Dave1

John can the AZ100 accept Skywatcher counter weights?

That's good, I hope they send the eyepiece I ordered from them soon.

@John @johninderby thanks guys, helpful information.

@johninderby . Thanks is that a Skylight 4" F15 or F13? I see you have the AZ100 on a Berlebach Uni 28 tripod? Whats the highest magnification you've gone? How long is the vibration dampening/settling time? @JeremyS thanks, that looks an impressive set up. @John thanks John, astrograph.net still list the T-Rex as available, but new it is way out of my price range, and as you say secondhand they are rare. John did you try the T Rex on your Berlebach Uni 28 tripod and ditto for the EQ6? I'm trying to figure out if it is indeed my mount ( which I suspect it is ) or the tripod. I have the same tripod as you. My Skylight 4" with 2" Baader prism diagonal, finderscope, and dew shield fitted weights 8.2 kg. Its the momentum arm I'm concerned about.

Hi guys, I'm after a mount for my Skylight F15 refractor. Now I like AZ mounts. But I also see the advantage of eq mounts. I'm looking for a mount that will allow high magnification. Mounts I have thought about are AZ EQ5 GT, AZ EQ 6 GT, Fullerscope MKIII or MKIV, APM AzMaxLoad, APM Alt-Az XL fork mount. I'm not to bothered about goto although I admit it's nice, tracking would be nice. I believe the APM Alt-Az XL fork mount is rated to 19.2 kg. Having said that I've been offered a Unitron 152 equatorial mount. The mount Unitron bundled with there 4" F15 refractor, My Skylight 4"F15 is much heavier than the Unitron 152 though. Thoughts people? I'm open to other suggestions. Mounts from any point in history qualify aswell. David

Very impressive set up! Like the counter weight idea, might try it with my Skylight 4" F15.

@StuYep nothing beats white on black. Haven't looked through a Telementor yet, I hope to one day!

Thanks for the kind comments. Yes it is smashing on doubles. I once let a astrophotographer look through it at Mizar and Alcor. Due to its long focal length. And the quality of the optics. He said it was one of the best views of Mizar and Alcor he had ever seen through a telescope. Glad I've inspired you. David

I get the frustration. When it comes to couriers though, I think which courier is better in that area largely depends on the staff. Royal Mail, and Parcel Force are very good around here. The worse tends to be DPD. UPS tends to be very good. David

So guys I went back out on the 27/03/20 to observe. The telescope I used my Skylight 60mm F16.7. I spent more time on Venus, and spent some considerable time looking at the moon, looked at the Orion Nebula and the Trapezium. I looked at a couple of double stars, which I've not looked at before. I continued the comparison between my Brandon 8 mm and Edmund RKE 8 mm eyepiece. I also compare a 6 mm Huygens to a 6 mm Ortho. I even used a 4 mm Ramsden. Tonight I also used a Baader Semi APO filter and a TAL moon filter. Seeing conditions were generally very good to excellent, and more stable compared to the previous night. Pickering 8 to 9. Eyepieces I used tonight were the magnification of the additional eyepieces are 6 mm = 167x 4 mm = 251x On Venus tonight I started off using my Baader Mk III 8-24 zoom eyepiece, with the moon filter fitted. The view of Venus was much improved, was sharper, less glare. I then went to a 10 mm Plossl. With the 10 mm Plossl I tried the Semi APO filter aswell as the Moon filter. The Semi APO was also an improvement compared to no filter at all. I preferred the view with the moon filter on Venus. I then used the 8 mm RKE with Moon filter. Put up a nice image, I spent a lot of time, trying to see if the 60mm would show me any details. I saw none or very very subtle hints, but not enough I'd be sure to sketch it. I then moved onto the Moon, I started with the 10 mm eyepiece with moon filter. Was a good view, believe or not I've never used my moon filter before on the moon! I then compared my 8 mm eyepieces on the moon. Both put up very good views, I didn't feel either eyepiece had an advantage over the other. I then thought with seeing conditions being so good, to try higher magnification. So I went and got my 6 mm Huygens, Ortho 6 mm, 4 mm Ramsden, and 4 mm Ortho. All eyepieces put up very good images due to a excellent lens in the telescope and owed to the seeing conditions. The Huygens and Ramsden eyepieces have quite a narrow field of view, but this does not bother me to much. At there respective magnifications of 4 mm and 6 mm I preferred the 4 mm Ramsden and 6 mm Huygens to the Ortho eyepieces. The areas of the moon I did this comparison was Mare Crisium and Cleomedes. At times using the 6 mm and 4 mm eyepieces was a challenge owed to the small exit pupils and floaters in my eyes. I then observed Orion Nebula and the Trapezium. With the better seeing conditions tonight, which were more stable, I was better able to compare my 8 mm eyepieces. Tonight I definitely thought the Edmund 8 mm RKE, had slightly more light through put. I swapped the Brandon and Edmund back and forth multiple times. And it was always the same result, the B component was brighter in the 8 mm RKE. So tonight I looked at some new to me double stars. I looked at Gamm1 and Almach in in Andromeda, and Miram in Perseus . So I am new to hunting down double stars in general, I have obviously in the past looked at Polaris, the double double, and Albireo. When I looked at Miram I thought the difference in magnitude of the stars I could see was a good opportunity to compare my 8 mm eyepieces. This confirmed my earlier findings, that the 8 mm RKE has more light through put. I can't wait now to see how the battle of the 8 mm eyepieces will play out when observing Jupiter. So I came in side and did some more research on Miram. Turns out Miram is a variable double star that has 6 components. I will be spending more time on Miram. In conclusion a very enjoyable session. David

