NGC007

Holy crap!  You are well more hardy than us southern softies!  Think I would have scarped of to bed after one and a half hours tops. Well done and what a nice report. Thanks. 
 

Clem

7 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

That looks impressive! Does it do the washing up and cook meals as well?

 

2 hours ago, PeterW said:

F3.3, needs testing with a night vision eyepiece?! You’ll give @Stu aperture fever again... take us ages to get him over it . Lovely looking scope, how portable is it?

Peter

2 hours ago, PeterW said:

F3.3, needs testing with a night vision eyepiece?! You’ll give @Stu aperture fever again... take us ages to get him over it . Lovely looking scope, how portable is it?

Peter

Hi Peter, it very portable indeed. It takes a couple of minutes to remove the cage and truss poles and wheel the rest into the back of the car. Bought a pair of lightweight folding ramps to use with the SUV. 

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Very nice! I think @GavStar has the 16” version?

Thanks Stu. I added the row of buttons along the bottom to control it easier in the dark. I think the first thing every Dod owner does is modify it!  

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Nexus DSC is an excellent system, I really enjoy using it. Which dob do you have?

The SkyVision 20” f/3.3 GoTo. I’m only 5’ 7” yet I don’t need a ladder.

44 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Its now “closed season” (clocks changed), so time to fettle the Astro kit ready for the Milky Way late summer...

Peter

Tweaking the goto on my big Dob, replacing the Sky Commander with Nexus DSC.  Its  way more flexible And the SSD slot let’s you easily create your own custom lists.

12 hours ago, Stu said:

Gosh where did that time go to? Can’t believe it was 2017! Sorry for the slight delay!!! Will send you a pm tomorrow.

Stu

Looking forward, many thanks. Let you know how I get on and maybe others could join in future. 

On 02/09/2017 at 21:25, Stu said:

I can pm it to you Clem.

You are welcome to join us too next time we head down there.

My parents live in Wokingham, in there most weeks  

Wokingham light pollution so bad now it's not even worth trying to observe.  3,000 plus new houses just for starters.  Really appreciate it if you could PM me the location of that site.  After this lockdown ends I will have to travel to observe from now on.

Clem

13 minutes ago, GavStar said:

Lovely scope, hopefully mine will arrive in the next two months...really looking forward to getting it as the ultimate grab and go...

The contrast is the best in any refractor I’ve ever owned. Also, it’s very light and robust.  Good luck with yours when it finally arrives. 

Clem

14 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Pretty much as good as travel astronomy gets Clem - hope you have a great trip and even better stargazing. 

Thanks Mark. 

Clem

9 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

That's a fabulous looking scope and a fabulous over all set-up Clem. I'll not hold your flight to Yosemite against you even though it will add to atmospheric turbulence and poor seeing for the UK. You need to try out your travel set-up in the interest of science after all!

Thanks. Someone’s  gotta make the sacrifice Mike. 

Hi all,

Finally managed to complete my Grab & Go setup with the addition encoders added to the Vamo mount.  Flying to Yosemite next month for a spot of stargazing etc., smoke permitting.

Clem 

12 hours ago, GavStar said:

I’ve got the mark v and pan 24 combo which works great for me for widefield scanning.

Tammy on cloudynights has compared loads of eyepieces in his binoviewers and his favourites are the takahashi le30 which have good eye relief. Maybe one to consider as well.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/439262-tak-le-30s-tammy-called-it/

Out of interest Clem, how do the denkmeier binotrons compare with the mark vs? Don’t think there are many denkmeiers in the UK.

My Denkmeier 27 super binotron all singing and dancing kit is great in the dob.  A bit too tall in the Travel Companion and makes me uneasy which is why I got the Mark V.  The advantage of the Mark V (early days yet) is that the overall setup is lighter and I adjusted to them immediately.  Nice bright view as well.  Down  side is that once the zoom eyepieces are in it's a pain to focus individual eyepiece due to poor access.  The Mark V does help fulfil my aim to have the best truly portable scope I can afford.  It's a keeper I think.

The Denks advantages are, really easy eyepiece adjustment, you can collimate them, they take two filters and they have a low and high power switch!  

You need the OCS (optical corrector system) for them as well.  Not so the Mark V as the Travel Companion can be shortened for Binoviewing.  

Alas, I will probably have to sell the system as I cannot justify keeping them having spent so much on the rest of the kit. Sigh.

I can balance either system on the AOK Swiss Vamo head though.  

4 hours ago, 25585 said:

I have a pair of Vixen 8-24mm LV zooms. Thinner than the Baaders so better for IPD. Same optics as in the Tele Vue zoom of same FL range I believe. 

Look nice.  I am after the widest TFOV I can get for sweeping, taking into account all the special needs binoviewing requires such as eye relief, weight, IPD etc.

Pan 24s tempting but I am concerned about IPD.  Mine is around 67mm.  Perhaps someone can comment on that.

