John

1 minute ago, mikeDnight said:

The Tak diagonal holds a binoviewer without any issue, but its Achilles heel is the savage, unnecessary, and hated undercuts on Televue eyepieces....

They don't like the undercuts on most other eyepieces and accessories either, I've discovered.

Great with smooth 1.25 inch barrels though.

51 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

 

@John is this the same as yours? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/baader-t-2-bbhs-mirror-star-diagonal.html Would you mind sharing the other bits and pieces I would need, as the FC76-DCU has a 1.25" optical back and would therefore need an adaptor I think.

 

Yes, that is the diagonal. I currently use it with the Baader click lock 1.25 inch eyepiece holder, a 15mm T2 extension to ensure that my longest eyepiece barrel does not contact the prism and on the scope side a T2 - 1.25 inch push fit adapter. Links below. I have used this diagonal in 2 inch mode with a 2 inch eyepiece holder and a 2 inch push fit adapter but currently I find that I just use 1.25 inch eyepieces with my Tak refractor.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-click-lock-125-inch-eyepiece-adapter-with-t-2-thread.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-t2-extension-tube.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/baader-nosepiece-125-t2.html

I owned the Tele Vue 1.25 inch dielectric for a while and still have a couple of the 2 inch versions with other refractors. Very nicely made mirror diagonals. I didn't get a chance to compare it (the 1.25 inch) with the Baader prism though. In all honesty I can't see much in the way of performance difference between the Baader prism and my 2 inch Tele Vue and Astro Physics diagonals but that's probably just me

I like the T2 prism diagonal on the Tak because it seems to suit the slender lines of the scope !

The set that I use with my refractors, which include the Takahashi FC100-DL are:

Panoptic 24mm

Delos 17.3mm

Delos 14mm

Pentax XW 10mm, 7mm, 5mm and 3.5mm

Nagler zoom 2-4mm

Of these, the Delos 17.3mm is probably not really needed because I tend to skip straight from the 24mm Panoptic to the 14mm Delos. The zoom to some extent doubles up on the 3.5mm Pentax XW as well but the versatility of the zoom is very valuable IMHO

There are other choices of course (rather a lot !) but this is where I've ended up and I'm very content with them. My diagonal for the Tak is the Baader T2 Zeiss-standard prism. I mostly use 1.25 inch eyepieces with my refractors and keep the 2 inch ones for the 12 inch dob.

@dweller25 makes a good point though, your current eyepieces are not bad by any means.

With my Tak FC100 my most used accessory is probably the Nagler zoom eyepiece. The 3mm-6mm is still available at a bit under your budget.

4 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

With the thin cloud I didn't pick up anything past magnitude 10.05... oh well tried.

The star Regulus is bright - magnitude 1.4. The occultation by the much fainter asteroid would have caused a dip in the brightness of Regulus for a brief moment (less than a second).

13 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Rather excited that I have been able to find a second-hand ES 17mm 92° EP for a very reasonable price. I love my 12mm, which replaced the Nagler 12T4. Now the Nagler 17T4 meets the same fate. The new EP should arrive on Friday. 

Good find !

My admiration for this eyepiece has grown after some initial uncertainty.

The night before last I just used that one eyepiece in my 12 inch dob for a whole session of galaxy hunting.

Best eyepieces that ES have produced IMHO.

37 minutes ago, Astrobits said:

The asteroid was at mag 16.9. You are unlikely to see it, especially through cloud.

I had solid cloud.☹️

Nigel

 

So did I

I observed 30+ galaxies the other night. I could not have sketched any of them, at least with any realism. Most were just a barely perceptible patch of light. 

Interesting initial views from the experts at the Natural History Museum. They comment on the apparent similarities between this newly fallen meteorite material and the asteroid specimens returned from the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/march/uk-fireball-meteorite-has-been-recovered-driveway-gloucestershire.html

Much more to come I'm sure, as the analysis of this material continues.

My Vixen ED102SS refractor fell off it's mount a couple of years ago onto our patio. It must have fallen about 5 feet onto the concrete

Very fortunately the damage was limited to a paint scrape and a shallow dent at the end of the dew shield and a bent focuser pinion shaft. Both were repairable / replaceable and the optics / collimation were not effected. Obviously quite well built scopes !

I also dropped a Nagler 3mm - 6mm zoom onto concrete a few years ago from about 3 feet. Again I was very lucky and the damage was limited to a split rubber eye cup, which I managed to replace.

Things could have turned out MUCH worse with both these incidents  

If you do put a 30mm ES 100 eyepiece into the StellaMira 80mm ED F/10 do please post a photo - it's a 3 inch format eyepiece

That aside, when actually observing you would expect the apparent size of the Moon to be larger given the additional magnification but when comparing eyepiece fields, I guess that the sim can only change the apparent size of the field of view rather than the target object.

