Zhumell Z8: FIRST LIGHT Review.
By HASEEB MODI
FIRST LIGHT ON A Z8.
( This is only a perspective from my own personal viewpoint and this review / writer is in no way affiliated or connected with Zhumell ).
To begin with, thanks to each and everyone of you who contributed towards all my questions.
Right, so my friend from U.S.A., came in today morning and carried with him a large long box. Lugging around with this huge box itself is a severe test of friendship but my friend even went to the extent of sewing up a “leather case” for the Optical tube box using black finished leather. A friend indeed.
The base material and accessories were in his suitcase as he had them opened up to carry it along more easily. I got them in the evening, all bubble wrapped.
I did not know where to start but my children felt the best way would be to unzip the leather case and take a look inside. What I saw made me skip a beat. The OTA was not only long, but the diameter blew me away. Thoughts running in my mind were, “how in heaven’s am I going to carry this two flights of stairs without knocking something”?
But first, we needed to unpack each and every component and make a list of what was needed and what came as additional accessories.
Additional Accessories:
1. Right Angle Correct Image finder scope.
2. 30mm 2” Plossl / 9mm 1.25” Plossl.
3. Laser Collimator.
4. Battery holder with wires connected for the rear fan.
5. Two large bearings. ( Here I was a bit disappointed as earlier videos showed “silver bearings” whereas mine came with black knobs ).
6. Moon filter.
Don’t want to go into details of the base assembly and what was needed as I am sure almost all of you would be aware.
The base assembly was not difficult and with the help of Zhumell’s website video, we were able to assemble without issues.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
As I inspected each and every piece, the only thoughts running through my mind were, “ how am I going to carry this two flights of stairs?” This worry turned into genuine concern after assembly, eyeing the huge OTA and the heavy base. ( For beginners like me, kindly note, unless you are in good shape and physique, this Z8 is going to be an issue if you don’t have an escalator or a backyard ).
However, the excitement of seeing something this big actually made my expectations soar. The build quality, material used was superb.
Collimation was a breeze and in fact, this particular piece survived the long haul from U.S. to India in extremely good shape. Here I wish to once again add the care taken by my good American buddy.
I lifted the base assembly and though weighty, was manageable. The OTA, a little less weighty but cumbersome to hold was another affair, what with four steep turns to manuveur the long tube ( 4 ft.).
We couldn’t wait for dinner time. My children and wife were excited and so was I. At sharp 2130 hrs, with my wife’s help, sharing the burden of carrying the assembly while I carried the OTA, we set off on our first astronomic adventure. The skies were beckoning and we were keen.
FIRST LIGHT:
The terrace was empty and the skies clear. Not a hint of cloud though the “light bowl” effect of the city glow was evident. To make matters worse, a neighbor two blocks away decided to keep his outside tube light on for the night, directly below Orion.
I first set my sights on Sirius and then on Orion. I used the 30 mm Plossl. Sirius appeared to be “flat” with a black hole right in the middle and four paned. Question: Is this something to tell me that my collimation was accurate? I remember reading somewhere if the collimation is “off”, Sirius would appear flowery.
The RACI ( Right Angle Correct Image ) is an excellent accompaniment though getting it to align with the eyepiece takes some doing.
The Orion Nebula appeared dim and not very bright. I started becoming a bit desperate. Was I doing something wrong? Then I loosened the bottom screw and voila! The Crayford focuser started to move up and down and the Stars changed from dim to diamonds. From here on, I was halfway towards achieving Nirvana. I changed the eyepiece to 9mm Plossl.
My children and wife took turns. Sirius was very bright with four sharp glitters of light streaking across from four points. My wife was ecstatic. My children were okay. I was neutral.
Then we watched the Orion and with the knowledge of “focusing”, was able to see a nice graying cloud with four stars inside a bigger source of light. My children loved it.
My daughter wanted me to train the scope on some particular star which appeared to have hues of light. Accidentally, while trying to move down from Sirius, I hit upon a cluster of stars and immediately everyone started to gaze in awe. It was a terrific sight to behold.
My son all this time kept talking about Saturn and the time when it would hit the Zenith. There were two bright stars on my left and one more a little way more towards south east. We weren’t able to figure out which one was Saturn but in anycase, my first ideal was to get a good hold of this 8” Dob and seek out some more clarifications.
2300 hrs and we were still hunting for galaxies when we again hit upon a cluster of stars in a globular fashion which my son promptly told me was M45. I thought this was the best time to turn my sight and try to see Saturn.
The bottom most yellow stars out of the three was a fake. The uppermost one was difficult to focus. I was tired and felt my family though happy with the sights, were definitely not jumping over the moon. My daughter then took over and tried to focus on the middle yellowish object. She then asked me to look through the eyepiece.
Nirvana! Instant and pure nirvana. Money well spent and the advice from this forum golden. This image of what we saw will be etched in our memories forever. It was unbelievable and breathtaking. We were in awe and as if a home run was scored, in unison we started clapping.
Saturn was not only clear, it was crystal clear. We could see six moons at least and the rings were amazing. It had that two tone yellow / crimson colours and my wife remarked, “ we got our money’s worth” and that says it all on the capabilities of this wonderful 8 inch Dobsonian.
