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Two things come to mind - first is to check for off axis coma and second is to get Ronchi eyepiece: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/specialist/gerd-neumann-ronchi-eyepiece.html

Thank you, I will have try and find it somewhere on catch up to watch. Hope your ok. Clear skies Lee

Is it me you're looking for?

If I happened to stumble across an old newt with the idea of messing around with collimation *just for the lulz* is there an easy way to tell if it has a spherical mirror?

Its interesting that none of these products are mentioned on their website, so absolute cutting edge 🙂

What a lovely report, very heart-warming, and a nice photo. I think Sarah and I have bought about 25 items made by Tele Vue, and they've all been flawless, as far as I can recall. My favourite Tele Vue item is tough. It's between the Tele Vue-60 telescope, which I've used for quite a few solar sessions in particular, and is so tiny and portable and made me no longer hate helical focusers, and the Ethos 21 mm eyepiece, which is admittedly not that tiny and portable! I'll go with the Ethos 21 mm. It's the eyepiece I use the most in my 10 inch dob, and sometimes it's the only eyepiece I use for the session, if I'm feeling lazy. And my biggest Tele Vue regret is selling the 13 mm T6 Nagler, which was a cracking, small and light eyepiece. Sarah didn't take to it, alas, I think because she prefers longer eye relief, and is these days very happy with the Delos eyepieces, with their 20 mm eye relief, I think? Orange County, Jaffa Cakes... Surely not a coincidence?

No problem, had to do it a few times myself

I'm quite amazed by this, Ty. If I could focus it decently it could be a decent travel scope option. I did also use it for like 40 mins on the flame nebula. I got an image, but it was rough but it was recognisable. Perhaps I've been too harsh on it.

This is incredibly good considering the data you had. I might try fettle it's secondary mirror if I can adjust it. It could make a really handy travel to dark skies scope. Maybe.

I'm doing ok so far with m101. Need to add more hours to it, but for my "non premium" gear, I'm pretty amazed. I don't have much zoom for galaxies though, so I'm killing time for m31 and Orion to return. Unless I get an astro cam for some it nebulas.

Thank you @FLO for letting us at SGL know what goes in or on behind the scenes at TeleVue HQ! 🔭

I must have missed this when it originally came out in 2009. Anyway it was on Dave earlier and have to say I found it incredibly intersting and at times quite emotional. Very worth the watch. James May on the Moon 2009 Pt 01 - video Dailymotion

Yes....understand completely. I have not actually tried this yet but sure looks nice (& simple to use). I am looking forward to giving it a go when next I have data to process. I think you are OK in PixInsight now....... fingers crossed.

Hello, sorry if this is in the wrong section. Iv just got back into solar imaging with a Lunt LS50THa and Asi 120mm mini, now I never used to get newton Rings with my old pst. What gives the most sucessfull end result flats or a tilt adapter? I'm assuming not having them to start with is the way to go. Now where in my lint pic would the tilt adapter fit in as the back focus etc is critical. Also what's is the best method of taking solar flats? I see sharpcap has a flats sections but it's paid for. Has anyone used this and is it worth purchasing. ?

I bought my gear cos it was cheap. Turns out, I really bought my gear because I can pick it up in one hand and run.

Looking at this mount but this line from the manual gives me pause. Has anyone tried to use it like this ? How does the mount behave in this use case ? Using the mount manually but still requiring power and and setting changes doesn't seem great

I now use 4 apps/URLs instead of 3. Ty ;(

Nice report @LondonNeil. I think that the is the right place to post it too. I observe mostly from my back garden, which logistically is a lot easier! I always use and replace dust caps as I go along. After a while it becomes second nature and you don’t notice doing it. Although it helps if all the eyepieces use the same type/size dust cap. Often they don’t. And for me dropping one is terminal - the dog loves eating them! - although it’s been a few years since I actually dropped a dust cap. I usually keep eyepieces in a big long pocket on my hoodie. Helps keep them at the right temperature. It’s not so much dew, but if too cold then just the heat from your eye/face can cause them to mist-up - really annoying. I do have a small eyepiece tray, but only use it for temporary storage, The thing is to get a system that works for you. Of course this takes practice and trial/error.

