John

The higher the number in mm on the eyepiece, the lower the magnification. What scope do you have ?. I'm asking because we need to know if it will take 1.25" eyepieces.

A refractor with a 100mm objective lens can show some nice detail on Jupiter under good conditions, with decent eyepieces. The Andromeda galaxy won't appear as more than an oval smudge though.

..... and wish he would have listed it as an achro Ahh well.....

That is a valid point. All the reading that I have done point to it being a very nice achromat. I also wonder if the focuser has been replaced at some point - the original had a single speed crayford with gold anodised focus wheels wheras the scope you have bought seems to have a dual speed focuser with silver wheels.

With the interchangeability of William Optics objective lenses (ie: the upgrade that Steve mentioned) and focusers it's quite possible to have a hybrid scope I guess

None of this makes it anything other than a nice scope though - I'm looking forward to your reports on how it performs when you have had a chance to use it

Some amazing sets there! What case do you recommend then? I dont want to break the bank but want em safe.

Mine is the Maplins one with the pluck foam filling. They are quite popular although I see one view in this thread that they are flimsy but mine seems OK.

J... are you not slightly tempted to upgrade the 20 Nagler to either the 17 Ethos or 21 Ethos? Not to question the quality glass that is the 20 Nag, but more to complete that lovely Ethos set you have......

Do you sell for a living Rob ?

I'm trying to be sensible and level headed (makes a change ) and this is currently helped enormously by an empty astro budget

Really nice kit with the 31mm Panzerfaust in there . My best buy last year.

How do you like your XW 5mm? Some people think they tend to black out a lot. What are your experiences?

Thanks Michael

I've yet to 1st light the 5mm XW but I'm optimistic about it's chances

I had a Circle-V 5mm ortho, and Circle-T 25mm ortho. Loved the latter, but HATED the former. I do not think I will first torture my eyes with a 5mm ortho to accept 10mm eye relief (my Celestron 10mm Plossl also got its marching orders when I got my Vixen LV 9).

I'm done with tight eye relief eyepieces too. Over the past few months I've had Baader GO's, Circle-T ortho's and a TMB Supermonocentric in a range of shorter focal lengths from 7mm to 4mm.

Optically you can't fault them but they are hard work to use.

I find the 12mm of the Nagler T6 and Nirvana fine (I'm not a glasses wearer) and any compromise in contrast and sharpness over the low glass EP's, following a lot of comparison sessions, is beyond my ability to detect

Super eyepieces Michael.

The T4 Naglers are the most immersive of that range without doubt.

Here is a update of my lot. The Pentax XW 5mm, Nirvana 4mm and Nagler T6 3.5mm are the newbies but I've yet to re-work the case to fit them in !. I really can't see any need to change these now to be honest:

Rother Valley Optics lists it.

But is it ever in stock

I've been having a look at the contents of your eyepiece case Andy (via your post above of course !). Some very interesting items you have in there

I use an Antares 1.6x 2" barlow with my 8mm and 6mm Ethos for 5mm and 3.75mm - very impressive results, just like having two more Ethos. It's a pity the Antares barlows are so thin on the ground.

This is the one that I use:

Flight Case with Foam : Flight & Rugged Cases : Maplin Electronics

It's often discounted to around 50% of the price shown though so worth keeping an eye on your local Maplins.

What are double stars?

This article by Phil Harrington is helpful

Fun with double and variable stars - Astronomy Magazine

Funny thing is the specs say refractor but I'm pretty sure it's a reflector (newtonian) from the pics that google throws up.

Check all the screws on the tripod and mount are tight to reduce the wobbles and adding some extra weight like a sandbag hung from the centre of the tripod helps too.

With the wind we have had lately, high magnification views are going to wobble with the wind gusts. Reducing the magnification, say from 150x to 100x can make things a little better.

I've never used that particular scope but from what I've read it seems like a decent scope to start out with. If the astronomy bug "bites" you will no doubt want to upgrade but thats not unusual !.

If the scope will accept 1.25" diameter eyepieces (thats the chrome barrel) then practically any 1.25" eyepiece can be used with it. Not all will give a great view though !.

You may have had some misinformation there !

