Pete's Observing log of 3-4 May 07
Objectives:
1. Test the unique Garrett
Optical 28X110 HD-WP Signature series binocular. I won't carry an item unless I'm
really impressed with it.
2. Test the prototype EZ
Binoc Super Mount Kit.
3. Enjoy a beautiful clear
night
I’ve had these new binoculars for a month now and haven’t really been
able to use them as their 16-pound weight precludes use without a mount.
Preparing for NEAF delayed the mount development but I think I’ve got a
working prototype now. Tonight’s
forecast calls for clear cloud free skies with so-so seeing.
But at binocular power the seeing shouldn’t be an issue.
Garrett’s 28 X 110s drop onto the new mount slick as can be.
The mounting process takes all of 10-seconds.
It’s ½ hour after sunset and Venus is my first target.
Since I’m observing on the deck adjacent to my observatory I fire up
the 14” LX200GPS and confirm that Venus is almost at half phase.
While there’s a little bit of air turbulence the scope’s getting a
relatively sharp image at 115X. Back
to the binocular I recheck focus on a nearby star, but all I can make out of
Venus is a brilliant roundish shaped shimmering object with a little bit of blue
flare. I’m disappointed.
But since I’m in a different location from the scope and viewing very
close to the house roof perhaps I’m picking up some thermals from the hot
black roof that are dissipated at the height of the scope’s optical path.
Saturn is easily visible now, and I consider it to be the biggest
challenge of the evening. I usually
restrict my binocular viewing to comets. For
some reason I can see much greater detail in most comets with my 15X70 binocular
than in my 14” scope. But on an
evening when I’m using a binocular I do like to check out everything –
including the major planets. Galileo
found that to view planets he needed around 30X – and this is one of the
reasons I’ve gravitated to this new 28X binocular.
My experience
with giant 22 X 100 Antares and 25 X 100 Celestron units suggests that I need
much higher quality optics as well as increased magnification.
The prototype mount swings very smoothly to Saturn.
By Golly! I can see a very
clean separation of the ring and the planet, with Titan sitting close in at the
7-o-clock position. Moving Saturn
out toward the edge of the FOV the ring blurs and merges with the planet body.
But even then, the image is better than when centered in my Antares 22 X
100s. There’s no detail on
Saturn’s surface and the sky isn’t very dark tonight so I can’t make out
any other moons, but I’m very satisfied with the optical performance.
My Venus views had me worried. The
new mount isn’t rock steady – there’s a little bit of movement that I find
distracting when trying to pull very fine detail out of the tiny image that is
Saturn. My club buddy Greg is using
my EZ Binoc Mount with his much lighter Orion ED80 scope so it may be weight and
not basic harmonics that’s in play here. I
play around a bit with dampening and arrive at a couple of possible solutions. Note
added 1 Jun 07 - the image stability issue was associated with flex in the
1/2-inch pipe used for the prototype's pier legs. These legs are used
without a problem on the EZ Binoc Mount Kit, but the significant additional
weight of the 28x110s and the associated counterweights resulted in some
vibration. The production version of the Supermount corrects the problem
with the use of much stiffer 3/4-inch pipe legs and a new beefier pier/leg
weldment.
My next target is M44 – the Beehive Cluster.
The Beehive fills the binocular field of view (FOV).
Its big and bright and beautiful. The
28 X 110 is advertised as having a 2.3-degree actual FOV and a 64-degree
apparent FOV. Checking star
separation with Guide 8, that seems about right.
Galaxies M81 & M82 appear as bright in the 28 X 110 binocular as they
do when checking thru my 14” at 115X, only smaller and less detailed.
Its neat being able to see both so easily in the same FOV.
Galaxy M51 (the Whirlpool) is, in contrast to M81/M82, very faint.
The full moon is rising and I’m losing sky contrast.
