John

7 minutes ago, josefk said:

..... This is for evenings where I may only get an hour or maybe two rather than a more considered two or three where I’d be using bigger kit. 
 

 

 

That is a very nice outfit 👍

Is cool down an issue with a quadruplet ?

5 hours ago, Stu said:

....Did you try for the NAN whilst you were at the Veil? Looks great in these small scopes/wide fields too. Totally agree about OIIIs being very useful in small scopes, people are missing out on a lot if they stick to an 8” minimum 👍

I did have a scan around that area and I could see quite a lot of nebulous patches. I don't know the NAN  / Pelican part of the sky as well as I know the Veil part of Cygnus so I was a little uncertain what I was actually seeing. I'll do a bit more prep next time I try this 🙂

More specifically the Baader C2 Swan-Band:

Baader C2 Swan-Band Filter (15nm) OIII Parallel | First Light Optics

Has anyone used one of these for visual observing ?

Do they make a difference ?

From the information provided on the FLO website, it seems as if certain comet types may benefit more than others or possibly the benefits will be greater at certain points in a comets life cycle.

Thanks 🙂

2 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I'd quite like some more variety on the zoom front.  Smaller ranges of focal like the 3-8mm (so 9-14, 15-20, etc) with the constant(ish) and 60°(ish) FOV, minimal refocusing that the 3-8mm has.  A smidge more eye relief would be appreciated (don't Mind it being short for planets, but for DSO sketching a bit more eye relief is good).  I can see the cost getting beefy though, especially at the longer focal lengths.

If they could do all that and have a quality of view like the BST Starguiders I'd be a happy chappy.

The APM 15.4mm - 7.7mm zoom ticks some of those boxes. Foremost, it is a very good optical performer, it does offer a constant 65-ish degree AFoV throughout it's zoom range and the need for focus adjustment is slight at most though that range. The effective eye relief is around 16-17mm I reckon so a little tight for those who wear glasses but comfy for the rest of us. It is not cheap though at £399. If the eyepiece could be made a little smaller, a little less expensive, with a couple of mm more eye relief, maybe acceptably at the expense of a couple of degrees AFoV, and with a more friendly focal plane position when in 1.25 inch mode, then it would be in a lot more eyepiece cases I reckon 🙂

18 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I'm perfectly happy with what I have at the moment.

If I had £1 each time I had said / thought that over the past years, I'd have enough to buy a nice new eyepiece 😁

Further to the above post, observing with such a wide true field of view is a very interesting experience and not just for the Veil Nebula. Star patterns and asterisms show up all over the place that I had not noticed before. The area around the double cluster in Perseus for example is full of star chains and groupings that I had just over looked, or rather, looked right though, in the past. Seeing favourites such as M27, M31 and the M81/82 galaxy pair in the context of relatively large expanses of sky is really quite exciting despite the small scale of the DSO's themselves. 

Excellent fun - I shall do this again 🙂

Nice Saturn here as well tonight. I'm using my little 70mm ED refractor but the views at 130x are crisp. 

Jupiter was not so good but it was still rising out of the Bristol "glow" from my back garden. 

Having tried and been impressed by their 3-8mm zoom, I think the Svbony brand could come up with something very interesting if they put their mind to it.

Maybe even Don's 85 degree LER range at less-than-Ethos pricing !

Little and Large: 70mm F/6 ED doublet + Nagler 31mm + Lumicon O-III filter = 6 degrees of true field and great views of the Veil Nebula. E & W segments plus Pickerings Wisp framed by masses of dark star-studded sky. 

So much for O-III filters not being useful in small aperture scopes 😁

I'm purely a "sky tourist". I observe as a form of relaxation. I usually have some ideas of possible targets but quite easily get distracted if something else catches my attention.

I'm happy to leave more systematic and scientific observation and recording to others.

Edit: I ought to add that I do get more organised when it comes to outreach. I really enjoy this aspect of astronomy and I make an effort plan things to ensure that folks get to see some of the best sights around at the time of their session.

I like jokes about stationery but rulers are where I draw the line 😁

If the 3mm-8mm zoom is on sale it would be well worth considering - it's a bargain at it's normal price IMHO.

It would be helpful if the original poster could give a few examples of the specific questions that he has on the big bang. In the absence of that we seem to have been left to make our own up !

(which we seem to be quite adept at of course 🙂)

13 minutes ago, callisto said:

Yeah, I was going to suggest Hammerite too 👍

Me too. Hammerite smooth 🙂

55 minutes ago, woldsman said:

Have added a Vixen Custom 90 to the Custom 80. This example has the livery and the green metallic finish. In both cases, the scopes were unwanted gifts - the users not having the time to star gaze. Mount has some backlash so needs tweaking I think. The new arrival takes 0.965 eye pieces. It came with a collection of these but they badly need cleaning and some of them may no longer be usable.

Could I try everyone’s patience and ask about 0.965 to 1.25 E.P. conversion? I’ve done some basic research and gather that quality hybrid diagonals are hard to source these days. I’m not sure which adapter is needed and would like to avoid ordering the wrong item.....

 

 

I'm sure that you used to be able to get a 1.25 inch adapter that screws straight into the focuser drawtube ?

