RobertI

Nice images, I like the way the objects are framed with the information. It’s good to see the Horsehead to see how it deals with fainter objects. Perhaps we can see some of the spring galaxies in Leo and Virgo to see how it deals with those? M42 is nice, I would say the stars look sharper than the image earlier in the thread - does the scope allow focus to be adjusted?

Edit: From reading the thread again I think the answer is ‘yes’, as a focus knob is described. 👍

Interesting experiment Vlaiv. Coincidentally I have been reading about this very subject in my lovely little book 'Frank's book of the telescope' written by the telescope maker Charles Frank in 1959. I frequently delve into this book, which is as relevant today as it was back then. In the chapter discussing amatuer intruments, he notes:

"...some of these lunar features, frequently observed by users of such telescopes, are known to be of a size which theory would suggest to be incapable of resolution. When this happens it would be unwise for the observer to be believe that what he sees is the full and final form of the feature; sometimes this evident resolution is spurious , being the result of overlapping in the very complicated diffraction pattern which viewing areas of high contrast by optical means must involve..... All the same, it remains a fact that excessivly fine detail, especially when of a linear type, can be seen. Another way in which subjects below the resolving power of the telescope can be detected on the surface of the moon is by detection of the shadows....then it is that very ridges of no great height  can be seen thrown into exaggerated relief......  "

May not help 'resolve' your question (excuse the pun) but is interesting to note the same debates were happening 50 years ago!

Well done! I was poor at logging my observations in 2019, so don’t know exactly how many, but I suspect it was around 30-40. I clearly lack your commitment! 

Crikey that is a very impressive achievement Mike, nice to know there is a library of ‘reference’ ARP EAA images to refer to in the future. I wonder if there is a way to group all your ARP captures together in a single library? 

Great article Curtis, interesting and informative, especially understanding the order in which the technology evolved. I wish this had been available when I was putting together my talk on EAA for my local club in October! I also prefer the term Camera Assisted Viewing/Observing to EAA, but then again anything is better than Video Astronomy, which has become downright misleading! As always there is Night Vision, which is kind of sits in its own category but is still about ‘live electronic viewing’ - it’s slowly growing in popularity (restricted by high costs) and produces amazing results so I included it in my talk, but presumably outside the scope of your article? 
I’m afraid my level of knowledge is not enough to comment on the accuracy of the article, but it is a very useful resource thanks! 

Nice session with your bins, sounds like the conditions were brilliant though. 

Thanks Chris, yes I have dew band permanently attached the scope but I just didn’t think to attach it to the power tank, as the weather didn’t look too ‘dewey! 😆 Don’t think I was thinking very clearly at 2 am! 😬

Some impressive results there, the horse head is amazing. 👍👍

Addendum: When I put the scope away, the lens had a light dew on it. I assumed this happened when I brought it into the warmer garage, but on reflection it had probably been like that for a while, and might explain the inability to split closer doubles. Funny how you sometimes lose the ability to think straight when you’re ‘out in the field’. 

Well done on getting the F component, which I have just failed to get with my 100mm achro - I did get the E though! 🙂 Nice report. The AZPro looks like a nice mount. 

Having recently improved the collimation on my Tal100RS (mainly by blind fumbling) I thought I’d make use of clear skies to test the scope on some doubles. Having waited for it to cool I popped in the 5mm BST giving 200x and slewed to  a brightish star - the results looked promising, with some nice even diffraction rings which were were slightly broken by the average to good seeing conditions.  Buoyed by this result, I slewed to the Trapezium. A beautiful sight as always, the E component was immediately visible but the F was hiding from me, despite looking for a good 20 minutes.  Next was Rigel with its tiny companion, followed by the more challenging Alnitak with its companion 2.2” away from the glare, the latter being easy to see with a clear gap between the two. Inspired by the success so far, I thought I’d try some doubles with a split less than 2”. I was over ambitious starting with  32 Orionis, the mag 4.2 and 5.7 components are only separated by 1.4” and try as I might I could not separate them at 200x. Unfortunately I am currently unable to go beyond 200x and I feel I might have had more luck at higher mags. Propus A with mag 3 and 6 components separated by 1.6” also eluded me and my final attempt at a 1.9” double was also unsuccessful, mainly because the secondary was mag 11 (which I failed realise at the time). I think a Barlow or shorter FL eyepiece is needed for these. Finished with a couple of easy old favourites just to remember how nice the scope is for doubles, Castor looking as beautiful as always and Algieba an easy yellow binary. 

One thing this session did achieve is a decision on my next scope. I had been weighing up whether to get a 100ED or a 150P Newt. Having spent much of the session twisting, craning, crouching, crawling and fumbling around for the eyepiece, often with my head in the tripod legs, I remembered how easy Newts are to observe with, particularly at the zenith, and this clinched my decision to get a 150P next. Shame because a few hours earlier I was definitely veering towards the 100ED!! 🤷🏼‍♂️

2 hours ago, GavStar said:

in an effort to scale down the number of scopes I have.

