John

yes your right but managed to do its a bit fiddly but doable another way is popp it in eyepiece holder bypass the secondary so it shines on to a wall and turn the collimater

Yes - I used a refractor optical tube with the objective lens removed to do mine. I put the laser collimator in the drawtube and shone it down the tube and out the open end, onto a wall about 20 feet away.

put it on a jig and test on a wall about 15 feet away if the dot stays central its ok if it moves send it back thats what i did with mine luckily it was fine

The Baader laser collimator is not symmetrical - not so easy to make a jig for it, unfortunately.

9 years old and watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon

That was followed by membership of the school astronomy club at 11 years old.

Mine is an Orion (USA) RACI 9x50. It's an all black affair but looks very similar in design to the Skywatcher one.

Mine is just the same. I took the eyepiece off the diagonal and had a peek at the cross hairs but they are glued to a ring that screws into the bottom of the eyepiece section. I guess you could loosen and rotate that ring to rotate the cross hairs but it may double as a lens retaining ring, possibly.

Anyway I decided to leave well alone and live with the orientation of the X

I've seen the effects of the spacers in images but I can't say I've ever seen them visually. I've used a lot of refractors and most used foil spacers between the lens elements, including my current Vixen ED102 and Skywatcher ED120.

Is this an issue that really only affects imagers ?

I'd maybe consider an eq platform but I prefer a no-tech approach on the whole. I've found tracking manually at high powers no bother with the "Moonshane" mount, even with orthos. I actually enjoy nudging the scope gently to track an object - for some strange reason it makes me feel a connection with what I'm viewing

Is it worth that much more?

Probably not. The golden rule with Orion Optics scopes is to buy them used - they represent superb value for money then

I reckon the average Skywatcher is probably around 1/6th wave PV. Some better, some worse.

I've recently moved from a 10" F/4.8 to a 12" F/5.3. Both Orion Optics although the 12" has slightly better quality optics in it. I've noticed quite a difference on a range of objects but especially DSO's. Orion Optics optical tubes on dob mounts (Shane made mine too ) are pretty compact and portable even in larger sizes. I can lift my 12" in one piece and move it around the garden. In two pieces it's really quite light for it's aperture.

I've seen the 14" Skywatcher and thats pretty much a 2 person carry I reckon, to be sure of not damaging it.

You can put wheely bars on these things though which make it easier to move even 16" dobs around.

When I was young TASCO was just about the only option. I recall they had one of the 3" refractors (gosh !) in a camera shop in Bath (this was the 1970's) and I must have stared through that window for a long while each time I went shopping there with mum and dad. It seemed so inaccessible back then - I think the price was about £400

As Astro_Baby says, thank goodness the Russians and the Chinese have revolutionized what is available to us in the past couple of decades. £400 at 1970's values must be a couple of grand now - just think what you can buy with that today

My old 60mm cost just £45 back in the early 1980's and it was 20 years old then. It showed me my 1st view of Saturn and M81 / M82 though and thats a priceless gift

A couple of the TASCO models from the 1980's were produced by Vixen and then, in the 1990's Tasco had a range of GOTO scopes that were re-branded Skywatchers made by Synta put on re-branded Celestron GOTO mounts. I think TASCO may have owned both Synta and Celestron at one point !

Interesting that Unitrons are not always all they are cracked up to be though. Another fantasy shattered !

My first scope was a 60mm F/13 Tasco refractor and I still have it !. This one is from the 1960's and was made in Japan. The scope optics are pretty good but the supplied eyepieces and rather wobbly mount let it down until I fixed these things. With a decent eyepiece and mounted well it now performs as well as you can expect any 60mm scope to do.

Hi John and thanks for replying. Sorry I meant to say it was the 250PX not the 300P. Again, any help appreciated and I'll then go and dig myself a hole.

No problem - your focal length is 1200mm so the maths is a little different thats all !

The same eyepiece focal lengths would still be useful but they will just give slightly lower magnification eg 38x - 240x. You won;t need all those focal lengths that I have (I'm an eyepiece nutcase !) so something like 30mm - 15mm - 8mm - 6mm would be good. You don't need exactly those focal lengths but something close.

