Mark at Beaufort

Just been viewing the Sun with the PST+DS. There is a huge amount of activity around AR2785 and especially AR2786 with bright Plage. We also have AR2783 which has some Plage. In addition there is some small filaments around the surface + some Proms. This is one of the best views in Ha for some time. Its pretty good in WL as well.

Joe once you have purchased a safe front filter you still need to be careful. Place the filter back in its secure box after each use. Then before using it again test that it has no damage - holes/rips etc - do this each time.

Yes just had a look with the PST. I notice that the large new spot has been numbered AR2785. There is a lot going on in Ha at the moment so will now attach the double stack to get more detail. Later will observe in WL.

That is very nicely done Greg. I particularly liked your primary mirror block with the attachment to the veins. I always push a white piece of paper down the tube - yours is a much better suggestion. I also agree its good to have a contrast colour card opposite the focuser.

Barry I am not an expert on the Concenter but looking at the third circle its touching the side of the secondary. However, on the other side its not. To me your secondary is not totally under the focuser and needs to come down.

Dave that looks a brilliant Prom. Cloudy here all day. Can't believe it as I stopped typing the Sun came out. Picked up the sunspot and the nice Prom in the PST. Glad I read your 'heads up'.

Too many clouds recently. Last night I had a clear patch so went looking for the Comet. I used my Apollo 15x70 binos and checking with Stellarium I could match the star field. It took a while but eventually I could make out a misty patch. Not really satisfied with that observation I woke up at 4am to a clear sky. I took out my Heritage 130P and used my ES68 24mm and my new SvBONY 10-30mm to track down the Comet. Found it and was able to confirm the 'misty' patch in more details. Its faintish so could easily be missed. Anyway good to catch it.

Pixies that is impressive

Ade I am surprised you have asked this question because the 6" Newt I bought from you had perfect collimation - you must have done something right at some stage When I collimate I always place a coloured piece of paper down the tube to stop the reflection of the primary. I then place another piece of different coloured paper opposite the focuser to determine that the secondary is underneath the focuser. Looking at your image it appears that the secondary is not totally in the centre. Measure the supporting veins to see that they are equal and then look again to see if the problem has been solved. You are pretty close to be honest. Remove all the coloured paper and adjust the primary if necessary. It looks like @Pixiesis showing a TS Concenter??? in the first photo above which explains the secondary position very well.

I did a short review of the SvBONY 10-30mm zoom here - At some stage I will use this zoom in the 12" Dob and really compare it with my more expensive EPs which are really too large and heavy for my Heritage 130P

There has been a discussion elsewhere on the forum about SvBONY zoom eyepieces. I knew nothing about these zooms until a few days ago and was particularly interested in the 10-30mm zoom mainly to use on outreach work. I have had problems in the past when one of my the eyepieces has been covered in mascara eye make up and nearly ruined a Nagler EP. So I ordered the 10-30mm zoom via Ebay and it arrived very quickly for the cost of £45.99 + free postage. The eyepiece appears well made with its 1.25" design and has a thread for filters. Its appears well blacked and has a twist up eyecup with stated eye relief of 17mm-18.5mm. The FOV is 33 degree at the 30mm setting going to 51 degrees at 10mm. Total weight is 198g. So how does it perform. I started using the zoom on the Heritage 130P (f/5) with the 2.25x baader barlow giving a zoom of 4.4 to 13.3. I looked at Jupiter (some bands visible), Saturn (no Cassini Division visible) but Titan was easily seen and Mars (South Polar Cap visible plus some surface markings). Without the Barlow the edges were going soft at the about 20% from the edge otherwise the views were okay. Decided to take in some DSOs and had reasonable views of M13, M57, M27, The Veil (both these with TeleVue Nebustar filter), M2, M15, M31, NGC 7790, M33, Double Cluster and finally Almach (nicely split) I did not cross check against other EPs because I wanted to use the PST Ha and test it against the TeleVue 8-24 zoom plus the Baader Classic 10mm Ortho. This morning the Sun obliged for a while so I set both zooms at the 10mm setting + the Baader Ortho. Three nice Proms visible + a small filament + a bit of Plage. The result they all gave the same. The Proms were sharp so I cannot complain about the view of the SvBony. Clearly the downside of the SvBony is the 33 degrees at the 30mm setting but overall its okay and will make a useful addition on the Heritage 130P which I use away from home - holidays etc. I know it will be said that you get what you pay for but at the moment it provides a reasonable observation view on a f/5 scope.

