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John

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Everything posted by John

  1. There are several mounts that I have owned in the past, let go, and now wish that I still had. The Vixen GP is one of those 😬 I had a black one, as made for Celestron by Vixen. I'm not a huge fan of EQ mounts but the GP just does it "right" for a 4 inch frac:
  2. When I've occasionally experienced truly excellent seeing conditions, while the scope that I happened to be using at that time (different designs over the years) showed superb planetary views, I got the feeling that practically any scope would also be excelling under such conditions. It always concerns me a little when someone is looking for some sort of "guarantee" of what they will be able to see or image. There are so many factors involved and only a few of them relate to the telescope used. Suiters "wobbly stack" concept illustrates this I think, even if we debate the relative impact of the various components within it. Make a decision, acquire the chosen equipment, familiarise yourself with it's operation then devote everything you have to using it as often as possible on a wide variety of targets / uses and under a variety of conditions. Practice, practice, practice, there is no substitute for it 🙂
  3. On an alt-azimuth tack, I use my ED120 on a Skytee 2 or Giro Ercole on a Uni 28 and it's very steady even at 300x. On sharp vs mushy, I use my ED120 for outreach at my astro society regularly and the experienced members (mostly newt or SCT owners) often comment how sharp the planets look through the ED120. If I didn't have the ED120 or the 130mm triplet I would be looking very hard at either a Stellalyra 125 ED doublet or a TSA 120 if I could stretch to one. 4.7-5 inches is a very nice aperture for a quality refractor in terms both of performance potential and relative ease of use🙂
  4. Yep - that's certainly how I've found things, several times 🙂
  5. I wish I could get on with binoviewers. I've tried them a few times, borrowed and even bought a set once, but I just haven't felt relaxed and comfortable when using them 🤔
  6. What a great report 🙂 Raining (again !) here 😒 Gives me time to fettle my new project though 😉
  7. I've had an ED120 for ages now (over a decade I think ?) and I think it's a really excellent telescope. I never tried the stock focuser because mine arrived (pre-owned) with a William Optics dual speed focuser on it which I later changed for a Moonlite dual speed. When I purchased my Tak FC100-DL and TMB/LZOS 130 F/9.2 a few years back I thought the ED120 might be overwhelmed by it's premium room mates but it holds it's place in my scope fleet very well and I still have it and use it a lot. I'm told that I must have a particularly good example but obviously I can only talk about the one that I have 🙂
  8. I could see the close pair was a double with my 70mm ED - two closely overlapped airy disks, kind of peanut shaped. No split though.
  9. So could I at F/12 ! I don't know what Baader were thinking with that one 🙄
  10. Yes. A number of 2 inch diagonals, 2 inch barlows and Moonlite focusers use a similar approach. It enables a low profile design 1.25 inch adapter to be used.
  11. The Skysurfer III is plastic, the IV is the metal one. I use optical finders on my refractors (mostly) as well 🙂
  12. I think so. I've not managed to observe a martian moon either, as yet
  13. My society (Bristol AS) has two "telescope surgeries" each year with a similar purpose. We meet in central Bristol so actually observing during those sessions is usually not practical but we do invite attendees to bring their scopes to our out of town observatory to get some "under the stars" experience. I enjoy those sessions a lot 🙂
  14. Just finished off my short session with a small scope with nice splits of Iota Cass, Izar and Epsilon Lyrae at 120x. Nice work for the 70mm aperture.
  15. A late decision to stick a little 70mm refractor out has rewarded me with some lovely lunar views and some nice binaries 😀 This is the 2nd time in a few days that my ultra-portable 70mm has delivered astro enjoyment when the motivation to set up something larger was lacking 👍
  16. Much as I'd love to see Amalthea, I have never been able to see more than the 4 Galilean moons around Jupiter, even when using my 12 inch dob. Amalthea might have been possible with that scope when at it's furthest elongation from Jupiter and under excellent conditions but I've yet to see it. I believe it's magnitude is around 14.7 ? While it might be the 5th largest moon of Jupiter it is much smaller than the Galilean moons - around 150km in diameter I think ?
  17. Bob's comments are very interesting. Seeing something for the 1st time is always the big challenge. Once you have done it and know what to look for, you often find you can achieve something similar under slightly less favourable conditions and / or with a smaller aperture. Perhaps it's a good argument for having larger apertures earlier in your "career" in the hobby rather than later ?
  18. Plus a smoky volcano in Iceland to keep the planes out of the skies. We don't ask for much, after all ! 🙄
  19. You can find yourself in an interesting quandary if and when you do get under very dark skies with a scope and that is balancing going for targets that you simply cannot see from your normal observing locations with observing more familiar targets to see how much more you can see of them or in them. Often you do a bit of both, of course. In such circumstances it is good to have an observing buddy (or a number of them at a star party !) who can contribute suggestions as you go along. While being under really dark skies is nice on ones own, it does get a whole lot more fun with a few more folks and scopes around 😃
  20. The Svbony 8-3mm zoom is turning out to be a bit of a revelation 🙂
  21. Yes, my 12 inch dob. Hardest thing I've ever observed I think. Easy for the EEVA users though 😉
  22. Quite a few years back now I went to an SGL star party which was held near Hereford. I had a 6 inch mak-newtonian with me on that trip and we had a couple of really dark nights. My friend Mark and I had a memorable night chasing galaxies with our 6 inch scopes (he had a Skywatcher 150 F/5 with him I recall). On that trip I reckon my 6 inch scope was showing DSO views as well as my 10 inch could on a dark night at home. That said, I have seen the Horsehead Nebula a couple of times from my back garden so I do occasionally get really, really good nights here as well.
  23. The cloud gods were vigilant tonight. They spotted my little scope and the clear holes have been small to say the least. The moon through clouds has been my staple diet so far tonight. Maybe it will get better later ? - probably not, looking at the forecast 🙄
  24. ED120 and C925 for me. I've seen and used the ED150 and a C11 but they are too much bulk and hassle for me to enjoy regularly I reckon. Fine if they are someone elses and they can set them up / tear them down 😀 I'm not sure that the C925 would see much starlight to be honest but it's got more chance than a C11 with me ! I'd be out with the ED120 all the time ....... I'm just a lazy good for nothing space tourist though 😉 I'm sure you will get the best out of whichever you decide to go for 👍
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