I have posted about this scope before but after last nights session I was again inspired to report on this scopes performance.
Last night I chose the C80 ED over my TEC140 because the sky looked alittle turbulent and the jetstream forecast had it overhead, but I didn't want to miss the Io transit of Jupiter, so I ran with the "grab-n-go" It was my first transit this year(my favorite observing pastime) and the little "spotting scope" impressed me again.
At 04:00-04:10UT Io was distictly a seperate disk, slowly gliding over the limb darkened edge of Jupiter over time. It was still held as a seperate disk and took on a three-dimensional quality over the darkened limb. Apparently I had decent seeing although I was limited to 120x-150x with U.O. orthos. I have had this scope up to 234x on Saturn on a great night with plenty of contrast and cloud belt detail with straw color.
The NEB,NTB,N Polar region,SEB,S polar region and detail within the equator that wouldnt resolve into festoons but let you know something was going on, were all visible.
I followed Io across the southern edge of the SEB for afew minutes and then found the shadow fully at 04:25UT, about 6 minutes after predicted time. I watched Io and shadow appearing in contact at the 11 oclock position from Io about a third of the diameter across Jove. I lost Io at that point but followed the eclipse until CM at around 05:30UT.
The shadow as well as Io was not as pronounced as it was in my old Genesis,but was pleasing and acceptable. I find all the moons of Jupiter to appear as disks and can identify which is which. They don't show different colors but slightly different shades. I've read in reports where this is something for 4"-5" scopes...rubbish. To my eyes a good 3" is quite capable. And I understand the difference between a point source of different magnitude and a disk of different size. Incidentally, plato was showing 2 and on occasion 3 craterlets.
All in all a pleasing night of galilean transit watching with my little "spotting scope"!
Last night I chose the C80 ED over my TEC140 because the sky looked alittle turbulent and the jetstream forecast had it overhead, but I didn't want to miss the Io transit of Jupiter, so I ran with the "grab-n-go" It was my first transit this year(my favorite observing pastime) and the little "spotting scope" impressed me again.
At 04:00-04:10UT Io was distictly a seperate disk, slowly gliding over the limb darkened edge of Jupiter over time. It was still held as a seperate disk and took on a three-dimensional quality over the darkened limb. Apparently I had decent seeing although I was limited to 120x-150x with U.O. orthos. I have had this scope up to 234x on Saturn on a great night with plenty of contrast and cloud belt detail with straw color.
The NEB,NTB,N Polar region,SEB,S polar region and detail within the equator that wouldnt resolve into festoons but let you know something was going on, were all visible.
I followed Io across the southern edge of the SEB for afew minutes and then found the shadow fully at 04:25UT, about 6 minutes after predicted time. I watched Io and shadow appearing in contact at the 11 oclock position from Io about a third of the diameter across Jove. I lost Io at that point but followed the eclipse until CM at around 05:30UT.
The shadow as well as Io was not as pronounced as it was in my old Genesis,but was pleasing and acceptable. I find all the moons of Jupiter to appear as disks and can identify which is which. They don't show different colors but slightly different shades. I've read in reports where this is something for 4"-5" scopes...rubbish. To my eyes a good 3" is quite capable. And I understand the difference between a point source of different magnitude and a disk of different size. Incidentally, plato was showing 2 and on occasion 3 craterlets.
All in all a pleasing night of galilean transit watching with my little "spotting scope"!
