osbourne one-nil

22 minutes ago, skybadger said:

I really like my na140. It's a real delight on the planets and has a low degree of colour and quite a large flat field. It's my goto scope unless I wheel the 12" Newt out.

Do you use a filter? I know Russell on CN advocates a yellow Wratten filter... Or something like that. 

10 hours ago, F15Rules said:

The NA140SS always intrigued me.. such a big refractor for not all that much money. And not SO much CA according to some reports?

And you DID go for the ED103s replacement, the SD103s! Brilliant! Did it come with the rings, handle, finder and flip mirror all included? 

Please do a full report, first light etc with more pics asap??.

Dave

CA was there on the NA140, but I only ever found it a problem on planets where I couldn't see past it; of course, it was never intended to be a planetary scope anyway. It was fine on any star other than the very brightest (and why would you want to look at Sirius with it anyway?!). I think it was actually an f10 or something with a lens towards the focuser end? It showed really lovely colours on faint doubles and had a huge field of view. Maybe it was just a bit too niche though - neither a really big aperture like a Newt nor really really clean images like a good Apo. Then there's the price....it's a lot!

I did get the SD103, yeah. It came with all that included, but also only a single speed focuser. I can't see that being a problem though. I'll let you know if I ever get a chance to look through it. Seems to suit the Porta II perfectly!

My first Vixen was the NA140SS which was so lightweight and fabulous for deep sky or doubles. It wasn't too bad on brighter stuff either; CA certainly never bothered me. The T-Rex didn't even break sweat carrying it, but that was a heavy mount.

Life changes saw me needing to sell it, but it's been replaced with my new SD103 which appears to sit very nicely on my Porta II - although I've not managed a clear night since getting the scope last week. The Porta II does still have the encoders on from my Argo Navis days and I could get another Argo Navis handset or the Nexus DSC, which I personally found more user-friendly. 

I'm very tempted. I've got a Berlebach Uni 18 tripod with a mount head for both an HEQ5 and HEQ6, so maybe one of them will fit? Either way, I'm trying to decide whether to stick with me Skywatcher 80ED, which I think would be a pretty good match, increase the aperture to a Skywatcher 100ED, or go a little nut and buy a FC100D (I've had one before and loved it....but the price!)

It's rarely clear here, but when it is, sitting by Buttermere or Ullswater doing a bit of star gazing is a lovely thing. This would be great. 

Something to mull over. 

 Now that looks just about perfect. 

7 hours ago, Stu said:

Looks great! Where did you source the T-Rex?

7 hours ago, Paul73 said:

From memory. I believe that Telscope House list them. Hope that you are feeling rich!!!

Paul

Nope - Widescreen Centre. It's an ex display model (although judging by the paintwork it's been in their Afghanistan branch) but mechanically it's good and it was a lot cheaper than a brand new one. I think they've a white one still. 

I think I might take it to be powder coated or resprayed in the summer, but it works beautifully and that's what matters. 

Thanks - difficult to gauge the scale in the photo but both the mount and the scope are big - just looks proportionately right. It's very, very smooth and absolutely rock solid, which isn't bad with a scope over 1m long on it. There is a tiny bit of play in the altitude axis but I've improved that a lot in just 20 mins so some more fine tuning should see that go - it's infinitely adjustable. 

The mount and tripod won't be a problem carrying about the scope itself isn't heavy, but I wouldn't fancy lifting the whole thing in one go for more than a few metres. 

This is going to be good. A T-Rex mount on an EQ6 tripod. 

I'm jealous of your Tak even though I have the same thing. Weird feeling!

Sorry, it's the NA140SS - yeah, the neo-achromat one. Bought purely for low power pretty things. These are now made with Japanese optics which might be an improvement on the previously sourced Chinese glass, although by no means definitely. 

You're very kind! 

I've just sold my 8" Portaball and used that to fund this - I know it's not 200mm, but unobstructed aperture with very little cool-down time on a goto mount....should work for me on the three hours each year it's not raining here. 

It weighs surprisingly little, so the mount's going to be fine. It is long, so windy weather might be an issue, but I'll just whip it off on nights like that. 

I've got a new one - joining my FC100D for a bit of aperture is a Vixen NA140SS. Looking forward to first light!

Nice - have always toyed with the idea of a 6" achro so would be good to know what it's like on deep sky. 

It's been fully rebuilt by Dave Juckem so is basically as good as new - I love it. 

When Dave had it I asked him to adapt it so it would balance with my big heavy 31mm Nagler; he did this by lining the base of the sphere with lead shot. It works a treat, but I'm now wishing I'd reserved the 31mm Nagler for my Tak as it's made the Portaball much heavier than it was. I'm going to ask him if this could be done, but if not, no worries. 

Well I've got the scope, all I need now is the weather. Just one clear night - even just an hour....ever?

I quite like this scope.

I do fancy having a lighter-weight alt-az mount for real grab and go but we'll see.

That's cheered me up a bit then (admittedly at your expense!) as I always assumed places like Western Australia were so dry that dew wouldn't form. 

Nice scope btw - I've only had an ETX for a Mak, but its high power views were really rather good. 

Do you have dew in west Australia?!

I love the 24mm Panoptic...my favourite eyepiece I think. I like all my others too, but I think I'm there now and won't be adding anything for a while yet. 

By the way - it's an OIII filter in the paper. 

Now that's cute! Never seen one before.

alan

I love it - Ed Ting's reviewed one before = http://www.scopereviews.com/page1w.html#1

It even packs away cleverly into its own little drum. 

Soon to go back to the US for a refurb, here's my little Portaball. It's only 8" but what a mirror (Zambutto) it has and it's an utter joy to use. All parts of the sky are equally accessible, it tracks smoothly, stops when you stop pushing and can be carried around with one hand without any bother. You can also twist the whole thing to get the eyepiece exactly where you want it. 

Who says size matters (except when it comes to putting up wallpaper)?

Thanks both!

Does anyone know where you can get pluck-foam sheets from? I've looked online but can't work it out and the refills for the specific Peli case I have don't seem to be available. 

When I do that with a couple of Ethoisesses, my trousies fall down! [emoji6][emoji6][emoji12]

I tried that one once but the magistrates didn't believe me. 

^{Ended up replacing my previous leisure battery with a Powertank from FLO. It says on the sticker to charge for 24 hrs before first use, which seems clear cut, but then I read that you want to stop charging once the fully charged light comes on. Mine had the fully charged light on straight away, so which advice should I take?!}