Space Hopper

Congratulations Magnus : its looks mightily impressive.

It actually looks noticeably shorter than my own F7 140, yet its only 40mm or so of difference. I think the dew shield on my scope  makes it look overly long. No bad thing though.

They are big scopes though in reality and they demand a good mount and tripod combo. For me a 140mm refractor is as big a refractor as I'd like to manage. I have to be ultra careful and am constantly worried about bumping it.

You will love Lunar views with it i'm absolutely sure. In fact if I do a session 'sans' Lunar, I often feel i'm missing out a bit.

A couple of my own points :

My own 140 star tests in a similar way, but its not something i've really taken much notice of. Reason...? I'm always hampered by seeing here. Trap star 'E' is difficult at the best of times and the 'F' star is a no show in my experience. Same with Sirius pup.

The scopes length when viewing Alt-Az can make viewing high up stuff rather difficult. Just the way it is.

Good to see you have a Planet tripod. I upgraded to one a couple of years ago and they make a big difference in stability terms.

Really looking forward to reading your observation report. 

And you have a stunning location i'm just a tad jealous of.......I get to look at trees, houses, and a Bortle 7 lightshow. Hay-ho.

I have an EMS friend who fitted them on a different (but similar) mount and he said it was straightforward.

I've done them myself on my own Alt-Az : again an easy job.

If its encoders by Astro Devices, it will be a trouble free  job. Serge supplies all the bits and provides easy to follow instructions.

If you are going down the 'Nexus DSC' route, its a very worthwhile upgrade. I can't recommend it enough.

I'm not much of an imager, but do wish to improve once i retire and have less commitments.

This was a from a memorable Lunar eclipse we had back in 2015, and i caught Lunar just a few minutes before it dipped into totality (Sony A7S-1, WO FLT132 at prime focus)

And once totality started all the stars came out and we had a really nice deep sky session !! One to remember ☺️

I'm working that Saturday, unless i can blag a day off.

So i'll hopefully see you there 😉

Sad news.

I had a copy of 'Backyard Astronomers guide' around 2000, and read it cover to cover. It was a great source of imformation , and i learned a ton from it.

Those tube rings look.........indestructible 😀

They don't build 'em like that anymore !

I've linked to a good article below, which will give you plenty of info if you are starting out helping to choose a new scope.

https://supercooper.jimdofree.com/choosing-telescopes-complete-essentials/

22 hours ago, Speedmaster said:

Any try outs with cameras ? Not crazy long exposures but just to see if the mount can track enough for simple ap. 

I'm interested in this myself.

I know Neils Haagh, who runs Panther mounts in Denmark often stacks 30s subs without using the field de-rotation device and the results are pretty good.

I think 30s is the limit though, depending on focal length / target etc

A Handle. We like handles on here, don't we....?? 😀

Nice secondhand purchase, and it will compliment the Berlebach tripod nicely.

I just need a scope to go with it now, but thats another story.....

Is it the EZ Finder 2 you are having trouble with ?

An upgrade may be in order.

I use a Baader Skysurfer V on my mount (on my mount not the scope) They are good but a touch pricey.

TS however, do something similar, which is good value, and a bit smaller, but with the same sized finder window.

I have one, and its been really good. you can dim down the dot as well, like the Baader version.

And it looks like it uses the same type of finder shoe as you have on your scope, but its worth clarifying this...

They are aroud £50. 

Check it out :

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7964_TS-Optics-SkyfinderV-LED-Red-Dot-Finder---completely-of-metal.html

Me too, but with big brother 15x50 Canons.

Quite easy to find, close to the red star RR Ursa Minor. (From Kochab, go down a bit, then right a bit 😀)

Its currently mag +5.8

You've set the bar pretty high there Mark.

Excellent job 👍🏼

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Nice choice 👍I fancy a TEC140 but the waiting list is horrendous.

Around 2 years now , i believe. Which is a long time. They produce about one of them a week, so you can tell they have a big order book.

At one time towards the end of the 140 ED era, the wait time was only 3 - 6 months. My own scope was a 13 month wait.

Generally 20% VAT (for UK) + a handling fee on top. 

When I brought the DM-6 mount back in 2014 we were getting $1.70 to the £UK which softened the blow considerably.

My scope was purchased in 2017/18, and the rate had dropped quite a bit, but that was through Astrograph, so i had the peace of mind with dealing with Rupert.

You always worry with a scope that it may arrive damaged, but i guess thats why we have insurance. My mount was pretty much bomb proof, so no worries there.

I often wonder why there are no Stellavue dealers over this side ? They are certainly producing some very impressive refractors, and Vic Marris himself seems to be steering his company in the right direction.

Sounds exciting Magnus.

140's are nice !!  An ideal aperture i'd say. Not too big, not too small : just right.

Are you importing it directly from Stellarvue ?  Let us know how you get on. I've imported quite a bit of stuff from the US over the years from various vendors, and its always been an easy, seamless process.

I've also had my eye on their 102mm refractors , but haven't made any decisions as yet. The wallet remains empty.

If you are in a light polluted area (Bortle 7+) like me, they are easily missed.

All 3 are in the lower part of Auriga in a straightish line. M37 is the best of them.

I've just had a session at our local dark site and i tried to spot R Lep as well, but no joy i'm afraid. Not conclusive anyway.

Not helped at all by the SAO catalogue seemingly disappearing from my Nexus DSC.

I think the SAO number is 150058 ? Does it have any other designation apart from R Lepus ?

Anything else in the pipeline I wonder ??

I'd like to see them resurrect the TSA-102.

