Coolhand1988

Thanks all for the alternative ways of getting the paint colours. As a last resort, this could be the only way of getting 'cheap' paint for a Takahashi scope.

I have emailed another US dealer and explained that these paints are completely unavailable in the UK and Takahashi Europe. 

Hopefully, I may get a positive outcome this time.

Thanks

It appears that Japanese Takahashi dealer only sells the green paint. I could not find the white or even the light blue paint.

Thanks

Ian from FLO already replied to my query( should really re-check my emails ). 

The paints are only available in the US from Takahashi North America and no dealer outside the US can source them. ( that's the reason I ordered directly from the US retailer).

If that's the case, why did the US retailer cancelled my order? They ship other items abroad. 

Still confused by all this. However, that Japanese dealer could be my last hope.......for paint?  ridiculous!

Thanks

Edit

Just incase.  Does any member here know the exact colours that Takahashi use on their scopes. Dulux do a colour chart for reference.

6 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

This Tak dealer in Japan sends abroad: https://www.kyoei-osaka.jp

 

Many thanks for that link.

I see if FLO can source these items first. If not, I will try the Takahashi dealer in Japan.

Thanks

Hi 

Oops, I already contacted FLO about these paints and on another rare item for my scope.

Ian replied that these paints are manufactured by Takahashi North America and he cannot source their products. He is waiting for a response from Takahashi Europe on this matter. It's been a week, so I will ask for an update.

There is a Takahashi 8x50 finder that I am currently eyeing up.  That paint would of come in handle for that.

Just wanted to get my scope looking like new.

Frustrating to say the least🙁

Thanks

Hi

Yes, that's exactly why I ordered them from the states.

Green paint TA-TTP0002

White paint TA-TTP0003

Not sure if FLO or any other UK takahashi retailers can order the paint from the same retailer in the U.S?

Is this a Brexit or Takahashi agreement? I mean it's only paint!

Thanks

Hi

I just had my U.S order for the Takahasi green and white paint bottles cancelled and refunded.

Apparently, the retailer is not authorized to send Takahashi items to the UK, as there are Takahashi retailers here.

Last time I checked, these paints where unavailable in the UK or Europe.

Does anyone know of the white and green paint colour codes, that Takahashi use on their scopes?

Thanks

Thanks, I will recheck my original information on recommended pier depths. 

27 minutes ago, bwj said:

@Coolhand1988, for me, the 48" depth is necessary for my location. You may not need to go that deep where you are. I see a lot of posts on here from people in the UK that aren't anywhere near that deep. Check with your local building code people,  they can give you a recommendation for footing depth.

Take care, 

Clear Skies!

Thanks for that advice and yes, around 24-30 inches seems more common in the UK.

12 hours ago, bwj said:

Take a look at this thread and a few others on "Clody Nights". The pier engineering thread is long, but has lots of information. There are also a lot of other threads there where people share their pier construction.

I'm also planning my ROR.  My pier foundation will ideally be 12" diameter concrete 4 feet deep to get below frost line. 

I would definitely go for the offer to build a steel pier.

Clear Skies!

Thanks, I have read of frost line and the 48 inches figure. Also, I found that post over at CN with 29 pages, so I have a good read on that later.

ATS permanent piers are and look the part. Tad expensive, but I believe unavailable for the UK.

The other interesting thing about that video was the so called 'Poor Seeing' conditions having an input on these so called mounts as well.  

Thanks

I'm no expert but I believe that vendor was talking about the rat cage bolts on commercial piers being too far from the center. ?

I read one review on a commercial pier, where the owner was not happy with his pier "singing" and filled the inside of the pier with sand, which cured the vibration sounds.

Rat cages on cement filled piers have long support bolts and I don't think that applies to the above video!

Thanks

29 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

@Coolhand1988

This hole is 60cm x 60cm x 60cm.  A 120cm x 120cm x 120 seems ambitious 

 

Oops, that should of read 28 inches. The 48 inches is my ideal metal pier height.

