John

What scope will this be used in Jon ?

The Erfle design is not generally known for being sharp right across the field in faster focal ratios, regardless of what the adverts say.

There is the OVL 27mm flat field but again it's not too well corrected in fast scopes. Decent in F/10 ones though:

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/skywatcher-extraflat-27mm-eyepiece-1.25.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrY-mtIfG7AIVFu3tCh12_wnPEAQYAiABEgJRUfD_BwE

Saxon is a brand name that you seem to come across more in the southern hemisphere:

https://www.saxon.com.au/telescopes.html

Their products certainly look mostly like Synta products.

8 minutes ago, johninderby said:

I have used a TS version of the Hyperflex zoom for a while and find it to be a very good zoom.

Have been testing the new Svbony 10-30 zoom and really impressed by how comfortable it is to use. Great views and just easy to look through..Just realised I haven’t used the TS zoom since getting the new zoom. 🤔

There you go OP - a nicely kept Hyperflex zoom might be available shortly

How does the AFoV across the range compare John ?

Another fan of the 7.2 - 21.5mm zoom here. I use mine a lot and often with a Baader 2.25x barlow to give a high power 9.5mm - 3.2mm zoom which is very useful in my scopes but perhaps not so much in a mak-cassegrain 180 ?

The longer 90mm Bressers use a slightly different objective cell design though:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/291186-new-bresser-90mm-f133-unboxing-and-initial-thoughts/

Would the AR90 use the same ?

I still think it is likely that the objective will be tilted with the cell having been knocked like that.

With the 127L's the objective cell was metal but the counter cell was plastic as I recall. Same as the Meade AR5's.

13 hours ago, pjsmith_6198 said:

This is the time for trying to find Mars Moons.   I think Phobos  is too close to Mars to see but Deimos is further away,  maybe about 2 Mars diameters away.   It's a bit faint at about 11.8 magnitude.   I've tried a few times but I haven't been able to see it.   It was in a position where it was trailing Mars and I was hoping as Mars left the field of view I would have have a couple of seconds without the glare to be able to see it before it to leaves the FOV.    Maybe with a little better seeing I'll have better luck.

 

Phil

I have also tried a few times to see Phobos and Deimos with my 12 inch scope. No luck as yet for me. I agree that Deimos is likely to be easier than Phobos despite being dimmer.

The effectiveness of these filters is influenced quite a lot by the diameter of the exit pupil that the scope / eyepiece combination generates so eyepiece choice is quite important.

Looks like the objective cell has been knocked so that it's no longer properly aligned with the tube. This may well have tilted the objective as well.

If you have a cheshire eyepiece you can check this. If not then a star test will show it as non-concentric diffraction rings around a star (Polaris is a good one) either side of sharp focus.

You could try unscrewing the objective cell / dew shield assembly from the top of the scope tube then screwing it carefully back on so that it is square with the top of the tube.

Awful way to deliver a scope

When I was starting out I had a much less capable scope than yours - a 60mm refractor. Even with that I was able to find and observe a number of deep sky objects including the Orion Nebula, the lovely double cluster in Perseus, the great globular cluster in Hercules Messier 13, The Andromeda Galaxy (well it's core anyway). The first galaxies I managed to find with that scope were Messier 81 and 82 in Ursa Major. These are close together in the sky and with a low power eyepiece (the 25mm again in your case) you should be able to see both of them side by side in the view. 

So your scope can see lots of these objects but the trick is, as you have probably realised by now, is finding these targets in the sky and for a non-GOTO equipped scope this where star hopping comes into play. I provided a star hopping chart earlier for the Andromeda Galaxy. Here is one for the Messier 81 & 81 pair of galaxies. Do make sure that your finder scope is accurately aligned with your main scope - that is important for star hopping to be successful:

There is a good book called "Turn Left at Orion" that shows you how to find lots of objects with a small scope. Worth getting if you can find it.

1 hour ago, markse68 said:

... do all uhc’s do the red/blue shift thing with bright objects...

 

I've noticed this effect with stars when using a number of brands of UHC and O-III filters. It seems less obvious with Astronomik filters to me.

