John

4 hours ago, Stu said:

Unfortunately by the time I went back out again, the seeing had dropped off a bit so the views weren’t as good as they had been in my quick earlier session. Shame.

I found the seeing really variable last night, quite apart from the constant supply of patchy clouds plus a thin, higher haze. I did get some half decent lunar views on and off but mostly off so I didn't have much at all to post about. Gassendi was tempting during the few good moments and some of the rilles popped into view, only to vanish again before I could really study them. A bit frustrating but there will be other nights 🙄

41 minutes ago, Elp said:

Baader De has them on sale among other items right now. The UK site you can't buy them and it refers you to find a dealer. UK dealers have them at the usual prices.

That is a Baader policy then, rather than a UK dealer one ?

20 minutes ago, apaulo said:

No, we get the opposite, then are told baader  pushed the prices up. Just greed.

I must have missed that one. The most recent news on Baader prices that I can find is a 20% sale on the Hyperion range over the Xmas 2022 period.

I had a lot of fun playing around with Chromacor correctors and F/8 achromats a decade or so back. I wonder if a similar optical corrector could be produced today at a much lower cost, using modern glass types ?

The effect of having the wavelengths of light bought back to focus much closer to the same point, rather than filtering the straying ones out, was quite pronounced. The correction of spherical aberration was another important bonus.

Shame that they were such expensive and scarce devices. 

1 hour ago, Ratlet said:

It does seem that the 16mm to 18mm focal length appears to be a particularly difficult focal length with quite a few eyepiece sets struggling in that range, having the weakest of the bunch around there with the quality going back up on either side, particularly for eyepieces with a 60°+ FOV.  That might  just be me justifying shelling out on the Morpheus though.

There was quite a delay between the release of other Morpheus focal lengths and the 17.5mm. I believe that Baader spent some time with the manufacturer to get a product that was of the quality that they wanted for this range. It clearly paid off from the feedback on this eyepiece 🙂

Information on backorders/release of 17.5 mm Morpheus® 76° widefield eyepiece / Baader Planetarium Blog Posts (baader-planetarium.com)

2 hours ago, John said:

Thanks Mike.

I don't tend to think of scopes that way to be honest with you but the sentiment is appreciated 🙂

I clearly angered the goddess of observing with this comment - the clouds thickened quite rapidly after I posted it and now I'm clouded out having just had a few fleeting glimpses of the moon for my troubles. 🙄

Often the planets look better when there is still plenty of light in the sky, as long as you can find them. Jupiter in particular can show stunning contrasts in it's surface features and colour tints that become harder to spot as the background sky darkens.

As for other targets, including DSO's etc, I just wait until later to observe them. When Cygnus is riding high, the Veil Nebula is just wonderful if you have decent UHC or O-III filter - probably my favourite DSO.

Planetary Nebulae seem to show well under most conditions as well. Globular clusters and double stars are great as well, as you mention.

Edit: I've just noticed your location - it's more challenging up there I'm sure.

37 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

I've discovered Ernest's eyepiece reviews where he puts some quantification of some sort on the performance of eyepieces so I can try to draw some conclusions.

I think I've done well so far I that the eyepieces I've got have helped me understand eyepieces better and what I like from them.  I much rather better correction than a wide FOV.  @bosun21 recently pointed out that that I'd been overestimating the FOV of my 32mm plossl by 10° and that's one of my favourite eyepieces.

Fortunately the baader eliminates having to make a choice between fov and correction as it's provides both.

Going to be fun testing it though.  Down to nautical twilight only up here, and won't be long till even that's gone!

Your scopes are all quite fast at or around F/5 so getting a wide field that is well corrected and not costing a small fortune is the challenge. The Morpheus does seem to have ticked those boxes from what I've read 🙂

There used to be an often quoted remark along the lines of: "sharp across the field in a fast scope / wide field of view / low cost: pick any two". Maybe the Morpheus is challenging that ? 

Great report 🙂

I struggle to see more than "the big 4" craterlets with my refractors but I've seen as many as 11 with my 12 inch dob.

Similarly with the Vallis Alpes rille although I know others have spotted it, or parts of it, with their 100mm refractors.

Zeta Herculis is a nice one - for ages it was a great challenge for me and then I managed it (just) with my ED120. I can now see it, if the seeing it decent, with my 100mm so practice does help with these things 🙂

49 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

.....  Hopefully it doesn't start a craving for the rest of the set!

I've found that to be a big issue with really nice eyepieces (which I'm sure the Morpheus is). Trouble is, my resolve not to slide down slippery slopes has proved historically rather weak. When you try something that is clearly better, it's difficult to go back  🙄

21 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

She's looking rather beautiful there John, assuming she is a she?

Thanks Mike.

I don't tend to think of scopes that way to be honest with you but the sentiment is appreciated 🙂

My Tak FC100-DL setup on the Ercole mount for a change. Hoping for some further lunar observation using my newly acquired TOE 4mm eyepiece. The FT micro-pinion focuser is a relatively new addition to this scope as well. I'm not that fussy about focusers generally but I have to say that this FT upgrade is rather good 🙂

14 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Turns out I was wrong.

