John

The Delos uses a system where the whole top section of the eyepiece slides in and out and is locked in place by twisting the top and bottom of the eyepiece in opposite directions.

I have both Delos and XW's and I reckon the XW's are a bit easier to adjust quickly. There is not a lot in it but the Delos is a 2-handed operation whereas the XW's can be done with one.

33 minutes ago, Matt61 said:

Newcomer question . Is it possible to adapt the skywatcher finderscope with an adapter/ prism of some sort to correct the view?

The prism or diagonal needed to get the right angled view takes up some of the light path of the finder objective which means that finder body needs to be quite a bit shorter for the eyepiece to reach focus. You would need to chop a section off the body of a straight through finder to get it to work with the right angled prism or diagonal.

30 minutes ago, Jiggy 67 said:

What @Barry-W-Fenner said......It’s important to note that the Morpheus eye relief is around 20mm (I think) but can be increased with the supplied spacer ring which I’ve done with all mine. I’ve got the full range and, like Barry, I’m very pleased with them

I'm wondering how the spacer increases the eye relief unless it is an optical device of some type ?. A barlow lens will increase eye relief but that is an optical device of course.

I can see that it will raise the position of the eye cup though. Maybe some folks find the eye cup a little too close to the eye lens without the spacer ?. There is a similar situation with the Tele Vue 32mm plossl which is somewhat easier to use for the non-glasses wearer with the TV Eye cup Extender in place. I figure that the spacer ring supplied with the Morpheus works in a similar way ?

I have the 14mm Delos by the way but I don't have an SCT. I find that the longer focal leghth Delos and XW's are very similar in performance and ease of use. I've not used a Morpheus.

Just now, LoveFromGallifrey said:

If I *could* have a dob, I would - don't get be wrong. But I can't at the moment. At least, nothing more than a small tabletop, and while I could get one of those my ultimate goal is to venture into imaging, for which the refractor is better to start with. But anything bigger than a tabletop is pretty much impossible right not. Certainly the 150s, 200s etc that I have used with friends in the past. I have neither the storage space in my shoebox bedroom, nor the ability to just drag it to an easy viewing space, and the sheer thought of having to lug it around fills me with dread. I know that with a mount and a tripod etc a 102 refractor isn't exactly lightweight, but its more manageable for me because I can break the equipment down for both storage and travelling. 

One day, all being well, I will wind up with a better living arrangement and a good dob would definitely be on the "to buy" list. But not now. 

Understood. Practicality is vitally important.

On the subject of eyepieces, I use a Hyperflex 7.2 - 21.5mm zoom often combined with a Baader 2.25x Q-Turret barlow very often with my refractors. With a wider angle / low power eyepiece to compliment it, those 3 items are often all I use during a session.

The nearest I have to the spec of the refractor you are getting is my Vixen ED102SS which is F/6.5.  A very versatile instrument

19 minutes ago, LoveFromGallifrey said:

Och, now that is what I want to hear. I'm so glad you view it so highly; I've heard plenty about Altair, and the vast majority of it is good. But the opinions on the refractors tended to be geared towards imaging and when I was initially on Facebook etc asking for advice, the answer was almost always to ditch the idea of a "small" refractor because "you'll be disappointed" and to get a dob instead. But having been around dobs, I know for sure I don't want to be lugging one of those suckers around in my tiny little car, whereas a refractor like this on a decent tripod is very ideal. So I spoke to the Altair team themselves about my goals and they recommended this scope for me. Ofc, they know their stuff! But its always nice to hear someone else's positive opinions too. 

So yeah, I'm really glad you took the time to speak to me 😄

It depends what you want to look at.

If you have a really strong interest in the deep sky then the larger aperture that you can get with the dobsonian is the way to go IMHO.

If you favour planets, the moon and double stars with the chance of getting some "nice" views of the brighter deep sky objects then a refractor does the job really well.

I have 4 superb refractors from 100mm to 130mm in aperture and I love using them but I'll have to be honest and say that the vast majority of my "firsts" and "wows" have come when using 10 inch or 12 inch newtonians, usually on a dobsonian mount.

I'm risking the ire of the refractor lovers (of which I'm one !) of course but that's my honest opinion after 40 years of observing with instruments of many differing designs 

24 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Thanks for the comments.  I’m really looking forward to viewing some winter DSOs with scope. Orion was just peeping over the rooftops when I packed away - winter skies are on the way. 🙂

A good test will be the ease with which you can see the E & F stars in the Trapezium Group (Theta 1 Orionis) within Messier 42. Personally I've found that they can be really quite challenging in my 100mm / 102mm refractors but regularly visible in my ED120 and larger scopes.