Thanks 

Ac

6 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I think unless you make your pier out of a potato, it’ll be perfectly adequate.   And it’s not all about the pier itself, but what you bolt the pier to.

If your brothers offering a pier id accept that offer personally, and try to incorporate some of your preferred features into it.

I’ve had a couple of concrete piers with rats cages (poured inside a sewer pipe) and now I have a heavy duty metal pier.  Can’t say I noticed any differences.

All were incorporated/bolted onto a large sunken cube of concrete about 70x70x70cm.

 

Actually the pier will  be made of cardboard😊

As I said, I have no experience with permanent piers. I'm only going by that video.  

I plan for the cube of concrete to be around 48 inches in all dimensions.

Thanks for the feedback on your piers.

Eventually, I'm planning to have a RoR observatory with a permanent pier.

After watching numerous YT videos on DIY and commercial piers, my brother( who is DIY handy ) offered to make a DIY Pier, as it would only cost a fraction of the price.

However,  I'm more inclined to have a commercial pier instead and I have been looking at a few vendors.

With my selection narrowed down to a few,  I then watched a very interesting and slightly old YT video from a commercial company called "Astro Engineering". They explained and went into depth how many of these commercial piers are designed wrong. The main negatives were a small base, short vibration fins and the famous 'rat cage'.

As I have no experience with permanent piers, can I ask members who have, comment on their experiences?

The video below is 13 years old and probably been seen countless times, but I would be interested what experience members think?

Thanks

On 17/10/2023 at 13:43, Louis D said:

True.  I've got a pair of 26mm Sirius Plossls that are not usable with eyeglasses because of eye lens recession.  I've measure the pair to have only 11mm of usable eye relief.

Even my GSO and Sirius 32mm Plossl pair each have only 15mm of usable eye relief due to eye lens recession.  They are usable with eyeglasses.

My 20mm SVBONY 68° Ultra Wide Angle pair have 14mm of usable eye relief and are comfortable to use with eyeglasses.  So far, these are my favorite pair for BVs.

My vintage ~17mm Bausch & Lomb Wide Field 15x pair of microscope eyepieces have 19mm of usable eye relief and are a close second favorite pair to use in a BV.  Since they are designed to minimize RMD, AMD is more obvious.  However, I've never noticed this issue BV'ing.

Interesting. I have read that stated eye relief can vary somewhat from true eye relief. With small to medium focal length eyepieces, a Barlow can increase the eye relief as well, where a Tele-extender does not.

The televue Delites and Delos EPs have the actual stated ER, according to reviews and testers.

The Baader Morpheus reviews have the stated ER as well, but I believe the smaller Focal length EPs needs the rubber eye guard down for this?

The above eyepiece brands and types are my preferred choices, along with a couple of long focal length plossls.

Thanks

1 hour ago, dweller25 said:

I use TV Plossls down to 20mm, I tried the 15mm’s but the eye relief was too small when wearing glasses.

There are a few sites like FLO, which give their EP range information on eye relief.  The 15mm TV plossel ER is 10mm. The 20mm ER is 14mm.

It has been mentioned on this thread that the same ER will differ from person to person.  If you can go down to 14mm of ER wearing glasses, then you have more EP options.

I will start at 20mm ER, then buy a couple of TV plossls( 25mm and 20mn ) to test my minimum ER for wearing glasses.

Thanks

7 hours ago, Bivanus said:

@Coolhand1988 what I've found out in my curent travell - that also makes me a bit slow on the answers - is that on the other side of the pond the Tele Vue Plossls 32mm and 25mm are well regarded by eyeglass user astronomers in general and  by binoviewer users in particular. Since I'm still eyeglassles 😅I went the Nagler way for now , with a 24mm Panoptic to boot .  

 Hi

I did have a detailed look at the Televue Plossels. The 55mm version is already on my list.

If I decided to go down the bino route at some point, the TV plossels are at a budget where I can purchase two EPs for bino viewing.

Thanks

Wow, this is quite impressive. Some of their items are the same or cheaper than second hand items. Shame it all ends tonight.

