Date: Saturday evening, 3/13/2004
Location: Cottonwood Spring, Joshua Tree National Park, Calif.
Equipment: GS 10" f/5 dob and Tele Vue 76 (3" f/6.3) APO refractor

Stargazing from Cottonwood with both 10" f/5 dob and Tele Vue 76. Was
more a night to test out the TV76 and compare a bit to the 10" than a
night of "serious" observing.

Trapezium - Could only resolve the 4 main stars with either scope. With
the 10" things got really murky with higher powers. With the 3" stars
stayed a lot sharper but still no E or F components. Maybe i'm expecting
a bit too much from the little TV76. I'm also starting to think the
mirror in my 10" isn't that great.

1977, DN, Orion - Running Man neb - Visible in both scopes.

M78, DN, Orion - Visible in both scopes. Nearby NGC 2071 easily seen in
the 10".

2169, OC, Orion - The 37 Cluster.

2392, PN, Gemini - Eskimo neb - Spent some time using both scopes and
switching around eyepieces. Looks quite good at higher powers in the
10".

M35, OC, Gemini - Pretty in both scopes. Nearby open cluster NGC 2158
also easily seen.

Horsehead neb - UTL.

2362, OC, Canis Major - Tau Canis Majoris - Probably my favorite open
cluster. It sparkles and shines no matter what the scope or power.

2359, DN, Canis Major - This is a really interesting object. At first it
didn't really look like much in the 3" or the 10". Then i tried the UHC
filter in the 10". Wow! It looks like a bunny rabbit's head with big
ears. Very interesting object.

M66/M65/NGC 3628, EG, Leo - The Leo Trio - Easy with the 3". All 3 fit
in same field with both scopes. M66 is even fairly easy to spot in 10x42
binoculars.

M95/M96/M105, EG, Leo - All three plus NGC 3384 in the 3". With the 10"
can also pick up M105's second companion NGC 3389. Panning around the
area with the 10" can see 7 or 8 galaxies.

Castor - I just realized a week or so ago that Castor was a double star.
Using the Nagler 3-6mm zoom in the TV76 the star splits very nicely. Two
white headlights coming at me in the sky.

2419, GN, Lynx - The most distant globular cluster. 300,000 light years
from Earth! Took a while to find it with the 3". It's dimmer than i
remembered. Once located with the 10" i found i could see it with the 3"
but with difficulty.

Realm of the Galaxies - I packed up the 10" about 10pm. While i still
had the TV76 setup i just panned around the Realm without trying to
identify anything. I probably saw close to a dozen galaxies this way in
the 3". Pretty neat. I think my next time out will be to concentrate and
identify these galaxies.

Three closing comments... 1. I'm very happy with the Tele Vue 76. Very
sharp. Sharper than the 10" dob at higher powers. 2. I need a better
alt/az head for the TV76. At low powers the Bogen photo head works okay
but not at higher powers. 3. It's best to concentrate on using one
telescope (plus binoculars) than switching back and forth between two
scopes. Distracting and time consuming.

-Florian at Stargazing dot com
Palm Springs, Calif.