18 hours ago, Louis D said:

How do you get on with the Baader zooms with winged eye guards?  It's my understanding that they rotate while zooming necessitating having to readjust them once you settle on a power.

Yep, they rotate, it’s a pain. Usually I just fold them back until I find something I intend to gawp at for a while then I adjust them. Like finding the right mag on Jupiter that gives the most detail for the seeing conditions etc.  That said, the zooms are really very good indeed and my most used eyepiece bino or mono..

20 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

+1 for panoptic 24, you have paid for binos with big prisms and the pan24 use the full width of the 1.25”format.

they are epic in my MarkV!

there is a pair for sale on astrobuysell 

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=138591

For higher power, I have a nice pair of 18.2 DeLite which have 20mm eye relief and are nice to use too.

Alan

Tempting, so very tempting.  Just worried it might be too mush glass between the stars and me with just 95 mm up front.  That and the wife of course! Still, I agree, it's probably the way to go.  Just gotta work on it.  

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

I've just got the same binoviewer Clem, mostly for ha and white light solar, but looking forward to trying them out at night. The Celestron 32mm Omni plossls are decent and great value, but think I'll also pick up a second Panoptic 24mm at some stage.

This is my current true grab and go setup.  Not cheap mind but it goes where the dobs dare not tread!  Airline portable, overhead baggage.  Serge from Astro Devices is currently working on encoders for the Vamo mount, the ultimate Grab and Go.  The Hyperion mark IV zooms are great but need wider fields.  Will look at 24 Pans as well.  Thanks

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

The 17.5mm Baader Morpheus has a 23.55mm field stop, so somewhat close to maximum field but at a higher power and wider field than the 24mm Panoptic, and it has 23mm of designed eye relief.  Bill Paolini has reported loving them in binoviewers.

The 22mm Vixen LVW (if you can find them) has a 25mm field stop and 20mm of designed eye relief.  It has a 65 degree field and excellent correction by all accounts.

There's also the discontinued 22mm Panoptic which has a removeable 2" skirt and better eye relief than the 24mm Panoptic.

Then there is the 28mm Edmunds RKE which has about a 50 degree AFOV, 24mm field stop and 26mm of usable eye relief.

Read that report on the Morpheus 17.5.  Thinking about I would get nearly 2.4 degree TFOV, not to be sniffed at.  Also an exit pupil of 3 mm so maybe I will look at them a bit more now, thanks.

8 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

24mm Panoptics would be optimal I'd think. 32mm plossls are good but you'd need at least one, maybe two eyeguard extenders per eyepiece too making them an expensive option. Personally, I have never been as satisfied with BVs for general astronomy as I I have for solar system astronomy and prefer cyclops for anything other than solar system.

All my life I went cyclops but last year I got the Denkmeier Binotrons Super system (used in my dob now) and wow!  Deep space is spectacular in a 22" goto dob.   Tried cyclops the other night in my refractor and soo annoyed at having to squint, hate it.  Got the bug I suppose.  One thing is certain, no going back to mono viewing, so relaxing with binos.

Clem

11 minutes ago, Stu said:

There ia also the Baader 35mm Eudiascopic which gets good reviews and is pretty much max fov in 1.25" format

Thanks, Just had a look at them on the Baader website.  they state they are optimised for f/8 - f/12.  not sure how that will work out in my f5.9.  I calculate the exit pupil about 5.94 mm and my old eyes probably only get up to 4mm I guess so the image may be dimmed a bit, not good in a binoviewer in a small scope.  Yet, they may work anyway.  Hmmm, got me thinking.

Many thanks.

Clem

34 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

The widest field will be somewhat dictated by the size of the exit prism on the binoviewer, typically 22mm-25mm, if this is smaller than the field stop of the eyepiece then the eyepiece field will be vignetted.

30mm prisms in this case. 

Hi all, got my Baader Mark V Binoviewer yesterday and stuck it in my Baader Travel Companion 96/560 Apo.  Would love advice on the best eyepieces to buy for widest field viewing with good eye relief.  The Televue 32mm Plossl's look great on paper (2.8 degree true field, 22mm eye relief) but reviews are not great, at least in some scopes.  Opinions welcome.

Clem

1 hour ago, R26 oldtimer said:

A-ha, that's why it is so expensive. It brings transparency instead of clouds, upon delivery!

Only for one night.

10 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

"One and a half hours on two objects"

That's real observing! And the scope sounds like an excellent performer as well as looking great too! ☺

I couldn't fit the red dot finder that first night so I had to point at anything big and hard to miss.  The sky was most unusually and amazingly transparent that first night, one in a thousand for this neck of the world.  So M42 was so revealing I couldn't stop looking at it and partly because I thought I might not find much else without panning all over the place.  A night I wont forget, like the night I first saw Saturn's rings when I was 15.   

Clem

6 hours ago, Cjg said:

The Vamo mount is excellent, holds my Tak 75 with ease; am learning to not need the Slo-Mo controls, is a quality bit of kit. 

I considered a Slo-Mo mount but they were all not as portable as the Vamo.