More from the same author !:

https://binocularsky.com/binoc_choosing.php

The porro prism design seems to have the edge for astronomical use.

My most used binoculars for astronomy are a 8x56 porro prism design branded Opticron.

The Celestron O-III is the same item as the Baader O-III. Both have very narrow band pass widths. Too narrow for my taste even with the 12 inch dob.

The band widths of the various brands are important and will impact the experience that the observer has.

There are not a lot of choices that give really effective band pass widths IMHO.

41 minutes ago, callisto said:

Its amazing to think how bright and far away this is 😮

 

Mark

When I'm observing supernovae it does occasionally cross my mind that while I'm having a good time finding and observing these immense and cataclysmic events, when they actually happened, if any nearby worlds were inhabited, those lifeforms were having a decidedly bad time

There is an e.bay vendor who claims to have 3 in stock but I've no idea if they really have

I think the above advice to try and find a low cost pair to try out is excellent

I've tried binoviewers out a few times over the years in refractors and my dobsonian and have found that they are not for me.

Others do find them very good I know so you need to find out if they are good for you 

Hello,

Your English seems good to me and welcome to the forum 😀

Messier 31 / The Andromeda Galaxy is a large object so you want to use your lowest power eyepiece. That is the 25mm. Don't use the barlow lens.

This is how to find the Andromeda Galaxy:

The constellation marked 1 is Cassiopeia and the one marked 2 is Pegasus. You can "star hop" to the galaxy from either of those.

If any of the light falls onto the windows of your bedrooms, especially childrens bedrooms, you have a stronger case to get some action I've found. We had a similar issue here where the light shone directly onto my daughters bedroom window. After I took it up with the owner, copied to my local councilor and my local authority, the light was shielded so that none of it fell onto our property.

Any more visual sightings ?

No chance here due to

3 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Thanks Tony for the image especially the cropped version. To me it looks if the SN has become slightly brighter.

Martin Mobberley imaged it 3 days ago, which was when I observed it, and he reckoned magnitude 13.8. Currently it's the joint brightest on the Rochester list:

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html#2020uxz

"I'd  probably never need to buy another 4" frac ever again"

That leaves plenty of wriggle room - while the 4 inch niche would be filled, there is then the 3 inch, 5 inch and 6 inch lifetime scope niches to plan for

(Tak have great options in all those niches )

I was going to buy one really great refractor in 2016 and I ended up buying two !

Excellent report and sketches Victor. I observe the Veil under bortle 5 skies and it is amazing how much a 102mm aperture can pick out once it is armed with a good O-III filter.

There is another section of the nebula called Pickering's Triangle which though a little fainter, should also be visible with this sort of setup. It lies between the east and west segments:

12 minutes ago, Puffafish said:

Indeed they do a 7 and 4mm version, but the 4 is apparently on 40 day lead time, which does seem to be quite a common thing at the moment. Has something happened to lens supply?

This post from First Light Optics might explain:

This situation is facing all suppliers of astro equipment.

I believe the Revelation plossls are made by GSO. They are well priced and decent eyepieces. The couple of Celestron Omni plossl eyepieces that I've owned also seemed very much like the Revelation / GSO ones, apart from the anodised grey/silver body colour.

The Baader 32mm plossl is very different in look and feel. Not a GSO product I think. The field of view of the Baader is noticeably smaller than the other two plossls that you have listed.

I would add another to your list if you can get one within budget and that is the Vixen NPL 30mm. Not quite a 32mm but a nice low power eyepiece.

On 10/10/2020 at 10:20, Nik271 said:

Congratulations, John! It's amazing to see such small objects so far away. Sadly they are beyond the ability of my scope in light polluted skies....

 

You should be able to see Triton at Neptune with your 180. I've managed that with my 130mm refractor.

The Revelation dobsonians are made by GSO in the far east. This is the closest to a manual that they have:

https://nimax-img.de/Produktdownloads/23750_1_Anleitung_EN.pdf

It's not a lot of use but often that is the case I'm afraid.

Feel free to ask any questions you have on the scope here - the forum is a mine of information