dweller25

@skywatcher1983 Collimation and cool down of your scope is critical to good planetary views. However Mars is very small now so it’s not showing much detail.

All your scopes are light - so that must be for a reason ? I have a bad back and all my scopes are light. More aperture for me would be easy - a lightweight 10” Newtonian BUT my back does not like the sometimes awkward viewing angles Newts can get to. For this reason I prefer to always view from the back of a scope and I have settled on a 7” Mewlon as my largest aperture scope. Your plan to build an astroshed could be a game changer 🙂 Good luck in your search 👍

Great drawings Mike, I tried last night (28th) to view Mars but the clouds rolled in soon after Sunset, hey ho ! I did get to view Venus earlier though and saw a bright limb and some barely detectable super subtle darker patches that were difficult to confirm. Hopefully we will get more clear evenings soon…..

Great drawings, they look like Primordial Earth 👍

Great drawing Mike, that’s how I saw it too in the DZ but it was not quite as well defined.

I was out at the same time Mike with the DZ and just managed to see the darker band at the bottom of your sketch in white light 🙂 Did you sketch Mars at 5.8” ? - there were definite surface features.

I don’t think any of the OMC140 versions had cooling vents. I believe new OMC200’s have cooling vents on the front and fans on the back, all versions of the older style OMC200’s just had fans on the back.

I would suggest removing all your imaging equipment and visually look at a star to see if you get the same effect, that may narrow things down.

Patience Grasshopper, patience 🙂

I’m going to have a go at observing Mercury for the first time ever asap 👍

Hello @mikeDnight, good joke, BUT lets get real - a Tak 5” Fluorite 😈😈

@ukskies I changed from a William Optics diagonal to the Baader Zeiss prism and was very surprised by how much better the views got. I also have the Badder BBHS diagonal and that is just as good as the prism. Neither add colour to the views.

Found it …. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/175204-prism-diagonal-better-color-correction/

I read somewhere that prisms can overcome under correction in a refractor - maybe that is what you are seeing ?

How is the stability of that scope on that setup ? Do you need the extension pillar ? Is it stable at high powers (>150) on the planets ?

I did the same Gerry but with 4” scopes - TSA 102 v SW100ED. The Tak was sharper, had better contrast and had a “cleaner” image but the difference in the views was not matched by the price diffrence. But the Tak stayed 😁

Thought that was SV ?

(120+250)/2=185mm 😈😂……. Like this….. https://www.telescopengineering.com/telescope/apo180fl-f-7/ it’s only $19,000 and It’s Fluorite 👍

Oh go on then ….. Whats the new plan ? 🤣

Congrats on the 120ED fix Gerry and you kept the superior Dob too 😂

Here is my TAL 100RS - the scope from hell, all sorts of problems - sold with full disclosure….. And here is my long gone TAL 125R achromat - a really nice scope…..

Looks great 👍

Mike - bad news - your Tacky is a SHE 👍

Perfect idea - and who knows - you may appreciate your C8 setup more.