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And now for something completely different...

My acquisition computer didn't like the over 90% humidity we've had lately and we have some partly cloudy skies on top of the nearly full moon, so I decided to give my new-to-me 130 some visual only time. I had Sky Safari driving the CP5 and it was working fine.

Caveat: I don't have a huge selection of eyepieces, so this is pretty limited. I was working with a 25mm Televue plossl and a 8mm Radian as well as a Barlow.

According to Astrospheric, Seeing is average. Being directly under the jet stream here in Northern California, expectations are always low, especially as we head toward winter. 

Luna: I kept the moon at 34x, but she was lovely. Just the barest edge of the eastern edge was in shadow but it was super crisp. I am not very experienced with lunar observation, but the view was great.

Almach: Gamma Andromeda is a lovely double star system very similar to Albireo with a large bright yellow star paired with a smaller blue star. The color contrast is beautiful with the blue member to the upper right of the yellow star. This is not all that difficult to split and was easy at 100x.

Zeta Aquarii: This was a slightly more challenging target. I could see a peanut at 100x, but you drive a truck through the pair at 200x. Seeing was steadying quite a bit because I could clearly see the first diffraction rings around each star and they weren't bouncing around much. The two members appeared in a N-S orientation with each other.

Now here's where it gets surprising.

Epsilon Arietis: Yes I managed to split this tight pair. They are listed at 1.3" separation and was able to cleanly split the pair. I was not expecting this.

Jupiter: With only 5" of aperture, there isn't a whole lot of detail one can see. The Galilean moons were not quite disks as they would be in 10+" scopes. Equatorial banding was easily seen with moments of detail showing in the clouds. A little patience paid off and I could sense just a little bit of festooning. The red spot was not visible.

Uranus: A little gem. Clearly blue disk visible at 200x. My first time seeing it visually. Nerded out on this one.

I finished with the double-double. Epsilon Lyrae is not a challenged for the scope, but I can't resist looking when it is visible. At 200x, there was plenty of daylight there on both pairs.

This is a fantastic telescope. The thermal stability really beats the tar out of my Esprit 120. That is where it truly exceeds the Sky-Watcher. Of course it is better in other ways, but its a little more subtle. The thermal stability is NOT subtle.

Thanks Roland. I don't if you were ever thanked 20+ years ago when this was first made, but let me make amends for that. This is such a fine instrument. I couldn't be happier with it.

Kevin