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Customer Comments
I picked up my spanking new SV115 from Vic over the weekend! After
owning a Nighthawk, it was no surprise to me that the 115 is built
like a (highly refined) tank. I got mine in Stellarblue, and it is
stunning. I know this because I sat and stared at it for a couple of
days while the weather was crummy. Note to Jim S. - I put the M6 on
my *original* Stablelock tripod to ensure sturdy and solid
support. ;-)
I did a test run in the family room the first night when it was
raining outside. I hoped that I would then be able to assemble
everything in my (mostly) dark back yard when the time came. Well,
the time came sooner than I expected! Monday night was clear as a
bell, and the 115 collected dust in the family room no more.
I carried the M6/stablelock, the counter weights, my stool, a few
eyepieces, and lastly the 115 out to my backyard around 8:30. After
about 15 minutes of messing around with adjusting tripod legs and
checking the balance with various eyepieces, I started to relax a
little"€¦ yup, paranoid that I'd do something stupid and dump
it the
first night out.
Okay, so what to look at first? I pointed at the Pleiades and put in
the 30mm Superview to take in a big chunk of sky. Wow, Vic is right
about the contrast thing. The sisters and their relatives were pin
points of light on a black velvet background. They always seemed to
have a slight bluish cast in my Nighthawk, but the 115 showed crisp,
white stars on black.
The scope was still adapting to the cool (mid-40's) temp, so I
was
refocusing quite a bit at this point. Of course, playing with the FT
2-speed was almost as fun as looking through the eyepiece.
I then moved on to the Orion Nebula- what the heck, it was above the
trees now. I put in my 13mm Nagler and glided on over. Again, the
trapezium stars were beautiful pinpoints of light, with the nebula
flowing around them. Quite a sight"€¦ I sat there and tracked it
for
10-15 minutes, enjoying the detail I had never seen before.
I took a peek at Betelgeuse, just to see something with a little
different color. Another wow- it was like a flame-orange dot
surrounded by total darkness. Okay, not a great moment in
astronomical observations, but I'm just experiencing the move
from a
very good achromat to a great apo. These subtle things are very cool
to me.
Saturn was pretty much straight overhead, so of course I had to
eventually get there. I left in the 13mm and pointed almost
vertical. Another wow moment- The Cassini division jumped out at me,
and I could see bands of color on the planet itself. I then went to
the 5mm Tak to get even more up close and personal with it. This is
where I really noticed the jump I had made from an 80 mm objective to
a 115mm. The image was amazingly bright and crisp for 161x. The M6
was holding steady and I could easily nudge it along to keep up.
At this point the eyes were getting a little tired, and my contacts
were telling me it was time to pack it in. Just as I was about to
pull the scope off the mount, my wife walked out the back door. Well
okay, maybe the contacts can wait just a few more minutes. :-)
I showed her the Pleiades- "Neat." I showed her the Orion
Nebula-
"Hey, that looks very nice." (drum roll please) I then
showed her
Saturn with the 5mm- "Holy sh*t!! That's amazing!"
`Nuff said.
It was a great couple of hours, but also a totally new and different
experience from my Nighthawk/JMI focuser/M4 mount:
It definitely took me more trips to the backyard to get setup.
The Nighthawk won't be going away any time soon- need it
for those quick looks.
It took a little longer to acclimate to the cool 45ish temp
The M6 mount is very smooth and points easily, but after
using the M4 for quite a while now, it took me a bit to
adapt to the alt-az movement. I'm sure the
"intuitive" up/down-left/right motion will be just
that for me very quickly.
The JMI focuser on my Hawk is nice, but this FT 2-speed is
awesome! What might have been "close enough" with
the JMI on the Hawk, I could easily improve on with
the Feather Touch fine focus knob.
I was too excited to take notes, so sorry for the lack of detailed
descriptions. I can see that I will have to start an observing log
to capture the "wow" moments as I experience them. More
observations to come, as weather permits.
As Vic said, I'll be taking the new beast to JT in a couple of
weeks. Now that I've had a taste of it in my light-polluted
backyard, I can hardly wait to get it to a truly dark site! I sure
hope that Southwest doesn't give me any trouble with the full
dimension carry on. I'd hate to have to buckle the SV115 into
the seat and have them put me in the baggage compartment. Although,
the trip is only an hour or so long"€¦ :-)
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The last couple of weeks have been a study in frustration. Vic emailed to say
my 115 was ready to ship, then... nothing. After a few days, I called Auburn,
and an alarmed Mr Maris was eventually able to determine that FedEx had no
record of having received my scope. As far as anyone can tell, it now sits on
the Great Mount in the Sky.
