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CUSTOMER COMMENTS
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
14.5" f/5
His Swayze Optics
I'm the first Canadian owner of a NightSky Scope and
darn proud of it. Here's why...
My first time assembling the scope was
surprisingly easy and quick. (I have it all setup
right beside me as I'm typing this message).
On the mechanical side, the scope is VERY smooth in both azimuth and
altitude. Moves great, exactly the way I like it. The poles are
four welded "triangles" that makes for a very rigid and easy fit.
The electrical package is excellent, simple to use and provides ample
power to the cooling fans, secondary dew heater, ect... The function
of the big dual fans on the mirror cell were a pleasant surprise.
Rather than the standard way of pushing air onto the back of the
mirror, the fans draw air from the top of the OTA. Not only does
this cool down the mirror but it also clears away the boundary layer
almost instantly. The mirror cell is a very solid 9 point flotation
wiffle-tree. It is held securely inside the mirror box with 4 large
hand-knobs. The cell is very easy to remove which is a feature I
like. The collimations screws are big and easy to get to in the
dark. The secondary mirror mount has 4 small screws to adjust its
collimation. The Feathertouch focuser is extremely smooth and
wonderful to use. The shroud is a spandex-lycra material that won't
stretch or drip. Jim even provides space on the secondary cage to
mount both Telrad and finderscope. To top it off, the wheelbarrow
handles are included as standard equipment to make it easy to move
the entire scope at once.
As for finish quality... this scope looks gorgeous! The pictures on
the web site don't do justice. All inside areas are painted flat
black and the truss poles are coated with a truck bedliner material.
Jim definitely puts a lot of attention to details. Everything looks
great.
Earlier this year, it was by pure chance that I stumbled upon the
NightSky Scopes web site. I'm glad I did. I can't imagine how I
would be any happier with one of the more expensive Starmaster or
Obsession dobs (although I certainly hold very high regards for
them). I can't say enough good things about Jim Nadeau. The fit and
finish of his scopes is top notch. THANKS JIM!
P.S. Now, when will the skies clear around here???? A first light
report to come...
*UPDATE*
The first "light" was on the globular M15 in Pegasus. We just caught
it in time before it disappeared behind the house. Wow!! Even
though the mirror was not yet cooled down, with a 21mm Pentax we
could already resolve M15, and it was BRIGHT to the core. This
despite the fact we were pointing into the glow of Ottawa.
Next, we put the scope on a few open clusters such as the Pleiades,
M37 and M38 in Auriga. As soon as the focus was set, we were treated
with nice absolutely PIN-POINT faint stars all across the field of
view! TACK SHARP!! I knew right there that this had to be a good
mirror. The Feathertouch focuser is just amazing and worth every
penny in my opinion. The Pleiades were very nice with blue stars as
were the open clusters in Auriga.
Then, we did M31 Andromeda near the zenith. This scope is really
very smooth to move and easy to point to, even straight up. M31,
M110 and M32 were impressive sights considering all the light
pollution. I could see a hint of the dark lane on M31. Then, Denis
("human GOTO") went on to get us a few more deep sky objects. I
noticed that from my heavily light-polluted spot, I could see at
least as much details as I could with my C8 under much darker skies.
Anytime we were near the zenith, a one or 2 step up on the ladder was
necessary (except for Jean!).
The most impressive (la kreme de la kreme) was kept for the end. We
were absolutely freezing from the windchill, but we just had to have
a peek at SATURN! So, Jean put in his TeleVue zoom eyepiece and
aimed the scope. When I saw the scope pointed to and aperture
obstructed DIRECTLY INTO THE BACKYARD FENCE, I was going to suggest
another object. Then I saw Jean's jaw drop. There was maybe only
1/10 of the light reaching inside the scope... and yet Saturn was
there in all its glory!! We each took turns and couldn't believe the
tack sharpness. Then, I put my 5.2mm Pentax and.... OMIGOSH!!!! The
view at about 340X was frigging awesome!! I had no problem getting
the focus to "snap" and would have easily withstood much more
magnification. I'll need that 2.8mm eyepiece. The "seeing" was also
quite stable which helped. As Saturn was moving out of the
obstruction, it just kept getting better and better. The rings were
textured, Cassini division very crisp and even a subtil hint of
Enke's gap. The cloud bands were also very evident (nice textures),
and we could see maybe 6-7 Moons. It was really spectacular, and
this was my best view of Saturn since having seen it in Allan
Rahill's 22 inch dob last September at the La Verendrye site. Before
tearing down, we performed a critical star test at 340X. Even this
high a power, a bright star showed just about identical patterns of
rings on either side of focus. I sure couldn't tell any diffence.
The rings were all clearly defined, and under the conditions we had I
didn't detect any aberrations. I have a feeling that this Swayze
mirror is a keeper!
A few lessons learned from this quick session... To ease scope
assembly, I will put little marks to help line-up the screws for the
trusses. About primary cooling, it took only about 30 minutes for
the mirror to reach near equilibrium (this from a mirror changing
from a 21C to -13C environment). The fans work really well. Once
cooled down, it was better with the fans turned off, otherwise we all
agreed that the tube currents degrades the views.
Thanks much to Jean Dorais, Michael Vasseur, and Denis Legault for
sharing this special evening, and for your assistance with the scope.
It was a COLD evening and my fingers are still numb, but worth it for
the awesome views!! Now I sure can't wait to see under much darker
skies.
And last but certainly not least, thanks to Swayze Optical FOR A FINE MIRROR!!!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
(in the Great White North)
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