John

Most of us are happy with scopes that come from the far east, Europe, Russia, the UK and the US Mike.

Restricting it to just USA made ones will reduce the options and probably the suggestions hugely.

We are a worldwide forum

There are so many eyepieces around I think this would be more or less impossible to compile and keep up to date.

Don Pensack's annually updated eyepiece specs list has over 1000 eyepieces on it and those are just the ones in current production:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/700069-2020-eyepieces-buyers-guide/

That list does not specify the position of the focal plane within each eyepiece. Some brands (eg: Tele Vue) are very specific about this, many are somewhat vaguer.

Dimmer but still a nice looking comet here tonight.

Anyone else seeing a slight greenish tint to the nucleus and tail emissions immediately around it ?

Skywatcher ED150 - oh dear !!!

They have since improved the packaging a great deal thank goodness !

Just now, steveex2003 said:

I aspire to a position of disgruntled Tak cardboard box ownership 😉

The ones that the scopes come in are rather good - all 3 of them

4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

A very nice, used Tak MEF 3 microfocuser for my FS128 arrived today..

..it should help getting the best possible high power fine focus on Mars later this year and allow me to dispense with the (excellent) Baader Helical fine focuser I currently use, and thus give me more in focus for use with my binoviewers (I can already use some eyepieces natively with no Barlow, but this will give me a fair bit more to play with).

Just got to find English fitting instructions now! (I'm sure I've seen them on the net in the past..).

Am well chuffed😊👍

Dave

Ahh - it was you Dave !

I wondered who snagged that one

I'll be very interested to hear how you get on with it

3 hours ago, Dantooine said:

... mars up around MDT now. Prepaid to be underwhelmed 😎

It looked good a few nights back. Plenty of dark features and a nicely defined south polar cap. That was with my ED120 refractor. If the dust storms hold off (on Mars) I think it's going to be an excellent opposition

5 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Great thread ... so tonight i am going to try and hook up my 127 mak with my camera . Love seeing photos like those above . Don't know how you guys see it but i would rather look at "real" stuff  like  that  than glossy images in a magazine . 

These planets look even better through the eyepiece. Both were razor sharp last night through my 130mm refractor.

That's very interesting - thanks for posting those pics

Did you find that you managed to keep dust out of the optics when it was all back together again ?

I did a similar job on another zoom a couple of years ago (not a Baader) and found that no matter how clean I though I was keeping the optics, there was still some dust visible when the zoom was at certain focal lengths

It's in a drawer somewhere - I rather lost patience with it.

Nice image !

You seem to have captured that slightly green tint that the comet seems to have acquired lately. My images showed something similar and one or two observers have commented on it as well over the past couple of nights.

12 hours ago, F15Rules said:

(In best Dragon's Den voice):

"I wish you all well, but this isn't my thing.

I'm out".

🥴😊

Dave

I feel the same Dave.

Good luck to those trying these things out though - it's interesting reading about their experiences.

Here is the APM 24 UFF from APM in Germany:

https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/binoculars/binocular-eyepieces/apm-ultra-flat-field-24mm-eyepiece-65-fov.html

A lower cost but still good alternative to the above and the ES 24 / 68 is the Maxvision 24mm 68. Out of production now but they do turn up pre-owned and for around £50 are a bargain.

I use a 24mm Panoptic myself and it's excellent but very pricey.

Nice report

You may be doing even better than you think around M57 - I think that star near it is mag 13:

Does the nose piece of the Omni 2x not unscrew then ?

I thought it did.

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

The Berlebach website is a great place to get lost in for an hour or so. I'm sure that after a few minutes I can't smell all that lovely wood!  🙂

They have so much paraphernalia - much of it is a mystery to me, e.g.:

 

Spare part for a Dalek perhaps ?

The Celestron Omni 2x barlow might be made by GSO as well. It certainly looks very much like a GSO product, except for the colour scheme.

48 minutes ago, crazzy88ss said:

Is there an advantage to using 2" eyepieces over 1.25"?

Only in the width of the field of view. The 1.25" barrel size restricts the maximum size of the field of view with longer focal length eyepieces so going to the 2 inch format is needed when eyepieces get to around 20mm in focal length AND the designer wants a large field of view.

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

For a bit of a reference my TSA120 will go 375x mag + under Pickering 8 and the 15" over 700x. The TSA 120 goes much more but I'm limited by my lowest focal length EP, 2.4mm....

 

A couple of the finest scopes of their aperture made under probably some of the best observing conditions that any member of this forum has

It is worth knowing what is possible when it all comes together though

I think the reflective coatings get a bit less reflective each year as well. Maybe a few % loss per annum ?

I was 9 years old when it all happened and remember it well.

Watching these missions unfold at that age is probably one of the main reasons that I'm into astronomy now and have been actively since I was 11 or so.

We set up an "information desk" at my school and had Airfix models of the LEM and Saturn V rocket plus the latest magazine and newspaper articles. We all thought we were James Burke I think

I can remember going outside and looking up at the moon when Neil and Buzz were up there and thinking "my gosh there are people actually there right now"

I've been lucky enough to visit the Kennedy Space Centre a few times over the years (including February this year) and never seem to tire of the exhibits and experiences there. Just being at the place where these missions launched is a thrill even though it was 50 years ago.

This was Pad 39a at KSC on 25th February this year, all prepped for the Falcon manned launch that took place in May:

4 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Very impressive haul there John! A real productive session!

were Uranus & Neptune easy to spot?

The sky is beautiful this morning here, crystal clear and blue. Typical I didn't get out viewing this morning as I have work today. 😕

Baz

Thanks Barry.

Uranus and Neptune are easy enough in binoculars. They look like stars but as long as you know which "star" is the planet, you have seen them

Uranus shows a small disk from around 50x upwards in a scope. Neptune needs around 100x and upwards. With your 12 inch you might be able to spot Triton, Neptune's brightest moon at very high magnifications and, in theory, 4 of Uranus's moons are also visible in medium to large scopes.

I got Comet Neowise, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Mars and Uranus, plus the Earth (of course) and 5 of Saturn's moons, 4 Jovian Galilean moons and finally Venus just peeking over the horizon but that's it for me tonight. The Moon and Mercury will have to wait !

Saturn and Jupiter looked very good earlier with my 130mm triplet refractor. Mars was binocular / naked eye viewed this time but it looks nice and high in the sky which bodes well for future observing as it's opposition looms.

2 hours ago, John said:

Hoping to have another look tonight. It's nice and clear, if a little breezy.

"Heavens Above" have the comet at magnitude 3.3 right now so it will be interesting to see if it is noticably dimmer.

 

Photobombed by a satellite !

Hoping to have another look tonight. It's nice and clear, if a little breezy.

"Heavens Above" have the comet at magnitude 3.3 right now so it will be interesting to see if it is noticably dimmer.

2 minutes ago, Richard Wesson said:

Hi John, I can imagine the high ground surrounding may have those issues yes. I meant a very slight rise just by the car parking down from the observatory at the and of a no through road which looks good. The next thing to look at is some kind of trolley to aid lugging scope, mount and associated kit. Have been thinking about various ideas such sack trucks, golf carts etc.. All need some degree of modification, but that is part of the fun.. 

What scope do you have ?