John

Those observing chairs look really excellent 👍

I prefer to stand while observing though. Odd probably but there you go 🙄

17 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Indeed. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to have collimation spot on. Near enough isn't good enough. Even a smidgen out will blur detail.

Agreed and your guide is great 👍.

Slight Mis-collimation has even more impact with SCT's I believe.

11 minutes ago, Voxish said:

Absolutely. People spend too little time at the eyepiece observing specific targets and dash between them too much.....

Thats the challenge with outreach type events - inexperienced eyes getting quick glimpses. Even with the "showpiece" targets, with the exception of the moon perhaps, I suspect participants can be a little underwhelmed at times. Most are too polite to say so though 🙄

On 24/07/2023 at 11:44, John said:

I get rid of eyepieces quite quickly if they are not getting much use. I have become more ruthless over the past few years on this 😈

Currently I seem to have 3 "sets" of eyepieces:

Very wide fields (all Tele Vue)

Nagler 31mm, Ethos 21mm, Ethos 13mm, Ethos 8mm, Ethos 6mm, Ethos SX 4.7mm

Wide / normal fields 1.25 inch fitting:

Tele Vue Panoptic 24mm, Tele Vue Delos 14mm, Baader Mk IV 8-24mm zoom, Pentax XW 7mm, 5mm and 3.5mm, Tele Vue Nagler 2-4mm zoom

Travel / Outreach:

Maxvision 20mm 68 degrees, Hyperflex 7.2mm-21.5mm zoom, Baader Q-Turret 2.25x barlow

So currently that is 15 eyepieces plus the barlow to address the original question.

 

Since posting this I have bought 6 eyepieces and sold 6 so the number overall has not changed. The bank balance might have though 🙄

I found the performance of the Radians that I owned varied slightly. The 2nd series 3mm was the best. I had a 1st series 3mm before it which was quite nice but the 2nd series one showed a brighter image and less light scatter - it seemed to have more effective coatings. The 4mm (a 2nd series) was good but it did show a faint halo of light extending out from the lunar limb, which was a little distracting. I didn't notice this halo when using the 3mm in the same circumstances.

Spending time observing a single target really does pay dividends even if you are an experienced observer. With Jupiter, observing it where there is still some light in the sky helps as well. I've had some of my best views of Jupiter in quite bright twilight conditions. Dark adaptation does not help with planetary observing.

Because the seeing conditions vary all the time (often minute by minute) spending time observing allows the eye to adjust to the brightness / contrast levels and the extended viewing allows these moments of really good seeing to register. 

I've been observing Jupiter for 50 years but still often get a session where all I see at the outset is the cream disk and the two major cloud belts. 30-45 minutes later, seeing conditions allowing, and I'm seeing much more detail, more cloud belts, the GRS if it is on the disk and other features as well.

10 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

....in general use, why would one want Radian over a Delite?

I believe the Delites are better performers overall but, if the eyepiece case is already full of Radians .......

4 hours ago, Voxish said:

I must research before I post, I must research before I post, I must research before I post, I must research before I post…..

On the other hand, if you want a Radian, you want a Radian 🙂

When I had a set of TV plossls (well, all but the 55mm 2 inch one) I added a Nagler 6mm - 3mm zoom to them to get a wider range of higher powers. I figured that the AFoV would match, the zoom is par-focal with the plossls, the additional eye relief would be welcome at higher powers and the optical performance would be very similar. That set did quite well for me for a while.

I've only owned the 3mm and 4mm Radians and found them pretty good. 

I only have two 6mm eyepieces now - the aforementioned Svbony zoom and the Ethos 6mm which is superb but also eye wateringly expensive these days, which is I don't usually recommend it. 

With my scopes, currently and looking back over the years, falling mostly into the focal length range from 650mm to 1200mm, a 6mm eyepiece is a very valuable tool. I have tended to think of it as the first step into the high magnification zone. Of course, if SCT's and mak-cassegrains had dominated my scope choices then 6mm might have been the last step in that zone and only used under particularly favourable conditions.

