John

I can't see Jupiter or the moon yet but Saturn is looking quite good with my ED120 at 225x. Some shimmering going on but between those I can see the usual details including the cassini division showing around the ring ansae. Jupiter tends to be more challenging though so we will see what that looks like in due course. Bit nippy compared to other recent nights 😬

I've just put my scope out - I might bring it back in on the basis of that report ! 😁

Later production did switch to Taiwan I think but most of the ones that I have seen (both the early "smoothsides" and the later ones with rubber eye cups) had "Japan" stamped on the chrome barrel.

I've had the 40mm, 25mm, 16mm, 6.7mm and 5mm Meade 3000 plossls. Mine were the Japan made versions and I thought them very sharp. The 40mm is the only 1.25 inch 40mm eyepiece that I enjoyed using. It does not offer any more AFoV than a regular 40mm plossl but the way the image was presented was quite immersive. The 16mm was very nice as well. Apparently the Meade 3000 plossls were FC rather than FMC and their lens edges were not blackened like the 4000 series were, but despite that they seem to be regarded with more fondness than the 4000 series.

It's turned to 98% cloud cover here now. I'm getting the odd glimpse of Jupiter and then longish periods of thicker cloud. Not really worth the bother. Tomorrow evening looks more promising though and the coming week, as the colder weather arrives. I've had a few short sessions with the 200P "Classic" dob now and I've enjoyed each one despite their brief nature. No wonder these scopes are so popular 🙂

It's all very opportunistic here. I've just had 10 minutes of Jupiter during a clear patch. 150x was about all I could use - the seeing seems not so good as earlier. I could see a few cloud belts plus the red spot and that was about it. Solid cloud again but the scope is still out, undercover but cooled. The clouds are fast moving so things change quite rapidly. Luckily an 8 inch dob can be moved around quite fast !

There are many 80mm refractors that weigh more than the Tak FC100-DC does !

Mak's are usually around F/11-F/12. That focal ratio does not challenge an eyepiece at all really. The original poster here has an F/5 scope. Much more testing.

Loads of clouds around this evening but enough clear patches to get some nice views of Saturn with my newly acquired Skywatcher 200P dobsonian. 240x is a sweet spot tonight - very sharp and contrasty 😀 Also had a brief look at the moon. Gassendi looks magnificent very close to the terminator. So much jumbled terrain across it's interior floor ! The "milk carton washer" mod seems to have worked wonders with the azimuth motion. Small nudges at high magnification are much easier to control.

What scope are you using them in ? The scope type can make a lot of difference in how an eyepiece performs.

It's difficult to beat the Starguider ED eyepieces. Some of the focal lengths work better at the F/5 focal ratio of your scope in that they will show sharper star images across more of the field of view. The mid-focal length ones are probably the best - 8mm, 12mm and 15mm.

Yes indeed. This video explains and demonstrates the risks:

Reminds me of "Men in Coats" 😁 Men In Coats - 2003 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala - YouTube

I must try one someday ! I get on OK with binoculars so it might be what I'm looking for.

I fitted one of those DEC motor covers to a Vixen GP that I had a while back. Quite a neat addition.

Unfortunately I don't get on with binoviewers. I have tried a few of them over the years but somehow I can't take to using them 😒 I've no doubts about the benefits for those who do get on them them though 👍

I used to put a 150mm F/8 achromat on a Celestron CG5, which I think is the same mount as the EQ5. The CG5 did have 2 inch steel tubed tripod legs though - the same as the EQ6 tripods use. With both axis driven the mount seemed to handle the big refractor OK for visual observing. This was quite a long time ago though. I may well not think this combination as suitable today 🤔 I once bought another 150mm F/8 achromat that came on an EQ5 with an aluminium tripod !!!! (yes, once upon a time they were supplied like that as stock) This combination was practically unusable even at low magnifications. I wonder how many folks were put off these big refractors because they were supplied on inadequate mounts 🙄

That's my recommendation as well: low power / wide field fixed focal length + mid-range 8-24 zoom + Svbony 3-8 zoom Although I put these together as a "travel / outreach" set I seem to be quite happy using them as my regular eyepieces quite frequently 🙄

Perhaps the larger airy disks delivered by smaller apertures help to see the colours more markedly ? One trick I use at outreach events, for slightly older eyes, is to slightly defocus the star / stars being observed. This seems to make the colours stand out more. Maybe that is linked to the larger airy disk effect ? Younger observers seem to see star colours more readily in general I've found.

Quite a beast of a setup ! My eye was also drawn to the big refractor in the background, left. Looks like one of the new Askar 185's That looks quite a monster as well !

I think lanthanum glass comes in many varieties. Some make excellent mating elements with certain ED/SD glass types and some are better suited to other purposes. There was a thread on this back in 2013 within which was this interesting post on lanthanum glass:

If I wanted to save some further weight from my rig (in the opening post) I suppose the tripod could be lighter. The Slik Master Classic is sturdy and quite tall ( @Mr Spock uses one as well ) and weighs 1.8kg. I wonder which carbon fibre tripod might offer similar stability for a worthwhile weight saving ? 🤔

Somewhere between FPL-51 and FPL-53, rather oddly. Closer to FPL-53.

Very true and it's a point worth repeating often as well as the importance of figuring, polishing and mounting the elements. As far as I know LZOS is the only glass manufacturer that makes the glass for both the ED/SD and the mating elements of it's objectives. I think for the Takahashi objectives, the fluorite glass is made by Canon Optron, the mating element glass by Ohara (for the DZ at least perhaps ?) and the figuring, polishing and coating done by Canon Optron. I believe that the objective cell manufacture and the mounting of the elements within them is performed by Takahashi.

I saw it called a "herschel wedge" somewhere else but I can see now that was a mistaken description. It is intended for observing the Sun and I don't think it would work well for observing at night. Probably not really safe to use for solar observing either, by todays standards. I still have my old Tasco 60mm F/13.3 from that era (maybe ever earlier ?). It's objective is pretty good. The stock .965 inch eyepieces and the rather wobbly yoke type alt-az mount don't do it justice though. The Carton that is the subject of this thread seems to have what could be a decent equatorial mount 🙂