John

1 hour ago, CLOUD90 said:

Lol unfortunately I live in area Surrounded by acres and acres of woods fields etc. the little village has around 20houses In a little cul-de-sac with no street lights I might be able to find a telegraph pole far enough to do it maybe ?

As long as its a good way off the target does not matter.

1 hour ago, CLOUD90 said:

Thanks yeah I collimated it yesterday watched a great simple video on YouTube as it came with a laser Tool manage to do it In a few minutes I do need to set the finder scope up properly Tho The Seben 8-24 zoom this sounds cheap and cheerful ?

Getting the finder scope aligned with what the main scope is observing is really important. It will be very difficult to find things without this having been done fairly accurately.

You can use a distant object in daylight to do this. Something like a TV mast or a chimney around 1km or more away as an alignment target.

The Seben 8-24 zoom is quite good for its price. The field of view is quite narrow at the 24mm end though.

1 hour ago, CLOUD90 said:

Cool thanks I see a lot of 30-40 mm with  high degrees on eBay what are these normally used for ? 

Longer focal length eyepieces with wide fields of view (the degrees figure) are for low power, wide field observing. With your scope 30mm - 32mm is around the longest focal length eyepiece that is effective.

The 2 inch size eyepieces give you an even larger view but the low cost 2 inch wide angle eyepieces dont work that will with the F/4.7 focal ratio of the 250mm dobsonian - you tend to get distortions in the outer parts of the field of view.

The 25mm BST Starguider will show nearly as wide a field as a 1.25 inch eyepiece can in a scope so there is not a lot of point in getting anything with a longer focal length unless you move to the 2 inch fitting.

The 3x barlow would give you too much magnification to be much use. Stick with a 2x.

I've packed up for tonight Kerry.

It was nice to just get some views of the starry sky though

Not a good night here really for observing anything but there were one or two stars showing so I stuck the Tak 100mm refractor out anyway.

It's cold and windy as well as pretty cloudy so I've just stuck to favourite double stars just to be observing something.

My thanks to Algieba, Castor, Mizar and Theta Auriga for putting a smile on my face in these rather grim times

Algieba (Gamma Leonis) is a lovely golden and slightly unequal brightness pair which was the first double star that I ever observed with a telescope - my old Tasco 60mm refractor about 40 years ago !. It looks very nice with the Tak too of course

If you want something that improves on what came with the scope but does not cost a fortune the BST Starguiders are well thought of on this forum

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

For planets I would suggest the 8mm or 5mm focal lengths or alternatively the 12mm which you could use with your 2x barlow lens to give a 6mm equivalent.

I don't know why either Louis

28 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

They're only marked as super, but not Plossls or MA. 

Those are 3 element eyepieces. They get you started and the 25mm is better than the 10mm.

Usually they are modified achromats which are similar to kellners. 3 elements in 2 groups. Occasionally the scopes are shipped with plossls but they are marked as such.

The manual is not really clear on how to use that adapter which is why some folks have got into difficulties by putting both the 1.25 inch and 2 inch adapters in the scope at the same time and then finding that 1.25 inch eyepieces will not come to focus.

Its a quirk that many Skywatcher scopes seem to have. Other brands come with a true 2 inch focuser drawtube that you just need to use a 1.25" adapter with which seems more sensible to me.

53 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Does the Aero do well on the Merope John? I'm curious about scatter control. The 42mm LVW has eye placement issues and to some astigmatism. This eyepieces has shown me the Vega and Double Double IFN however.

For some reason the Panoptic series has never really piqued my interest. BTW the 17.3 Delos is fantastic in its role as galaxy finder- and also pulling those extra, faint stars out of the trapezium.

I've not observed Merope with the 40mm Aero ED for sometime Gerry - hopefully we have some better skies forecast for the coming week so I will try it.

I agree that the 17.3 Delos is excellent

The 24mm Panoptic is the only one from that series that I own or have used. I guess because I like to have a "widest field" 1.25 inch eyepiece. I also rather like it's cute mushroom shape !