44 minutes ago, icpn said:

It is also probably worth noting that PAS is almost entirely an imaging show so if your interest is in visual astronomy it is probably not the place to be.

You could argue some of the talks are geared towards imaging, but i think theres something for everyone there, whether you are primarily a visual observer, or an imager, or both.

Lots of gear on display including visual scopes, Dobs etc and all the eyepieces you could need.

That looks an excellent amount of activity.

I'll see if i can see anything in my 15x50 binocs.

I've not used the HW in my scope for a while ; not since it nearly smoked it last summer.

2 hours ago, Paz said:

I use the max Bright 2 with a 14" dobsonian and looking at my notes I can't see that I got anything else to work other than the newtonian 1.7x gpc but I didn't try everything.

I wonder about options like a 2" to t2 converter then a t2 train with a traditional 1.7x or 2.6x gpc or a shortened power mate into the binoviewer but it would be time consuming and expensive to try other permutations of baader gear and none would be optimised like the newtonian gpc. 

It is a shame they are discontinuing the newtoniam  gpc, it is quite specialist but so is the binoviewer and all its other accessories.

One option is if you can move the primary mirror up the tube and have it located so you can focus, but that would be another major undertaking and make focusing without the binoviewer a new challenge, and you would have to look out for the secondary mirror still catching the whole light cone if you raise the mirror.

There are other binoviewers designed to work with newtonians, e.g. the Binotron 27, it is expensive and I think heavier but would do the job very well.

Exactly.

My own experiences were with an OO VX12 F4 Dob. My story :

I was using a Baader Mk5 bino with a refractor at the time but wanted to use it with a Dob.

OO Newts tend to have the focus point 'quite far out', so much so that you often need an extension on eyepieces to enable them to focus.

This was my experience, so at the time I upgraded to a Moonlite focuser (remember those ?) with an extended 60mm drawtube and used the one inch spacer to get my eyepieces, usually a 2" widefield, to focus.

I then decided i wanted to binoview, but realised i would probably need the Newt gpc to do it.

But before i invested in that i thought i'd try my existing 1.7x gpc to see if that would work. I have all 3 of the gpc's - the 1.25x, 1.7x and the 2.6x that i use with my refractors.

In the Mk5 (as well as the Max 2) the 1.25 and 1.7 gpc's screw into the back of the bino. I tried the 1.7x  but it was not even close to focusing, and it should be noted that i removed the spacer from the Moonlite,

and was using the primary mirror on the lower setting (primary mirrors in OO Newts can be raised up a cm or so to a higher setting)

I then brought myself the dedicated Baader 1.7x gpc / coma corrector for Newtonians, (about £180) and this worked fine, but it tied me into a fairly high power and a loss of those rich field, wide angle views i craved for.

As a binoviewing enthusiast, i'd wanted to try a 'Powerswitch' system for a while, as it's the best way to get a lower power magnification to use when binoviewing.

The Denkmeier Binotron 27 system referred to above listed a 'low power setting' on the Powerswich of 1.3x.

But there was another option : a sister company (Earthwin binoviewers) that offered a similar product, with a listed 1.2x low power, in their bino, that was quite a bit cheaper, so i opted for that.

Still a fair old whack pricewise, but it worked, and worked well with the 12" F4.

Low power magnification was around 60x which with my 24mm Panoptics, which gave me those rich field views i was craving. The 'Double Cluster', for example was very nicely framed and looked stunning from a dark site.

The downside was the weight hanging out the focuser at 2.5kg. I had major balance problems - OO tubes a pretty lightweight, and i often used to view with my knee supporting the tube at lower altitudes and the OO's friction brake was next to useless with that weight.

But it was a nice scope and a great binoviewing experience. 

Someone made me an offer for the scope a couple of years later, and wanting to downsize and upgrade my refractor, I sold it, and the Earthwin bino soon after.

If i was to have my time again ?

The weight of these binoviewing systems necessitates a big primary to mitigate balance issues, so i'd really look at a bigger scope in the first place - something like a 16" mirror in the F4.5 range*

and then go with a Denk Binotron 27 and use their 45mm OCS which is optimally designed. 

* iIt should be noted that these binoviewers will only pass a lightcone in low power setting of around F4.45 or there-abouts. So with my own F4 scope i was probably losing a bit of aperture and illumination, but not too much to spoil the views.

But with big Newtonians and Binoviewing the Denk system is the way to go I think.. And despite the apparent cost, you get 3 different power level options, so potentially, when you take into account the saving you get buying addition eyepieces, it becomes more compelling.

@PeterW

A date for your diary ?

March 11 2023.

Free entry, free talks. Lots to see. 

https://practicalastroshow.com

Although i work on the trains, its a good old trek from Derby to London, then a couple of different tubes to reach South Kensington.

I've attended many times in the past : seen many great talks from the likes of Allan Chapman, Brian Cox, Stephen James O'Mara, Lucie Green, to name a few.

Also my one and only time I saw the late Sir Patrick was at Astrofest.

But i've not been since 2017 when i was a little disappointed with it. I'm in agreement with Mike, thats its run its course.

Then theres the PAS show in Kettering as well as the IAS in October. Both easier to get to, and i've had my 'astro show fix' from them both.

I do enjoy an astroshow though, it's always a great atmosphere when the astro community have a get together.

Very sorry to hear this sad news.

Despite the fact we must have lived pretty close to one another, I must confess I never had the pleasure of meeting John.

I know he was passionate about his new Rowan alt-az mount and his refractors, a man after my own heart.

May he rest in peace.