Post by Mike on May 27, 2014 9:23:50 GMT -5
Hello all, this is an email I sent to Ales and Zdenek concerning my experience with a new 150-5 R35 Comet Hunter I used in the Florida Everglades this past Friday night:
A group of us stayed overnight in the Everglades Friday night in anticipation of the possible new Camelopardalids meteor shower. I took a 150-5 R35 in the new tube configuration with me to use for the night. I was not just impressed but amazed at the performance of that lens. We used several eyepieces of different configurations and focal lengths. We observed star fields in the Milky Way, galaxies, open clusters, globular clusters and planets. At our low altitude we can see Omega Centauri and by midnight Saturn is a reasonable altitude. Several took turns looking through the scope. Most noted a very dark background with pinpoint stars all the way the edge of the field. No CA was visible in any of the stars or DSOs we observed. Through a 24mm Panoptic Omega Centauri and the surrounding stars was a most impressive sight. Then a 6mm Delos was used to observe several faint galaxies and finally a 3.5mm Delos to view Saturn with no visible CA. Although at 214X Saturn was a bit soft, no false color could be seen. This 150mm F5 R35 lens design is fantastic. If I didn’t know better I would think we were looking through an APO. To have stars pinpoint all the way to the edge of the field in an F5 is truly an accomplishment and a credit to Zdenek.
This scope, including the WO focuser, is only 30 inches long with the dew shield fully extended and when the dew shield is retracted, a mere 22 inches long. The WO rack and pinion focuser works perfectly. Even when observing an object at the zenith with a heavy eyepiece there is no slippage. Everyone loves the new white finish with black tube rings. This has been a good seller but with the new features it will prove to be even more popular.
BTW although we observed a couple of very bright meteors overall the supposed show proved to be a dud. Thank goodness the 150-5 R35 proved to be a “star.”
Taken by Tim Lilly:
A group of us stayed overnight in the Everglades Friday night in anticipation of the possible new Camelopardalids meteor shower. I took a 150-5 R35 in the new tube configuration with me to use for the night. I was not just impressed but amazed at the performance of that lens. We used several eyepieces of different configurations and focal lengths. We observed star fields in the Milky Way, galaxies, open clusters, globular clusters and planets. At our low altitude we can see Omega Centauri and by midnight Saturn is a reasonable altitude. Several took turns looking through the scope. Most noted a very dark background with pinpoint stars all the way the edge of the field. No CA was visible in any of the stars or DSOs we observed. Through a 24mm Panoptic Omega Centauri and the surrounding stars was a most impressive sight. Then a 6mm Delos was used to observe several faint galaxies and finally a 3.5mm Delos to view Saturn with no visible CA. Although at 214X Saturn was a bit soft, no false color could be seen. This 150mm F5 R35 lens design is fantastic. If I didn’t know better I would think we were looking through an APO. To have stars pinpoint all the way to the edge of the field in an F5 is truly an accomplishment and a credit to Zdenek.
This scope, including the WO focuser, is only 30 inches long with the dew shield fully extended and when the dew shield is retracted, a mere 22 inches long. The WO rack and pinion focuser works perfectly. Even when observing an object at the zenith with a heavy eyepiece there is no slippage. Everyone loves the new white finish with black tube rings. This has been a good seller but with the new features it will prove to be even more popular.
BTW although we observed a couple of very bright meteors overall the supposed show proved to be a dud. Thank goodness the 150-5 R35 proved to be a “star.”
Taken by Tim Lilly:
