Televue to the Rescue! (A)

I received my first Televue brand eyepiece today. It's a 32mm plossl with a 50mm apparent field of view. That just means it's got a bigger view than a typical plossl (usually 40 or so). Ultimately it's a space window that lets you get a wide view of things and is 100% clear from edge to edge. My other eyepieces are clear in the middle, but get blurry on the edges, change focus, etc. This makes it particularly nice since moving my dob isn't necessarily smooth and easy. I just get the heavenly body on the opposite side of the scope and let it drift from one side to the other enjoying perfect focus the whole time.



M81 and M82 - FINALLY!!!! I saw them. I saw both galaxies at the same time and was overcome with joy as I've been attempting to see both of them for at least a half dozen outings. It doesn't help to read the words, "M81 is one of the easiest and most rewarding galaxies to observe for the amateur astronomer on the northern hemisphere, because with its total visual brightness of about 6.8 magnitudes it can be found with small instruments."



That statement makes me look like a dumb ass for not being able to see them. It only hit me now, but I should have centered up and went for the high powered look, but I can do that later. For now I'm just satisfied to have finally spotted them.



Corona Borealis - sort of a crown on it's side beneath Bootes... I spotted it and it just looked familiar so I looked in my book and sure enough it was the crown



M3 - Now we're talking! After looking at Bootes (Arcturus in particular) I started looking to the left and up to spot this globular cluster (big knot of stars basically). After going up in magnification (from the 32mm to 9.7mm, so 38x to 124x) I could actually resolve the stars instead of just a blurry patch in the sky. Incidentally... all Messier objects are pretty much "faint fuzzies" so they all look blurry to some degree.



Anyway - my new EP is awesome and takes advantage of the light gathering power of my telescope so now I can actually spot some DSO's (Deep Sky Objects) :)