FIRST LIGHT

M81 and M82 in Ursa Major, and both comfortably fitted into the field of view of the 25mm eyepiece. M82 appeared as a thin sliver, M81 as a subtle oval glow.

Over in the east we examined M45, the Pleiades in Taurus, and with the 25mm eyepiece it took on the guise of a sparkling scattering of diamonds – we counted 49 of its stars with ease. We even suspected that we could see the Merope Nebula, but sky conditions were not good enough to be sure. To push the optics we turned to the wonderful double star Albireo in Cygnus, revealing the contrasting golden yellow and sky blue of their separated components. We pushed the optics further still by using our own 2x Barlow lens with the 10mm eyepiece, and were able to split triple star Iota Cassiopeiae into its three components. The Moon appeared crisp, with lots of detail along the terminator, although off axis there was some colour fringing. We also picked out Uranus and Neptune, but the brighter planets were not well placed for us to view.

The Sky-Watcher Evostar-90 AZ Pronto is a simple to assemble and easy to use system that should whet your astronomical appetite, and can also act as a grab and go system for those fleeting moments of clear sky.