RobertI

Some really great thoughts there, thanks everyone, I knew eyepieces would generate a lot of discussion, in fact I was a little worried about unearthing a hornet’s nest! 🙂 The truth is I am very curious about eyepieces and would love to see whether a super-wide-field would give me that wow, or whether edge-to-edge sharpness improves my viewing pleasure. With my scopes I’ve always been very clear on what I want to achieve with my observing before buying - I think the 102ED was the only scope where I bought for other reasons - namely to treat myself to something a bit more ‘premium’ and to see if what everyone said about them was true. Well the 102ED turned out to be a resounding success, so perhaps I should just try the same experiment with a new eyepiece and see where it goes ……. surely just one little eyepiece can’t hurt? 😉

@Louis D you’ve actually got enough eyepieces to play eyepiece top trumps! Each eyepiece can compete on: Cost (the more expensive the better) Number of elements (the more the better) Field of view Edge correction On axis detail Focal length (the shorter the better) Eye relief Weight Rarity Let me know how you get on. 🙂

That’s hilarious! But I’m also jealous. This is so confusing.

I think one of my issues is that I have quite a few scopes, so I am often swapping between scopes and eyepieces, so it’s never a case of “this is a terrible eyepiece” as it might have some aberrations in my F5 Newt but be fine in my F7 refractor and really good in my F10 SCT! Also, I can’t think of many times when I’ve been observing and the edge of field aberrations actually matter, it’s usually the object in the middle that is important. Wide field Milky Way sweeping and large objects are the exception I guess. But I totally get why some people are more sensitive to aberrations and other issues. If I had just one main scope, I might be more motivated to get say three or four premium perfectly matched eyepieces. Perhaps the key is to start trimming down my telescope collection! 😆

Strangely enough, it was seeing a review of this very eyepiece which started my whole thought process about eyepieces!!

Ok, perhaps the title is a bit of an exaggeration, but I have never been that excited by eyepieces, and I’m wondering why. Do I get excited by telescopes? Most definitely. Mounts? Oh yes, some lovely mounts out there, a Rowan AZ75 is definitely on my list. But not eyepieces. With my new 102ED refractor (admittedly not ‘premium’) with its fancy FPL53 glass, I have considered a new premium eyepiece, but I’ve struggled to find a good case for the spend. I know that the best eyepieces have fewer aberrations, less scatter, etc, but from what I’ve read there is very little difference in what you can actually SEE. And I recall one famous reviewer who said he could make out very little difference between a premium eyepiece and a cheaper zoom when viewing the planets. I bought a couple of Baader Hyperions at least 10 years ago, and have supplemented them with a BST, a Baader Zoom and a OVL Panoptic for wide field, and I have been neither delighted or disappointed by any of them, they do the job, but none have transformed my viewing pleasure. My binoviewer did, but that’s another story! So am I missing out on a whole world of eyepiece pleasure? What am I doing wrong? 🙂

Me too, and strangely enough this is one of the reasons I was attracted to EAA, as I found the post-processing aspect of imaging too much after a long week of using the laptop. I do use the laptop for EAA in the field though, so I’m afraid I can’t share my experiences of video astronomy. Sounds like a nice relaxing way to do EAA though.

Beautiful. Will give this a go. 👍

Nicely described. Sounds like you have been through quite a journey to get your perfect setup. There is definitely a 12” dob in my future…..

This is combination of scopes which I aspire to. I have one, just need the other. 🙂 I too have really loved having my 102ED and it’s added a whole new dimension to my observing - more so than any other scope I have owned. I think it’s the fact that it really has no foibles mechanically or optically (unlike most mirror scopes) - there is really no sense of compromise. As for the views, it produces perfect stellar views, and performs impossibly well on solar system. And wide field. Oh, and it’s really portable! What was it about the scope that helped get your mojo back @Mr Spock?

That’s no mean feat sketching a big glob and actually getting the detail there. Fantastic, well done.

Very nice too. Unfortunately my CG5 is sort of dark grey, so doesn’t match anything, but it’s mostly in the dark so doesn’t matter I guess! Perhaps I’ll set it up and take a pic - see if we can turn this into a “Show us your 102 ED on an equatorial mount” thread! 😆

Very nice sketch.

That really does look the business. A very ‘together’ setup. 👍 Funnily enough I was thinking today that I should get my 102ED on the CG5 so that I have free hands to sketch Jupiter. The CG5 isn’t white though, won’t look so good. 😉

Lovely looking scope. As you say the objective looks perfect. Why is there a hole in the back of the diagonal do you think?

Will definitely put that one in the diary.

It’s actually part of UK law. You must buy one.

I’d have a look at the Sky Guide app. I did a review of it about three years ago here. Things have moved on somewhat since then, and they have new features, and an extended database of high definition images which you pay extra for. The big downside is the ‘full fat’ costs £35 PER YEAR! If there is a way to trial it without committing, might be worth a look. I did end up buying the full version when it was much cheaper - I used it quite a lot alongside Sky Safari, but ultimately I guess I couldn’t justify the annual cost, and discontinued.

Yes probably Winter for me in terms of skies and targets, although this time of year is brilliant from a practical perspective - still warm and getting fully dark reasonably early makes observing a joy.

Make sure you keep us posted with progress. 👍

Pretty much exactly what I saw!

I have to say, if I knew back in 1999 what I know now, I wouldn’t have bought an SCT. As I mentioned in a separate thread, it was the scope I had always wanted as a kid back in the early 80’s (as did many people) and when I resurrected my hobby I bought my ‘dream’ scope without really doing any research. Having said that, nearly 25 years later, it has stayed with me through numerous house moves, accompanied me on numerous holidays, given me some truly memorable views and now sits alongside my new 102ED when I want to do ‘dual’ observing. I guess we make the best of what we have!

Cheers Stu, I’ve only observed a couple shadow transits and being able to the see the moon’s bright disc on the planet was something new. Interesting to hear that what I saw is common for Europa and Io. I think my description was confusing (I’ve now removed the offending sentence), I did manage to see the shadow across the whole disc! Fascinating, I have a lot to look forward to with these transits over the coming months. I need keep a close eye on what’s happening. 👍 Ditto. 😆

Just seen an amazing shadow transit of Io - full(er) report here:

The clouds cleared and consulting Sky Safari, I saw that a shadow transit of Io was just starting. Five minutes later I had the 102ED with binoviewers set up at around 170x. The seeing was awful with Jupiter ‘boiling’ but the shadow of Io was perfectly clear, a tiny black disc which seemed totally unmoving as the other moons danced around. Io itself was really close to the limb of Jupiter and over the next few minutes I watched it touch the limb and then start to move across the face of the planet. What amazed me most was that, because it was moving along one of the dark equatorial belts, it was visible as a tiny bright disc, and was visible for a good ten minutes until it finally disappeared against the disc of Jupiter. Quite an experience. 🙂 Anyone else see it?