It's a good old Autumn / Winter challenge

Tip: finding the "goldilocks" magnification seems to be important with these 

12 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Have noticed a couple of items in our own sales section advertised for practically "as new" prices. I suppose someone can charge what they want really.

Well they are free to ask what they like of course but prospective buyers are free not to buy as well. So the market will decide what is a "fair" price I think.

We have had this a few times (not particularly here but generally in the secondhand market) when a popular product goes out of production, the demand increases as the availability drops and the used prices rise for a while. Usually this is a temporary thing and prices settle back down after a while. This happened with the Baader Genuine Ortho eyepieces when production ceased rather suddenly a few years ago. Used prices popped up from around £50.00 to over £100.00 for a while but then settled back down again.

A few really high end products that are out of production still command prices that are more than their original retail cost eg: Zeiss ZAO orthos, Pentax XO eyepieces. TMB Supermonocentrics. In this case I think the market sustains such prices because these products were simply the best of their kind (and still are) and those who have the funds will pay what it takes to acquire them.

Vixen HR eyepieces might be the next in this category although the Takahashi TAO eyepieces are still readily available and of very similar quality.

Great report and a wonderful combination of telescope and mount Steve

I hope your injury continues to make some gradual improvement and I'm so pleased that the excellent Rowan AZ100 will enable you to continue to own and operate Andromeda 

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Snap, but no intention of parting with the 31mm T5

Dave

Same here

I have both the E21 and the N31 but use the E21 a lot more with my 12 inch dob.

The moon itself is fascinating.

Then there are the planets which are not affected by the moon being in the sky. Double stars likewise. Open and globular clusters and the brighter planetary nebulae. Lots to explore even when the moon is high and bright

2 hours ago, IB20 said:

What if I were to get a low cost and risk 10mm BCO, which would lend itself to being barlowed to 5mm presumably with increased eye relief? 

Thats a good plan but you need a good quality barlow to ensure that you don't introduce some unwanted aberrations.

I think that formation is the Montes Riphaeus:

https://the-moon.us/wiki/Montes_Riphaeus

59 minutes ago, RobertI said:

....What a versatile scope the 4” ED F7 refractor is. 🙂

Excellent report. Yes, they certainly are very versatile scopes

Managed to get a couple of Uranian moons but no Martians. Clouds starting to interfere now so I'll probably pack up soon.

Did manage to pick up Messier 33 - the Triangulum Galaxy and specifically NGC 604, the H II star forming region in that galaxy. Had some fun observing this fascinating patch of light at high power and trying UHC and O-III filters to see what difference they made. Not a lot tonight was my conclusion !

I'll try this again when the sky is darker. At 220x this immense nebula was nice and clear next to a magnitude 11 foreground star. Brighter surface magnitude than it's host galaxy I reckon.

Probably a good place to call it a night

40 minutes ago, johninderby said:

The latest Skymax still has the Schott glass. Nothing has changed other than the end to an agreement to use the Schott logo.

That's my understanding as well. Amazing the power that a sticker has !

26 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Unfortunately the Mars run was aborted as the seeing was terrible. Worst in ages. Good transparency for the CCD photometry, though 

Rather patchy seeing here as well.

Clear skies here again. Bright moon though and some thin hazy cloud about which is making the SN hard work even with the 12 inch dob tonight. I've glimpsed it a few times but can't seem to hold it in direct vision. Can't see the mag 14 stars near it either though. I guess it's probably still magnitude 13.5 or so.

Not a great night for faint DSO observing one way and another - NGC 514 is not playing at all, unsurprisingly.

16 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Yikes, that small eye lens is making me tired just thinking about looking through it! I hadn't thought about a zoom, are there mid-mag zoom lenses that might be more suited to my current scope? I've been out tonight and the viewing is nowhere near what it was yesterday so I've spent a large portion of my viewing time just swapping EPs and filters. 

I use the Nagler zoom a lot. It is not quite as good as a top notch ortho but pretty good the zoom function is very valuable for finding the "goldilocks" magnification for a target under the conditions that pertain.

Tele Vue do a 3mm-6mm version which is still available but of course has the Tele Vue type price tag

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tele-vue-eyepieces/tele-vue-3-6mm-nagler-50-degree-zoom-eyepiece.html

It's less expensive than buying 3 premium fixed focal length high power eyepieces though !

