John

With my 12 inch I flocked a section of the upper tube wall opposite the focuser / behind the secondary and also about 18 inches of the bottom end of the tube immediately above the primary mirror.

I also find using a light shield at the top end of the scope important in keeping unwanted light off the secondary and the inward end of the focuser when I'm using the scope at home where there are a few stray light issues.

NB: Mine is not a GSO, sorry

I've collimated quite a few doublet refractors, including a Bresser 127L. If the star test is good then don't worry about it. If not then I'd be happy to post about the process. A well collimated laser collimator and a cheshire eyepiece are very useful tools to have during the process.

Some refractors incorporate collimation adjustment in their objective lens cell design and some don't. The Bresser, as I recall, does, The Altair probably not although the mechanical tolerances of the Altair are likely to be higher which will, hopefully, mean that it's collimation will not need adjustment.

Great report and photo Dave

Re: "The Propeller", I used to think I was seeing it as an asterism created by the star chains that appear to spread outwards from the core of the cluster but then I realised that the feature is actually created by dark lanes, ie: slightly sparser areas of the cluster and is rather off centre.

I find it a lot easier to pick out with my 12 inch dob where the contrast and resolution of the cluster is that much richer and brighter.

21 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The StellaLyra is the same as The Orion zoom as fas as I can see with 8 elements and 40.0° - 60.0°. 

But we all know how accurate quoted specs are, don't we

A side by side comparison will show an AFoV difference but may well remain mute on the actual optical configuration.

A nice little project for someone

41 minutes ago, johninderby said:

New zoom from Bresser but will it be worth the asking price of £197.00 🤔

 

Not unless you are really desperate to have the Bresser branding on it:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-eyepieces/stellalyra-8-24mm-1-25-inch-lanthanum-zoom-eyepiece.html

Here is my old WO one. Of course the glass types / coatings / baffling / field stop might be different now. Hope they are !

I'm sure it's pretty good (the advanced one).

Like a lot or products that are coming out now, under various brandings, I feel that I've see it somewhere before

I have one of the 2nd one that you link to at the back of my astro cupboard - mine is identical but branded William Optics. I've had it for years. The AFoV at the longer FL end of the version that I have is not 40 degrees though - not much above 30 as far as I can see.

15 minutes ago, IB20 said:

It did surprise me with how big it was in the hand and it’s the smallest of the range so the others must be real grenades. The size of that ES17 😅, that’d probably break my mount. 

With most of these wide angle, long eye relief ranges, the shorter focal lengths are the longest in physical size.

Pentax XW's:

With the ES 92 / 17mm (and the 12mm) it is not just the physical size - they are very heavy as well. I would not want to use an eyepiece heavier than the ES 92 / 17mm.

5 minutes ago, IB20 said:

You must! When I unboxed it I wasn’t sure how looking through an eyepiece so wide would actually work, I’d assumed there’d be blackouts and difficulty getting the right viewing position. None of that happened, it was so easy to use. I can’t wait for the next opportunity I get to use it and yes, more of them are now on my wish list.

It would be very interesting to compare the 17.5 Morpheus with these:

I really must try a Morpheus sometime

I saw a couple last night, during the clear spells.

The let down from these displays becomes an annual feature of this hobby I've found

The surprise sporadic ones are generally more rewarding / exciting

4 hours ago, NGC 1502 said:

Those of us who owned the commonly available eyepieces in the 1970s & 80s would have been astonished to have known what’s available today.  The high power eyepieces back then had virtually zero eyerelief, tiny eye lenses, and a very narrow apparent field….  Radian, DeLite, and loads more, 20mm eyerelief, 60+ degree field……..supreme luxury indeed!!

These were my 1st half-decent eyepieces - .965 inch and I was very proud of them in the 1980's. Unitron's and Vixen's

2 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Taking of speed of setup have you ever considered putting your tripod on wheels so you can roll it in and out?
 

There is one step between where I store my scopes (dining room !) and my observing spot (patio). The distance is just 3 metres so the short carry in 2 parts from inside to outside is quite practical.

Once set up I can move all my rigs a short distance around the back garden in one piece to dodge trees / houses etc.

If I stored my scopes in a garage / shed / conservatory which was level with where I observe I agree that some sort of wheels would be a good idea

2 minutes ago, Richard N said:

I have a new AZ5. On the elevation it's not that smooth using the slo-mo drive. Any thoughts on adjustments? I don't want to return it and I suspect it's easy to improve?

