RobertI

Poised for action...it’s a lovely looking setup. Would love to have a look through that.  👍

Stunning image!

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Have used the same handle on quite a few scopes. BTW this handle can be shortened if needs be. Just remove one of the ends and shorten the tube to suit. 👍🏻

Hadn’t thought of that, thanks!

Ps: there was a very nice handle  at the Telescope Service website, but it came in at £45 including delivery, this one was a mere £15 including delivery. 🙂 It pays to shop around.  

Handle finally sourced from link kindly supplied by @johninderby, there was only one that fitted in the end, but it does the job perfectly! They delivered next day. Thanks for all the help. 👍
 

12 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

FINALLY I BAGGED IT.

Heritage 130p and Delite 18.2 eyepiece, plus Astronomik Oiii filter. Without the filter, just an (admittedly lovely) starfield. With the filter, WOW there it was, the Eastern section, so clear! A quick shift over to the West, and there, almost as bright, was the Western part. Very pleased. I removed the filter and, now knowing exactly where and what to look for, I could just about make out the Eastern bit. So pleasing too to get it with what is often recommended as the very first scope an aspiring observer will buy.

Clear nights forecast and dark for the next few days, I shall bring more aperture, 12", to bear.

Very pleased, Magnus

Well done Magnus! It's definitely one of those objects that becomes easier to see once you have bagged it IMO. You'll be going back to it again and again. Should be superb in your 12". I tried it tonight with my 120ED + 38mm Panaview e/p + 2" UHC filter, giving a 3.8 degree field of view - the first time I have tried with this combination and I could see the whole complex in the field of view, although not very bright as the transparency was awful. Still some time to get some dark skies for better viewing, but I shall be sad to see it leaving for another year.

4 hours ago, Alfian said:

This reminds a little of my experience with my Tal100r although in analysis it probably something completely different. I had a SW100ED and very nice it was too with beautifully sharp tight images, luna spectacularly so. I parted with the SW 100ED and got the Tal 100r (not a story for now).  Yes, the Tal has CA where the 100ED  didn't, but its not  sufficiently distracting to spoil things, however what immediately stood out was the Tals ability handle magnification.  With the 100ED I would inch things up to the point where resolution started to go, whereas the Tal  just seems to be up there (200x) more easily without any particular strain on the eyes. (eye)  Clearly this isn't a side by side, same seeing conditions comparison, but in terms of lasting impressions over time this is how I see it.  I don't have the scientific optical wherewithal to be able to explain what that amounts to in terms of the Tals optics but I'm not complaining.

Interesting experiences Ian. I can’t think of an obvious reason either. I shall test this out on the moon where the eye strain at higher mags might be more obvious. I’ll let you know the result. 

Something like this might be an excellent compromise - ED glass, manageble focal length, well specced, well made and nice price. TS do an identical version. I can confirm the practicality of a 4" F7 scope!

Crikey those Vixens are expensive! The Helios may be worth a punt for £90, I can't imagine the experience is much different to the Vixens. I have something similar (I made my own from two Nikon tele-extenders) and they work really well and are great fun. It's odd when you first use them to realise that you are getting entire constellation(s) in the field of view. I would say they work at their best in really dark skies though. I'm not sure that I would pay any more than £100 for that experience . 

Thanks everyone, looks like I’ve found my answer, cheers John  👍👍 The handles look very nice on those scopes. 🙂

5 minutes ago, Robindonne said:

I personally like the altair ones.  The 180 is in stock.   

Thanks Robin, I did look on the Altair website, but the hole spacing on the ”180mm” handle is 129mm! There doesn’t seem to be one with the correct spacing. 

 I am trying to source a new handle for 102ED refractor. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good supplier? The holes need to be 180 mm apart. @johninderby I think you have had some success with sourcing handles? 

Thanks all 

That’s really funny and so true! 

Whatever you go for, if you can stretch to the 2” tripod legs it will add significantly to the stability. 

29 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Yes, on paper it has alot going for it. proper bearings on both axis, micro stepper motors, and belt drive. You can control it wirelessly using a windows laptop and Explore Stars which is Explore  Scientific's open source goto and control software. I'm wary about wifi control after the Astro FI I reviewed but this one is supposed to work ok with Windows. I'm not sure I would have risked buying it if it was IOS and Android only. 

