http://astroproject.in/meet-the-expert-sathyakumar/
A little interview on me.
A little interview on me.
http://astroproject.in/meet-the-expert-sathyakumar/
A little interview on me.
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General:
Sri Mahavver College, Moodbidri purchased the Clestron C14 EDGE HD telescope along with the CGE PRO computerized equatorial mount. I was called to assist in setting it up as well as test the telescope. The combined unit came packaged in seven boxes. One contained the OTA with its accessories like finder scope, diagonal and eyepiece. The tripod was packed securely in a box, the three counterweights weighing 10kg each were packed in individual boxes, the mount head, being one of the heaviest components was packed separately. Physical: The mount is fairly straightforward to setup. The tripod is unfolded and spread out. The control pier is attached to it with four Allen head screws (supplied) over which is attached the equatorial mount head. The counterweight shaft is screwed into the DEC axis and is basically a machined steel rod. The weights themselves are made of cast iron. This mount does not have a polar alignment scope, so for initial alignment, it will be only rough, though it does not affect pointing accuracy as we shall see ahead. Once the OTA is attached to the mount head using the supplied Losmandy style mounting plate, balancing is done and it is very critical. I noticed that even if the balance is slightly off, the mount made painful screeching sounds at some angles while being slewed in RA. The sound did not appear after proper balancing. The balancing has to be done with the supplied Luminos 23mm eyepiece in place because that itself weighs close to a kilogram. One must note that all components are very heavy and it is recommended that at least two persons are necessary to carry the OTA and three to carry the tripod with mount head attached. It is quite a difficult task to disassemble the mount head from the tripod each time it is taken outside. On the outset, the instrument is portable, but given the difficulties I faced while repeatedly Operation: The first time user will be prompted to input standard data like location, date, time, daylight savings etc which again is quite straight. I would assume that the person purchasing such a massive instrument would have some prior exposure to telescopes in general and GOTO computerized mounts in particular. The handset will prompt the user to do a 2 star alignment for which it will automatically select suitable bright stars and even slew the scope close to them. It will also prompt for additional calibration stars. I prefer to do a 2 star alignment followed by 2 more calibration stars. This makes the pointing accuracy very high. Observing Report: Since the scope is supplied with only a single 23mm Luminos eyepiece, it gives a reasonably high magnification of 170x. It is suitable for planets, Moon as well as many deep sky objects. This is only because of the large aperture and resulting light gathering power. In smaller scopes a magnification of 170x would be too high for many deep sky objects. The first object we observed was Jupiter. Since it was first light for the scope, we simply could not control our excitement, and it did not disappoint. The great red spot was visible for a few minutes before it went behind the planet. The transit of Io was excellent with its shadow a crisp black dot on the surface of Jupiter. A few minutes into the view it slowly emerged out of the disk. Orion nebula was our next favorite. The observer has to feel it and no description in this report will justify the view. The gaseous structure of the nebula was clearly defined from the black of space. The trapezium stars in the centre of the nebula were visible as five stars and not the usual four. This was a surprise for me. The entire nebula filled the field of view and it was mesmerizing to say the least. M41, the open cluster in Canis Major was our next target. It is known to be a favorite among open cluster observers. Once again the entire field was filled with stars of almost equal magnitude. A whole group of little diamonds in space. M46 was next chosen because of the planetary nebula NGC2438 in it. The cluster was beautiful anyway, but it was the planetary nebula that enhanced its beauty. It was a round, potato like gas structure around a central star and was visible quite large. In fact, its size was about four Jupiter’s placed next to each other. I wanted to find out if the Whirlpool galaxy would be visible from a town like Moodbidri where the telescope is located. I was not disappointed. M51 was visible clearly alongside its smaller partner NGC5195. I was surprised by the ease with which we were able to pick them out. Other objects we observed were M84, M65, M66, Hamburger galaxies. All were very well defined and easy to observe. Conclusion: size makes a big difference in observing the cosmos. The resolution obtained from a scope like the 14 inch Schmidt is incomparable to that obtained from my modest 8 inch Newtonian reflector. If one has the means and resources to obtain this telescope, I would definitely recommend a purchase. |
AuthorI have made this website for the welfare of the Human kind interested in knowing more about the Universe outside of Earth. :) I shall keep it up to date with any information I feel relevant to astronomy. Archives
July 2020
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