Pulled the trigger on the Morpheus.  Apparently there is a sale on?  Oh well.  I told the missus they were on sale...

An excellent purchase I'm sure 🙂

I really must try a Morpheus soon - there is just so much positive feedback about them both here and on that other forum.

Very good choice Neil - I'm sure you will love it 🙂

On 28/04/2023 at 11:32, Mike Q said:

Try going from a 10 to a 16 inch... Talk about a jump lol

I operate my society 18 inch from time to time .

I have observed with a 20 inch a few times over the years at star parties - memorable experiences !

In medium apertures it is said that an increase of 4 inches is generally needed to get a really noticeable consistent improvement in the views. 

4 hours ago, The Lapwing said:

In fact the more I think about it the more sense it makes. I had an early Baader, but it literally fell apart. I have had a morbid fear of zooms since then, but I am assuming a 6-3 zoom is, er…Tele Vue quality? 

The TV Nagler zooms are very good quality items. Their price is very high though.

The Svbony 3-8mm zoom is a very similar design, a lot less expensive and offers an even wider zoom range. It could cover all your medium/high/very high magnification needs in one eyepiece. 

I would like to try one of those myself - good call from @Louis D 👍

If your 102mm F/8.6 refractor is of decent quality (is it a Tele Vue 102 perchance ?) you may well find that a 6mm eyepiece is barely pushing it.

With my 102mm and 100mm refractors I find that 5mm - 3mm focal length eyepieces get lots of use in planetary, lunar and double star observing.

Mine in that niche are:

Pentax XW 5mm

Tele Vue Ethos 4.7mm

Takahashi TOE 4mm

Tele Vue Nagler zoom 4mm - 2mm

Pentax XW 3.5mm

Frankly they all seem superb so I'm finding it difficult to pick between them 🙂

I'm sure the Delos and DeLite eyepieces are up there as well 👍

The one in my avatar - Sir Patrick Moore's Cooke 5 inch F/12 🙂

It's not available though so the closest I've got is my TMB/LZOS 5.1 inch F/9.2 triplet. 

I doubt that I will ever own a better scope, in terms of sheer optical quality.

I agree with much of what is being said in this thread but I have to say that in my experience todays hyper-wide eyepieces are superb optical performers. Yes they are bulky and yes they are expensive and no, not everyone enjoys the very wide field of view. But there is much more to their optical performance than just the huge width of the view.

I do enjoy eyepieces with fields from 45 degrees and upwards although I don't own any plossls now. I have owned and enjoyed dozens in the past though. Maybe I've not yet come around the circle 🙂

Sorry to be an "outlier" but I can only speak as I've found 🙂

22 hours ago, John said:

Nice lunar views here tonight.

Interesting comparing the TOE 4mm, Nagler 2-4mm zoom, 4mm HD ortho and 3.5mm XW in my 100mm frac. No overall winner tonight but their presentation of the finer lunar features is subtly different. 

I was quite pleased, given the lunar illumination tonight, to catch some of the tiny craters that make up the Catena Davy crater chain. Fascinating to consider how such features might have been formed.

I can tell my other half that I have seen Susan with my scope tonight - that should be fun 😁

 

 

Slightly better illumination of this area tonight plus an additional 20mm of aperture so the Catena Davy is showing some of Susan's friends as well. Thinnish cloud filtering things now and then and more cloud on it's way so I'm making the best of it while I can tonight 🙂

I've owned a couple of the Aero ED 30mm's. They are better corrected than the Panaview 32 but not in the same league as a number of the other options being discussed here. I found they worked well enough in my refractors from F/7.5 and slower but not so good in the F/6.5 or F/5.3 dob.

My own ~30mm eyepiece is the Nagler 31 but those are fearsomely expensive these days. Mine was bought used over a decade back and no 2nd mortgage was needed back then 🙄

I've bought all my OO scopes (3 of them) on the used market so I've side stepped their customer service. I found that I also benefitted from the quite substantial depreciation that seems to afflict OO scopes 🙄

5 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

If anyone is interested in the Circle-T orthos, ENS has a 25mm, 9mm, 7mm, 2x 6mm and a 4mm at the moment. I have a look there regularly as I'm looking for the elusive 5mm.

They did have a 5mm Circle-T a week or so back but it went quickly - I had thought that you might have snagged it !

If my skies were Bortle 7 I would not have been so enthused about aperture either. Fortunately, they are better than that.

3 hours ago, Elp said:

I initially bought a 1.25/2 inch diagonal for future proofing. But having a mix will just complicate things, as well as 2 inch pieces costing significantly more. I wish Pentax did a 1.25 30mm, I'd be done then.

Pentax used to do a 28mm 1.25 inch eyepiece - the 28mm XL. The smaller barrel size restricted the AFoV to 55 degrees. It's quite hard to find.

PS: This thread probably ought to be in the eyepiece section ?