Thanks

5 hours ago, JOC said:

This another thread in what is a popular subject on SGL.  I am a spectacle wearer I have a respectably strong prescription and a touch of prism in my lenses.  There is an awful lot of mathematical stuff written about what people should and shouldn't be able to see through EP wise both from the perspective of wearing your specs at the EP if you need to wear them normally, not wearing specs at the EP if you normally need to wear them and even similar conversations from people that don't normally wear glasses yet still struggle to see through some EP's.   Eye relief def. plays a part, but at the end of the day everyone is different and what works for one person may for any number of reasons not work for another.  I am def. neither a regular telescope user nor any form of expert in the matter, but I have a mixed box of EP's including some good branded ones and would like to offer up my common sense based observations on the basis of my own experience.

1.  The only EP I've ever completely failed with is a 10 or 11mm Televue Plossl which had eye relief of about 7-8mm I bought that second hand and resold it at no loss.  On that basis maybe things with longer eye relief are easier to use overall whether you wear specs or not and I think from what I read that seems true.

2.  Just because an EP works for someone it might not work for you.  Try buying EP's second hand, try them and resell what doesn't work for you.  Once they have reached second-hand price they seem to change hands at around that mark ad infinitum within a reasonable time period.  You can read threads like this all day, but even if you buy something that someone recommends it might not work.

3.  Don't assume that because you have to wear specs day to day, that you need to wear them at the telescope - I often remove mine and just adjust for focus with the telescope.  FWIW I also find that if I am snorkelling I don't need my specs on to see enough with - looking through the water makes a huge difference.  There are def. some things that you might find you can take specs off for.  A bit like removing them to thread a needle.  Some prescriptions are designed for short and some for long distances, not to mention varifocals - it therefore stands to reason, that not all specs might lend themselves to use at the EP - try taking them off and see how you get on.  

4.  I personally find I get on best with the 'hover above the EP' approach - I am no big fan of the rubber EP guards and mostly fold them down whether I have my specs on or not.   I guess if you are a DSO nut then perhaps the light exclusion from the eye cups is useful, but I am not that dedicated.  FWIW a couple of cheap bar stools one set higher and one set low is a useful investment to sit on and helps you stay still when 'hovering'.  Another advantage to hovering is you are almost automatically compensating for a  little bit of the focus esp. if you don't have your specs on.  However, just because it works for me it might not work for you.  Get a couple of second-hand EP's and get out there.  If they work for you in some way hang onto them - if they don't sell them on and have another bash.

Thanks for your very detailed advice.

I completely agree about deciding to wear or not wear glasses when observing and first hand experience when trying out different eyepieces.

If I was short sighted, i'm more in favour not to wear glasses when observing. That's just my day to day experience being long sighted. 

It will be interesting to see how low on eye relief I can go and still observe comfortably at the eyepiece.

Thanks

6 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

Vixen NPLs have twist up eyecups.  However, they're either up or down.  If you want an intermediate position all you need to do is add an elastic band or hairgrip at the desired position.

Thanks, I have just looked at these. The EPs have good customer reviews and their prices are amazingly low.

However the eye relief, has one of the lowest I have seen yet under 15mm FL. The 4mm only has 2.3mm ER.

So far, the Baader Morpheus and the Stellalyra EPs are in the medium end range for my budget and glasses friendly.

Also a quality Barlow or tele-extender, if I decide not to get the lower FL eyepieces, as the former should increase the eye relief for EPs.

Thanks

5 hours ago, Zermelo said:

If you want to try one, you could consider the 10mm BCO.

It performs very well for its price, and the eye relief isn't too bad (not good enough for glasses though).

Interesting review by J.Huntley on these eyepieces. Good budget as well. 

2 hours ago, Ricochet said:

The "look" of them is a Vixen deisgn, and the NLV Plossl range have something very similar. Other eyepieces with twist up eyecups are the BST Starguiders, Pentax XWs, UWANs/Old Nirvanas, Old Meade 5000 SWA/ES Maxvision and probably more that I've forgotten. Televue Delos/Delite have adjustable eyecups via outer barrel sections that slide up and down and are secured at the desired height with a lock ring. 

