Rob

Late 90's I believe.. so I class as vintage, sure we are not talking as old as me lol! Rob

Very nice Stu.. Do love the vintage Vixen kit. They were way ahead of there time IMO. Rob

Old thread - Yes!. Just interested how you got on here?. Rob

Very nice indeed Steve!. Congrats on the range... Now on my wish list. Best Rob...

Worth a go at strip down and cleaning to be honest. You can buy a camera lens ring removal tool to help (£7-10) on ebay. And grab some optical wonder fluid to help clean. Good luck ..Rob

I have roughly 35/38 years of observing. I too have so many great memories... and feel very lucky to do so. A few do stand out mind Hale bopp Comet hanging in the night sky for a week (all clear nights too) Eclipses inc the 1999 from the South of England which for me was something like 98% Total Lunar Eclipses Smoking fireball with slight sound Venus & Mercury transist's Mars opposition 2005/6 wonderful detail seen with super clear steady skies Observing the impacts of shumaker levy 9 on Jupiter It goes on & on! Rob

Nice!. I moon watched on the way into work.. which was on the M27 Motorway (AKA the car park) roughly crawling at 10 mph for 8 miles.. at 7am it looked stunning showing nice earth shine too.. Rob P.s the 10 mph on beloved M27 (Grrrrr) is a daily thing. seeing the Moon like today really helps pass the time.

Nice!.. totally agree "Often the seeing improves in the early hours once the heat has gone from the land, roads and buildings.". So true. I recall when @russ and I were stood in the center of the New Forest at 2am one evening in -8 cold. the pictures actually showed the frost on our coats!

Nice report there, thanks. So glad you had a great observing session. I did the same under Bortle 2 skies last year..... enriches the soul doesn't it Rob

Great report Stu. I sure I've said this before!... that setup (for me) is the stuff of dreams :). And the AZ100 sounds fantastic. Rob

Those pictures paint a sorry and very poor situation indeed!.. feel for you on this. I have had dealings directly with OVL in the past, and they came good I have to say. However I would indeed enclose a letter of complaint and press for straight replacement. This is not just one small issue. Good luck & best regards.. Rob

Apologies @jetstream for wondering off topic here!. Great to hear you had a good observing session.

Nice report there. You would indeed benefit from a helical for fine focus. They are not expensive. I bought the following last year. Its non rotating, and comes with a adapter ring with a T (female) thread for connectivity. But also offers a T (male) on the top for camera connection!. I use it on my 127L its very smooth

Yes, back it goes.. that said the fourth issue is not a great start/experience really. You could ask for a full refund on return to be honest!

Totally... on so many things, but its been driven finance's (lack of). I think my top 3 sale regrets are Orion Optics SPX 200 f6 - on Planets this OTA was staggering! Meade ETX 125 - Special Custom White tube RG optics with full metal machined rear plate offering SCT thread - sharpest MAK I'd ever looked through Vixen 102m (90's Japan model) OTA - Near APO quality we live and learn I guess! Rob

Very nice indeed. Great capture there! Rob

@Stu Nice image there. It was indeed subtle, however I had been blessed with decent skies also... rather enjoyed it too! Best Rob

A little bump reminder for this event tonight people!..

A nice read there Stu. Like the shots also. It still staggers me on how the magnification can be pushed on these small APO's... Its incredible really!. Best Rob p.s - Roll on Mars in October to push the mags even more on these little ED beauties!.

I think also for all you imager's we are going to require some clever software that can interact with the image data to remove satellite streaks from the RAW.

Just been reading the BBC piece there.. Just hope something comes out of the AAS meeting. This is going to effect our hobby in such a detrimental way. But equally (if not more importantly) The professional Astronomers & Science going forward. Worrying indeed

Looks an interesting range. So the 'New ED glass' is the infamous, mystery FPL-54/6?... which was a topic of assumption conversation mid last year I wonder.

Humm.. this looks interesting http://arnholm.org/astro/astro3/index.htm

Reminds me of the German Astro-3.. Which from memory used a DK motor drive set Rob