What scope do you have on it ?

If the tube is quite long, fore and aft balance is quite important to getting smooth elevation (altitude) adjustment.

Got clouded out here just before the transit action started. By the time I turned in it was clear as a bell again of course !

Glad some of you got some nice views though

15 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

How about using imaging for visual observing??….maybe this is the way forward??……

https://unistellaroptics.com

Interesting idea but too much tech involved for me.

The way I want to do things now (as I did last night) is with simple, un-driven alt-azimuth mounts, quick setup, look at stuff that I can find myself for as long as the conditions allow, than pack away quickly when done.

Having been at this for around 40 years now I guess I have learned what makes it work for me as a hobby and I'm happy to stick with that now.

Probably I am a "dinosaur". My wife and kids certainly think so

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Very nice, John! I think a clean split will require more aperture, perhaps 6inch refractor or 7-8 inches for an obstructed scope because of the brighter diffraction rings.

Dubhe gest behind a tree for me at this time of the year. I mean to look at it again in some autumn early morning, when it's well positioned. 

I was out last night but looking in the opposite direction to Ophiuci. Managed to split Tau Oph at 180x with the 180 Skymax. Separation is 1.4'' and the two components have almost equal brightness, so not really a tough double in good conditions but the seeing was so-so and made it challenging. I gave up on doubles for the rest of the evening and looked at some globulars instead. M13 was gorgeous, I could resolve stars down to the central core at x180. 

My best split last night was Zeta Hercules. 1.47 arc seconds but quite uneven brightness. I've been following it over the years and have seen the PA change noticably. It used to be an "on the edge" challenge for my ED120 but practice has made it a little easier now and the 130mm triplet gives an wonderful view of the pair.

The seeing lower down was quite mediocre though.

I'll have a look at Tau Oph next time out.

22 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

TSA-120 out tonight for views of the gas giants. Seeing only 6/10., but nice detail on both planets - first comparison I’ve been able to make between Pentax XW5 and Delite 4 - both eyepieces gave pretty much identical views once magnification and fov taken into consideration.

Similar experiences here with the gas giants Mark. Seeing could have been a bit better but still enjoyable. Clouded out now though so the transit of Io will have to happen with one onlooker less 

On 16/07/2021 at 02:34, John said:

Thanks for this.

My 130mm refractor was, last night, showing a view quite similar to that simulation but with the E / W orientation reversed and a little shimmer in the diffraction rings. So like this:

Possibly about as good as the aperture can do ?

Good seeing at the moment with the 130mm refractor again (1st time for a while actually ). Getting something similar again on Dubhe. 400x is holding up quite well.

The "dome" of the secondary star on the side of the primary seems a distinctive mid-grey tone compared with the primaries pale golden (to my eye) tint.

In terms of resolution I guess it's somewhere between "elongated" and "resolved" on the illustration below. "Partially Notched" perhaps ?

Not a "split" though.

6 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

No luck, need to get a alt-as so I have 5 minute setup…

Yourself?

Generally clear currently but quite a lot of cloud masses billowing around the horizons. I'll make the most of the clear bits !. Seeing is steady. Transparency moderate.

2 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Well at least your LZOS got out of the door. 

No luck for you tonight ?

I thought the objective and coatings on the 1st generation TAL 100 (RT) were a little better than the later one that I owned but the early version focuser has limited travel and is 1.25 inch only while the later versions were a big improvement in that department.

On balance I think the later version would be the one to go for.

Hoping that the sky stays clear for some gas giant observing later. TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2 triplet on the T-Rex mount:

I've just owned 2 Radians - a 4mm and a 3mm. This was a few years ago now. I enjoyed using them although I did find that the 4mm handling of off axis light when observing the bright lunar limb rather odd.

They were sharp, well made and comfortable to use though.

I've been though the "must own full set / all the same brand" thing but eventually realised that I was not doing myself any favours with regards to the overall effectiveness of such collections so now I've gone back to cherry picking from ranges and (generally) not owning focal lengths that don't do something useful with my scopes / sky conditions / observing interests.

I still can't shake off the draw of wide, expansive fields of view but that may well be because all my scopes are used on undriven / alt-azimuth mounts. In saying that my current eyepiece sets cover from around 40 degrees to 110 degrees so I have plenty of variation available