This is the un-edited version with the fields of view the correct relative sizes:

First Light Optics have provided a similar tool here:

http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

One thing to bear in mind with these is that they are simulating the field of view, ie the area of sky that will be seen and the relative size of a particular target when using a particular scope / eyepiece combination but they won't simulate how bright or well resolved a particular target object will be when you actually observe it.

1 hour ago, Spile said:

It is easy to find suggestions and opinions for the "best" eyepiece.

I find far more useful, recommendations for the "best value for money".

I think "best eyepiece" is the question that is often asked by folks before they realise just how much some of them cost !

58 minutes ago, Alan White said:

This is great that material has been recovered from this witnessed fall and onto the UK as well.
I look forward to seeing what research comes from this.
This in my view is scientific in nature not for the collectors such as many of us here and elsewhere.

 

I agree. It will be very interesting to see the results of the classification and analysis of this meteorite. It will join some of the most famous names in carbonaceous chondrite meteorite "falls" such as Allende (Mexico), Tagish Lake (Canada) and Murchison (Australia).

I did have a quick look at the Markarian's Chain before packing up.

I counted at least 10 galaxies moving "down the line". Too cold and tired to be precise about the ID's though. I definitely got "The Face" and the "Eyes" plus the ones of mag 10-11 shown here:

A "witnessed fall" and a carbonaceous chondrite as well. The 28th February fireball did make it to the earth:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56326246

If any of this material ever makes it onto the market, the price will be pretty "astronomical" 

Great shot Mark !

It looks as if you were looking towards Ursa Minor ?

Quite a good evening for galaxy observing this evening

Excellent report - so much to see in that part of the sky !

I get goosebumps when looking at these faint smudges of light thinking how far and for how long the photons have travelled before hitting my mirrors and getting deflected into my eye

Got the following in Leo so far (1 in Leo Minor really):

NGC 2903

3 of the Leo Quartet in the lions neck: NGC's 3190, 3193 and 3185.

NGC's 3226, 3227 a nice pair just behind Gamma Leonis (Algieba)

NGC 3344 (the one in Leo Minor)

Messiers 95 and 95

The bright, close pair of M 105 and NGC 3384

NGC's 3412, 3377 and 3367

The famous "Leo Triplet" of course, Messiers 65 and 66 and the Hamburger shaped NGC 3628

Near the star Chertan, NGC 3596 and then down below Iota Leonis for NGC 3705.

The sky is a bit milkier now. Can't seem to get galaxies much fainter than mag 11.5 (listed) but their surface brightness is somewhat less than that and some of these are "face ons" which are challenging.

Getting cold out there so I might not hold out for the Virgo / Coma groups to rise above the tree line tonight.

Enjoyed what I've had though

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

I use a refractor with Herschel wedge and binoviewers. The views under good and excellent conditions can be quite breathtaking at times, and it’s an area of astronomy I’m so pleased I got into.

Me too. I don't do a lot of solar observing but I do like using the Herschel Wedge with my refractor, especially as the Sun is gradually getting more active now

Nice to do some warm astronomy as well !

Another decently dark night here.

Got the 12 inch dob out. I've been hunting around Ursa Major initially. The list there is:

M 81 + M 82 (obligatory !)

NGC 3077

NGC 2978

NGC 2787

NGC 2885

M 97 - not a galaxy - the Owl nebula ! (no filter)

M 108

NGC 2841

NGC 3198

M 101 (just traces of this big face on galaxy)

M 51 + NGC 5195 (obligatory !)

Cor Caroli (lovely pair of stars)

M 63

Transparency OK but not the best perhaps. Good enough for things high-ish in the sky

Just been using the one eyepiece for this task - the ES 17mm / 92 degree monster. 94x magnification and a one degree true field:

Having a cuppa then out to hunt in Leo then Virgo / Coma

9 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Wait till you get a load of Virgo!

Actually, the Virgo supercluster is based around Virgo/Coma Berenices - including Markarian's Chain. The latter is in my bucket list for this year.

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galgrps/vir.html

 

Yep - I'm getting my 12 inch dob on "the chain" shortly tonight I hope. I can usually see 10+ galaxies in the same field of view with the 12. I was surprised how well the 4.7 inch refractor did though.

I've spent the last hour going through Ursa Major galaxies while Leo rises - there are quite a few up there as well !

10 minutes ago, Dek Rowan Astro said:

Hello John,

As mentioned before, there have been several subtle changes to the design since you tested our development mounts, so your experience of the development mounts probably doesn't reflect the production AZ100.

In fact we have a number of customers that have reasonably large OTAs mounted on the AZ100 and operate without counterweights.

Our recommendation is to use counterweights to ensure stability of the tripod when required, not to provide smooth movement.

Counterweights also help reduce the pointing error due to the tripod head flexing which can become apparent when using a DSC and high magnification.

ATB

Derek,

Good to hear that Derek

Something from the UK Lake District on benefits for tourism:

https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/importance-of-dark-skies-to-tourism

Here is one from 2009:

https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.117-a20