RobertI

Having made the decision to brave the cold and observe the shadow transit of Io, I was disappointed when I realised Jupiter was going to be too low. But I thought, what the hell, the moon and Mars look good, so worth going out anyway.

I wasn’t taking any chances in the -2C temperatures, so wore my ski jacket over the top of three layers, hat, hood, two layers of gloves and winter socks. Result - completely toastie for the entire 90 minute session. 🙂

Used the 102ED with binoviewers, giving round 170x, with each eyepiece wrapped in a dewstrap - essential in these cold conditions, especially with BVs it seems.

Had some nice views of Mars, was hoping I might get to see Olympus Mons and a hint of the chain of three volcanoes nearby, but not a trace. Seeing didn’t seem too bad when looking at bright stars, but it didn’t seem to translate to good views of Mars. There were some nice dark features visible to the South and the polar cap was just visible, but nothing really stood out tonight. I tried the blue #80A filter and was surprised to discover it did seem to make the polar cap stand out more, turning the planet a pale blue. Tried a yellow #12 filter and that didn’t seem to help a huge amount, possibly a slight increase in contrast in the dark regions, but the yellow tint became quite extreme when viewing the red planet. Finally tried a polarising filter to see if the reduced glare was the reason why the blue filter worked, but the polarising filter was no where near as good.

Headed off to the moon and had a nice time scanning the terminator from a lunar phase that I rarely observe.

Finally a couple of doubles. Rigel and its companion were an easy split but not very bright due to the moon and mist lighting up the sky. Alnitak was also easy, a tight double with a bright primary which can be tricky, but no problem for the 102ED. 

Feet starting to get a little cold, time to go in. 
 

That’s grim. Hope it all dries out ok for you. 

Personally I would forget the idea of using a 60mm Tak or equivalent as a finder - once you’ve added rings, and diagonal and a quality wide field eyepiece, it will be a really heavy lump to have on the main scope and will make balancing a real pain and make the whole thing unwieldy IMO. I did try something similar in the past and found it too cumbersome. I would go for a right angled finder where your existing finder is (I have this setup and it works really well) and a get a really nice wide field eyepiece for the main scope. You can still buy a Tak 60mm as a standalone travel scope. 🙂 FYI I also have Rigel Quikfinder RDF which I mount near the dew shield, which makes it much easier to look through. HTH.

EDIT: Just did a bit of research and you can get a maximum field of view of 3 degrees from your scope, but you will need to use a 2” eyepiece, something like a 38mm Panaview (at the more budget end). Warning - 2” eyepieces are huge!

Excellent work!

Wonderful image. 

Top notch image. 👍

Superb Alan. You've both been through alot, hopefully it's brought you closer together.  

So he says there were 21 exposure of 15 seconds which is 315 seconds. But he says they were taken over 9 minutes (540 seconds). This implies there was around 11 seconds between each exposure. So from his timelapse, the objects were moving a considerable distance in the 11 seconds between exposures but were not moving at all (implied by the fact they were pinpoints, no trailing) during the 15 seconds of the exposure. This seems a bit odd. 
 

One possible explanation is that that it could be a single object that ‘flashes’ at a regular interval which results in two flashes during the 15 second exposure, making it look like two objects. If it was a single 9 minute exposure perhaps we would get one long dotted line rather than one long trail?  That might explain the effects, but what could produce it? Doesn’t seem to be a tumbling satellite type of effect. Can geostationary satellites flash? 
 

The alternative is that it is something else in the imaging train - reflection, etc. 

18 minutes ago, Alan White said:

And I can now report that the lens cell and lenses are all realigned and tested by a very special person in Cambridgeshire.
Pronounced as all excellent and a fine lens set.
Now to sort out the remainder of the telescope. 
 

Brilliant news Alan! I think you should call the scope “Lazarus”!

6 hours ago, Stu said:

Gary, the Skywatcher pillar does fit 👍

Very interested to see how you get on Stu.

7 hours ago, Franklin said:

I've been reading this thread with interest, as I have a similar set up and it doesn't disappoint for super low power, widefield viewing.

I drove this little rig out to the Peaks in the summer and scanning through the Cygnus region was awesome, a 2" Baader UHC-S in the nose of the diagonal worked well too.

 

Very jealous of your lovely little Vixen scope, I think that combination must be getting on for 8 degrees FOV? 😲

Edit: Just worked out it's closer to 10 degrees!

There’s a thread about pretty telescopes - I think this definitely qualifies! 

12 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

It was a William Optics short tube 80mm scope

From 2006:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/cn-reports/telescope-reports/cn-report-william-optics-zenithstar-80-st-r1390

Thanks for the link Don. A nice idea by WO but poorly executed in some places by the look of it. It’s interesting that the binoviewer can be used without the GPC in this setup. The Bizarro referenced by Louis includes an inbuilt correcting lens that Televue claim is essential to prevent aberrations from the prisms, or something like that. Neither product seemed to last, perhaps the price, getting into bino-telescope territory?

