TECfest Observing Report by Wes Bolin
That was a night to remember. We were in between storms with one clear Saturday night. We hoped the seeing would
provide us with the ability to perform high-magnification viewing. A miracle happened; the seeing was really
stable. Our primary target was Saturn since we were in a very bright light dome of Plano/
Dallas. I tried some "brighter" deep sky objects with my 160FL, but they were not the right
targets for that location. Early in the evening, all three scopes were trained on Saturn:
Chuck's 200FL, my 160FL with Baader Binoviewers, and Tim's 160FL in mono mode.
I had TMB Monocentric eyepieces in my scope, Chuck had AP eyepieces, and Tim had a
variety in his throughout the night.
I arrived before dark to set up, and assist Chuck in whatever way possible with his set up of the Big Kahuna. The 200FL is a big scope! He lovingly cradled it in both arms as he climbed the
short ladder to place it in the rings, with his wife Deborah on one side and me on the other
acting as spotters like in the Olympics. In contrast, Tim's setup and mine were a one-
person operation. But the 200FL was a big telescope on a big mount on a big pier, all first class.
After dark, we started to view Saturn. I have never seen a finer view of Saturn than what Chuck's scope presented. It was bright, sharp, subtle contrast was evident, and it was "big".
Aperture wins for sure. We could see 7 moons, the Enke Minima, color shadings on the poles, Cassini all the way around, and beautiful Saturn with a stark black background. More experienced viewers could see many nuances in its image. I started viewing through the
200FL so I could look through the 160FL's and try to determine what was "missing".
So, the 200FL was outstanding.
Next, I went to my scope, also using Binoviewers. I don't recall the magnifications, but I
think Chuck was over 300X and I was about 275X. First thing I noticed was that Saturn
was smaller and dimmer, but surprisingly not too much. The majority of characteristics
observed through the 200FL were visible in the 160FL. I just had to look harder, or catch them
as they fleetingly came in and out. A friend of mine said that going from a 140 to a 160
made the planets look brighter and easier to see, and thats exactly what I saw between the
200FL and the 160FL.
Then I went to Tim's 160FL, in the Mono mode, and could see no difference in Saturn com-
pared to mine, taking the Binoviewers into account. His scope's image was remarkable. I
had used this telescope at the Eldorado Star Party (Eldorado, TX) last October, on Deep Sky, and it performed flawlessly, so I saw it was the same on Saturn. The thought came to me about the consistent quality that Yuri and crew produce.
One overriding impression is that all three telescopes had the same color images; whiter
and pure. There is something hard to describe about the purity of Saturn in all three scopes. Perhaps it has to do with the fluorite...
I am very happy with my 160FL; it fits my needs exactly. I just wish I lived closer to Chuck
so I could take advantage of his hospitality to let me look through his 200FL. The 160FL is
the best telescope I've owned, and its good to know that its in good company. But, I still
dream about Saturn in the 200FL.
Feedback from Tim Johnson
Saturn looked great on Saturday thru all 3 scopes--incredibly sharp and excellent contrast. But it was amazing thru Chuck's. This was my first look at his 200mm TEC APO--gorgeous and HUGE.
Chuck thinks that he is not bringing his TEC200 APO to TSP (Texas Star Party), but I have only begun pester him about this, so we will see.
Thanks to John Rudd for trying blind me. He put a low power eyepiece in Chuck's 8 inch, and pointed it at the moon, without any filtering. Prior to looking into the scope, my eyes were pretty well semi-dark adapted. Then I unwittingly (I do that alot) glanced thru that eyepiece. I almost fell into the pool. I guess that I should have noticed the beam coming out of the eyepiece--it was like flying over the Luxor in Vegas. John got a good laugh out of that one.
Thanks to Chuck for putting up with all of our antics, for the drinks, and to Jay's better half
(Helen) for the eats. Lots of fun.
