views of the heavens. I was really impressed with the images through it last night, and can't wait to get it out to a dark sky site for some more intense deep sky object viewing. For the current sale price ($850.00) I don't think you go wrong with this 12" monster!
! Feel free to check out my more recent blog posts about performance of and modifications to this scope by clicking this link!