Not sure if I got the discount (it said I did), but I bought it anyway, some really nice improvements and additional features to play with. Such a great tool, whether you’re planning, researching or just browsing, it just gets better and better. 🙂

19 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Sounds a bit like the Tele Vue Bizarro, except that it was an 85mm scope.

Not come across that one before, seems like a great concept to me. Not sure about the name though!

32 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

Many years ago, I did a review of a telescope that people also asked which end to look through.

It was an 80mm refractor designed to be usable ONLY with binoviewers (and could be used without the OCA).

 

Interesting. Was that a commercial scope or a DIY project Don? 

On 29/11/2022 at 08:13, F15Rules said:

+1 for that Phil👍.

Here's Mark Turner of Moonraker Scopes' take on the same model, as commissioned by Neil English c 2014 before he went to the dark side of ships' funnels..🥴😁..

This scope, "Bessy", became a " gift scope", not to be sold for cash..I looked after her for several years, and she is currently in the care of Roger Vine.

A truly "pretty" (and pretty impressive) refractor with great achromatic optics.

Dave

What a lovely instrument. Tall, slender and elegant, the perfect observing partner. 🙂

Great report @Moon-Monkey , fascinating read. Impressive to see what you can see with a 40mm F10 scope for starters. You did well to spot Deimos with your 8”, and i’ll follow your progress with interest. I’d be interested to know how you made your occulting eyepiece, perhaps something I should try as I would like to have a stab at the at least one of the moons with my 8” SCT. I’ve also never seen Sirius B and I think an occulting eyepiece might with that one too. 👍

Thanks Mark - a 100 degree eyepiece with a 60mm scope - that must be a nice wide field! 

Super sketch, lovely details and colours. 👍

19 minutes ago, Louis D said:

For balance with heavy 2" eyepieces in my 72ED, I have to clamp the dovetail bar almost directly under the focuser knobs, so the scope is cantilevered on a long bar.  The other problem I have is the focuser slips under the 3+ pound 2" load despite cranking up the focuser default tension screw under the pinion and roughing up the flat of the focuser tube.

Thanks Louis, this “extreme” setup is not without its problems it would seem. The balance point in mine is actually further away from the focus knob, at the end of the silver dovetail - I think the added weight of the rings and the finder help to move the balance point forward. I’ve never been a fan of the focuser on this scope, but I adjusted it recently and it seems to be holding the load ok - the test will be in the field of course.

37 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

That is a lovely kind of set-up. I often use my APM 80mm triplet with a 2" Amici prism and the Nagler 31T5, yielding 5.3 deg FOV at 15.5x magnification. I did a comparison with the views in a pair of Helios Apollo 15x70 bins here:

The bins have the definite edge in portability, but the 80 mm triplet beats them for visual impact

Thanks Michael, just read your comparison post - made interesting reading. I am not expecting the edge of field aberrations to be that good with the Panaview but daytime testing looks promising. I forgot that I have a 2” UHC so that could be fun on some larger emission nebulae - perhaps I’ll have a stab at Barnard’s Loop?

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Snap @RobertI, I used to do exactly the same with mine! This was back in October 2013. I actually prefer the views through a widefield scope. Having the 90 degree diagonal helps with viewing comfort, and the views through a decent scope/eyepiece tend to be better edge correction than most binoculars. Have fun!

EDIT you don’t really need a finder with your combination! 😀

That’s good to know Stu, I’m looking forward to using it. Yes, the finder is there because I was using this for EAA and needed a quick way of aligning. It actually makes a very useful handle! 
 

The Panaview and diagonal are very heavy but the focuser seems to be able to handle it ok and I always have the focus lock.

My 66mm Zenithstar comes with a 1.25” visual back but can take SCT accessories. So I wondered, if I fit my SCT 2” diagonal, could I also use my Panaview 38mm 2” eyepiece without vignetting? So I set it all up and was delighted to see it reaches focus and there doesn’t seem to be any vignetting. This gives 10x magnification and an expansive 7 degrees. The downside is an exit pupil of 6.5mm which might be a bit on the large side. But it will be an interesting experiment to compare this setup with my 10x50 binoculars and see how the views compare. My guess is I will prefer the binoculars, but we’ll see! I have to say the combination of tiny scope and huge diagonal and eyepiece is slightly comical. And it’s pretty damn heavy now too. 
 

Went out for a look just now, clear but very misty. Put the binoculars up to my eyes, which seemed to induce a violent coughing fit, my eyes ended up watering so much that I couldn’t see and I was making so much noise, that I had to retreat indoors for the sake of the neighbours. Not the most successful session!