John

I use the Hyperflex clone 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom when I image through the scope with a mobile phone. My cheap clamp seems to hold the top of this eyepiece well and having the zoom makes it a flexible tool.

With a 2.25x barlow lens the zoom becomes a 3.2mm - 9.55mm.

4 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Hello. 

Not wanting to derail the thread. Quick Q. I see the scopes stood to attention. 
Thought about this with my 2 fracs. Leave them in their cases but stand them vertical. Would this xause any issues. 
Thinking movement of “fluid” maybe in the objective lens unit. However. Unsure if there is any “fluid” that could move tbh. 🙃🙃 ?? 
Have a SW 150ED and Stellarvue 102 scopes. 
John 

My refractors are all air spaced including the triplet.

The SW 150 ED is air spaced. Not sure about the Stellarvue 102.

I don't know if the way I store them is the best way but it's the only practical way for me so that's what I do.

1 minute ago, Peter Drew said:

I would do it slightly differently.   I would have the screws bearing directly on to the steel washer and the plastic disc/s between it and the top of the holder.  The adjustment screws, which should be rounded at the tips, will not dimple the steel washer and the plastic disc/s will allow the secondary holder to rotate smoothly by hand if necessary.  Screws bearing on plastic discs could lose their tension as the plastic deforms and alter the collimation.  Or whatever works for you!    🙂 

I did wonder about this when I installed my system but it's worked well so I've stuck with it. 

3 hours ago, PadrePeace said:

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=167596 
so what’s this?

£700 new from Altair Astro. 

Then don't buy it.

1 minute ago, merlin100 said:

So that's a steel washer, two plastic washers and finally another steel washer in a sandwich.  Is that right?

No. Steel washer and two plastic washers. The tips of the collimation screws press against the plastic washers as per Jason D's approach:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/446178-secondary-mirror-milk-jug-washers/?p=5775875

I have a "scope corner" in the dining room for the OTA's:

I've added a large washer to the top of the boss of my secondary and also a couple of the milk bottle washers. Seems to be a good arrangement. The secondary adjustment screws press against the plastic washers and the large steel washer prevents pitting of the top surface of the aluminum secondary boss. I rarely need to adjust the position of my secondary now.

So it's this plus the large steel washer between the plastic disks and the secondary boss:

I've had a few of the ST80 F/5 and ST102 F/5 achromats over the years and found that they do the sort of job you describe on a lightweight mount pretty well. The ST102 has a 2 inch focuser as standard so great if you really want to go wide with a 2 inch eyepiece.

Great movie

Apparently I'm nearing the "danger zone"

I ought to have awarded myself a few more points for the hours I've spent over the years reading Ed Ting's reviews

12 minutes ago, Analysis Paralysis said:

Hi John, 

Definitely not jupiter. Location was correct for mars. I've seen jupiter and this was definitely not that planet. On all occasions also, there were no moons, which would immediately alert me. I do have issues with seeing  very pale pink colour, so that might be contributing to my problem. So, it definitely wouldn't look red then? 

Mark

This is a reasonably accurate representation of Mars as it appears at around 300x magnification through a moderate size scope:

Mars is a distinct pink colour with darker patches on the southern hemisphere. If the seeing conditions are poor it still appears distinctly pink.

What you describe does sound more like Jupiter which does have bands across the central part of a white / cream disk.

The First Light Optics website gives the eye relief and apparent field of view of the eyepieces that you list in the specifications for each eyepiece or eyepiece range if the eye relief is consistent across the range. Eg:

"The new enhanced Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece series are 6-element fully multicoated eyepieces designed for comfortable high magnification observing.

Wide 60-degree field of view.

Parfocal so require little or no focusing when changing from low to high power.

Generous 16mm eye-relief. 

Twist-up eyecups. 

1.25" barrel threaded to accept filters."

As we approach the time of year when the wonderful constellation Orion is on show together with it's showpiece deep sky object Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, I thought that I would share a couple of information sources that I have found very interesting and that have stimulated me to look a little bit more carefully and curiously into this amazing target when observing it.

