ED Splitter

Thanks. What reference do you search in sky safari?

Pardon my ignorance but how long will this be visible for?

Wonderful setup. Have often wondered whether the 50ed could be used this way. Any chance of a full product spec list in a post with a link to the fabricator you used? Thanks.

Thanks. That is my incoming Father’s Day present. I have the Cambridge star atlas that is very good, just wished it had a larger format size.

An incredible scope. Certainly on my dream list. what star chart is in the background. Always interested in books, I can afford those.

Welcome back, will look forward to your future posts. currently pondering whether caravans in Norfolk are too expensive or houses on the continent are too cheap🤔

As much as I detest light pollution and believe we over illuminate the night, this proposed legislation will never happen. It’s a move from regulatory to punitive legislation. it will act to aggravate people who see benefits of artificial lighting, in short a wedge politics fight that will divide the two camps. Put it this way, think how the daily wail will report it. Better to use time and energy to educate people and reach out to commercial businesses to improve practices and where people won’t listen to reason take them to task using statutory nuisance as a basis for complaint with EHOs at the Council. I have often thought that schools would be a good place to get a message out. Schools are cash strapped at the moment and particularly in case of primary schools lack a scientific syllabus. A good opportunity exists for local astronomy clubs to go into schools and offer an education on astronomy or in winter run after school clubs to teach the night sky and the damage of light pollution. I am a service lead in a local government authority and I am a school governor. If anybody wants assistance on how to pursue complaints re statutory nuisance or how to approach a local school to partner the syllabus I am happy to discuss on message or via this thread.

As has been said before there is always something to see, clouds permitting. look forward to what’s coming rather than at what you missed. A good free resource is sky at night YouTube channel that gives a heads up to usual deep sky objects and solar system specials. it won’t be long til the Summer Triangle is up. Now there’s a chunk of easy to surf sky that’s full of targets… ring nebula being just mesmerising.

Hi Pete, Is this your first scope? If so it’s an incredibly exciting time just willing those clouds to disperse. Lots of good advice has been given here already. If you are starting out you may not know what you want to observe so everything sounds appealing. So where to start? Well you are set for wide viewing at the moment with the bundled 28mm kellner, it will serve you well if you are staring out, you will want to upgrade it at some point but it’s not going to spoil your viewing especially if you don’t have experience of something better. Rather than say spending £25 on seven or so eyepieces I would recommend you spend that entire budget on one good eyepiece. As you have a lower power wide eyepiece already I think something that offers more power would be of use. We have seen the best of the planets for now so look at a medium power around 9mm. The second hand market will give you a greater return for your money and if it doesn’t suit your enjoyment or targets you can sell it on for no loss as prices are stable. Naglers and XWs can be had for £180 or Morpheus for the £160 mark. It’s an investment but one that pays. Cheaper eye pieces are available used but as the saying goes the more you pay the more you save 😎 If you want to keep to new products and if you’re just starting out I can understand that. Instead look at open box displays or returns. FLO did have a few starter eyepieces at a good discount. Keep checking on their offers page. Alternatively you could invest in a good zoom like a baader mk4 which is excellent to look at the moon. This offers several eyepieces in one form factor. Use it to work out which magnification suits you best for your chosen targets. Think I saw one on the buy and sell here for £150. Exit pupils are something to consider. I won’t get into it now, go on YouTube and search for it. Chris, a forum member, has a YouTube channel called astalavist. He did a great video on eyepieces that explains this concept very well. FOV is a personal taste, from a practical point of view if your mount doesn’t track then you will be less frustrated by a wider field of view. Eye relief is how close you have to be to the eyepiece to find the light cone. Something to consider if you wear glasses to correct a stigmatism. There are many factors that go into considering eyepieces. It’s very easy to become overwhelmed when starting out and whilst everyone is helpful in giving in advice unfortunately the only way of finding out what suits you is for you to actually use different eyepieces and experience them for yourself. Do you have a local group you could join? Look out for some stargazing events in your locality. If you get stuck in a purchasing decision and want to bounce ideas feel free to send me a pm on the messages and we can have a chat. clear skies

Turn left is fantastic. It is great as an introduction but then continues to give long after. I would also recommend interstellarum though that might overwhelm if you are just starting out. That said turn left doesn’t always convey scale accurately, it took me a long while to realise the enormous size of some of the targets.

Oh, you tease!

Only managed to see them together in the finder yesterday, whilst not the 31nagler hope to see them in a 27 pan tomorrow. Weather doubtful at moment.

How have you found using this since purchase?