Sounds very well specced Chris. Smart move to make the control software open source I think. Look forward to seeing how it goes. 👍

Exos-2-PMC-8.....interesting....

11 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Nice report. What great value these 4” Altair EDs are! The FPL-51 is incredibly cheap, but this FPL53 version also very competitively priced at circa £900. Good to hear it’s performing well too.

Thanks Mark, yes the FPL-51 is very good value and would probably have been fine for my visual needs but I wanted to treat myself to the full fat version! 😁

3 hours ago, Fozzie said:

Oooo think i'll follow this thread, looking forward to seeing your thoughts as the weeks progress.  

I’ll try to make I as interesting as possible! 🙂

2 hours ago, Lockie said:

That's more like it, good to hear Robert! Following with interest

Yes, I think I was unlucky with the conditions for my first light(s) with the ED-R. Looking much better now. 👍

Finally managed to get the new Altair Astro 102ED-R out alongside the Tal100RS for a comparison of ED versus achro performance. I've had some very helpful suggestions of targets for this comparison from fellow members and will be doing these over the coming weeks (and probably months!). But tonight the parget was Mars and fortunately seeing was excellent. Just for information the achro cost me £100 (used, not sure what the new equivalent would be now) and the ED cost me £900 (new), so an unfair comparison on the face of it! But the Tal has a good reputation so should be close for visual.  

The first difference was that focussing the Tal induced much more wobble than the shorter-tubed ED102-R, making fine focus more tricky. Also it was much easier to reach the slow motion controls when using the shorter ED-R.

The view of Mars through the ED-R was excellent, much better than in recent sessions with a clearly defined south pole, well defined dark areas along in southerm hemisphere and another dark region to one side of the top of the nothern hemisphere. At 200x plenty of detail visible in moments of calm. In the Tal at x200, the view was clearly not as good, with the maria looking much darker against the much redder looking disk, and the subtle detail not showing through so well. Also there was a red and blue fringing very apparent through the Tal - this may be due to the cheap prism diagonal used - I'll try and swap for a mirror for a better comparison. The purple halo was there, but subtle and only visible when I remembered to look for it!

Another plus for the ED-R it was that it was easier to see when Mars was in focus. But floaters were a bit of a problem in the ED-R at 200x  and strangely in the Tal at 200x, floaters were less of a problem despite the same exit pupil!

But overall the ED-R was a better experience all round, with better views and easier to handle.  However I am suspicious of the cheap prism diagonal in the Tal! Next instalment soon.

Great session Nick! And with a friend too. 🙂 The seeing was good here also and Mars was impressive - will post a report later. 👍

50 minutes ago, jetstream said:

How about this- Put Alnitak on the edge of the field and view the Flame nebula no filter- this is a good test of everything.

One more: go up and over from there and easily view M78- scan from there looking for the edge of Barnards Loop- your 100ED will show it for sure under dark skies, you need a 40mm or lower fl EP IMHO.

Two nice suggestions there to include over the winter, thanks. These are of particular interest to me as I have never seen the flame or Barnard’s loop. I also have a nice 2” 38mm EP which works in both scopes, but sadly much smaller FOV in the Tal. Looking forward to trying  👍

Nice report Stu, well done for getting out at such an early hour. I find these late nights exhausting!

Beautiful scope - that setup looks rock solid. 

2 hours ago, Astrid said:

Hi! That list looks great! 

But may I ask, what filters do you use/will use for nebulae? I heard that the only nebulae visible without a filter is M42 (orion). Is this true?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks! Apart from the Orion Neb, there are plenty of other nebulae visible without filters including the Lagoon, The Swan , the Trifid, The Ring, the Dumbell and the Crab Neb.

Most of these brighter nebulae will show up better with a OIII or UHC filter, and there are a host of fainter nebulae which are only really visible with one of these filters.

So I'll be using one of these two filters.  

2 hours ago, Alkaid said:

Although it’s a a lunar high contrast target, I would love to know the comparison between these two on Copernicus at high power. Say both at roughly x200 for one test, and also an image breakdown test whereby you keep pushing the power.  You might find that the ED100 will allow much higher powers to be employed, would be fun to see how hard each one can be pushed.

Your wish is my command. It's added to the list! It might be a little while before I can manage it, but at least the scope has arrived now!