It is the 2 inch eyepiece adapter. You use it in place of (not as well as) the 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter when you want to use 2 inch eyepieces.

This one has faded to that colour due to exposure to sun light for a long period. Normally they are black.

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

A favorite of mine too those dark nebs and in particular around Aquila and M24. In the f7- f7.5mm refractors I use the Vixen 42mm LVW, which is a nice but not perfect eyepiece. It is good enough for its intended use that I see no reason to replace it. It works well on the Pleiades as well.

Sounds like the Aero ED 40mm. Its surprisingly good

I guess the 41mm Panoptic would be slightly better in the F/5.3 dob but a used one of those would cost me 7x what I paid for the Aero ED.

Nice session Ciaran

You did well to get M1 with your binoculars - I expect your sky was darker than mine normally is. I've always struggled to see it convincingly with binoculars, even my 11x70's.

3 hours ago, Chaz2b said:

When you decide to go for a bigger pair, take a good look at weight! 25x100s are not easy to handle, you will need a decent tripod or parallel bars. I’ve also had Orion 25x100 and apogee (right angle viewing) ruddy heavy I can tell you! I’m back down to a modest 7x50 Orion Resolux binos, brilliant IMO.

To counteract my large binos deficit, I now have Tele-Vue and William Optics binoviewers for my refractors, with interchangeable eyepieces....noyce!

 

chaz

Having owned a pair of straight through 25x100's I agree 100% with the above. Even with a tall and sturdy tripod I found them unwieldy and not that easy to use.

My largest binoculars now are 11x70's which can be hand held reasonably well although a tall tripod extends their reach somewhat.

If I owned anything larger I would go for a pair with 45 degree angled eyepieces on a stout, tall, fork mount. Something like this:

28 minutes ago, rkelley8493 said:

How do you remove the dew shield? Does it just unthread, is it coupled together by the silver band, or what?

It unthreads from the silver connecting flange. You need the tube clamped firmly so that you can get your hands around the dew shield and apply gentle pressure.

5 hours ago, Stu said:

I nearly always use 2" diagonal in my refractors, even the 72mm. I only have 1 1.25" and that is a Tak prism....

Same here.

Great find Doc

They used to have a whopping great brass refractor on one of those in the BCF showroom at Telescope House (London) in the 1980's. Like a few others who have posted I've lusted after one a few times in the past.

I would have liked one when I had my Istar 6 inch F/12 refractor - it would have done a better job than the EQ6 did I'm sure !

If you bought it new you might be able to get it replaced if it's just a bit out of warranty Mike ?

Rainy night so I've been playing with my Tak FC100-DL and thinking about the Mars opposition later this year to cheer myself up

I do think it suits the Ercole mount and my Oberwerk hardwood tripod rather well

23 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Nice find John, I will enjoy having a read through this.

 

Thank you

No problem Baz. Its actually a short movie

I have one of those units - I'll have to watch out for that switch. I don't use mine much so maybe it will last a bit longer ?

I thought that the Bresser Mon-2 drives might be compatible with the GP mount ?

https://www.bresser.de/en/Astronomy/BRESSER-RA-DEC-Motor-Kit-Duo-for-EXOS-2-and-EQ-MON-2.html

Don't take my word for it though - see if someone who has tried one pipes up.

I think individuals do have different optical characteristics and that these do vary as we age.

Different strengths and weaknesses, sensitivities, etc, etc

I've noticed when I've done outreach sessions that young eyes are generally better than older ones at picking out star colours.

I can't see much in the way of cloud contrast variations on Venus but other observers clearly do see them. I believe that might be connected with UV sensitivity or something similar ?

Nice little piece from the BBC by NASA Astronaut Kathryn Sullivan on getting the HST up there and then making it work properly:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-51928973/launching-the-hubble-space-telescope-our-window-into-the-universe