Orion 6" Mak-Cass.

[ngc 1149]

Well I finally got first light with my new Orion 6" Mak.-Cass.! I bought this scope two weeks ago and because of weather have not had a chance to use it. Transparency tonight is pretty good but the seeing stinks. First off I did a star drift to get the field of view size and the focal length. The field of view with a 26mm eyepiece was 49.6' of arc and estimated focal length was 1885mm. Next I viewed the Orion Nebula at various powers. The view was pretty good despite the light pollution which is pretty bad. The scope has very nice contrasty images. Next I looked at Saturn. I started with the 26mm and then tried the rest of my eyepieces in sequence. The next eyepiece was a 20mm, then a 14mm, and finally a 9mm. The views were very nice up until I used the 14mm. The views in both the 14mm and 9mm were not that good because of the seeing. I ended up using the 20mm for most of the session and sometimes the image would even break up in this eyepiece. I was able to see four moons, the Cassini division, and some banding on the planet. Well that covers my first viewing session. Clear skys!!!!