John

3 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Brilliant, thanks for posting.

Good idea for a thread, especially with the Sun starting to get active again

On Mars now.

The disk size has diminished noticeably since I last observed Mars - just 13.8 arc seconds now. At 225x - 300x the south polar cap is just about visible when the planet steadies between wind gusts. Some dark markings showing on the disk including the distinctive snout of the Syrtis Major, the pale "bay" of Aeria and the dark "coastline" of the northern edge of the Sinus Sabaeus.

If the wind gusts would drop the seeing could be quite good this evening.

Have to break off to make supper now - it's my turn !

I don't do much solar observing but here are a few of mine. Don't have the PST or the Lunt 50 now but they were fun little scopes:

3 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I'm going to start a topic, "show's us your set up in action during the day" lol. 

Same scope in the day time

5 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Very nice John. Is the Tak as quick to setup as your 12" dob?

 

It's as quick to put outside. The Tak needs very little cooling time though. I've used quite high magnifications to good effect with hardly any cooling time whereas the dob needs 30 minutes, sometimes a little more.

First clear evening for quite a few days here. Cold and blowy though. The slim lines of my Takahashi FC100-DL are less bothered by the gusts than my other scopes.

I've had a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn before they drop behind the tree branches low towards the south west. These two are around 1.5 degrees apart now so I can fit them into the field of view with the 24mm Panoptic eyepiece. At 38x the image scale is small but exquisitely sharp. Jupiter's four Galilean moons are strung out like pearls all on the same side of the planet. A nice arrangement   A couple of equatorial bands are showing but not a lot else at this magnification and with the planet so low. Saturn and Titan shine on the other side of the field with the Cassini division quite clear.

Suddenly Jupiter shows some odd scintillation - horse chestnut branches are not a great filter !

Just in case I can't get a decent view when these planets are really close together in the sky later in the month, at least I've seen the pair sharing a telescope eyepiece this evening

First clear evening for what seems like a long time. Takahashi FC100-DL out on the Ercole mount. At the sharp end the Pentax XW 3.5mm towers over the diagonal:

That's a Vixen product I believe. Made in Japan.

Apart from the "V" printed on it, it has all the look and finish of a Vixen product.

I used to have some of the University Optics branded versions of these:

Over the years I've had them with Celestron, Vixen, Orion (USA), Telescope House and the Circle-T versions too. I spent some time comparing them with Baader Genuine Orthos, Astro Hutech and Fujiyama HD orthos and the Baader Classic Orthos when they came out. I probably posted some reports at some stage.

1 hour ago, Jasonb said:

Well, I have to say, I'm delighted I asked this question, reading the answers has been fascinating.

I should explain that when I said it sounds like a Right Angle Finder is the way to go, I actually meant a RACI, I'm just not knowledgeable enough yet to remember the difference between them all! The Telrad also sounds very interesting. In the end, I only have a 5" Reflector, so I don't want to be getting something that's too 'big' for the ota, but apart from that, I'm only starting and I'll work with what I have for a while and get used to it and its pros and cons before deciding if I need a change or not! 

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone!

If and when you start looking, this is one way to tell if an optical finder is RA or RACI:

They are in lovely condition

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I think we need to know quite a bit more about the sort of astronomy that you might be interested in to make a recommendation.

There are many, many telescopes available for £500 and they all have strengths and weaknesses.

The sort of things to be thinking about are:

- Does your budget include a mount for the telescope ?

- Are you interested mostly in visual observing or imaging with the scope ?

- Do you need the scope to be compact / portable ?

- Are you more interested in the planets or deep sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae etc ?

- Can you use the equipment under dark skies or do you have light pollution to content with ?

Give us some more to go on and we will be glad to help

Very interesting thread

As well as their thickness, the shape of secondary supports always prompts some interesting discussions.

I have curved supports on my 12 inch dob which seem to work well but they are a bit thicker than the straight ones found on most scopes.

My vanes are dull black rather than shiny.

