John

I agreed a strict 4 scope limit with my wife a few years back. I've currently got 8 .............. But several of them are "projects" which I'm tinkering with and will sell them on real soon of course (Stock Astronomers Excuse #27)

Closer inspection of AR12768 reveals a split umbra but little or no penumbra.

Two active regions on the solar disk at the moment and both have produced sunspots. AR12767 has a nice spot associated with it showing a well defined penumbra and a reasonably complex umbra structure. AR12768 has a small dark spot but rather nice faculae complex nearby, towards the solar limb. Well worth a look I'm using a 90mm F/11 achromat refractor today with a Lunt 1.25" Herschel Wedge and a 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom eyepiece fitted with a single polarising filter. Views are clear and stable up to around 100x-120x. Here is a solarmonitor.org white light image from this morning:

Yes. As @garryblueboy says above though, the Panoptics are fine eyepieces. You do need to draw a line somewhere especially as this is supposed to be a "minimalist" set. Otherwise we would all have full sets of Ethos, a Docter 12.5mm, A couple of Nikon NAV HW's, a set of Delos, a set of Zeiss ZAO II's and a Leica ASPH zoom and VIP barlow so we have every situation covered to the highest possible standard Actually I think one or two members might have already reached that point ........ My "minimalist set" is a zoom, a barlow and a 25mm 58 degree fixed focal length. Total cost around £100 I suspect

Sounds like a job for the 12 inch dob tonight Thanks Jeremy

Last night I managed to split both pairs of Epsilon Lyrae with a 90mm F/11 refractor (cheapie !) at 74x. I was using a 7.2- 21.5mm zoom and gradually adjusting until I could just see the thin black gap between the star pairs. I got Pi Aquilie with the scope as well but that needed 180x ! I use these guidelines when I'm working out whether I've got a split or not although I sometimes also throw in the terms "snowman" and "peanut" because that's what not-quite split sometimes looks like ! The above pairs were clearly "split" to me last night (and a few others too):

I like the arrangement that Baader use in the 1.25 - T2 click lock adapter: The 3 grip bars that run along the eyepiece barrel seem to be immune from getting snagged on undercuts and also hold barrels with a taper on them well too. I wonder why they don't use this system in their 2 inch adapters as well ? Perhaps it would be too bulky to implement in the larger diameter

I still think there is a niche for a decently made alt-azimuth mount that sits somewhere between the Skytee II / Giro Ercole and the £1K + mounts in capacity and cost. The Bray Tablet used to sit around there as did the Giro XXL but those are long gone now. I did wonder if the AZ100 might be it but that has ended up in the £1K plus bracket once you have a tripod, clamp, counterweight bar and weight. A wonderfully made mount and I can see why it is priced as it is. But there is still a yawning gap to be filled IMHO.

Yes, very.

I find that my Tak 100 is just getting into its stride at 200x and sails up to 300x fairly easily on the right targets. I was using 450x on the Moon with this scope last night when observing crater chains. Most of the time it was less than this but the "crazy" magnification was surprisingly sharp though it does get a bit dim. My Vixen ED102 F/6.5 starts to run out of puff at about 200x - 250x though so I guess the figuring and polish of the Tak is a bit better

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

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 ?

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

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"

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