Nice report! Nice a Tormentor !

Good image, I had similar views through my 60mm using a 4 mm Ramsden and 6 mm Huygens tonight! This image on the moon thread helped me identify what I was looking at! David

The moon was beautiful tonight, I spent some considerable time looking at it through my Skylight 60mm. Seeing conditions were so good tonight I went up to a 4 mm eyepiece in a 60mm telescope for 251x ! Compared my 4 mm Ortho to my 4 mm Ramsden. I spent a lot of time looking at Mare Crisium and Cleomedes and all the rocky formation around there.

Sounds like you had a brilliant session. Wish Ursa Major was more favourable from my observation site. David

Hello Everyone, So for the first time in a long time I managed to get out under the stars. I set up my Skylight 60mm F16.7. My main target was Venus. Which during dusk there was still cloud around. The image sometimes shifting due to turbulence due to poor seeing conditions. On average I say seeing was a Pickering 8 and briefly going to a Pickering 7. But as the evening went on the seeing stabilised, especially around 8 pm. This was the first light for my Edmund Optic RKE 8 mm eyepiece, which I did a comparison against my Brandon 8 mm eyepiece. 8 mm eyepieces are just over the theoretical limits of what a 60mm telescope should be able to handle. The seeing supported this magnification. Other eyepieces used were 9 mm, 10 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 32 mm. Which with my 60mm F16.7 resulted in magnifications of 32 mm = 31x 15 mm = 67x 12 mm = 84x 10 mm = 100x 9 mm = 111x 8 mm = 125x So as you can guess a 60mm telescope isn't a serious planetary scope. Venus present a challenge, for the first time ever in this telescope I saw chromatic abbreviation. Owing to Venus being so bright. Venus phase was half of the disc. Because of the chromatic aberration in the image, I decided to check if the telescope was perfectly collimated, as I was so surprised. Collimation was perfect. So then I changed eyepiece to check the eyepiece wasn't inducing some colour. It wasn't the eyepiece. Interestingly the Japanese 9 mm 0.965" Huygens eyepiece I used last night did not show anymore colour than either my Orthoscopic or Brandon eyepieces last night. I did do a direct comparison of the Huygens 9 mm to a Orthoscopic 9 mm. So after observing Venus, I decided to pay attention to the constellation of Orion. And what lies within. I looked at the Orion Nebula, as expected there wasn't much nebulosity to be seen in a 60mm telescope. I could only really see nebulosity with the finderscope, 32 mm Plossl, and 15 mm RKE. I then looked at the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula. The 60mm picked up all 4 major components A, B, C, D. I used my 8 mm Brandon and Edmund 8 mm RKE on the trapezium. With the seeing condition, a magnification of 125x and exit pupil of 0.48 mm. This was a challenge to see component B of the trapezium at times. Here I did a comparison between the 8 mm Brandon and 8 mm RKE. I was trying to gauge light through put, technically the RKE should let more light through owing to less glass in the design. At times I thought the RKE let through more light in moments of very good to excellent seeing. At other times I thought they were on par. I will have to do more tests. So what magnitude is the B star of the trapezium? Well Orionis B is a variable star and varies in brightness from 7.90 to a minimum of magnitude 8.65. After looking at the trapezium, I decided to practice my star hopping, So I star hopped to Betelgeuse, Meissa, Bellatrix, Tabit AB, Pi 2 Ori, Pi 4 Ori. After that I then went to have a look at the Pleiades. So in all a busy little session. In my next session I will probably look for double stars, and practice my star hopping more. Until the planets show later in the year. David