That third photo of Stu would be fun to use in a "guess my hobby" competition

My first "apo" refractor was one of the early ED100's. Blue tube back then. Great scope !

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

I’m the same John, although I think Alex was meaning that right angle finders are a little harder to get to the right area of sky in the first place, because you are not looking along the length of the scope. That why a Telrad/Rigel and RACI combo works so well I think.

Thanks Stu.

The RACI's do have an OTA though. Just ignore the prism at the end

4 minutes ago, AlexK said:

A common misconception. All RDFs (except really exotic el-cheapo China plastic inventions) are using the light collimation principle utilizing a semi-transparent concave mirror as a collimator for that....

I thought the Telrad used a flat mirror and a lens to focus the reticule onto the display window ?. This is from the Company Seven website:

1. Red L.E.D., 2. Telrad reticle, 3. Adjustable tilt flat mirror, 4. focusing lens,
5. display window inclined at 45 degrees shown with simulated projected reticle.

Tripods are very popular currently for converting into floor lamps. These folks need to realise that the trick is to remove the telescope first  

On the plus side, there will be a tidal wave of used equipment for sale in due course ........ 

38 minutes ago, AlexK said:

The right angle finder is actually harder to use....

 

I don't find this at all. I find them both ergonomically easier and the view through them relates directly with what my eyes see, what my star charts (non digital) show and what my red dot / illuminated reticule finder shows.

I now use RACI finders on all my scopes

The most important thing though is to find something that works for you and there will be variations on that person to person

That is interesting. On the animation that is on that website the central star and the star next to it (line of sight ?) seem to be fading as well. Unless something is gradually obscuring them ?

The red dot finder will show the correct image. The image through the scope will be left-right reversed. This is normal when using a mirror diagonal.

To get a fully corrected view through the scope you would need to use a prism like this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/skywatcher-90-erecting-prism.html

Personally I think the regular mirror diagonal is better for astronomical use if you can adjust to the reversed view.

I'll leave others to advise on the other questions you raise.

A subtle but lovely drawing David.

Even at or around opposition I think Mars is a challenging world to observe and your drawing captures what often has been the level of contrast that we have been trying to tease out visually.

Nice work

3 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Hi John,

I think others have said all the important stuff..I've followed your content, good advice and your good humour ever since I joined in 2009, and I have learned a great deal in that time, and also learned that I have a great deal more to learn yet!

I remember that my first significant sale of Astro kit was to your good self..a nice Meade AR127 L refractor ota, must be at least 10 years ago or more. .wasn't your SGL "Jahmanson" or something similar at the time? I recall how nervous I was at selling to someone who clearly knew so much more about kit than me, but fortunately the scope arrived intact with you and you were happy with it👍😊.

You have inspired many others like me to delve deeper into our great hobby John, and we share a common interest in visual astronomy, refractors of all kinds (I can forgive your dabbling with ships funnels once in a while!!😂), and a fascination with eyepieces of all kinds too.

Thank you and I hope you keep going for another 15 years..who knows what kit we will be using then??

One last thought..I love your photo at the top of the thread.. a lovely Vixen Apo and your good self.. the caption "Beauty and the Beast" sprang to my mischievous mind - but actually I prefer " The Big man with the Big heart" 👍👏

Dave

Thanks so much Dave

I did start off with the silly user name as you recall. As soon as I got a chance I changed it though !

The Bresser 127L was a great buy - a proper big refractor !

I'm not very photogenic I'm afraid but I've had the Vixen nearly as long as I've been a member here and longer than any of my other scopes so I thought it was an apt photo. Also a happy, warm evening in July last year at the Bristol AS observatory all on my own observing the lunar eclipse. Managed to get one of my few images through the scope on that occasion. Nice memories 

37 minutes ago, Rob said:

15 years John... wow, time flies when your having fun!. Thank you for all you do here.

Best wishes Rob

Thanks Rob - you have even more SGL longevity than I do !