That would be the best solution I think.

I think this is the thing:

Vixen Eyepiece adapter 36,4mm connecting thread on 1,25" (astroshop.eu)

11 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I was looking at this as well. Is there a clam shell for the 76, or would I be better sticking with rings and a vixen plate. Can the clam shell be fitted to a vixen plate as I know they are designed primarily for Tak mounts. Sorry for the questions.

I use a Vixen-type dovetail bar / plate bolted to the clam shell of my FC100. The clam shell on mine accepts M8 bolts so a couple of those and the Vixen dovetail bar is pretty securely held.

I like to have a true field of between 5 and 6 degrees for finding. With a 32mm plossl a 6 inch SCT will give a true field of fractionally over 1 degree so, for me, not enough. I do use a wide field eyepiece for the final stages of finding fainter targets but even then I like to have over 1 degree of true field if at all possible, preferably 2 degrees.

I don't use GOTO systems.

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

I have no idea either, but I seem to have found myself in a Takahashi quicksand where I feel myself sinking. For some strange unfathomable reason I don't seem as though I'm making any effort to escape 😂.

I've got a very nice one but don't feel myself yearning for another. I'm pleased that I got a TMB/LZOS as my 130mm scope and some other brands as well for my other scopes. 

I have tried a few Tak eyepieces but I didn't hang on those for long but that is more about my tastes in eyepieces rather than the Tak eyepieces I think. Again, it was nice to try them and "see for myself".

I'm absolutely not knocking Tak of course, they make some really good stuff, but I don't worship the brand either.  

If I had not had the opportunity to own a Tak I would have been very curious though. There is so much talked about on forums about them these days, some of it quite sensible 😉

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Where are these mythical figures? 🤔🤣

Somewhere having just as much fun but still with a lot better bank balances !

20 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

....The other thing to say is that I’ve no intention of selling my Starwave. I think it stands up very well to the premium scopes. It’s robust, the tube is nice and short with the dew shield retracted which makes it easy to transport and the focuser is great. I’m very sentimentally attached to it also. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed with the views through any of these scopes!

I agree and that seems to chime with the excellent comparative review that @Mr Spock did comparing the Starfield 102mm ED and the Tak FC-100 DF:

Test and Comparison: Starfield 102mm F7 ED Doublet v Takahashi FC-100 DF f7.4 Doublet (Fluorite) - Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups - Stargazers Lounge

I suppose the question that is often in the minds of some is "if there is so little performance difference in return for such a substantial additional cost, why do level headed astronomers spend their hard earned money on the "premium" brands ?"

Not sure we will ever answer that one !! 😁

8 hours ago, Mandy D said:

@John Not your mistake, as what you posted is a direct quote, but, in what universe is 11 461 000 "nearly 10 times further" than 1 833 000? My calculator says about 5 times further or six times as far.

I missed that minor detail. Luckily I'm not trying to navigate between Callisto and Himalia currently !

I found this information posted on another forum, which seems helpful:

"There are two problems with Jupiter's smaller moons. First, they are small, so don't reflect much light. Secondly, they are close to one of the brightest objects in the sky, so tend to be washed out by Jupiter's brilliance. So you need a large aperture to even see the tiny specks of light, and then good quality, high contrast optics that won't be overwhelmed by stray light from Jupiter.

The Galilean moons range in brightness from 4.6 to 5.6 magnitude. The next brightest moons are Amalthea (14.1) and Himalia (14.6). Stars of magnitude 14.1 to 14.6 require at least an aperture of 250mm (10-inch) to be visible, and even then they require perfectly dark skies, high magnification, and a trained eye. Amalthea orbits very close to Jupiter, 181,400 km as compared to 421,800 km for Io, so it will be completely overwhelmed by Jupiter except in the largest telescopes. Himalia orbits much farther away, 11,461,000 km, nearly 10 times farther than Callisto (1,883,000 km). As a result, Himalia is the most frequently observed non-Galilean moon. All the other moons of Jupiter are 16th magnitude or fainter, making them very difficult to see visually. Most have been discovered photographically."

Get practically any scope under skies like that (including the Starwave 70) and the views will be superb 🙂

I have a Starwave 70.  I've been very impressed by what it can do. Taks show you everything that the given aperture can show and their images are very, very refined. They are still subject to the constraints that aperture brings though in terms of light grasp and resolution. 

I bought a Tak 100mm F/9 a few years back, probably for reasons similar to those you might have - curiosity being the main one. It has turned out to be exactly what I hoped and expected - a truly superb 100mm refractor for visual use (which is what I do). No more, no less 🙂

My Skywatcher ED120 goes fainter, splits tighter double stars and shows a little more planetary and lunar detail than my Tak 100, but then it should with 20mm additional aperture to play with.

My whole Starwave 70 outfit (scope, finder, diagonal, fitted case) cost as much as the focuser upgrade that I put on my Tak, which is sometimes a sobering thought !

The most I've seen are the 4 Galilean moons, even with my 12 inch dob.

I have seen Neptunes moon Triton with my 12 inch dob and my 5.1 inch refractor and also the two Uranian moons Titania and Oberon. 

I've still not managed to see Phobos or Deimos at Mars.