Anyway, Vic was able to resolve the matter with characteristic grace, and the
first 115 of the next batch arrived on my doorstep Friday. Showing truly
Buddha-like levels of self-denial, I finished fixing the toilet before I opened
the box. First impressions: I have a 102DN so was used to Stellarvue's build
quality, but this is a whole new level. I think this would survive having a bus
driven over it (not that I intend performing this experiment). One change from
the pictures on the website: the extension tube is the same pearl white finish
as the main tube, which greatly improves the appearance. I was also delighted
to see a locking screw on the dewshield - no more bits of felt!
Many other people have raved about the focuser and dielectric diagonal, and I
have nothing to add except that they're right.
Miraculously, Friday night was completely clear. Transparency was not quite as
good as the previous evening when I'd been out with the 102DN, but obviously
that wasn't going to stop me. It wasn't a side-by-side comparison, but I was
able to look at some of the same objects as the previous night and compare
notes.
I aligned my Argo Navis on Alpheratz and Gamma Cassiopeiae. The difference in
the quality of the view was immediately obvious. Although I had never noticed
the chromatic aberration on moderately-bright stars in the old scope, I
certainly noticed its absence tonight. Precise pinpoints of light on an
evenly-dark background. This is going to be good...
While I was aligning, I did a quick star test. It was a bit of a shock to see
sharp black and white diffraction rings, instead of the rainbow ones I"€™m used to
seeing in a achromat.
On to the observing, including some objects from the night before for
comparison.
M103 is something of a test object for me - if I can resolve the faint stars
inside the triangle using direct vision, it's going to be a good night. That's
not going to work now - although a less-than-fabulous night, this nice little
cluster was easy, and colour differences were more apparent.
Eta Cassiopeiae: Wow. This was something of a high-magnification split with the
102. Tonight, it was easy at 42x (19mm) and could even be split cleanly at 22x
(36mm). I don"€™t know whether it was the bigger aperture, the improved contrast
or the lack of chromatic aberration (probably the last two). This scope is
beginning to look very, very impressive.
M31 and M32 looked about the same as last night, but I"€™m not sure whether I
really saw M110 (which I was able to pick up on Thursday).
I was determined to look at some planets tonight. I wasn"€™t going to be able to
stay up for Mars, but Uranus was nice. A tiny blue-green disk. At low powers it
looked not quite stellar, like the brighter planets do to the naked eye. The
small disk was apparent once I used my 3-6mm zoom - I was able to go up to about
220x tonight before the seeing became a factor.
Neptune was blue-white and essentially stellar in appearence until I reached for
the zoom. It was lower in the sky than Uranus, restricting me to about 180x,
which was enough to identify a very tiny disk.
Finally, one of my all-time favourites. If the Double Cluster was the only
thing in the sky, it would still be worth getting a telescope. Absolutely
astonishing - the best view I've ever had, and I've had quite a few. I could not
tear myself away for about forty minutes. The view was incredible with my 2"
36mm eyepiece, and confirmed my impression from M103 that subtle colour
differences were easier to see in the new scope. The scattering of red stars
across NGC 884 were very striking. With the 24mm Panoptic, I could see with
direct vision the very faint stars I saw with averted vision the night before. I
could even see differences in their colours.
I couldn"€™t stay up for Mars or the Moon tonight, but they"€™re waiting...
And if anyone's seen my socks, please let me know.
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The SV115 really is a jewell. I remember the time spent at H.L using the
115 that Angela had. She just kept pushing the limits with that thing, finally
getting to objects down around 15th and 16th mag!
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Wow! That is pretty cool I like the anodized Stellarblue trim
on your black SV115. I think Vic started a dangerous trend with that!
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You won't regret going with the SV115. It is THAT GOOD! As Jim S.
says, "Seeing is believing" truly describes the views through my
SV115. I can only imagine your delimma with chosing a color. I took
whatever Vic could put together with his available stock: annodized
blue. I asked for white but really did not care if it were white or
blue as long as it was quality. It was and is that; quality
constructed with Stellarvue touches.
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I just pulled the
trigger on a
Stardust Blue SV115 with black finder scope!
I picked the stardust blue for two reasons:
1. My wife will definitely like the color so there's more of a chance she'll
come out to look AT it even if she'll rarely look THROUGH it.
2. I work on the Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission, so I HAD to get get the
Stardust blue (a no-brainer).
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I had a chuckle on reflecting on my wife's reaction to our
opening the SV115. She kept saying to me, "Oh quit. Your drooling on
MY nice blue finish..We'll never get it clean."
(But you are right, the colors through the optics are what sells me.)
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