John

36 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

.... And a whole battalion of others as well.

Something for everyday of the week (or month). Variations are a spice of life!...

 

A million of them, apparently

Choice is a good thing !

45 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

It's a personal choice. What is one willing to pay, and believe worth it, for a fractional improvement of the view?

I have both.

Dave

Both of what - the GSO's / Vixens or the GSO / Tele Vues or the GSO / Tele Vue's ?

Maybe all 3 ?

It's an exacting hobby when you start to push the limits - in due course you want the best kit you can afford IMHO. It is a hobby though so "afford" is an important word of course.

"fractional" could be the difference between being able to split Sirius or not, being able to see the Horsehead Nebula or not, being able to spot the finest lunar details or not, being able to see faint galaxies or not, being able to see the moons of Uranus and Neptune or not. Personally, I want that stuff

You don't need to spend a fortune to achieve these targets but you do need excellent optical quality IMHO.

Having used a Skywatcher 6" F/5 newt on an AZ-4 I found it a good combination with the steel tripod option. Not so steady with the aluminum tripod though. My guess is that the AZ5 is at least as solid as the AZ-4 but the stock tripod will be the "weak link". If and when I go for an AZ5 for my F/9 Takahashi refractor, it will be the mount head only and I'll put it on my Oberwerk hardwood tripod which is as tall and stable as the 2" steel tubed tripods (eg: CG5 / EQ6) but somewhat lighter.

9 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

John - are Revelation Plössls not actually GSO's? ...

 

Yes they are as far as I know. I was going to put "GSO / Revelation" in my post but I figured that in the UK Revelation is the brand name that is more commonly encountered and the ones with GSO actually printed on them can be a bit more costly !

I don't think they are quite as good as the Vixen NPL's or indeed the Tele Vue plossls by the way but the latter cost about 3x as much as the GSO / Revelation and I figured that they are probably not a good value recommendation for the "very new beginner"

Experienced observers are rather partial to the TV plossls though

The Revelation plossls are good quality and really not very expensive - arond £25 each new. The Vixen NPL ones are a little more expensive but also good performers without having to push the boat out too far financially.

Thanks Mike, very interesting

Mike, the arrangement of the 6 bolt holes around where the arm of the mount connects to the base suggest that you could, if you wished, alter the angle that the arm is at by selecting different holes for the fixing bolts. Is that the case ?

10 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Mike you said  '  Then, if my friend paulastro can be coaxed into it, I'll try his DL on the AZ5 to see if the extra length of tube makes any noticeable difference. '

Well, ok Mike, I'll come - just try and keep my away, .  I'll arrange to come over early next week after I get back from Scotland on Sunday.

Good pics and review Mike.

I'm very much looking forward to hearing how the DL fares on the AZ5 Paul / Mike

Wonderful looking scope as well as a joy to use

16 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Agreed. Just because a piece of kit may be old doesn't mean it's still not as good as ever.

Case in point. Big Red the Carton 100 f/13 frac that I built years ago. Will still see off most APOs in planetary observing.

              John

 

Very nice John but you could have just said that it's very nice to observe the planets with it rather that to inject that note of competition ?

On 30/07/2017 at 21:32, johninderby said:

Having had a Cool Wedge I'm very impressed with how the Lacerta compares. Amazing value for money. Who knows might make Baader bring out an improved Cool Wedge or heaven forbid cut the price. Not much in it for visual but the Lacerta's Brewster angle does give it a more evenly illuminated image which will help with imaging.

When someone new brings out a great bit of kit at a great price it can only be good for the hobby.  The old names in the hobby will have to sharpen up their game to stay competitive..

       John

This seems to happen quite frequently in astronomy. You push the boat out to get the top dog at that time then something else comes out which is a little better and sometimes even a little less expensive.

I guess the options are to either keep chasing to keep on top of "having the best" or to step off the "kit roundabout" and get on with using what you have, which has not got any worse of course 

I was thinking this the other day re-reading this thread on diagonals (non-solar):

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/291658-the-baader-bbhs-sitall-silver-diagonal-is-it-really-that-good/

While it's nice to have the best in class I suspect that it's ultimately a mugs game constantly trying to maintain that

It's nice to hear about new products though, all the same

10 hours ago, Stu said:

Shame you can't buy the pillar with the head as that looks a really good idea.

At some point, assuming it gets good feedback, I may look into the AZ-GTi. On the Gitzo tripod it would make a great grab and go mount for the Tak but not sure if that one is being sold as just the head.

The pillar is available on it's own for £24. I suppose that puts the cost of the tripod in perspective - £169 for the mount head plus pillar, £40 more gets the tripod as well.

7 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Just the head John! I thought about the half pier and tripod but I already have a heavy duty aluminium tripod that I use with the AZ4, so I'll be using that.

Sounds sensible to me Mike. So far the tripod looks none to impressive with these new alt-az mounts. The rest of the AZ5 looks very interesting though

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

 Well I've had my eye on the AZ5 mount since I first saw it in last year's SkyWatcher calender. When Piero told me they were now on sale I was a bit disappointed, as the time of wonder was over and it was now time to make a decision. Did I want to spend my money on a new AZ mount when my AZ4 already does a splendid job of carrying my FC100DC solidly enough 

It arrives on Tuesday! 

Did you order the mount and tripod Mike, or just the mount head ?

Womderful setup lardy

I see that you have a LZOS 130 F/9.25 as well ? - another superb scope

Just now, tooth_dr said:

 

More the price of it...

Insurance is a marvellous thing

55 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

 

This guy is also going to try his televue np101 on it for the eclipse  hope it doesn't fall off 

It's a shortish 10 lbs OTA so it should be OK.

1 hour ago, GavStar said:

The capacity appears to be less than the vixen porta 2, not sure what the benefits of the az5 are over the porta?

I'll put it on a more sturdy tripod and see how it does compared with the stock one.

51 minutes ago, Rick_It said:

Thanks John! Don't forget to look also at the Pronto. I like it, it's a good match with a lightweight APO for day/night and travel. Try to find out how large a telescope can be with that mount. If an 80 ED works fine with it, it may be a nice combination. And tells us abouth smoothness of the movements!

Will do !

3 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks, a friend just sent me a photo of the AZ5 that arrived with him yesterday.  He has an ED120 mounted on it comfortably.  I think I've made my mind up.

When I test the AZ5, I'll be trying 3 scopes on it:

Skywatcher ED120 F/7.5

Takahashi FC 100 F/9

Vixen 102 F/6.5

When I had an AZ-4 I found the ED120 just a little too much for that mount even when it was on a 2" steel tubed tripod.

It will be interesting to see how the AZ5 fares. FLO are also sending me the Pronto version to compare with the AZ5 as well.

Thanks FLO

14 minutes ago, parallaxerr said:

Yes I just noted the same. I'm also a little dissapointed at the rated ota capacity - up to 5kg? I'd like to have seen it capable of more than the AZ4.

I'm a little confused by that as well. Similar design mounts by Explore Scientific, Orion (USA) and other brandings seem to be rated for 8kg

I'm tempted as well. Looking for a lightweight alt-az head to go on my Oberwerk hardwood tripod to carry the Tak FC100DL when I don't want the weight of the Skytee II. I think I'd need to try one though - an F/9 tube can pose issues that an F/7.4 does not.

Well, I'd certainly like to look through one, one day

My APM / TMB / LZOS 130 triplet is very impressive indeed. No false colour at all, on any object and even either side of focus. No FPL-53 in that lens though.

My experiences with the supplier mentioned here are positive so a balanced view is important.