17 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Thanks John. I haven't ever used a really short eye relief EP, I don't think I'd get on with that short however and having just turned 40 and expect my eyesight will only be going in one direction! I hadn't looked at the Vixens, they do seem to get solid reviews and seem to tick all the boxes so maybe worth more of a thought. I have researched the Delites however and some of my thought process is about securing a real top end EP that will last me throughout the hobby. I do see myself at some point in the future buying a quality refractor too and I'm sure the TVs would work exceptionally well in one of these.

I think the very best planetary eyepieces that are around these days and obtainable are probably the Takahashi TOE's and the Vixen HR's. The latter are just coming to the end of their production unfortunately but the former are available at around £290 apiece:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-eyepieces/takahashi-toe-eyepieces.html

The Tele Vue DeLites are not far of the performance of these though, from what I've read.

The best planetary eyepiece that I have ever owned and used was the TMB Supermonocentric 5mm. I compared this over a number of weeks with a University Optics HD ortho 5mm (very similar to the Fujiyama / Baader Genuine / Ohi orthos that I've already mentioned) and I found that I could find slight improvements in the presentation of subtle features on Jupiter with the TMB Supermonocentric on the couple of nights when I had the very best seeing conditions. On the more ordinary nights I could not see any differences. The TMB Supermonocentric is considered one of the top tier planetary eyepieces. In the end though I decided that it's very small field of view (30 degrees), tiny eye lens and short eye relief made observing rather hard work. 

These days I'm happy with Pentax XW's and a Nagler 2-4mm zoom as my best planetary eyepieces

I would say that they seeing here is rather variable Baz. While Neptune took high magnifications as it often does, Mars did not respond so well and my best views so far have been at 227x with the Pentax XW 7mm eyepiece. There is quite a lot of Martian surface detail showing but the contrast of the darker features "comes and goes" all the time so you have to work quite hard at it. The Moon was nice here but I could not get good views much above 200x with the 12 inch dob, on this occasion.

It's so easy to question the equipment under UK skies but most often I'm sure it's the seeing.

Are you OK with short eye relief ?

If so abbe orthoscopics such as the Fujuyama HD orthos provide pretty fine planetary views. A 6mm and a 5mm would be good focal lenghts. The Ohi abbe orthos are almost certainly the same as the Fujiyama:

https://okularum.eu/Genuine-Abbe-Orthoscopic-Eyepiece-6mm

If you want longer eye relief then I found the Vixen SLV 6mm provided almost identical performance to the Baader Genuine Ortho / Fujiyama HD ortho:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217971-vixen-slv-eyepiece-report-6mm-12mm-and-20mm/

Or you can push the boat out further and think about the Tele Vue DeLite's which are gaining an excellent reputation as high power yet comfortable to use eyepieces.

Lots of choice around !

Neptune is close to the moon tonight and the lunar glare is affecting that part of the sky quite markedly.

Despite this I tracked down the distant gas giant relatively easily with my 12 inch dob and have had an enjoyable 30 minutes gradually racking up the magnification until it's brightest moon, Triton, was winking shyly in and out of visibility.

Neptune's tiny (2.34 arc seconds) disk seemed to hold up very well under high magnifications, eg: 400x or so. I also noticed that it looked a more intense blue tone than I've seen before.

I have noticed that the moons glow can intensify the colour tints of a planet that is close to it (in line of sight terms). A few years ago Uranus was very close to the lunar limb and I had a similar effect at that time.

I wonder what causes this effect ?

If it stays clear (which looks a little doubtful to be honest) I'll have a look at Mars plus the supernova in NGC 514 a little later and possibly Uranus as well. Having had a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn and their moons earlier I might be able to have a 6 planet / 13 moon night (including the Earth and our moon of course)

If I spot Deimos (unlikely with this moon) then 14 moons !

Voyager 2 image of Neptune and Triton from 1989:

Hi and welcome to the forum.

The ring effect is caused by the illumination of the mountains that surround the Sinus Iridium or the Bay of Rainbows.

Under this light it resembles a curved "handle" sticking out of the side of the illuminated part of the moon. Sometimes called the "golden handle" or "Jeweled Scimitar" effect.

Happy birthday David !

I agree with you on the contrast of the features on Mars being rather low last night. I was observing with my Vixen ED102 and Tak FC100 and to start with thought that the Vixen was not doing too well but the contrast was low with the Tak as well. There was detail to be seen but it had to be worked at. Maybe there is some dust in the Martian atmosphere ?

I'm sure that the s polar cap has increased a little in extent since opposition.

Nice sketch by the way. You have the pale pink colour of the lighter areas spot on as the visual observer sees them

It's a tough planet to observe, even with decent altitude and a favourable opposition.