SVbony 10-30mm delivered today and is currently installed in my Heritage 130P scope. This is a brilliant little zoom for £45.99 and already had views of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars plus numerous DSOs - fuller report to follow. I like this zoom already.

Well done catching Mercury - nice photo showing the 3 astro bodies. I was going to try on the 12th but was totally clouded out.

Nice Michael - did you catch Mercury a little further down?

I knew that Mercury was putting on its best morning position in November for the whole year. However, in particular the morning of the 13th had been highlighted by many 2020 years books showing Venus, Crescent Moon and Mercury altogether almost in a line. The weather has not been very kind recently and I was not being very hopeful because of rain coming over night. Just before 7am the cloud was moving away showing Venus and the Crescent Moon. Unfortunately heavy cloud covered the horizon area. I took out my Helios Apollo 15x70 and went hunting for Mercury and just before 7.15am (sky getting brighter) I picked up Mercury. It was great to move between the 3 objects. I was unable to see Mercury with the naked eye but at least I saw the event.

I use my TeleVue mainly for Ha which provides an excellent observing image. Its going to be interesting to compare the SVbony with the TeleVue in my Ha PST scope.

That is useful information John. I undertake Outreach observing (if covid ever allows me again) and I thought this zoom would be a useful addition to protect my main EPs. I did have a Nagler EP almost ruined by someone wearing eye mascara. I note that I can purchase this zoom for £45.99 with free postage so worth a punt. I will let members know how I get on.

I did not appreciate that SVbony produced 3 different zoom EPs. I wonder what the 10-30mm would be like?

I have the TeleVue 8-24 zoom which is very good. Unfortunately its no longer available. However, I did own the Baader Mk3 zoom which was okay. I have heard good things about the Hyperflex 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom which is reasonably priced. I have not seen the SVbony zooms so cannot really comment although I have bought and still use SVbony products. To answer your question a zoom can be really useful and you can get good observation views with them. However, I still prefer individual EPs especially the widefield because zooms have small FOV at the wide end.

Nice idea Steve. Well if we ever have a star party at Lucksall again, and you attend, we can possibly arranged something. I hope you are safe and well in Burnley - not easy times.

Thanks Steve for an interesting write up and review. I always fancied getting one of these but the cost put me off. Its a pity that its not produced in the UK to possibly lower the cost.

Luke its lovely to see you posting again. My regards to Sarah as well. I bet your youngest has grown up a lot from the days I last saw all the family at Lucksall.

Well this is nice to revive this old thread. I bought a pair of Russian 7x50 binos on the 22nd July, 1968 from a shop in Southsea. I still use them from time to time. My other old piece of kit is a Coronado PST which I bought to take to the Annular Eclipse in Spain in 2005. Since then I bought a Double Stack.

Its 6am and yes I have started observing. Venus is very bright and looking towards the horizon I can spot Mercury. Its now late morning and I have the 6" Newt set up with solar filter + UV/IR filter attached to the eyepiece. The large sunspot AR2781 is really something so its good that we are coming out of solar minimum (hopefully)!! 6.30pm - Heritage 130P out to observe Jupiter and Saturn - The Baader Orthos + Baader Classic barlow works well with this scope. 7pm - 9pm - Zoom talk to Herefordshire Astro Society on Venus and recent research on phosphine in the cloud areas 9pm onwards - 12" Dob which had been set up since late afternoon - started with Mars. The quality of the seeing was excellent. Using the 6mm Ethos gave me so much details and I had the best view of Syrtis Major ever. Also used the 9mm Fujiyama and 10mm Baader Classic Ortho Next up Neptune - starting to get a bit of fog plus Moon is getting really bright but I tracked down our most distant planet. Used the Fujiyama + Baader Ortho + Baader barlow. Finally ended with Uranus - again used the same EPs plus star hopped with the help of the 2x40 Helios binos + 80mm finderscope. So there we have it all the planets of the solar system in just over 15 hours.

Thanks for the update John. I only had one chance recently to see the SN and the Moon was very close so cannot be certain that I saw it. I decided to have another go since but cloud has been a constant problem. Tonight its showing total cloud from 7pm to 11pm on 'clear outside' so I might get a chance later with the 12" Dob.