2009/11/10

A Quick Observation

This evening the sky was clear, there was no cloud at all. I quickly setup the M8 and EQ3Pro at the school roof. This was the second time I used the M8 and last time was in a rush too. The sky condition was the second best I encountered in the school. The seeing was about 6/10 to 7/10. The Polaris was easily seen this time. I spotted about 10 stars in the sky. I spent about an hour on observing the Jupiter. It was not a serious comparison the M8 and Equinox 120ED. Although the M8’s image is brighter than that of 120ED, the color of M8 is pale compared with Equinox 120ED. I used the Sky-watcher 8-24mm zoom eyepiece. All the images were sharp with some deterioration towards the 24mm limit. I boosted the magnification to 2000/5 = 400X. Obviously the image was okay. Some color fringes could be seen however the contrast was bad. Once I boosted the Equinox 120ED to 800/15X5 = 450. Although not much detail could be seen, the contrast was bad. This means M8 and Equinox 120ED got similar resolution, but Equinox got better color and contrast. This conclusion might not be accurate. A side by side comparison would be more reliable. I will do it shortly.

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