M51 is almost overhead. My
neck is already sore from looking up at 81/82, so I recline on my Gravity Chair
for this one. With the 14” the
Whirlpool is relatively bright and I can easily see the smaller companion
galaxy. The deck is exposed to the
headlights of passing vehicles, so my eyes are not well dark adapted.
The best I can do with M51 with the binocular is to imagine that I’m
seeing 2 diffuse segments in that faint gray fuzzy.
Globular cluster M3 appears surprisingly bright in the 28 X 110s – for
such a dim object. It takes a big
scope to do M3 justice, but in the binocular I can see granularity – I’m
almost resolving these faint stars.
As I become more adapted to the binocular-mount combo I’m no longer
noticing that small amount of mount “jiggle” that I was fighting when
viewing Saturn. Maybe its
adaptation, or maybe its just that with DSOs one just views differently.
It’s around
23:00
now, and the full moon is illuminating the sky from its position below the tree
line to the SE. It’s time to cut
some ZZZZZZZZZs. I throw a towel
over the scope to keep the dew off, and go to bed for a short nap.
4 May 07,
01:30
hrs. I'm back outside. Luna is HUGE in this
binocular. The flare and glare in my
Antares 22 X 100s make them difficult to use on the moon.
With these 28 X 110s there’s a very very minor yellow fringe around the
edge, but no glare or reflections in the optics.
What an improvement! Luna is
also almost blindingly bright - heavy dark neutral density filters are really
needed for comfort. But after a while I’m adapted to the brilliance
(although its still not comfortable viewing). What a beautiful view.
I’m very impressed. Now its
naptime again.
02:30
hrs. Jupiter is tantalizing.
I can almost make out the major northern and southern bands.
The Galilean moons are puzzling me though.
Callisto and Ganymede appear to have Io and Europa stacked right on top
of them. But Guide 8 shows Io to be
the “star” visible very close in to the planet, and Europa is so close as to
not be visible. This isn’t a
collimation problem. The collimation
in this binocular is beautiful – something that Zach says is typical of the
more refined prism mounting. Closing
one eye, and then the other, I see the same thing.
How puzzling. The minor mount
jiggling experienced at the start of the night is no longer an issue.
Perhaps there’s a tiny bit of flare there, or perhaps my eyes aren’t
properly aligned on the optical axis. Once
again, as with Saturn, I’m struggling to pull arc-second detail with an
inappropriate instrument.
Albireo splits easily at 28X. I
haven’t visited this beautiful double since last year.
The brighter yellow star is shaded toward red. The
smaller blue star appears more white than blue.
That’s it for the night. The
huge Garretts dismount in 10 seconds flat and I’m in the house to catch up on
some sleep.
Conclusions and lessons
learned:
The Garrett 28 X 110s are a fine optical instrument, with optics far
superior to the less expensive 100 mm Chinese imports we’ve been using for the
past few years. I can put my
reputation behind these and sell them.
The EZ Binoc Super Mount prototype seemed to handle the 16-pounds pretty
well. 28X or 30X is the most one
would want to push the magnification on this mount, but with use the minor
jiggle noticed when trying to pull arc-second detail from Saturn became a
non-issue as I continued to view into the evening. (As
noted above, jiggle problem was addressed in production version of mount).
The huge Garretts on the Super Mount are a good pairing.
There’s nothing on the market that I know of that will allow 5-axis
mounting of this wonderful but heavy new optic.
Because of their length I was able to sight down the center axis of the
binocular and aim them relatively easily. I’m
usually a go-to kind of guy, and find that instead of star hopping I prefer to
point at the target zone and then sweep the area.
This is hard to do with hand-helds, but its easy to do with the mount.
I just search up/down thru the zone, move horizontally ½ the fov and
repeat the scan until I find my target. I
will be mounting a red dot finder as it'll make putting the binocular on target
ever so much faster.
What a great night. I’ve
never enjoyed binocular viewing so much. I
can’t wait to see what this setup is going to do on a comet.
Pete Peterson 4 May 07
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