Hi all

A couple of years ago I managed to get a bargain Skywatcher Skyliner 300P which came with the standard 10mm & 25mm and an additional x2 Barlow. After speaking to a friend about eyepieces recently I feel the need to upgrade and replace mine. I've tried scanning the forums to get an idea of the best ones to get but I'm struggling. WH only went up to an 8" for his valid reasons and much as I tried to do the workings out I'm still unsure.

Thanks for any help.

Clint.

Hi Clint,

You may want to post this question in the "Getting started equipment help & advice" section:

http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/186-getting-started-equipment-help-and-advice/

I think you will get more responses there.

Your scope has a focal length of 1500mm. You divide that by the focal length of the eyepiece to get the magnification. I have a scope of similar specification and I use eyepieces in the following focal lengths with it:

31mm, 20mm, 13mm, 8mm, 6mm and when conditions are good, 5mm. They give me a magnification range of 50x to 300x. The 31mm and 20mm are in the 2" size because I want wide angle views at those lower powers and 2" eyepieces allow wider views than 1.25" ones.

There are loads of brands available with prices from £40 - £500 per eyepiece (!).

I'm sure you will get lots of responses if you post the question again in the section I indicate above

Indeed they are, but I was replying to a comment about ownership of the company, not the manufacturer of some of its kit.

OK - that makes sense Steve

The Meade Lightbridges need counterweighting at the bottom end of the tube if you start using 2" eyepieces and add a 50mm optical finder. I found a light shroud essential with my Meade LB 12" to stop stray light getting into the tube a reducing contrast. Optically I reckon they are around the same as the Skywatchers.

Whether the above is the same with the 16" Lightbidge I don't know though.

????

Orion is owned by Imaginova; SkyWatcher is owned by its founder, Synta -- entirely different companies.

I thought a number of the Orion (US) scopes and accessories were made by Synta though ?.

I've owned the Orion ED80 and ED100's and they are identical to the Skywatcher equivalents in every respect apart from the paint job.

Good point! My apologies for being wrong: http://orionskyquest...com/xx12/xx12i/

Persoanlly I don't see the point of the SkyQuest system. It isn't even a proper goto in that you have to move it.

To be fair Orion don't claim it is GOTO - it's Push To. The XX12g version does actually move the scope to point at the desired object so that one is a GOTO.

The optics in the Skywatcher will be the same as the Orion as both are made by Synta.

I've owed a couple of 12" dobs (a Lightbridge and now an Orion Optics that will be shortly dob mounted) and the 16" ones are much larger. I'd definitely make a point of trying to see both sizes for real before deciding.

As Paul says, for astronomy use, the upside down view is the one to get used to as the erecting eyepiece will detract from the quality of the view.

Astro scopes generally won't focus on things closer than 50-100 feet away, sometimes further than that. Try using just the 20mm eyepiece to start with and then try the barlow with that eyepiece. You will need to re-focus with the barlow in use.

A unique individual and he will be sorely missed by myself and many others

I'll be winking twice at the moon next time I see it - once for Neil Armstrong and once for Sir Patrick for whom the study of the moon was a passion.

Bizarre indeed! My best guess would be some sort of explosive fragmentation......

That would be my explanation too. Meteors frequently fragment as they come through the atmosphere and sometimes that is an explosive event. The stresses on a fragment of rock as it's outer layer is heated almost to melting point by friction while it's interior remains extremely cold must be considerable and it all happens within a matter of seconds.

......john, love my comedy,like your sid snot ....

Thanks

I'm a huge Hancock fan - I've loads of his shows on tape. I "inherited" him from my dad along with the Goons

Nice set Rory (and avatar too !)

I agree with Mike73 - the "gap" in your set is a 2" of around 30-32mm focal length.

The Skywatcher Aero ED's are nice and not too heavy or expensive.

Nice stuff Shane

I've got a couple of those "cheapo" cheshire eyepieces too (the short plastic type). They work rather well on both newtonians and refractors I find, despite their basic design. Rather like a hybrid cheshire / colli cap.

I'm a squasher. they sit nicely.

Me too. You can re-arrange things too by pulling the squashed blocks back into shape

Not that we change our eyepieces very often around here ........