RobertI

I love carbon stars - I really must have a proper carbon star evening. That list looks good, although I do have a list in Sky Safari from somewhere. I never know which is my best scope to use for coloured stars like this - I think bigger apertures like the C8 are supposed to reveal more colour, but the star shapes in the the 102ED are just so sharp and crisp. Perhaps I'll try the binoviewer and see if two eyes help with colour.

Looks very nice on that white EQ5, a pretty match. Two finder shoes? How very decadent! 😉

Yes I’m going to have another go at the Pup this winter. Not sure which scope I’ll have most luck with - the 102ED (without BVs?), the 150PL or the C8?

Useful link, and good illustration of how a right angle finder can be fitted. I reckon a 6x30 RACI would complement the H130 nicely. Interesting comment by @Alan64 in that thread about the focuser not protruding into the tube (and hence into the light path) - a nice plus point which kind of makes up for the wobbly helical design.

Nice designfor a mini-wide field EAA setup.

When I got my 102ED-R (the Altair Astro equivalent) I was pretty much all set ….except I felt I needed a nice 2” 38mm eyepiece for those ultra wide fields, so I bought one……and then I thought it would be a shame not to have a 2” UHC filter to complement it, so I bought one …… you can see where this is going! Great scope though, you’ll love it.

Superb! Really looking forward to your first impressions and, more importantly, first light. Still just time to catch Jupiter too.

Hyperions were my first step up from the standard eyepieces that came with my C8, and they are I still my main eyepieces ten years later! Not sure why I have not upgraded further, I guess I’m not that fussy, they generally just work and are very pleasant to use. The 10mm is my workhorse. I really do want to experience some premium eyepieces at some point, just not sure what focal length I would need and what brand/model to get. 🤔 Anyway enjoy your Hyperions. 👍

No it's a Zenithstar 71 - just held by a very small man.

Lovely overview of Almach - it is indeed a beautiful sight.

Binoviewers are so good on the moon. Even a full moon at low power looks amazing with BVs. Enjoy!

I did actually have a fiddle with my 0.63 reducer and C8 recently to see if I could realistically use my 70 degree 38mm eyepiece and 2” diagonal (theory say it’s doable but vignetting and light loss occurs). From memory it did work and I could get a pretty wide FOV but the stars became non-sharp fairly quickly off axis. And again from memory it didn’t look like normal coma-type aberrations, I suspect there are some complicated optical effects taking place involving both the cheapish eyepiece and reducer. However there is a review on the FLO website from somebody saying they were getting stars sharp to the edges with a 9.25” plus the reducer and a 40 mm eyepiece and no obvious vignetting. I believe the C8 has a relatively narrow baffle (38 mm diameter?) compared to the larger SCTs so vignetting more likely to occur. The reducer did seem to work quite nicely with my 1.25” eyepieces though.

I haven't experienced all the scopes on your list, but what I can say is: An ED scope should be better for planetary observing than an achro of similar spec, with better contrast and better results at higher magnifications in general F7 is a good focal ratio for a 4" refractor - not too small to test the lens and not large long to be unwieldy - my F10 4" achro now seems very long and cumbersome to use by comparison A pair of binoviewers will work really well for planetary and make it seem like a much bigger scope (although not everyone gets on with binoviewers) I've been super happy with my 102ED F7 and it complements my 8" scope really well, the latter being better for faint fuzzies. Personally, I'd save up for the 102ED and budget for some binoviewers for next year when Mars is high in the sky!

I had exactly the same experience a few years ago, with my 8" SCT not being able to cleanly split it but my 4" achromat seeing a clean split. I think Alnitak is one of a few examples of doubles where the bright primary makes it very tricky.

I've done a quick check and the above pattern still seems to hold true, so it seems in the US that SCTs are cheaper than Maks and in the UK the reverse is true. I'm guessing this is the result of different marketing strategies by Synta in different sales territories. Looking at the prices I would say that in the UK the Maks represent tremendous value for money and if I was in the market for a brand new compact catadioptric, I wouldn't be buying an SCT!

Hi Louis, the point of the comparison was to show that in the US, Maks are considerably more expensive than SCTs, and in the UK the reverse is true. The relative prices between UK and US was not the point of the comparison, but I've noted your point for future reference!

Just amazing. Well done and enjoy!

Hooray! Well done @FLO, super super scope.

Nice image John, from what I recall of my EAA attempts, it is much dimmer than its size would suggest. The redness is clear as you say. 👍

What a difference! The brightness and contrast is so much better - most noticeable on the Veil for me, with its delicate filaments standing out so much more clearly. I went to Kelling Heath a couple of years ago and I’ll never forget my first observation of the night - I held my binoculars up looked towards Andromeda and saw a small cloud in the sky - I thought it might have been cloudy skies on the way but it turned out to be M33! It was incredibly bright and almost glowing, amazing. I’m lucky to see it at all from my home.

These are great, a very interesting selection nicely captured, thanks for posting. I shall go away and do some research on Seyfert galaxies now - I know about them but never really looked into in detail, you've piqued my interest.

Great to see EAA working so well - that’s a good haul you have there. Your hyperstar results are superb - the perfect setup for wide field EAA. Please do post some of your other images, we EAA’ers don’t care about such things as coma and out of focus stars! 😉

Sounds like everyone had a great time, NV seems to be a great outreach tool. I would definitely have NV if I could afford it. I’d then have all bases covered - my EAA setup would cover galaxies large and small, NV would cover the plethora of emission nebulae (and more besides I imagine) and un-assisted scope would cover doubles, clusters and solar system. 👍 Or I could just buy a 16” dob if I had the room. 😆

Shame about the weather, yours skies would have been lovely. A few years ago we had a power cut in the town during a clear moonless winter evening - I had a lovely couple of hours sweeping for DSOs with my binoculars. And at the moment the street lights in my road and the one next door are out - means I can now observe anywhere in the garden which is nice. 🙂

A lot of effort went into that video! Fascinating watch, thanks. My poor little C8 looked tiny in this company. Astrophysics Starfire 130 for me please. 🙂