Ade, nice set up! When you talked about seeing more service detail with bino viewing was that in reference to viewing Venus? David

So guys I need some help? I'm opening what could be a can of worms here, but I'm trying to get to the bottom of this, so that I can make my next astronomy equipment investment decision wisely. I'm thinking of getting an 8" Newtonian telescope with 1/10 PTV mirrors. But I'm worried about 8" telescope not being supported by UK seeing conditions and having a bright image with little detail? Which is why I am tempted to keep my Skylight 4" F15. I read an article years ago stating the optimum aperture for UK seeing conditions is between 4"-8", obviously 8" is at the upper end of this bracket, which translates to me that it will be pushing it in average seeing conditions. Am I missing the point? Is it more a case of the chosen magnification being supported by the seeing conditions regardless of aperture? For instance if the seeing conditions will only support 150x, will it matter if I'm observing with a 80mm at 150x vs 8" at 150x, will the amount of detail appear the same in both? Or will the bigger aperture be bright, washed out, less sharp, and less details? Because of the bigger aperture not being supported by the seeing conditions? ( smaller air cell size than 8" ) David

Sounds like a very promising telescope! Not every day you see someone posting up a first light report for a TAL 100r, was pleasantly surprised. Enjoy it

Thanks John, its great that you edited it, but I have my board settings set black on white, so now I can't see what I typed. 🤣

To answer that question, Brandon's are designed to work in telescopes of F7 or slower. I have zero problems with Brandon in an F15+ telescopes. Sharp right to the edge at F15. My Brandon 8mm has given me the very best views of the moon I have ever seen, etched onto the eyepiece, the colour rendition was very good indeed, with my Skylight 102mm F15. Besting a 7mm Fujiyama Ortho, and my Circle T 9mm. I don't like to do eyepiece comparisons of eyepieces with a different focal length. That's one of the reasons why I bought the Edmund Optics RKE 8mm, slightly less glass than the Brandon, so should be brighter but might not control scatter so well, and might be more susceptible to ghosting. One of the other reasons is because I read Daniel Mounsey review from 2004 on Cloudy Nights. Daniel Mounsey did a Planetary Eyepiece review. He compared Brandon, TeleVue Plossls, University Optics Orthos, Pentax .965 Orthos, Celestron Ultima's, TeleVue Radians, Edmund RKE, TeleVue 3-6mm Zoom, Zeiss Abbe Ortho, Takahashi LE, TeleVue Panoptic. Link https://www.cloudynights.com/documents/planetaryeyepieces.pdf He also did a follow up review a year or two later, where he had different experiences that caused him to change his findings. In his second review he updates on his first and included new eyepiece, the new eyepieces are TMB Mono, Brandon, Clave, TeleVue Radian, Pentax XO, Edmund RKE, TeleVue 3-6 zoom, Pentax XW, Nagler T6, Orion / Parks Ultrascopic, Takahashi LE, University Optics HD ( Fujiyama HD Ortho ), University Optics Ortho. Link https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/69249-planetary-eyepiece-comparison/#entry896145. I hope the linking is ok, if its not then im sorry. But they are two very good reviews, which might surprise some people. Dave

I'm going through that same process. Except I will be comparing Brandon's, Orthoscopic, and RKE eyepieces. Got an 8mm RKE to compare to the 8mm Brandon, I will see which one does better on Jupiter! Dave

Well I own and use volcano top circle T ( Towa ) Orthoscopic and Kellner eyepieces. You can see in my signature what eyepieces I own. Very good eyepieces especially for planetary, as long as you don't mind the relatively short eye relief. They can be had relatively cheaply secondhand.

Hi Steve, I've decided I wish to sell my telescope collection to fund a Stellamira 80mm F10. I have one question for you. Is the lens cell collimatable? I'm concerned if I take it on an aeroplane or in my motorcycle sidecar, that it might receive a bad bump which sends it out of collimation. Dave

Yep manufactured by Towa, I have its bigger brother a Towa 339 80mm F15. These telescopes can be very good. Glas you've made an adapter, modern eyepieces bring out the best in these old telescopes. Enjoy. Dave

Hi, Stu and John have given some very good points about eyepieces. A good tool for comparing telescopes and eyepieces is this one http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm . Whats good about this tool it explains everything. Dave