John

Good idea !

Finding the lowest magnification that they can be split with in a given aperture is a good challenge for the observer, the seeing conditions and the scope optics

43 minutes ago, steerroger said:

Thanks everyone!  The Baader 1mm optical length might solve the problem that I mentioned on another thread.

Just bear in mind that you need a cutaway in the focuser drawtube to accommodate the set screw of that adapter.

My favourite sight with my 102mm F/6.5 ED refractor is the whole of the Veil Nebula. You need around 3.5 degrees of true field to fit that in. 

I've owned 2 Radians, the 4mm and the 3mm. I liked the 3mm but I could not get on with the 4mm oddly enough 

I tried two 4mm's and felt the same about both

I'd definitely like to try some of the DeLites. They get excellent reviews

It's a really great set but ......

I would go for a 21mm Ethos instead of the 27mm Panoptic and I would want something shorter for good seeing conditions so why not the 3.7 Ethos as well.

Might as well make it all Ethos

(well you did ask !)

Baader adapters are very good quality:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-clicklock-2-125-adapter-2956214.html

Saxon kit is usually the same as Skywatcher. They are another brand that is owned by Synta who make Skywatcher stuff.

The Saxon branding tends to be used more in the southern hemisphere.

Lovely - I assume you mean 4mm for the DeLite though ?

35 minutes ago, Macavity said:

I cut my teeth on  the "dreaded" 30x30 (GreenKat-style) Refractor... 🙀
I still keep and "love" it in some ways. 🙄 Taught me a lot, despite?



(I hope) I do e.g. "get" the "Pink Stinks" thing - And I empathise...
But some folks come into hobbies in the most non-obvious ways?
Had someone bought ME a [pink] scope as a kid? Not my parents.
I hasten to add, they were not "Meanies"...  I bought the Greenkat! 🤡

 

My brother was given one of those and a copy of "The Observers Book of Astronomy" when he was about 10. He didn't show any interest so I nicked both the book and the scope from him (or possibly traded them for an Airfix model kit) and they and a pair of 8x30 Prinz (Dixons) binoculars got me started observing

9 minutes ago, Solar B said:

 

....it's ok John I think we all know this thread is just a bit of fun 😀

Brian 

I hope so Brian - that was how it was intended of course

I'll have to pop out and check what colour my fishing rods are now  - I haven't used them for ages !

Well done Neil

I'm glad you like your Aero ED 30. I use mine mostly with my refractors in which it works pretty well. The Aero ED's are quite light for 2 inch eyepieces so it does not cause the balance issues with the longer tubed scopes that my heavier low power eyepieces would.

The colour of the scope was only small one part of the package of the scope that I linked to. The specification of the scope, the mount and it's price all added up to what I felt was a poor deal for the budding astronomer. If the price had been £25 then I would not have thought to mention it.

I suspect that I've no chance of redeeming this thread though so fair enough. Apologies to those who I might have inadvertetly offended.

As the saying goes, "the first thing to do when you are in a hole is to stop digging" 

9 hours ago, LollipopNeb said:

To me they don't really show as blobs, they rather show as very sharp pinpoint white dots throughout the sky. I will try knuckle through and hope for a good "first light" soon 😛

The pinpoints are stars.

DSO's do tend to look like small fuzzy patches of light at low magnifications. The Andromeda Galaxy will look like a oval patch of fuzzy light about twice the size of the full moon - and that's just the core of the galaxy, which is what we mostly get to see.

Except open clusters which, as they suggest, look like a group of stars close together.

The brighter and larger DSO's will be visible in an optical finder.

Depending on your sky darkness, the Andromeda Galaxy can be seen with the naked eye.

Isn't this thread about quality standards of equipment rather than a discussion of forums

Back in the 1980's forums did not exist so rumours of a drop in quality took a long time to percolate though the astro community. Also many who bought scopes had little or no experience of them so simply did not realise that their optics were not as good as they might be.

With forums such as SGL and Cloudynights I think the astro consumer is much better informed and information circulates really fast. I don't think a manufacturer would risk dropping their standards today. They would never recover their reputation.

Maybe 300x if its a decent one.

The 9mm and 25mm are a good starting point. You will want to add further eyepieces in due course. There are so many eyepiece choices that you may become more overwhelmed if we start to go into all those. The 25mm and 9mm will get you started.

Lovely moon this evening.

I'm enjoying finding crater chains, some of which are also known as catena's.

When you start looking for these there seem to be lots to be seen. Notable ones this evening have included Catena Davy which bisects the crater of the same name. This one needs high magnifications and steady seeing to pick out the delicate line of craters between 3km and 1km in diameter.

Slightly easier to see is Catena Muller, a chain of 5 craters close to the crater Muller. Another chain is in Deslandres and seems to be unamed but starts a the small crater known as Hell H.

Some debate still over the formation of these features. Multiple impacts or volcanic or maybe a mixture of causes ?. Catena Davy seems to be a candidate for multiple impact but the Deslandres chain's origins are not so clear perhaps ?

Interesting features to observe anyway

I'm using my Tak 100 refractor at 200x - 300x to observe these. Not my images I ought to say.

56 minutes ago, LollipopNeb said:

It is just a white small dot, I can see many many of them, but no discerning detail of any that I've found up to yet. 

That's fine. You cannot see stars as more than a point of light no matter how much magnification you use.

I was just checking to see that your scope is focused properly. Stars as points of light means that it is.

Just a quick question - what does a star look like when you view it with your scope ?

Your scope is ideal for observing DSO's.

You do need to be able to point the scope precisely to the part of the sky that the DSO is located so your finder scope needs to be accurately aligned with the view though the main scope.

For finding and observing DSO's your lowest magnification eyepiece, the 25mm, is the one to use to start with.

Most DSO's do just look like faint misty patches or blobs though, especially in the Summer months when the sky does not get very dark.

A good book to get started is "Turn Left at Orion".

33 minutes ago, Liquidtravel said:

So do you feel that the 9mm is a good first option outside of the 25mm that comes with the kit?

These are often the focal lengths of eyepieces that are supplied with scopes by manufacturers so they make a decent "get you started" kit. You will almost certainly want to add a couple more to them in due course.

18 minutes ago, paulastro said:

I dont think anyone has reason to be so smug just because they might think their  own telescopes are the cats whiskers.... 

 

That was not really the point I was making Paul

The extent to which eye relief is altered depends on the focal length of the barlow lens I believe - the shorter the barlow FL, the more eye relief is pushed out. It's not easy to find that specification for barlows though. The actual positional change also depends on the focal length of the eyepiece as well I think.