John

If the initial chart is correct I'm pretty much bang on the centre line. On the update though, the line has shifted south by 25 miles or so so I'm right on the northern edge.

Probably worth a look anyway, if it is clear.

4 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

I have just received my Nagler 3-6 zoom. I had one years ago but sold it on. During the past year I started using Ortho EPs again and enjoy using them but adding a Barlow caused inward focusing problems.

So to get some extra mag I bought the nagler zoom.

By the way I have been using baader extension rings on my ethos EPs for years without any difficulty.

 

The Nagler zooms are incredibly useful eyepieces I find. What they give away in performance to specialist high power eyepieces is so slight that it is outweighed, IMHO, by the ability to instantly find tune the magnification.

1 minute ago, Oldfort said:

Sounds about right - maybe a little bit less.

Thanks again

If the TV version came with a neat blocker for that inverted "U" shaped notch in the 2 inch barrel and a flush grommet to fill the set screw hole then I might be interested. I assume that they are not as shiny on the interior as they are on the outside ?

20 minutes ago, Oldfort said:

Including the nexus, tray and cables, mine is 11.6 kg - with cw bar but no counterweight.  Also includes the base adapter to fit an EQ5 tripod.

Thanks very much !

I guess the EQ5 adapter, Nexus tray and cables don't add much - .5 kg perhaps ?

So around 11 kg for the mount head, clamp and C/W bar - does that sound right ?

Could some kind soul with an AZ100 give me an idea of what the mount head plus a dual fit DT clamp on one side plus the Rowan DT bar and bracket might weigh in total ?

I did actually have this combination when I was trying out the beta examples but I didn't weigh the whole setup that I was using, rather stupidly.

Thanks

I suppose, in looking for a "lifelong" instrument, as well as considering what your interests are now you need to anticipate what they might be for the rest of your time in the hobby. Not easy !

2 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

.... very much a first world problem .....

I think that applies to many of the options we discuss

I've been using the Baader FT rings (28mm) on my Ethos eyepieces for years. They seem to both thread on and off the eyepiece barrels very smoothly and a variety of filter brands have screwed into them with no effort. Maybe the latest ones differ in spec a little

I don't use Baader filters though.

Great thread - prompted me to try and recall what I've owned and gather some pics - while my memory still holds !

I think these are most of the ones that I've owned. One or two stock pics where I didn't have the scope long enough to take any

Some I owned more than one of over the years eg: ST80's, ED80's, 150mm F/8's etc.

Gold stars on the ones that I still have

But I actually enjoyed them all

57 minutes ago, Rob said:

Wow this thread has indeed got me thinking of my list!... could take a while to work out.

 

Me too.

There was a phase when scopes came and went quite quickly here

What mount are you intending to use ?

One thing about largish, long scopes is that they need pretty strong and capable mounts to allow them to perform.

22 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Slight thread resurrection however this scope has piqued my interest.  I am potentially in the market for a long focal length frac and this is local to me.  Can anyone tell me anything about it.  Price is perhaps a shade on the high side  but looks a nice thing... 

A Belgian company that, for that model, use an Istar R30 objective lens:

http://www.frtelescopes.com/

Here is a review of the objective in an Istar tube:

http://www.istar-optical.com/istar-127-mm-(5”)-r30-f12-doublet-refractor-review.html

Neil English on his Istar 127mm R30:

https://neilenglish.net/5-inch-shootout-5-f-12-refractor-vs-a-5-1-f-5-reflector/

Hope that helps !

Good report !

That eyepiece looks identical in every respect to the Aero ED 30mm that I had recently. Including the lens coatings and the dust caps.

They are nice and light for 2 inch eyepieces and the one I had worked well at F/7.5 and slower I thought.

If it wasn't for CN we would not have this thread. Markus Ludes (APM) posts there but not here.

It's a different style of forum to SGL but there is much to be gleaned from it if you have some patience.

Amazing discoveries from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-56268439

If life can work things out there, I wonder where else in the solar system it might be lurking ?

It did come down quite hard looking at that landing again. I could see a little "bounce" of the nosecone through the vapours.

Well they will have learned a whole lot more - and it was a spectacular show from all perspectives !

Great stuff - you have to pinch yourself to believe what you are watching sometimes !

The altitude locking rod idea was OK but incorporating the slow motion control into the rod compromised it's rigidity somewhat. It was a nice idea though. The "flex" gets progressively worse as you near the end of the altitude slow motion travel.

You kind of got used to such quirks though, it was just so exciting to be using a telescope !

Having set my old 60mm Tasco up last Summer and observed with it again, I realized just what I used to put up with back in the early days of observing. The objective was good quality but the focuser and mount were quite trying by todays standards.

I used to have an Orion Optics 10 inch newtonian which had similarly projecting primary adjusting and locking screws screws. To enable it to be stood on it's mirror end I added 3 hard rubber furniture feet to the bottom of the mirror cell, spaced in between the collimation screw pairs. These feet were a bit taller than the screws projected so I could stand the scope on it's mirror end without affecting the collimation.

Over the years that I've owned newtonians of different brands I've found it best to only use the locking screws when transporting the scope in a car. Once you have the primary tilt adjusted correctly, applying the locking screws can change the collimation a little, which is annoying, so I leave them loose unless the scope is being transpored somewhere. I'm going to need to re-adjust the collimation then anyway.

I think finding things in the sky and having an idea of whether or not what they have found is what they were looking for are the most challenging aspects of beginning visual astronomy.

Most images online or in publications are very misleading when it comes to giving an idea of what a target object might actually look like visually through the eyepiece.

This website is more help and aims to try and get quite close to what you will actually see. Even then, it is a little optimistic for those who lack experience and / or who observe under light polluted skies. But it is better than images I think:

http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/what-can-i-see-through-telescope.html

I find the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas very useful at the scope. I tend to refer to the more detailed ones indoors.

Pity the Pocket Sky Atlas is hard to get hold of.

If you are on a budget, the best performance per £ spent will come from an ortho I think. The Baader Classic orthos offer amazing performance for their <£50 cost IMHO.

If you can splash out, there are wide angle eyepieces that get very, very close to ortho performance such as the Tele Vue DeLite's and Delos and the Pentax XW's.  These also the observing comforts of long eye relief, a large eye lens and a wider apparent field.

I've still got mine - the 12TE-5

Mostly identical to the 9TE-5 that you have bought except that the 12TE-5 is 800mm focal length.

I've lost the "Worlds Beyond" booklet and the maps etc, unfortunately but otherwise it's complete and in it's wooden trunk.

I borrowed a 60mm Astral on the equatorial mount (I think it was a Prinz branded one ?) from a mate a few years before I could afford my own. I spent a happy summer observing and sketching Jupiter from my bedroom window with that scope.

Yours looks a very complete and original set