RobertI

Hey Chris, great video and interesting comparison of the eyepieces. Very entertaining as always. I know what you mean about the arm - just had my jab too! My only comment on the vid would be that it would be nice to see how the eyepeices would deal with other types of objects, such as large clusters (to see how the distortion affects the views) and faint or close doubles. Also choose a star that’s easier to pronounce! 😂. Do you think the reflection was was from the light on your face or some other source?

Wonderful to watch. 🙂

An alternative (and possibly cheaper) approach might be to consider bino-viewers with your existing Mak 127. Many folk (including me) find the ability to use two eyes makes a massive difference to what you can see when observing planets, moon and sun. I am constantly amazed by what my 102ED frac with binoviewers can achieve.

Could you put the C8 on an altaz mount for visual?

Great to know I'll be able to use my Lodestar with Jocular without need for SLL (which is still a great tool in its own right!) You've done so much work on this Martin, lots of amazing features by the look of it, very exciting, I'll have a read through the comprehensive manual to acquaint myself with its feature set.

I'm treating myself top a new laptop soon, so I'll try to install Jocular again - it does look very nice to use.

A fascinating mosaic, really interesting to identify the different nebulae and appreciate their relative sizes. Also interesting to see the how tiny some of the well known favourites are, such as the Dumbell, Crescent and Bubble. Thanks for posting!

I only have experience of the Geoptik, but I can confirm that it’s excellent - beautifully made, very solid with easy adjustment. I use it all the time and really can’t fault it. The Berlebach does have a padded seat which might be useful for really long sessions, but not sure it’s worth another £70! You can also use the Geoptik as a reclining binocular chair, though it’s a bit of a faff to adjust the strap to convert it. Also has a handy magnetic seat storage clip on the back. I think it’s really good value for money. Edit: Just another thought, the Nadira is a three legged configuration which I think will make it more usable on uneven ground.

Agreed, it’s brilliant, and the standard against which I judge other discussion sites (in fact I haven’t found another that comes close, astronomy or otherwise). Well done and thanks to all. Long may it continue.

I’m not sure direct customer service is AA’s strong point! They seem to be very focused on new product development and such like. When I bought my AA 102EDR I ordered through HarrisonTelescopes as I thought I would get better customer service and I was not disappointed.

Lovely article, it’s nice to be reminded of the joy of small scopes. My 66mm frac on a photo tripod still gets used when I am short of time and need a quick ‘astro fix’.

Interesting. When I spoke to one of the suppliers of the scope and asked why the scope was sometimes advertised as Lanthanum and sometimes not, he explained that Lanthanum was a coating (I assumed he was talking about this scope, and more generally of astro equipment) - I didn’t really follow at the time but now it makes sense. I’m wondering if some suppliers of this scope feel it’s inappropriate to advertise a coated lens as “Lanthanum”? We’ll probably never know the truth! Sorry to derail the thread.

I also have one of these, beautifully made, solid and excellent value. Super happy with it. Together with the bino-viewer, I can now observe in comfort for much longer. 👍

For me, at the moment, it has to be bino-viewers. Wish I’d got them years ago. They have renewed my interest in the moon, sun and planets.

I have bought the Altair Astro 102ED F7 and have been extremely happy (actually amazed) with the results I got during the Mars opposition and more recently Lunar and Solar. Very good for doubles too. I find the 714mm focal length considerably easier to use than my 1000mm achro. My scope is the same as the TS Optics Photoline and the Tecnosky 102ED. The optics are made by United Optics (Kunming). As for the Lanthanum, I have the same question - TS make a big deal of it, the Tecnosky website (Italian) refers to it but the UK Tecnosky retailers don’t mention it! Altair Astro don’t mention it and when I asked the question on their Facebook page......nothing. I’m not at all bothered but would like the mystery cleared up! A number of people on SGL have bought these scopes recently, covering all three brands, and the quality control seems to be very good. I’m sure any of the three brands would be fine. The build quality by the way is top notch, a very hefty and well engineered rotating focuser and sliding dewshield. Would definitely work for imaging as well as visual. 👍

The 102ED-R set up and ready for action tonight. Sadly I’d forgotten I needed to get up early and hence an early night was required, so down it all came! Might try some binocular action before bed.

Great vid Chris. The 200P is actually more compact than I was expecting. Looking forward to the seeing how you get on.

Very nice, you’re inspiring me to have a go. 👍

....said the man in the orthopaedic shoes. (sorry)

Hi Carl, I asked the same question recently and was reassured by the responses I received from experienced members like John, so I went ahead and tried the 102ED-R with my Herschel wedge and binoviewers. The results were astounding, with exquisite detail of the only sunspot group at 170x. Prior to this I had only used the Herschel Wedge with smaller short FL refractors and understood that it was rarely worth going above 60x magnification - how wrong I was! Let us know how you get on.

Great report Martin, a very interesting galaxy, nicely captured and researched. Adrian, I have been using an RC6 for EAA for a few years and have been very happy with it. I use a F3.3 SCT reducer to reduce it down to F4.5 ish, I imagine other reducers would also work with the small chips of EAA cameras, perhaps the ubiquitous F6.3 reducer? Some examples of what the setup is capable of can be found on my rather out of date website http://www.ipernity.com/home/robivory Hope that helps.

Nice report! You covered some really interesting objects there. What scope were you using?

I know it probably seems a bit wierd, but I really love the front cover!

Not really imaging disasters, but I had a scope fall to the ground when a clamp failed - fortunately it was a small scope and it fell onto a carpeted garage floor. I was also distracted when getting set up one night, and the mount was just balanced on the tripod - it ended up crashing five feet onto concrete. Amazingly, no damage - these CG5 mounts were solidly built!

Well done John!