John

Well done @BlueStinger It's a nice clear night currently in North Somerset. Doing some galaxy hopping here around Leo and Ursa Major with my 12 inch scope.

Currently rather more cloud here than I'd hoped for. Hopefully clearing as the evening progresses ?

Comet hunting setup. 4.1 degree true field

Filters and Venus are covered in this recent thread. Might be worth a read: Sometimes thin cloud provides an excellent natural filtration service

C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) should be around 3.5 degrees from M81 and M82 tonight according to Cartes du Ciel. It looks as if we might get some clear skies later tonight. I fancy some wide field views to try and fit these three in the same FoV I'd better get my Vixen 102 F/6.5 refractor ready for action ....

Large true fields are nice for observing extended objects as Stu says. To get that you either go to lower magnifications or to wider apparent field of view, or a combination of both. With my ED120 refractor I use a 40mm SWA eyepiece (2 inch format) which shows 3 degrees of sky at 22.5x and is great for the sort of targets that Stu illustrates. Your current 1.5 degrees from your 18mm eyepiece will show lots of deep sky objects as well of course but wont fit the larger ones into a single field.

It's good stuff, I can assure you

Thanks. A lot of what you posted was invisible because the text shifted to black on dark grey. I've edited the post to change that text to white on black.

May 2001 it said in the instruction manual.

I don't think you are being over fussy at all. If you buy a new scope it should be immaculate. I've only bought a couple new over the years and they arrived mint and spotless.

Brandons seem to be "marmite" eyepieces from the varied reports I've read on them. Do they work better with some scope types than others ?

lovely looking pump though ......

I'd completely forgotten that I did own a second TAL 100 R back in 2015. That one looks like yours Stu:

The baffling can be improved - I think Astro Baby might have covered this at sometime ? I don't know how the serial numbers work with TAL's. With my 1999 one a serial number was etched into the back plate of the diagonal and printed on the instruction manual but diagonals get changed over time of course. My scope had a shorter (than yours) metal dew shield and the diagonal fitted into the draw tube with a flared collar cast into the diagonal barrel. No stickers on my scope either. I think yours is a 2nd gen scope that came out a year or two after. The optics will be the same as 1st gen (purple coatings ?) and the short focusser / finder is the same. Mine was the TAL 100 RT.

Ah, the TAL 100 R - brings back memories for me - I bought a new one back in 1999 The earliest ones had metal dew shields though. I think yours is a 2nd generation one perhaps Stu ?

20x50 binoculars show a somewhat narrow field of view. You would probably find it easier to find Messier 31 / The Andromeda Galaxy with 7x or 10x 50mm binoculars if you have access to some.

Sounds like my late Grandparents house - they had a "front room" that was only used occasionally. We used to get into trouble if we played in there !

I found that when I compared the Baader Genuine orthos, Fujiyama orthos (which you kindly loaned me ) and Astro Hutech orthos with Circle-T's. The performance differences were subtle but I suspected that the more recent designs had higher light transmission and they did show less light scatter around really bright targets. I found myself wishing for the Baader GO / Fujiyama optics in a volcano top body design but, alas, that never happened. The Circle-T's still represent great value when you can get them for well under £50 on the used market.

I only know one person in the UK who owns one of these and he does not post here but on the Cloudynights forum.

Not a good purchasing experience but fortunately with a good outcome thanks to you keeping a steady head and a practical attitude. Was this sold as a new optical tube ? Have you relayed the issues you had with the scope to the supplier ?

I've moved the thread to an imaging section but left a link where it was originally posted

I had that desire because I had all the other T6 Naglers at one time. Then the Ethos desire caught hold .........

The 11mm is the only T6 Nagler that I have not owned or used oddly.

I love these on my T-Rex - you need long ones with a long refractor on board

Refractors seem to get pretty big when they hit a full 5 inches in aperture. There is an 8.5 inch F/12 frac for sale on UK Astro Buy & Sell - it looks a monster (though rather lovely as well) https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=157011