MLaferriere

Got home and finally had a semi clear night to try out the new ES 82° 6.7mm. Did my 2 star alignment with 2 calibration stars and all was well. Went to a few doubles and even in my new high power eyepiece they where in the field of view. Even in my ES 82° 18mm Mizar split nice but the 6.7mm shows them very sharp and separated! I quickly aimed the scope at Andromeda but with the lousy conditions tonight it was just a blob.

My next attempt was the "Cats Eye Nebula" and a mini disaster. While slewing the diagonal banged one of the legs and while pressing every button I could it did not stop. Logic would suggest "undo" might stop the slew. What is more amazing is that the mount kept trying to move the tube. Even if the mount was made with no way to track actual movement (or lack thereof) you'd figure when the motor suddenly spiked and started drawing more current that it would figure their is some kind of fault. This obviously threw off my alignment.

My main interest tonight either way was the moon. Even though these lens are 'parfocal' the focus still needs a little nudge once you switch eyepieces. But the detail in the 6.7 is NICE! You could see mountains on the moon casting shadows and there was always something to be amazed at while scanning the boundary between the light and dark sides of the moon. Ejecta showed up nicely from some of the larger craters.

I also gave a quick try at my new .965" to 1.25" adapter. I have a small box of Tasco gadgets. I was able to get a Tasco 20mm to focus pretty quickly and while the ES 18mm eyepiece (with a bit more magnification) had plenty of room around the moon the Tasco 20mm could just barely fit the moon. I had to place my eye just perfectly over the eyepiece to get a good view. It took me five attempts to get a 4mm Tasco to focus. The focuser had very little play in either direction to get any semblance that you where close to being in focus. A lot of detail was washed out with this lens and it was like looking through a straw, if you where off to one side, you saw nothing. The ES eyepieces had room to spare and with the 18mm eyepiece in you swear you could reach through the lens and touch the moon.