John

AR12770 has a nice little spot associated with it. Interesting shaped umbra at the moment enclosed in a well defined penumbra and worth a look if you fancy it

The other two AR's listed currently (12769 and 12768) don't seem to have spots visible just now. Some extensive faculae complexes in white light though.

I'm using a 90mm F/11 achromat refractor and the Lunt Herschel Wedge today 

28 minutes ago, IB20 said:

 Would you say the margins in performance are worth the increase in price through a cheaper scope....

This is probably a question better answered by someone who has recently changed from BST Starguiders to Tele Vue or comparable quality ones

Nice choice. I've been using a 90mm F/11 achromat with my HW lately and it's a nice combination

19 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

A line up of the usual suspects! 🤣

Gosh - you can get all those for a bit less the cost of just one Tele Vue Delos 

It's great that good quality eyepieces at an affordable price are available 

Dark adapted eyes are not helpful for picking out subtle planetary detail IMHO. I've had my best views of Jupiter when there has been quite a lot of light still left in the sky. As the sky darkened, the subtle detail becomes harder to pick out.

I believe some experienced planetary observers deliberately stare at a large white card illuminated with a flashlight immediately before observing. 

Must be fun at a star party if your neighbour is trying for faint deep sky stuff

The motorization option for the AZ100 is moving along nicely

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/708353-rowan-astronomy-az100-arrived/?p=10393748

12 minutes ago, Alkaid said:

So true John, yes.  All aberrations drop of with focal ratio...I’d like to try one of those F15 fracs (think johninderby bought a 90mm one recently, looking forward to his report on that one.)

I saw quite a bit of SA in the 150 F/8's that I had. When I corrected it using a device called a chromacor the effect was quite startling.

7 minutes ago, omo said:

I had an 8mm Orion branded version, guess i was lucky that i paid the same price as the other 3 BST's at the time 

Another example of expensive printing here:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4931_TS-Optics-1-25--ED-Eyepiece-12mm---60--Flat-Field---high-contrast.html

As well as CA, a lot of these achromats have SA - spherical aberration. That is what gets in the way of their performance at high powers IMHO.

18 minutes ago, Louis D said:

My concern would be, will the Nirvana 7mm be any sharper on axis than the BST Starguider 8mm that disappointed you?  Has anyone done a comparison between these two?

I've used them both but not at the same time !

On axis I doubt there was much, if any, difference. Most eyepieces today are pretty good on axis.

If they had "Barsta" printed on them but were a tenner less expensive they would be even more popular

(Barsta make them)

I've seen them with "Orion" printed on them for £70 apiece.

Expensive printing !

3 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I must be the metal tubes causing the issues.  My Dob's tube is Sonotube and has no such issues.  It also has no dewing issues, either.  It also never gets cold to the touch in winter.

Mine is aluminum. No problems once I had used better double sided tape.

My 130mm refractor tube is Kruppax 50 - it simply does not dew up in any weather.

Hi and welcome to the forum !

The Meade Starfinder is an old model and long out of production.

Take your time and ask lots of questions before coming to a decision on what to buy

In turn we will ask questions about where you think your interests might lie to help nail down some suitable options. Each scope type has it's strengths and weaknesses of course !

3 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

...Beware: those little blue Tak boxes are very beguiling and before long you might have several 🙂

 

Indeed they are - I seem to have two of them but no Tak LE eyepieces !

Now where did they come from ?????

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

ADC isn't mentioned. Paul does have one though. Used for these drawings of Saturn and Jupiter. 

To review all of Paul's drawings, go to his BAA Member page here. They are amazing!

Thanks for that Jeremy. Of course Mars is that bit higher in the sky

6 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

There is a love drawing of Mars made this morning by Paul Abel with a 12-inch Newtonian on the BAA website.

No filter used either, or ADC, presumably

Note to self: Give the 12 inch dob a chance as well

I've only owned / used one Tak LE and that was the 30mm.

Hope you enjoy the 5mm

Nice report Stephan

These lowish cost zooms can be rather good !

My 7.2-21.5mm zoom plus the Baader 2.25x barlow lens is more often than not my first choice with my refractors and often the only things I use. I've a case full of Tele Vue and Pentax eyepieces doing very little just now

I've tried all sorts of filters on the planets (including Mars) but for me, I have always preferred the filterless views

I even splashed out quite a bit on a Tele Vue Planetary filter a few years back which seemed to get rave reviews from a couple of well known observers but that didn't do anything for me either. I notice that TV dropped their planetary filters after a couple of years. They used to do a general Planetary filter plus a couple specifically for Mars.

Perhaps people found much less expensive coloured filters at least as good ?

This opposition I have a couple of what I believe to be the best planetary scopes in their apertures available so I'll have some fun, filtered or unfiltered 

1 hour ago, azrabella said:

.... It surely must yield a somewhat brighter image than barlowing the 16mm as presumably less glass in the optical path?

Probably won't be noticeable. Modern glass and coatings reduce lost light from additional elements to very small levels which would not be noticeable visually.

Light scatter might be slightly increased though.

If the 7mm Nirvana does not give good sharp images of double stars at 171x with your 150mm F/8 scope, I would be suspecting the collimation or conditions rather than the eyepiece.

The Nirvana is close to Tele Vue Nagler in optical quality.

If you are resolving equal brightness pairs down to a 1 arc second split with a 9mm eyepiece you are already doing very well indeed. Getting better than that, a whole lot of things need to come together in my experience.

8 minutes ago, johnturley said:

I suspect that there some dust storm activity at the moment, although not a blanket covering (at least not at present) as happens some years, as I'm finding that the dark markings are not standing out as clear as usual, but the south polar cap is quite clear.

John 

Why is it that dust storms seem to coincide with favourable oppositions I wonder

Great that others are getting these lovely views as well

I'm too shattered to wait up for Mars though. I'd forgotten how much effort is involved in moving house, or even helping someone else move house

4 minutes ago, Pain in the Neck said:

I was just telling all the experts on ‘the Anybody Playing Tonight’ thread about first light with my brand new toy. For the first time in my life I have seen Jupiter (with moons if I’m not mistaken) and Saturn with its rings with my own eyes. I am well pleased with my new hobby already. Looking forward to many happy hours.

Yes, the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter are showing nicely tonight and I've spotted 5 of Saturn's moons as well.

Congratulations on your first views of Jupiter and Saturn. You will remember them for a long, long time

Without a diagonal mirror or prism between the scope and the eyepiece the image will appear upside down and left - right reversed.