dweller25

@Joe G Not my photo but it shows the difference….

Fully assembled and ready to go……

She was trying her best

It smells great, but NO-ONE is licking the lens - you know who you are 🤣

Oh OK……. 😁

Oh dear 😱😥🤣

My new scope has just arrived…..

Something is not quite right there. I don’t know which 6” reflector you have but at x250 the image should be bigger than you have described. I observe Jupiter between x150 to x180 and can clearly see the Great red spot when it’s on show. But you should persevere as a 6” Reflector is a very good telescope 👍 But back on topic….. Hello @Stevish and welcome to SGL. A 6” F/8 Dobsonian is a very capable scope if you are prepared to manually find things.

Alls well that ends well, now for some clear skies…..

It will be a great scope when the other bits turn up 👍

I’m from Yorkshire so would describe that as “that’s not bad” But now I live in Lancashire and I think it’s superb 👍

Thanks to all for the info. I prefer the extra magnification from mounting the GPC in the prism so I have reversed the lenses. Thanks for all the replies

Thank you 👍

Hello, Hope this is the right place to post this question ? I have an old 1.25x Baader GPC that has no sticker on the side to tell me if it needs mounting in the MK V binoviewer or the Baader Zeiss Prism housing. I just took out the lens and did this drawing of the cemented doublet. How should it be mounted in my setup ?

Been there, done that - the answer is visually “no” , weight wise “yes”

Congratulations 🥳

The symbol indicates that the dollars in your bank balance will reduce

Yes, I watched it too, a nice eclipse watch and the GRS visible too 🙂

The Fluorite lens is placed at the front to give that prescription better performance. I think all the 5” FS128’s had this arrangements, but other sizes had different setups. There are rumours that as the Fluorite element is at the front it will absorb moisture over time and degrade. Natural Fluorite is very slightly hydroscopic. However the lens in the FS is a synthetically grown crystal that is very hard and not hydroscopic. My FS128 was manufactured in 1998 and still performed superbly, the rumours about the lenses degrading/softening/dissolving is nonsense. There is also a rumour that a cold Fluorite lens will crack if taken into a warm room ! You can buy in confidence, there are even older Fluorite scopes still around that have not melted 🤣 PS - The tennis balls were to protect my wifes ankle after she had surgery 👍

As a visual observer a bright but not sharp image would not work for me. Best solution is a bright and sharp image 👍

Thanks for the heads up 👍

When you take a warm SCT/Mak outside on a cold night it will have internal thermal temperature differences between the warm mirror and the cooling aluminium tube assembly which is exposed to the cold air. This causes turbulence at the eyepiece. One way to deal with this is to leave the scope outside for a couple of hours so the mirror cools to the same temperature as the outside air, in other words there is no thermal gradient between the mirror and outside air. Another way to deal with the thermal gradient is to wrap the OTA with two layers of Reflectix which you can get from B&Q, this allows you to use your scope straight out of the door.

The video does suggest the Tak is better but it was used an hour after the 125ED so Jupiter would have been higher and possibly the seeing was better.

Good point John and the 125mm doublets have been compared by a couple of reviewers to the FS128, with the FS just having the edge in both reviews.

Yes, WO are a bit naughty there, but it’s basically a 126mm version of your FPL53 TSA But the FS is true Fluorite and 2mm bigger 👍😈🤣