You need multiple apps and then guess. Maybe like NASA, if 2 of the 3 agree then act on that Or just look out the window. There is nothing like English weather for unexpected rain or unexpected anything. I swear I've had rain without a cloud in sight.

Well started the process to get digitally signed. Submitted my keys to PixInsight and waiting on them now. This does seem like a double edged sword. It will definitely hinder us non-coders with even more stuff to learn limiting creativity in the community to a handful that are willing to jump through all the hoops. At the same time it does heighten the security of the PixInsight platform. I'm glad I was able to get it figured out so far!!

Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. Southampton urban garden, Bortle 7, 17th April 2024. Seeing decent. BST StarGuider 15mm. iPhone 14 Pro held to the eyepiece using a no-brand smartphone adapter. Images from Live Photo and 4K at 60fps Video. All editing & processing on the phone. For lunar/solar, when using a modern iPhone with the stock camera app, you have several choices when making a capture through the eyepiece. Eg on my iPhone 14 Pro… * “Standard” resolution, HEIF (just pressing the shutter icon) still photo. On my iPhone this produces images in a format known as HEIF. * Higher resolution still photo in RAW format. *Something called Live Photo, also in HEIF. *Taking a video and then manually selecting a single frame or stacking using the iPhone VideoStack app. Here I’m just sticking to capture, editing & processing iPhone only. RAW can work well but I find it harder to edit using standard tools/apps on the phone and for me is only of benefit if/when seeing is very good. Live Photo is an interesting one. The way it works is to take a short burst (about 1.5 seconds I think). This can be viewed in various ways including a short animation. When doing a lunar or solar snap and after I’ve taken a Live Photo, I select an option called “Duplicate as Still Photo”. Exactly what this does I’m not sure, but it seems to produce something of better quality than just a “standard” still photo. It seems to combine the Live Photo frames in some way. Stacking? I don’t know. But it can produce nice results, sometimes better than RAW, especially if seeing isn’t the best. These two images were done at the end of a lunar observation session on 17th April. As is typical for me I didn’t plan to take any images and was all a bit of an after thought. Here I’ve just tried two methods:- 1. is a Live Photo; 2. is the result of a short 30 Sec video, stacked on the phone with the VideoStack app. The Live Photo is sharper and does show more detail. The VideoStack example isn’t as sharp but personally I like the contrast, the highlights look more natural to me. It’s also only 30 seconds, which for stacking isn’t a lot! With the VideoStack image I didn’t need to do much editing. It also managed colour fringing better. The Live Photo took more work. I’ve kept both images with a little colour and tried to keep them at a similar scale so you can compare. It’s also worth noting that the Live Photo is much bigger:- initially 1.2MB; the VideoStack image - 389KB. VideoStack is really made for planets in which case this is fine. And it might be more suited to lunar or solar closeups and/or when the seeing is iffy, as it has the ability to “cut through” some of this. Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. You can tell it’s cloudy! Live Photo Short video, stacked on the phone with VideoStack

It's unlikely to have much impact on a 14mm 80 degree eyepiece since the 13mm Ethos is a 1.25" eyepiece (with 2" skirt), the 14mm Morpheus (measured 78 degrees) is a 1.25" eyepiece, and the 16mm Nagler T5 is a 1.25" eyepiece. I think they put it in a 2" housing to ease the design slightly. It really depends on the diameter of its field lens. Even then, I doubt it much exceeds 27mm in diameter.

Nice idea, had not thought of that. I am assuming thought that would act as a field stop and reduce the foc or am I talking rubbish? Either way, I think it’s a good option. Thank you

Nice, with a good “at the eyepiece” feel. Always good to see anyone posting here too!

Try sliding your glasses down your nose slightly to increase the distance until resting them on the flipped down eye cup is at the proper standoff distance.