My old 60mm refractor could show Saturns main ring system and it's brightest moon Titan quite easily at 60x so it should be no problem in your scope. Saturn will be a little smaller than Jupiter is but I reckon it may well be one of the most wonderful things you have seen through the scope !. Saturn is an absolute gem

Saturn and Jupiter are usually much more satisfying than Venus and Mars to observe. Mars is currently a long way off and will grow to about twice it's current size (so 2 grains of salt !) by March. It does get nearer and larger on other occasions but not this one. Venus is so bright that most scopes struggle to see much although it does get a little easier when it's phase reaches a large, thin crescent.

The max magnification in the spec you posted is not right though. With the correct eyepiece the scope should be capable of around 150x on a night of good seeing - that would need a 6mm eyepiece.

Not sure why politics has to be avoided on this issue the apollo missions were born out of political issues and without politics there wouldnt be a space race. However I hope we do get to see another moon landing in our life time.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

Politics has to be avoided in this and all threads because that is one of the rules of the forum that we all signed up to when we joined.

If that proves impossible, the thread will be locked as has already been said by Barkis.

Thanks

My problem is, although I seem to have a white dot reasonably large in size using just the 20mm lens, when I zoom all I can actually see is a larger white round thing with the cross of the front end of the telescope and nothing else. Can you tell me what if anything I am doing wrong....

Hello and welcome to the forum

A white blob with a dark "cross" in front is what you see through a newtonian scope when it is not in focus. With Jupiter you should see a small, slightly flattened disk with 2 or more darker bands running across it and up to 4 moons strung out on either side.

I suspect you have not got the focus quite right - it needs to be quite precise - a little either side and you get the white blob / dot effect.

We have photographs of the tile damage - thanks for checking, Peter.

If it is confirmed as a meteorite expect dealers to arrive and offer to buy the roof tiles and pay to have them replaced. The Park Forest fall in Illinois a few years back caused mayhem for the residents for a while !.

A meteorite that strikes something man made is known as a "hammer stone" and it adds to the appeal. The "impact crater" will be in demand !.

I've built up a number of meteorite collections in the past Steve but it's very hard to tell whether something is meteoric in origin without a lab analysis.

It looks a little like a carboniferous chondrite type - I used to have some samples of one that fell in Australia called Murchison which looked rather like your friends sample. Here is a web page from that country on identification and there is a picture of Murchison about 3/4 of the way down:

http://www.meteorites.com.au/found.html

The Natural History Museum might be interested but another contact would be David Bryant who runs the UK company "Space Rocks". David was a speaker at the NLO Astro Fair at Sidmouth this summer and is quite an expert. Here is his website:

David Bryant's Space Rocks! Meteorites for sale. Buy meteorites, sikhote alin, canyon diablo, barwell, tektites, moldavites, pallasites, impactites from the UK's Number 1

Hope that helps. If it is a meteorite and a caboniferous chondrite it would be the only UK fall of this type known - and very valuable too !.

I've used scopes up to 20" in aperture and the lure of the views through them is very great but I've also owned a scope that was too large and heavy for me to use often at home which was rather frustrating and provided the antidote to some extent.

But I'm still not immune and often have a small internal mental "battle" when a large aperture scope comes on the market

I'm actually using my smallest scope this evening and getting lovely views without any hassles

I used a couple of these with my Skywatcher Alt-Azimuth mount:

Replacement 130mm Celestron Slow Motion Tracking Rod | eBay

I think the EQ3-2 uses the same fitting.

... After the sufferer has built up a complete set of ethoi, they seem to start rattling on about BGOs for some reason... :-)

Thats just the guilt kicking in and the desire to display some humility by enthusing about something more affordable

Blimey - this is an old thread !

I guess the original poster was pleased with his new aquisition - the Tele Vue plossls are nice but there are quite a few other nice alternatives around too.

Do you prefer it for planetary over your 10" reflector?

Yes, as it happens, I do

But probably not for any logical reasons - I just like the way refractors, especially ED refractors, present the objects you view

If I bought a 530mm APO I'd need the spaceship as well - to escape my wife's wrath

Joking apart, I think my original recommendation to the OP was to go for an 8" F/6 dobsonian - they are pretty good at viewing many types of object come to think of it

Why, the job of being a planetary scope for serious study of course!

(the subject of this thread)

Now, people may treasure their small APOs for any number of reasons, and that's all well and good - but that's not necesarilly helpful to the observer looking to select the optimum instrument for planetary observations.

Fair enough.

Maybe my ED120 is not a serious planetary scope then

But it still gives me darn fine views of them