TV-85 First Light

My TV-85 was delivered to Mom's house today, so I drove 3-hours to Closter and back to get the scope, returned around 7:30 local with enough light to test on the hills and trees. Very sharp focus, the 8-24mm zoom looks like it will be useful.

After dark I tested the TV-85 on some bright stars (Vega, Altair, Arcturus) to see if the haze surrounding bright stars on the N8GPS was present. It was. Apparently it is an atmospheric effect.

As it got darker, I tried to find some Messiers. Very difficult to point the scope without a finder, but I was able to find M13 in Hercules fairly easily, probably just luck. Zoom at 8mm showed it as a soft fuzzy blob, but the Celestron 6mm Plössl resolved many of the cluster's outer stars with a bright core. Could not achieve sharp focus with the Celestron 4mm plössl. TV 32mm Plössl and Zoom @ 24mm delivered nice wide-field views, very sharp across entire field.

I purchased a Tele Vue Starbeam pointer from a guy on Astromart for $165; sending m.o. on Tuesday. Meanwhile, it's point-and-pray...