I would say you have failed! Lovely detailed history and background first light reports. I love 'wheel' on the TEC160 - something usually seen on massive observatory refractors of old. Some legendary refractors in your collection, nice to see them all laid out together. I've enjoyed your NV reports on SGL, I seem to remember the C11 produces excellent results for NV (different story for visual I would imagine). 

Nice capture, tricky one that, viewed it myself sometime ago and recall it took longer than usual exposures. Nice colour. 

3 hours ago, PeterW said:

Good thing no-one has mentioned binoculars.... 😉

Peter

.....or eyepieces......or mounts!

Well clearly I haven't been trying hard enough!

7 hours ago, Stu said:

I would love to have a top notch 130mm triplet at some stage, AP or LZOS for example, a bit more manageable

You could always make @John an offer, I hear he is really fed up with his. 😉 Out of interest @Stu, you don't mention why you purchased any of your scopes - do you go through phases (you seemed to have an OO phase), or is to support your observing interests at the time, or do you buy when something interestibg comes along or do you just love trying out different scopes? I suspect the answer is all of the above!

49 minutes ago, carastro said:

Gracious me John, I thought I had a few.

It looks like you have had a few ‘milestones’ along your learning curve,  and the odd millstone too (haven’t we all!)!

8 hours ago, Paz said:

C8 is a lot more common and is a lot lighter so I changed tack and went for one of these instead. Doesn't get used much - the smaller scopes beat it for grab and go sessions

Interesting, I can see how it wouldn’t get used give your other scopes, it’s neither portable nor a light bucket!

7 hours ago, John said:

TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2 Triplet

Astronomy Nirvana John. Doesn’t get much better than this. 🙂 

36 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

Somewhat faded blue

They do seem to fade somewhat, fortunately mine has been mostly in its case with only a bit of fading from previous ownership. I think they did ‘Meade’ blue, ‘Celestron’ orange, ‘laboratory’ white and ‘bling’ black!

13 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

My scope history ; some binocs too....

Looks like you’ve tried pretty much everything and have finally found you’re happy place. I think a TEC140 would be my happy place too! 

24 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

5) WO ZS66SD - Picked up as a compact grab and go and has proved to be my most used scope, especially for WL Solar and is my go to travel setup as its so tiny

What colour is yours?

28 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

6) Celestron Omni XLT102 ED - Came to me via @Lockie and @Saganite for a very reasonable price and is an absolute keeper and my second most used scope.

Very nice scope. That man @Lockie again!

16 minutes ago, knobby said:

There are no wrong scopes / poor decisions, just milestones along the learning curve

Couldn't have put it better myself!

I’ve been reading a few interesting threads which have made me think about how I ended up with the scopes have over the years, so I have summarised my scope history in chronological order, and the reasons for buying them in brief below. Hope it’s of interest....

1) Celestron C8 - bought in 1999, the dream scope of my youth that I could finally afford. Not much reasearch done, I just wanted one!

2) WO Zenithstar 66SD - bought as a ‘super finder’ for the C8 (I was seduced by its anodised orange lustre). This scope started me out in imaging with my Canon EOS and made me realise how easy it can be to get good results with a small frac. 

3) WO Megrez 72 - I discovered that @Lockie was selling the more imaging friendly 72SD with 2” focuser and was only 10 miles away, so thought I’d give it a go. Turned our be a good g&g visual scope too. 

4) RC6 -  I ended up with this scope as I needed a goto mount to help with my growing interest in EAA, and this scope was being sold locally, bundled with a CG5 GT mount, for a very good price. The RC6 turned out to be a much better EAA scope than the C8, with the promise of ’proper’ imaging in the future.

5) Tal 100RS - really purchased out of curiosity (from my friend @Lockie again!) - I wanted to get a feel for what  could been seen visually with a 100mm longish FL frac, possibly as a prelude to an 100mm ED.

6) Heritage 130P - I wanted more aperture in a grab and go format that could sit on my Giro-WR mount - having read so many good reviews of this scope, it seemed the natural choice. What a good scope it’s been!

Interestingly, having reviewed my reasons for buying the different scopes, I think all of them except the C8 were opportunistic purchases, in that if they had not been on ABS and/or local, I may well have ended up with something  different or nothing at all. 

So how and why did you end up with your various scopes? @Lockie , given the number of scopes you’ve had, you are limited to 10,000 words! 😆

Thanks Chris, it's getting more tempting. Just out of interest, can you reach the primary collimation screws while looking through the eyepiece?

Well done Chris, I did almost 'nudge' you to go out in the clear weather and give the scope a go, but thought that was unfair! Now you're making me feel that I should have been out there! Anyway well done and sounds like that's a great setup, and getting the E component just like that shows how good the scope (and your eye) is.

Do you think my Skytee (on 2" legs) would handle a 6" F8 ok?

Thanks @vlaiv, I’ve never considered one of these, certainly more straight forward than any of the reducers I have, and solves any potential in focus issues, thanks for the heads up!