EarthLOG 11 November 2000
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COMMENTS FROM THE CROWD ON THE IMAGES FROM THE FLUORO STAR 100 :
Woei Jiin : "I'm impressed with Saturn. I've never seen the division so clearly before. The image is truly excellent! And, Lin, I'm not saying this because you are here, k? :)"
Weixiong : "The event was a success, though I was hoping more people could turn up. Very interesting and the Fluoro Star took me by surprise. This is really not bad given all the conditions. But strangely, when we continued the Jupiter observation later after everyone left, Remus had his Tak FC60 f/8 at 300x (using the Tak LE 5mm & 2x barlow), it kinda looked similar to the image on the WYO. But that's not a fair test, since the conditions were different after midnight. We have got to try it again!"
Guowei : "I'm surprised by how good the image was. The colour correction and details are good and I saw the GRS. It probably needs a better eyepiece than the Celestron one to bring out the true potential of Fluoro Star. But I'll say this is better than average viewing already!"
Karthik : "Very interesting! Being a real novice at this, the party really was quite a nice exchange. I was kinda thought Jupiter and Saturn would be bigger, like those images from the Voyager, you know! :) But this was very good."
Wei-Lung : "I do know that the image of Saturn is something I won't forget - it's pretty much the first time I've seen the Cassini division so clearly. So that's what the Cassini division is! I always thought it was some kind of mathematical theory!"
From: Remus Chua
To: Lin
Date: Monday, November 13, 2000 2:51 PM
Subject: comments
With regards to comments about the 3G.
Yingtian, Weixiong and myself stayed over till about 2AM the other night. After the rest left, we decided to look at Jupiter again using the 2.4inch [Takahashi FC60, focal length 480mm] refractor. What we saw really left thoughts running either wild or crazy! And I thought I needed to tell you this soon: Jupiter was pumped up with a similar configuration (with the 5mm and 2X Ultima Barlow).
Same amount of detail and somewhat more contrasty than when this similar configuration was placed on the WYO. Of course, all of us felt that the image was dimmer but it was not soft. I'd noticed (donno about the rest) that Jupiter was soft in the WYO when the 2X and 5mm was used though it was easy to see the GRS and other intricate bands. We thought that it was probably due to the greater presence of haze at the time when we were gazing using the WYO. It's weird too though that at f8, it should have performed better visually. I personally suspected that it could either be rough figuring of the primary or miscollimation of the cell (due to perturbations from transport?).
At first, we thought it could also be attributed to the use of the star diagonal, but then again, the diagonal was also used in the 2.4incher. Weather could have been a primary cause of this observational conclusion but it wouldn't have made sense that both Jupiters seemingly displayed almost equal amount of detail (resolution). Maybe, another observation could be made to further conclude our findings.
Remus
FUN RUMOURS FROM ABROAD
Someone claimed to have seen the 2 divisions within Saturn's rings with the Fluoro Star 100. I say, we gotta get together again and see how much more it can be tortured visually before it breaks down.. 5x Powermate needed! - Lin