[ATM] First Light on 16.5"

["Jerry B. Hillman" <JBHillman@ev1.net>]

Hi All,
Mother nature blessed me with a very clear night for 'First Light' on the
16.5"  This was actually a test of two mirrors because I also made the
secondary.
Basically, the secondary is junk. Astigmic, and not flat.  Not really even
polished out as well as it should have been.  So I grabbed my 2.4" secondary
to continue.
In a nutshell, the primary is excellent.  Jupiter is blindingly bright. With
the scope stopped down to 8", it is great. Tiny disc moons, bands.  All the
things I see with my 10"
Star test on Vega is good.  M57 was a bright ring. Much nicer than my 10"
shows it.
Globular clusters.  My 10" shows them as faint fuzzies.  The 16.5" shows
them as globular clusters.  Groups of pinpoint stars throughout the cluster.
M13 was fantastic. So was M92.
This scope is done, and is fantastic to boot.  I will buy a larger secondary
eventually.
A mechanical engineer pointed me to the solution to making the primary
mirror positioning repeatable. That problem seems to be solved.  Thanks for
your help, patience, and advice.
Clear skies, Jerry



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