dweller25

Even albedo detail on Io - awesome 👍

I am now 100% a BV user as I found they allowed me to see planetary details easier and viewing was much more comfortable. BV’s also increase the focal length of your setup so in my case I can use 15mm eyepieces to get x180, which really helps with floaters. Perhaps you could try the BV option with your C6 first and then decide if you need to change scopes ?

This may come as a surprise but a brand new Vixen VMC200L was my worst purchase, no planetary detail could be seen at all and a Celestron 100ED easily out performed it - I quickly returned it.

Nice images, but more importantly - congratulations on the new addition to the family 👍

Just being nosey, but which triplet are you interested in ?

I would not hesitate to buy a triplet from FLO as they have excellent after sales service 👍

Some detail, but I think poor seeing scuppered your efforts there, hopefully you will get some steadier skies soon….. and Jupiter will be much higher shortly 🙂👍

Looks like you got a good VMC260 👍

@Spile I’m a bit confused - I would have moved the secondary away from the Primary, or is the reflection tricking me ?

Oh yes, I forgot OO don’t include VAT, that’s advantage Mewlon then as they don’t dew up. The collimation on my Mewlon 180 is still perfect at x308 - it’s been over two years since I last collimated it 👍

Best not fall on it then 😱

@Olli Of the scopes you talk about I would agree with others, a 4” refractor would give a meaningful improvement over your current scope. Takahashi’s are nice and have great optics but I would suggest you read this, which is very accurate……

Superb images 👍

Superb images @Eris 👍

Lovely scope - enjoy 👍

Hmmmm, priced between the Skywatcher 180 pro and the Mewlon 180. Take your pick …… Or should that be pick your Tak 🤣

I decided to add a RACI finder to my Mewlon a few years ago necessitating back plate removal. So it needed a slight tweak when I put it all back together. It has held perfect collimation ever since after a lot of “in’s and out’s” An American astronomer - Ed Ting found his Mewlon would not hold collimation but I strongly suspect the locking collar for the primary just needed snugging up. In my opinion they are very solidly made scopes.

@HizerKite just noticed a slight collimation offset - see the two spider vanes I have highlighted in red below. It may be worth checking the length of those two vanes - although it will not stop you getting perfect optical collimation. Although it could also be an alignment issue with your camera position.

I also use the “hall of mirrors” procedure during the day to collimate my Mewlon, I find it’s good for 95% collimation, with SLIGHT tweaks being needed at x300 on a perfectly focussed star. BUT - the mirrors must be fully cooled first - I use active cooling. First I take off the front and rear caps, then rest a USB powered 50mm PC fan on the front spider for an hour - it works nicely. Your “hall of mirrors” looks close 👍

I was out at the same time, that image is good considering the poor seeing 👍

Would that be a Tackahashi sewing machine ?

Astronomy in the UK does seem to require a slow patient approach due to the weather. I have reduced the herd to just two scopes now, a 4” APO and a 7” Mewlon, both are well suited to a light Vixen GP mount which means I can get out quickly with the 4” if the weather clears up. If the weather is more stable then the Mewlon comes out - It’s a really good scope. I need to move away from wet and cloudy Lancashire though……..

And if it looks like this then your scope needs collimating to get sharp images….

@mirrorgirl1980 If possible leave your scope outside for an hour to let it cool down. Then check a slightly out of focus star at x200 a star should look like this with the circles all concentric around the central dot…..

I use TV Plossls down to 20mm, I tried the 15mm’s but the eye relief was too small when wearing glasses.