I tried to check out M31 but my neighbor had his backyard spotlights on so I could barely make it out- and I couldn't even see it well enough to be sure it was focused. I had to refocus quite a bit again with the same eyepiece. I used my Thousand Oaks OIII filter to get a better view of the nebula and I noticed something peculiar. All of the detail I can see in the LX200 was visible with the ETX70. I think I read somewhere that poor seeing doesn't affect nebulae (or is it nebulas?) as much as other astronomical objects. I slewed over to M42 and wasn't disappointed. All 4 of the large moons were also clearly visible. Using the same 6.4mm plossl I was just able to make out the two dark bands on either side of the equator. I checked out Jupiter with slightly better results. Even dropping down to my 6.4mm plossl didn't show any details on Saturn. Saturn's moons focused to pinpoints but Saturn's brightness coupled with the poor seeing last night caused a bit of a halo around the planet. The MAs are not even close to being parfocal so it was a pain swapping from the 25mm to the 9mm because it required many twists of the focus knob. I quickly abandoned the MA eyepieces that come with the scope and used my series 4000 plossls.
Once it was aligned I went right to Saturn.
Of course, it's not GPS-equipped with LNT (one doesn't realize how handy those things are until they're not there) so I had to bring out the compass (Polaris is blocked by my house) and the level. After lugging the LX200 outside all these times- the ETX-70 is a feather (I'd guess around 10-12lbs w/ the tripod). Now I am by far no scope or astronomy expert so bear with me if I don't sling the proper terms around related to astronomyĪfter setting the ETX-70 up on the tripod I took it outside to cool down.
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