Haseeb Modi
By HASEEB MODI
FIRST LIGHT ON A Z8.
( This is only a perspective from my own personal viewpoint and this review / writer is in no way affiliated or connected with Zhumell ).
To begin with, thanks to each and everyone of you who contributed towards all my questions.
Right, so my friend from U.S.A., came in today morning and carried with him a large long box. Lugging around with this huge box itself is a severe test of friendship but my friend even went to the extent of sewing up a “leather case” for the Optical tube box using black finished leather. A friend indeed.
The base material and accessories were in his suitcase as he had them opened up to carry it along more easily. I got them in the evening, all bubble wrapped.
I did not know where to start but my children felt the best way would be to unzip the leather case and take a look inside. What I saw made me skip a beat. The OTA was not only long, but the diameter blew me away. Thoughts running in my mind were, “how in heaven’s am I going to carry this two flights of stairs without knocking something”?
But first, we needed to unpack each and every component and make a list of what was needed and what came as additional accessories.
Additional Accessories:
1. Right Angle Correct Image finder scope.
2. 30mm 2” Plossl / 9mm 1.25” Plossl.
3. Laser Collimator.
4. Battery holder with wires connected for the rear fan.
5. Two large bearings. ( Here I was a bit disappointed as earlier videos showed “silver bearings” whereas mine came with black knobs ).
6. Moon filter.
Don’t want to go into details of the base assembly and what was needed as I am sure almost all of you would be aware.
The base assembly was not difficult and with the help of Zhumell’s website video, we were able to assemble without issues.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
As I inspected each and every piece, the only thoughts running through my mind were, “ how am I going to carry this two flights of stairs?” This worry turned into genuine concern after assembly, eyeing the huge OTA and the heavy base. ( For beginners like me, kindly note, unless you are in good shape and physique, this Z8 is going to be an issue if you don’t have an escalator or a backyard ).
However, the excitement of seeing something this big actually made my expectations soar. The build quality, material used was superb.
Collimation was a breeze and in fact, this particular piece survived the long haul from U.S. to India in extremely good shape. Here I wish to once again add the care taken by my good American buddy.
I lifted the base assembly and though weighty, was manageable. The OTA, a little less weighty but cumbersome to hold was another affair, what with four steep turns to manuveur the long tube ( 4 ft.).
We couldn’t wait for dinner time. My children and wife were excited and so was I. At sharp 2130 hrs, with my wife’s help, sharing the burden of carrying the assembly while I carried the OTA, we set off on our first astronomic adventure. The skies were beckoning and we were keen.
FIRST LIGHT:
The terrace was empty and the skies clear. Not a hint of cloud though the “light bowl” effect of the city glow was evident. To make matters worse, a neighbor two blocks away decided to keep his outside tube light on for the night, directly below Orion.
I first set my sights on Sirius and then on Orion. I used the 30 mm Plossl. Sirius appeared to be “flat” with a black hole right in the middle and four paned. Question: Is this something to tell me that my collimation was accurate? I remember reading somewhere if the collimation is “off”, Sirius would appear flowery.
The RACI ( Right Angle Correct Image ) is an excellent accompaniment though getting it to align with the eyepiece takes some doing.
The Orion Nebula appeared dim and not very bright. I started becoming a bit desperate. Was I doing something wrong? Then I loosened the bottom screw and voila! The Crayford focuser started to move up and down and the Stars changed from dim to diamonds. From here on, I was halfway towards achieving Nirvana. I changed the eyepiece to 9mm Plossl.
My children and wife took turns. Sirius was very bright with four sharp glitters of light streaking across from four points. My wife was ecstatic. My children were okay. I was neutral.
Then we watched the Orion and with the knowledge of “focusing”, was able to see a nice graying cloud with four stars inside a bigger source of light. My children loved it.
My daughter wanted me to train the scope on some particular star which appeared to have hues of light. Accidentally, while trying to move down from Sirius, I hit upon a cluster of stars and immediately everyone started to gaze in awe. It was a terrific sight to behold.
My son all this time kept talking about Saturn and the time when it would hit the Zenith. There were two bright stars on my left and one more a little way more towards south east. We weren’t able to figure out which one was Saturn but in anycase, my first ideal was to get a good hold of this 8” Dob and seek out some more clarifications.
2300 hrs and we were still hunting for galaxies when we again hit upon a cluster of stars in a globular fashion which my son promptly told me was M45. I thought this was the best time to turn my sight and try to see Saturn.
The bottom most yellow stars out of the three was a fake. The uppermost one was difficult to focus. I was tired and felt my family though happy with the sights, were definitely not jumping over the moon. My daughter then took over and tried to focus on the middle yellowish object. She then asked me to look through the eyepiece.
Nirvana! Instant and pure nirvana. Money well spent and the advice from this forum golden. This image of what we saw will be etched in our memories forever. It was unbelievable and breathtaking. We were in awe and as if a home run was scored, in unison we started clapping.
Saturn was not only clear, it was crystal clear. We could see six moons at least and the rings were amazing. It had that two tone yellow / crimson colours and my wife remarked, “ we got our money’s worth” and that says it all on the capabilities of this wonderful 8 inch Dobsonian.
Haseeb Modi
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