Thanks for that information.

I was unsure what other eyepieces have the twist up eyecups.

56 minutes ago, John said:

 Not sure whether I qualify as "old hand" or not ? 🤔

Lol, going by your very long refractor profile pic, I thought you was.

9 minutes ago, DeanCJ said:

I forgot to mention that I also wear glasses but I remove them when I am observing, which can be amusing, or annoying for my wife, especially when I can’t see to find them, or when I have managed to sit on them.

I was debating about wearing glasses or not when observing. 

I was quoted about wearing glasses straps/cords around my neck when observing without them. Knowing me, I would forget they were there and start looking for them 😄

As I no longer have any of my old eyepieces, I will be starting from scratch and it would make sense to use EPs with long eye reliefs. 

However, Im still tempted by one of the TV Ethos EPs. 

Thanks

51 minutes ago, DeanCJ said:

Although not a wide field eyepiece, have you considered the Vixen SLV range? Myself I quite like the 50° view,especially for lunar and planetary.
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-slv-eyepieces.html              
Each focal length has a quoted eye relief of 20mm. 
I have SLV’s from 9 to 25mm and although I have never viewed through a top tier eyepiece I do find that for the price, the SLV’s are very nice, and not too expensive. If you shop around they can be found second hand at a very reasonable price.

These indeed look very nice and glasses friendly as welI. I like the adjustable eyecups, unsure if that is a unique design for these eyepieces?

I was trying to stick to one or two brands and a higher AFOV, which is why I failed to look at any 50 FOV EPs.

My very first and now old EPs had a narrow FOV between 40 and 50 and I always wanted a much higher FOV for newer EPs.

I wonder if the 'old hand' observers still stick to these smaller FOV eyepieces?

Thanks

33 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

I wear varifocals when observing and have found 15mm eye relief to be the lowest I can go (18mm Orthos), around 20mm eye relief I find is more comfortable.

Varifocals will be my next pair. I have around a 2 foot viewing distance where my bifocals are out of focus on both lens. It's good you can go lower than 20mm for your eye relief. The smaller FL of the Baader Morpheus EPs, are indeed lower than 20mm.

Thanks

5 hours ago, Stu said:

Floater visibility depends on exit pupil, not on eyepiece focal length.

The exit pupil is the diameter of the beam of light entering your pupil, and is calculated by dividing the aperture of the scope by the magnification being used, or aperture * focal length of eyepiece / focal length of scope.

Take two extremes:

A 4mm eyepiece in a 60mm f15 (900mm focal length) refractor scope gives an exit pupil of 0.26mm and a mag of x225

A 4mm eyepiece in a 500mm f4 (2000mm focal length) dobsonian gives an exit pupil of 1mm and a mag of x500

Floaters tend to start being more visible under 1mm and get intrusive below 0.5mm, so the 60mm scope view would be very dark with lots of floaters, the 500mm would be brighter with few or now floaters despite the higher mag.

I suffer from floaters so do use binoviewers for high power lunar and Solar viewing in my refractors. I don’t need them in my 8” or above scopes, and don’t use them for low or medium power views as I prefer a single eyepiece for that.

I may have missed it, but I’m not sure what sort of scope you will be using? Depending on this, you may have to use better quality eyepieces of be able to get away with cheaper ones. Faster scopes eg below about f5 need better quality eyepieces to keep the edge performance acceptable. Televue eyepieces are designed to work down to f4 which is part of the reason for their greater cost.

Also mentioned is that if you don’t have strong astigmatism, you may get away without glasses at all which helps.

Thanks for that information.

I plan to use a 5 to 6 inch EDT or ED F7/8 refractor and a F/10 8 inch or higher SCT. 

Eyepieces will be the Baader Morpheus range and looking at couple of Televue panoptics with medium to long focal lengths. However if my budget permits, the Delos EPs would be my next option instead of the baaders.

My astigmatism is low at 0.25/10d in my right eye only. The TV Dioptrx corrector sounds very good if I decide not to wear glasses, but it will be a worthwhile item for my collection.

Thanks