The first is an excellent Sky & Telescope article by Bob King from 2014 which gives some good insights into the structure of the nebula and how what we can see visually links with that:

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/see-orion-nebula-3d12172014/

So now we can look out for "The Fishes Mouth, "The Sword", "The Sail" and "The Cliff" as well as the well known Trapezium Cluster, Theta 1 Orionis

The second link is an amazing "fly through" sequence that NASA put together in 2018 of the Orion Nebula using visible and infrared imaging from the Hubble and Spritzer space telescopes:

I hope those "whet the appetite" for just one of the treats that the Autumn and Winter skies have in store 

I have owned the Vixen LVW 22mm and it is a very comfortable eyepiece to use and also a top perfomer.

The other Vixen LVW's are pretty good as well. One of my early reports for the fourum:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/blog/vixen-lvw-vs-baader-hyperion-review.html

31 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

.... The sketch I posted looks like it has a slight concave shape at the bottom of the triplet, unlike the convex design you posted.

I agree, which would suggest an abbe orthoscopic based design modified to permit a slightly larger well corrected field ?

Rather like Al Nagler did with the plossl.

If the bottom surface of the triplet element is concave then it seems to be very similar to an abbe orthoscopic design. There was a konig design that also used a singlet-triplet configuration but the bottom surface of the triplet in that one was concave. I think the triplet might have been the eye lens in that design but it's a little unclear from this illustration:

A light shroud can help with this and you can add a dew shield to the top of the tube as well.

45 minutes ago, saturnian said:

Hello,any BERLEBACH TRIPOD UNI 18 owners out there could verified the max height of this tripod?

First Light Optics stats 122 cm but BERLEBACH website 132 cm not a big deal but will be using with a longish refractor (SW100ED) so I think I need at list 130 cm to view comfortably seated.

Thanks

 

If you go for the double leg clamps option, which I think the FLO ones have as standard, you loose 10cm of max height with the Uni range:

https://www.berlebach.de/en/?bereich=details&id=116

The Berlebach website figure is for the single clamp option.

Anyone observed this comet yet ?

According to the "Heavens Above" website and Cartes du Ciel, it is currently a bit brighter than magnitude 8 and in Lepus and soon to be in Orion. It will be just 1.25 degrees from Rigel on the 4th November so easy to find if you can wait until Orion has risen fully.

I'd still like to know if these are the same optically as the Myriad / William Optics 100's. Until the 7mm was announced the focal lengths and the specs seemed very, very similar and the build and finish looks the same apart from the eyepiece top section and eye cup

9 minutes ago, GazOC said:

I've been waiting for this one, fits nicely inbetween the 5.5 and the 9.

 

http://apm-telescopes-englisch.shopgate.com/item/333634313036

That's a useful addition to the range. Is there a 5.5 or is it a 5 with the APM XWA's ?

Either way, the 7mm is gap that needed filling.

I tend to prefer higher magnifications even when wanting a good sized true field because with the moderate light pollution I have, I get a darker background sky which helps deep sky objects to stand out a little better.

So I gravitate towards eyepieces with larger fields of view.

I also like wide or very wide fields of view when observing at high power as well because my scopes are on undriven, alt-azimuth mounts.

From what I've read the ES70 eyepieces are OK but nothing special but the ES68, 82 and 100 degree eyepieces (which I have owned and used) are really pretty good. The ES92's are superb but rather bulky and heavy. I've not used an ES52 degree eyepiece.

My scopes vary from a 12 inch F/5.3 dobsonian to a 100mm F/9 refractor (and a few in between !)

I find NGC 2419 fascinating. Not much to look at but it is a long way away, further than the Magellanic Clouds:

I also enjoy comparing M13 with M92 in Hercules. Both lovely of course but M92 has it's own charm.

A nice M13 challenge is to get the nearby galaxy NGC 6207 in the same field of view. A nice "two for one" deal

https://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jun/NGC_6207.html

I think it might be one of Nigels:

1 hour ago, Ken82 said:

I like it John ! 
 

Have you an updated image from recent years ? What are you using now ? 
 

ken 

Thanks

I don't have a recent image but Tele Vue and Pentax are the mainstay of my eyepiece sets now.