Seeing Surprise

Tonight I took the 80ED for another ride on the PORTA II. Because I was curious about the collimation of the telescope, I also used the 31 years old SR 4mm for a 150x magnification, and boy was I in for a surprise.

Not only was the telescope's collimation still spot on, but the seeing produced a textbook diffraction pattern! A 10 on the pickering scale (10/10).

• Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules: Even at 31x this fuzzy ball is clearly brighter towards its center, but at 150x it became somewhat mottled, hinting that it indeed consists of stars.
  
• Double Star Albireo: The 4mm only made the colors duller, so it wasn't a good match for this one.
  
• Planetary Nebula M57 in Lyra: This time I also tried the nebula filter with the 9mm, which led to a better contrast and stronger hints of darkening in the center. This object requires a higher magnification than 31x of course.
  
• Quadruple Star Epsilon Lyrae: I could split all four members with easy at 150x. The view was tack sharp with diffraction patterns.
  
• Open Cluster M29 in Cygnus. At 150x, I could see the magnitude 12 stars inside the quadrilateral formed by the four brightest stars. This bodes well for the limiting magnitude near zenith, regardless the light pollution.
  

I really ought to get some extra eyepieces, and put that LX200GPS to some use as well!