Naughty Neal

Great review Michael and certainly yes ,100% a bargain of the century.  To put it mildly if one makes use of the 0.5mm settings between the main stops one is getting a  very good multi FL EP which accrues to approx £8 for each  FL of 0.5mm (if bought at the bargain price of £80).  

Purists will still want their fixed FL favourite EP's but for travelling and weight an all in one EP,  for those on a budget a must have EP which with a  pair of quality EPs in the 15 - 30mm range will be all that  is required.

A bit like Nessie, fuel  to keep the conspiritulists going for years.

Could be an interesting talking point esp as an April 1st story.

On 20/04/2024 at 10:09, Sunshine said:

Early bedtime meant I couldn’t wait for moon to be visible in my back garden so the driveway it was. Good thing lunar observing amd street lights aren’t an issue.

What's the UFO playing at,  at 2 oclock ?

Height might depend on comfort, some like to stand ideal for straight thru viewing .   

Others will like to be seated esp if using mirrors/prisms and  at the eyepiece for some time, there is no one answer.

When I get home form my night shift of an weekend evening Saturday am - Monday am at 03.40hrs , I neither  bother  now about setting up .  Now the clocks have gone fwd it's isn't too long before the dawn brightness suddenly creeps in.  

Last night by eye alone the seeing here wasn't great , even Polaris wasn't discernable neither were any other of the major players in the two Ursa's.

21 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Hi John it's this one not got a name on it but it's a mirror diagonal. 

Paul 

Looks pretty much like a generic diagonal seen for sale in various places  , the side panel fluting looks the same as a Skywatcher or Stellamira. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't a generic size used and  the same as  Syywatcher use on Skytee2 or EQ5.

That reminds me that I  haven't posted a pic of my new solar  wegd e yet from my little spending spree.

I haven't decided yet but have the f12.5 80mm Scopetech  or the f11 102ed Ascent but suspect it will be for the latter.

The 80mm will likely be confined for solar use with a wedge.

The white OTA on the Balck SP will look very contrasty.

I have cheated here and copy & pasted  the pic from the 'For sale' section.

Postman  today was Stu and we had  pre arranged  a location to meet up  on his journey  home for the weekend  to hand over the SP Gem combo.. Fortunately I knew of an easy location that only diverted Stu a matter of a few hundred yards off the M25 so he could then simply rejoin to continue his Westward journey.

The SP GEM and tripod  now resides with me.

 I know the age of these are at least some 30 or more years old now but the quality remains as does  butter smooth movement of the pivots/beairngs.

The tripod isn't too bad but obviously has some wear marks and scratches for the many years it has been around .

At some stage in the summer I will likely remove all the wood and give it a light wire wool and then a nice coat of clear Briwax.

1 hour ago, quasar117 said:

To put me at ease somewhat, I have carried out an observation of a far away conifer tree branch from the kitchen - with patio doors open as it was drizzling outside a bit.

At 238x magnification the small leaves and branches were sharp - however, appeared  to oscillate in and out of focus to my eye. 

I assume the oscillation of focus was due to warm air currents inside the kitchen being drawn outside to the patio causing disturbance. Either that or my eye was having trouble keeping focus.

In summary though, I'm more confident that last night's observation, or lack of.... was due to the poor seeing conditions and not the optics, which is a relief.

Eager for another clear night now though!

On another note - I'm loving the Baader SF III. It really makes target acquisition a breeze. The Vixen GP is also really a joy to operate, slo mos are definitely for me.

 

 

Oh dear, even daylight is working against you . 

At least somewhat one can rule out any issue with the new SF and of course your EP's , which of course you know are fine.

Try this very simple.

BBC Four - The Sky at Night, Make a solar filter

Use it on some far away landscape dayight targets to put your mind at rest regarding clarity and then one can simply put down last nights poor seeing down to atmospheric conditions , whether  that be thinly veiled clouds or the jetstream.

My second SV215 arrived today for BV use, again paid under £80 all in for it direct off of the SvBony website.

Also a gift T - shirt supplied in xxxl size, with a screen printed front of the planets and Svb insignia and the rear has the twelve zodiac constellations on the rear .

Also ordered via ebay some  ID 31.63mm  x 2 mm O - Rings to use as par focal rings incase the 1.25" is too long for my prisms/mirrors.

1 hour ago, StevieDvd said:

I have the same freebie though they sent me an XXXL!!!  I think they are telling me to lose weight.

 

I think they have a one size fits all , as mine is also XXXL . 

The hanger just happened to be about to hang the T-Shirt on.

A few bits arrived for me , I had a little splurge in China land.

Out of focus pic, SV215 zoom and a freebie .

Now have twins for bino viewing.

And two more items.

Sparta WD006 clone of the Vixen Porta ll a snip at under £70 along with Angel eyes 1.25" 22mm EP (same  as Oberwerk ) but much cheaper.
 

17 hours ago, Jim L said:

My wife and I observed the eclipse under clear skies from our back yard in California using a 102mm f/6.5 Celestron achro equipped with a Baader Hershel wedge.

The coverage was only about 25%, but still, it was fascinating. A large sunspot occupied the center of the solar disk with several other smaller sunspots scattered about. Granulation on the sun’s surface was also visible, which became easier to see as the eclipse neared our local maximum. What I found most interesting was that we could see mountains in profile along the perimeter of the moon that was backlit by the sun.

It was a very worthwhile couple of hours of observing.

Sounds like you and  yours had a great  experience their Jim, seeing other perspectives/views with the partial eclipse and the lighting /shadows formed.

Select an object farther  away to focus on , the bush may not be with in the focal range of the telescope and simply to close.

Remember these telescopes are designed to have a long distance focal range and not a near  close focal range of bird or  general use spotting scopes. 

On 04/04/2024 at 11:51, 900SL said:

 

I generally try to assist in these threads, but occasionally, before morning coffee, I let go with both barrels 😆 

I quite liked this line and had a wry smile at it,  no caffeine fix early in the day . It appealed to my sense of humour.

Not very envious sitting here.

Beautiful crafted achromat , plenty of polishing ahead. 

What do you need to know ?

Looks like a M4 or M5 allen type , the pitch will be a std pitch applied to wether it is M4 or M5.

M4 is 0.7 pitch and M5 0.8 pitch.

Personally for a 130 dob the expense isn't worth it, my Z130 was much the same . Just needs some fettling.

You could try placing the lens in a sealed container with some decassent sac's to se eif they can draw out the moisture.