Maksutov-Cassegrain F/15 What should I observe?

Community General Discussion
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Greetings,

I have a new beautiful Mak-Cas 180 by SkyWatcher. The fl is 2700mm f/15. The field-of-view (FOV) with all my sensors is small. Using a DSLR with a 6k x 4k sensor, 3.88 micron pixels the scale is 0.3 arc seconds per pixel and gives an FOV of 0.49 x 0.33 degrees. This results in really good sampling of the Bayer matrix of the DSLR! I have done several nights of NGC 7790 and one of M-67 to get transform coefficients. The results are really good! Using my Atik490EX CCDs the FOVs are even smaller but B V Rc & Ic filters are available.

So… for those of us with long focal lengths and small fields of view what would the community recommend be observed?

I also have an SA-100 with prism = grism that I have played with on an Esprit 100 but perhaps would work better on the Mak-Cas 180?

Will you help an old observer guy with your ideas on what to observe? I observe portable–no fix observatory, setup/take down every night. Ideas would be appreciated.

Jim (DEY)

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Excellent instrument for systematic observations of important targets!

Of course, you should chase plates with dence comparison stars - there are a lot of suitable stars in AAVSO treasury. My modest experience with Mak 150/1800 shows that even 20-30’ FOV is enough for interesting stars with magnitude 10-14V, especially within rich regions in Cas or Cyg. Brighter targets usually require broader field.

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