Hi all, I am after some advice as not sure if what I want to achieve is a sound idea. Any opinions would be appreciated. At this time I have a short term aim to move the finder scope from the synta focuser shoe further up the tube. I expect this to involve new rings and plates etc. I have no idea what is required for this and would welcome some recommendations to consider. The primary reason is to improve comfort particularly with any observations at the zenith. At the moment I am using the standard finder that comes with the 100ED which is a 7x50 I think. I have a three way splitter on the 100ED focuser shoe foot that is also carrying a baader sky surfer V. The third slot is empty. In addition I think it’s relevant to set out a future aim of double stacking a second smaller refractor on top of the 100ED such as a 60mm Takahashi or equivalent, which would also act as a standalone future travel scope. Whilst at home a second such scope would be used as a very nice wide field viewer/finder scope. Some objects/targets lend themselves better to a wide finder like view, where the finder scope provides a better viewing experience e.g Pleiades. In terms of the standard finder scope I am noting the limitations of its design such as triangular stars and rapid fall off of field curvature from centre to edge. I would at some stage seek to improve this with the above idea. From what I can gather the 100ed is a fine performer in medium to high zoom views but isn’t well suited to wide field views, happy to be corrected here. I mention this future aspiration as I would want want to avoid abortive purchases. It would be great if any advice for immediate need of shifting the finder mount up the tube were to be be future proofed for my aspirations re double stack. My initial thoughts are replacement machined rings and a Losmandy base with vixen bar on top but don’t know if this is the right path. Some points of note. I am a visual observer only, at present I have no real dew prevention save a cheap band off Amazon and a mobile power bank. If a mount set up could carry a dew controller and power source so much the better. I like things neat and would prefer to avoid cables dangling etc. My current mount is a basic eq5 deluxe manual only. I am only a year into owning a telescope and I am enjoying manual observing as it’s helping me to learn the night sky. I have no desire to ever venture into Astro photography. One day it might be nice to have a plate solve auto guide setup, but for now my enthusiasm doesn’t require it. Any advice would be great. Many thanks.

Great images and write ups everyone. Hope you all got some sleep and have warmed up and de dewed yourselves. I have had to open up the posh Christmas rocket fuel coffee this morning to make the eyes stay open, can’t delay the inevitable commute to work any longer. Look forward to reading more discussion later.

I have reappearance worked out at around 5:53 for me, what time do you have for your location?

Well the blasted clouds put me off getting the scope out for the Mars and moon interaction but managed to see with naked eye the close approach of Mars to the disc of the moon.

Thanks for sharing. Now I know what my kids can get me for Christmas.

It’s gone. Did anyone buy it?

I managed to see the moon dance too. It really lived up to the hype. Thrilling to watch. wasn’t to shabby last night either, Jupiter and the four moons to one side in a neat line and Mars finally due east before midnight. What with the eclipse on Tuesday it’s been a fantastic week.

Well the big easy ones coming to northern skies at reasonable times are Pleiades and Orion Nebula. Orion is spectacular but it’s so obvious. My personal favourites are the ring nebula and the double cluster. They are two incredible targets that really take your breath away.

Quick session last night. Testing out a recently acquired Pentax xw5mm. already had a vixen 5mm slv and I did ponder the purchase, would I see a good return etc. As I still need a good lower power eyepiece. I started with the vixen in the scope pointing at Saturn to remind myself of the slv capabilities as a baseline. Saturn looked the best I have ever seen through it, could make out Cassini division and cloud belts but the image was overall dim and you could clearly make out imperfections in the eyepiece glass. It was also frustrating to track as 45degree wide FOV isn’t forgiving on a manual mount. I then swapped out the slv for the xw, I was expecting an improvement in contrast and field of view but it was significantly more. No imperfections, crystal clear and what appeared to be a somewhat brighter appearance in overall presentation that had good contrast not washed out. Eye relief should be the same for both but xw felt superior I can only put this down to field of view and giving an impression of this as an improvement. It has restored my faith in the ability of the 100ED to show high mag views. For the last few months I had limited mag to a 9mm nagler which was far superior to slv albeit smaller. I then switched to Jupiter and could make out Io outside the planet disc and it’s shadow clearly on the planet disc. Seeing wasn’t great, previously I needed a filter to make out a shadow transit at 9mm which always felt a bit of cheat and artificial in presentation. I went back to Saturn for 10mins of wonderful viewing and finished splitting the double double in Lyra something I couldn’t do with the SLV. Overall a fantastic outing considering poor conditions and being limited to one focal length of eyepiece. clear skies.

Any excuse to buy a nice eyepiece is a welcome one. can’t wait to see pictures of the setup once finished. Scared to read the final bill.

I would agree. You don’t know what you’re missing until you see it and experience a wide eye piece. Going back to a 45 degree FOV after a 68 or 82 is like looking down a straw. Less an issue if your mount tracks but still intrusive. I used to think wide pieces were an unnecessary luxury but since trying them I have been converted. A zoom is nice for mixed seeing conditions where you can feel for the limit of seeing and of course for looking at the moon.

Hi and welcome.