RobertI

You’re right Louis, they are fine at F10 and I’m sure they would suit if the OP if they stayed at that focal length or longer. My feeling is the Morpheus is more future proof, SCT owners often get the 0.63 reducer and other faster wide field scopes, but I could be wrong……

I used a 10mm and 21mm Hyperion in my C8 for many years and was very happy, and I think you’d be happy with them in your setup. I recently acquired a 17.5mm Morpheus and have been extremely impressed with the wider field and sharpness to the edge, and thinking of getting another - a definite step up from the Hyperions. The Morpheus are more expensive but currently on sale and looking great value - get them quick!

Thanks for the additional info, I’ll order the Plossl and let you know how it goes.

Very nice, let us know how that works. Your 60mm should sit nicely on that. Still time to catch Venus!

I have an OIII and a UHC, I believe the OIII works well on the Crescent? As far as the 38mm 2” eyepiece goes, I recall that I found it would not focus with the reducer, so that combination is out. I’ve tried the C8 with a 21mm eyepiece plus reducer, but I now have a 24mm too, which I could try, but I suspect the 32mm will give the jump I need in exit pupil size to make a difference on the Crescent. I will give it ago this summer! Sorry to the OP for diverting the thread, but hopefully of interest.

Thanks for your help Steve, appreciated. I hadn’t really considered the exit pupil aspect, that’s a good thought. I have always worked on the basis that I didn’t really want to go below 68 degrees FOV which limits me to a 24mm eyepiece in an SCT, but what I didn’t really consider is the limitation on the exit pupil. Your excellent suggestion of a 32mm Plossl gets around that, at the cost of a narrower field of view of course. And I do have a 0.63 reducer which I use most of the time. Before I rush out and buy a 32mm Plossl, do you think my 38mm 2” eyepiece might also work? There will be vignetting at the edges but I’m assuming the central 50 degrees will be no worse than a Plossl?

Nice report Magnus. 👍

Thanks Chris, I wasn’t aware of this guide but it looks like a really nice one. Love the show btw, i’m a regular listener 🙂

Well done on making the jump, I’m sure you’ll love it.

Indeed it is. It will be fascinating to watch how this plays out. There will be many great products to come. It’s also interesting to see how the attitudes of the astro community are slowing changing towards positive acceptance of this kind of technology

Yes, agreed, I think there will be more to come, with some larger apertures and better mounts. It’s an exciting prospect, but very bad news for Vaonis and Unistellar, I really can’t see how they will be able to compete.

As a primarily visual astronomer over the last forty plus years, I had a period of EAA which I really enjoyed and hope to get back into it soon. I was forced to into EAA through massive light pollution which made visual impossible, and my home brew EAA rig, using my basic Lodestar guide cam, was a miracle solution and a massive boon for me. But after I moved to a better location I continued with EAA. So as a visual astronomer, what did I find so enjoyable about EAA? For me it was still a thrill to see that faint fuzzy slew into view on screen, and then watch the detail build up over the next few minutes, and then investigate what I could see. I could also fiddle with sliders to increase contrast, brightness and sharpness and reveal more detail - a bit like popping in a visual filter. It didn’t feel like like imaging, it was more immediate. At 650mm focal length I could see so many faint objects (particularly galaxies) that I would never be able to see visually without a massive light bucket. Plus I could keep a snapshot for later analysis and sharing with the community. In fact I discovered a supernova (well I captured it before the ‘official’ discovery time, but sadly only found out days later!). With a black and white sensor it was very sensitive, and strangely more akin to visual than a colour sensor. Downsides were all the typical issues you get with imaging - alignment, collimation, focus, dust bunnies, hot pixels, etc. and it took time to set up. Products like the SeeStar seem to remove most of these issues, although from what I have seen of Unistellar and Vaonis, they still require some fettling, but that will improve over time. Personally I think at 200mm focal length for the SeeStar, the number of objects of interest (at least to me) will be limited. Unistellar’s eVscope is better at 450mm, but I still don’t think the results are as good as my super sensitive black and white setup. But these systems will only get better and cheaper and more popular and I will undoubtedly get one at some point.

From what I can see, this is the same sensor and aperture as the Vaonis Vespera, so I guess you could expect similar results. There are lots of examples around of what the Vespera is capable of. At £459 it’s almost worth a punt for a bit of fun. I think it would be fine for the brighter emission nebulae and galaxies. The price point is seriously bad news for the Vespera though which retails at £2100!

Wonderful picture of Patrick with his classic instrument - he looks curious, thoughtful and determined all at the same time!

I tried a 10” Skywatcher Newt on my Skytee, albeit with a not very good tripod, and it was not useable. I think even with a very solid tripod a 10” wouldn’t be very stable. But with my 6” F8 and a 2” tripod it’s very stable and a good match in my experience.

It’s been a LONG time since my last proper session, probably two or three months, I’ve just not felt like observing. But tonight the weather cleared and my mojo returned so I went out for a session with the 102ED. It was nice and transparent, but as is normal around here nowadays, the skies were quite bright. However I felt like a stroll around Virgo, so with the 17.5mm Morpheus in place giving 40x, I scanned around the top of the ‘bowl’. I immediately found a large bright galaxy which I worked out was M87. This before I was was even dark adapted, so I was pretty pleased already. Further slow scanning to the west revealed M58, M59 and M60. Scanning to the north showed M89 and M90. And back to the east I found M85 and M86 which make up the bottom of Markarians’s chain. Looking on SkySafari indicated that I should be able to see “The Eyes” galaxies, NGC4435 and NGC4438, in the same field of view. At mag 10 and 10.5 these were more challenging in the murky skies with the small aperture, but when upping the mag to 70x they just became visible. Pretty pleased and if I make it to the dark skies of Kelling next week, I will definitely revisit these and try and get the whole of Markarian’s Chain. Screenshots below from SkySafari, the FOV indicator is 1.9 degrees using the Morpheus 17.5mm giving 40x.

I think it’s these guys: https://www.darkframeoptics.com

That’s a beautiful design, very clever indeed. My son probably has enough Lego pieces to do something similar, I’ll see if I can inspire him! That’s nice! The best I could manage was this:

Sorry to hear about that. I hope it’s salvageable but sounds like it’s given good service. Perhaps it can have a second life as a non-goto mount driven in RA only - someone would love it - perfect for visual, probably ok for solar system imaging. 🙂

A nice demonstration of the different capabilities of the two scopes. 👍

Yeah, but Vixen are rubbish. 😆

This thread has generated some really interesting discussion. There were a couple of comments that nearly made me start separate a thread on the subject of “Can people choose to believe something?” (eg: can someone choose to believe that Tasco make the best telescopes) and another thread on “The psychology of why people buy premium gear”……… but I thought it was best not to poke this hornet’s nest any further! 🙂

A very thorough and unbiased review Michael, thanks for taking the time to do this. 👍

Pleased to see the Federation of Astronomical Societies is also promoting this - just received an email via my local astro club.

Signed. In theory we should easily be able to reach the target with just people on the forum - not sure how to get that level of engagement/ promotion though.