7 minutes ago, Voxish said:

With your Vixen? 

Mostly with my Tak FC100 or Skywatcher ED120. Both 900mm focal length so 6mm gives a very useful 150x.

The Vixen is due a run out soon though 🙂

I have been using the 6mm spot on the Svbony 3-8mm zoom a lot recently, especially when observing Jupiter. It works very nicely. The AFoV is 56 degrees and the eye relief 10mm (a bit less actually useable). Not great for glasses wearers but quite comfy for others.

I can think of quite a few. The Vixen SLV 6mm is excellent for example, if that is the sort of spec that you are interested in.

When I've had a 2 finder setup I've tried to postion the finders so that I can move my eye as easily as possible from the illuminated reticule finder (Rigel in my case) to the optical finder and then to the eyepiece with minimal movement. 

The additional room on the tube of a 12 inch (Orion Optics in this case) helps.

On Jupiter, it is interesting to note how dark the NEB and SEB are currently and also how the tone of the SEB is noticeably paler to the E of the Great Red Spot and it's hollow than it is immediately to the W of the GRS.

Continuing clear skies here. Fine views of Jupiter. Great Red Spot now on the disk and showing quite well 🙂

31 minutes ago, Voxish said:

Seeing is shocking however 

It's quite good here. 180x / 225x working well at showing Jupiter's features. That is more than I usually find useful on the giant planet with a 100mm scope.

The Triesnecker rille network (close to the crater of the same name) is also very well defined just now. It's closer still to the terminator so lots of shadow in the narrow rilles. 

This is a Lunar Orbiter image with the Hyginus Rille in the top right corner of the image.

Some clear sky for a change. The Moon looks lovely with the Hyginus Rille very close to the terminator and superbly defined 🙂

1 minute ago, Voxish said:

I don’t do a lot myself to be honest, but with the 11 year solar maximum about to reach its peak it would be rude not to. 

When I do white light solar it has generally been at outreach sessions. At least there is something to show punters now - a few years back the (usually) featureless solar disk was a little underwhelming. 

I don't do much solar observing but when I do I find a zoom eyepiece very useful. The Baader 8-24mm zoom would probably be my eyepiece choice unless I want high magnifications in which case I would press the Svbony 3-8mm zoom into use.

Well, Winter is here (in the northern hemisphere) and Orion is rising earlier and earlier so Canis Major and in particular Alpha Canis Majoris or Sirius will be starting to show at a more civilised time.

Here is a chance to give a real test to your scope, eyepieces and your observing eye, spotting Sirius B. Sirius B or "the Pup" as it is affectionately known is a white dwarf star which is reckoned to be around the diameter of the Earth and yet having a mass similar to our Sun. Sirius B orbits Sirius A at a distance that is roughly similar to the distance that Uranus orbits our Sun at.

I posted this 3 years ago and I hope it is still relevent and useful. Good luck ! 🙂

At least we have had some variation this evening: fine drizzle followed by medium rain followed by misty precipitation followed by murky downpour then back to fine drizzle again. Great 😒

I used a Rigel Quikfinder on my 12 inch dob to keep the upper end weight down, knowing that my taste in eyepieces is a touch on the heavy side 😉

49 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

"cancels out the very slight chromatic aberration of TOA"

What? TOA has CA?

 

I was surprised to see that as well 🤔

43 minutes ago, pavel_s said:

A very interesting article about Naglers.

https://www.cloudynights.com/documents/naglers.pdf

Tom Trusock wrote a couple of other good peices on Naglers as well as that one:

CN Report: The Nagler Eyepieces, Part 1 - T1's, T2's, and the Nagler Zooms - Eyepiece Reports - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights

CN Report: The Nagler Eyepieces, Part II - The Type 4's - Eyepiece Reports - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights

I've owned Nagler T1's T4's, T5's and T6's over the years. No T2's. I only have the 31mm T5 now. I enjoyed the Naglers that I've owned in the past though 🙂