Moonlit Knight

30 minutes ago, Which one is Polaris said:

I am happy to hear of any improvements possible in my workflow.

Me too, to be honest. I was considering posting it as a new topic to look for some kind of consensus, if that was possible. 
 

It would also be interesting to see how people manage other scopes other than refractors. I have owned a couple of dobs, but that over 10 years ago now and I honestly can’t remember what I used to do. 

On 30/11/2022 at 14:03, CCD-Freak said:

 

At that time I thought a long white tube on a heavy EQ mount is what a telescope is supposed to look like.

I think you will find you were right the first time…

The last Telrad I had I could not for the life of me align it consistently, who knows why, the other one was fine. I quite like optical finders, I just don’t find them as accurate or useful as a RDF. The WO I use is a wonderful thing, 75 quid I think it was. I aligned it 3 years ago and haven’t touched it since, perfect. Light too compared to optical finders. I also had a Baader RDF, the big one. Over a 100 quid I think but amazingly good quality. I never had any problems. 

I would be very interested hear what others think…

12 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

The DioptRx only corrects astigmatism after the image has passed through the telescope.

It is the equivalent of a multi-coated high end pair of glasses that are polished better than glasses.

It does not correct distance vision.  If you observe with one and are myopic, you will still need infocusing to get to focus.

If you observe with a coma corrector and are myopic, you will need to move the eyepieces closer to the coma corrector lens than their normal positions if myopic, and farther if hyperopic.

Glasses may be the better alternative if you use a coma corrector due to this.

 

The TeleVue chart is somewhat liberal, as a critical observer will see astigmatism at a smaller exit pupil on that chart than is indicated.

It's a pretty good average, though, for determining at what exit pupil you might need to apply astigmatism correction.

 

The DioptRx seems to work best on eyepieces of narrower field of view (<80°) because, like glasses, they distort if you look through the lens at a sharp angle, as you might do to look at the edge of the field

in an eyepiece of 80°+ with direct vision.  And you will still need glasses to read notes or look at an atlas.

In my case, I needed correction for naked eye stars, reading my notes, and the screen on my DSCs as well as all eyepieces longer than 9mm.

Glasses were the simplest and easiest solution.  I would have needed 7 DioptRx lenses and I still would have to wear glasses away from the scope.

And, because I use a dob, every time the eyepiece changes altitude or every time I look through at a slightly different angle, the DioptRx would need to be rotated.

With glasses, they're on and done.

The DioptRx seems to be a solution for someone who pretty much has ONLY astigmatism to correct but otherwise isn't significantly near or far sighted or presbyopic, and who doesn't use ultrawide or hyperwide eyepieces.

I just wish I could get glasses made to that level of polish and coating.

Excellent, thank you.

I also throughly dry the outside of the scope with a clean towel (obviously no where near any glass) 

I just cleaned mine, every couple of years is quite enough for me

I know nothing about them other than what they do, can you use them with any kind of scope?

I would expect it to be outstanding, it’s the same as the APM number 

3 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

I've been told that leaving the telescope lens covers off to 'breath' when it comes back into the warm house, isn't necessarily the best way. 🙄

Personally I take the lens cap off and leave the tube open over night. I leave my eyepiece case open along with my mount case to until the morning. On very occasions objectives collect few and even ice at the zenith. Not sure how many of use would leave that capped and locked away inside a bag or case.

 I do understand the rationale, just not sure how one gets the temperature down slowly and steadily enough to prevent condensation forming with the cap on without turning the objective into a really expensive petri dish

Dew spots, worry not 

I saw perhaps 8 or 9 around 11.30 to midnight, some good ones too

On 27/06/2022 at 22:15, badhex said:

I had forgotten I'd posted this! I actually solved it with TS-Optics handle I managed to miss the first time round (not hard on their site, it was filed under some obscure category). You can see it on this picture - it's loads easier now to mount/unmount or adjust balance. 

So I  bought one of those from TS, I also ended up buying a longer 11 inch dovetail so I can fit it. There are just somethings that need sorting, this was one of them.

That’s probably the best option 

1 hour ago, KP82 said:

I've got the WO short handle on my 80EDT. The end M6 holes are exactly 120mm apart.

IMHO for any short (< f/8) sub 4 inch scopes, there aren't any benefit with losmandy dovetails compared to vixen.

I have mine mounted on a TeleVue Gibraltar HD4 with a ADM conversion which allows for both formats, but the Losmandy is at the top and so gives me a little more space mounting my scope. And anyway I have had enough close calls with vixen dovetails in the past to put me off. The other thing about the wide base of the Losmandy is that it sits nice and stable on top of my case while I am adding kit

Well I have to say I would quite like a handle myself. I have seen a number of threads about handles including variations on this scope. One of the difficulties I have found finding a handle is the length of my dovetail. I use a Losmandy which when fitted to the tube rings only gives me 100 mm for the centre holes of any handle. If anyone has any ideas as to either lengthen the dovetail spacing (only two bolts fit, one the slider) or a handle which might fit. I recently tried one from FLO but it didn’t fit.

On 19/11/2022 at 16:54, Stephenstargazer said:

 

The Bauhaus of astronomy chairs 🥸

Tis

On 30/09/2022 at 23:37, HollyHound said:

My Berlebach observing chair was the single best purchase I ever made…. The comfort and relaxation during observing sessions is worth the price many times over 😃

Yeah I bought one too, wondering thing 

On 18/04/2020 at 02:25, Louis D said:

Is this a common problem with the Baader Clicklock?  Up until now, I've only read glowing praise of the BC.

I have had it happen and I know a couple of other guys who had the same issue over the years, a right hassle to get them free.
 

Personally I wouldn’t touch them, I don’t think they are anything like the quality people seem to think they are 

Hey and welcome 

4 hours ago, Louis D said:

@Moonlit Knight and @Neil H, are Celestron Omni Plossls really that much better than FLO's Astro Essentials Plossls to justify them costing double the price (or more in the case of the 32mm and 40mm)?  The 6mm to 15mm COPs are only £16 less than the BST Starguiders at FLO while the 32mm and 40mm COPs are £10 more than the BSTs.  The COPs don't seem like much of a value proposition to me when starting out.  Am I missing something when people recommend them?

I just think the build quality is a little nicer. As I mentioned earlier I would of course recommend the BST in the first instance 

Excellent starting outfit, good choice. If I was to up grade eye pieces and depending how much money I had I would buy either some Starguider/BST explorers in the first instance and if I could not afford those I would buy Celestron Omni

Have you thought about a SW Aero? Not expensive and rather good at the price I thought. You can get them in 30, 35 and 40 mm. TS service sell them under their own brand