Space Hopper

My thoughts on the current crop of Harmonic drive mounts is although they are a new exciting technology, they are still an evolving technology. I was interested in one last year, but decided to wait a few more years yet and see how they develop. If you are not an imager, I think a Rowan Astro AZ100 is the way to go especially with the motorisation upgrades just around the corner. And loads of scope options will be available to you.

£4199 ?? 😆 Thankyou, but i think i'll pass on that one.

Gentleman, some news. Marcus has been in touch today, Delivery is expected to be in July. And i've already paid for it a year ago so won't have to go raiding the piggy bank, which is good news as its empty.

Nice images reggie. We had the usual eclipse weather here in the UK ⛈️ (well most of us anyway)

Not working on iMac / Safari either. Looks like they have some gremlins to sort out.

@lukebl nice shots. Good to see you had some half decent skys over there. Not a sniff over here : as John Lennon said : "above us only clouds"

Raining here in Derby now and looking pretty grim. Proper UK eclipse weather !! As if we ever expected anything else.....☹️

Excellent result Ivor ; you have to be pleased with that considering what you were up against.

Timings. (All in BST as we're in BST to avoid confusion) Partial phase starts Monday morning 03:28 Totality starts 04:29 but the moon will be getting low and morning twilight is rapidly encroaching. Moon starts to set 05:09 while fully eclipsed (Game over : from Derby, UK anyway) Good luck with the weather.....hopefully we'll get to see a bit of it.

I didn't know Omega Cent was visible from the Canaries ? I've seen it from Boa Vista in the Cape Verde's but thats quite a bit further south. But what a great object : the Globular cluster to end all globular clusters !

Despite the fact i'll be at work, i'll hopefully be able to follow it. Unfortunately the moon will start to set 40min after the start of totality and we have morning twilight to contend with as well. The moon will be pretty low but you never know ; there may be some interesting photo opportunities to be had.

The Celestron C8 Edge HD is another good example. For a good while over here it was attractively priced (compared to its bigger C9.25, C11 & C14 brothers) at around £1100 - £1200 UK £ Its currently listed at an almost crazy £1895 Even my fairly limited maths tells me that a 50% + price increase in a fairly short timeframe of a couple of years or so, maybe less. But thats where we are.

😮

Only got the one scope at the moment, so it's Hobson's. But it ain't too bad.

Exceptional. This is how i'd like my future images to look.......

Same focuser, but only about 1/5 the aperture. And thankfully only 9kg, not 28 tonnes !! 😆 Seriously though, the 28" at ROG was amazing, and you appreciate the engineering that went in to it all those years ago.

Yes, i had the binocs out today with a Baader filter, and it was a spectacular sight. Its been a long time since i've seen so much happening.

Good capture indeed, especially when you realise its somewhere between 1.6 and nearly 2 BILLION miles away.

I remember paying a visit to Greenwich around 10 years ago with my astro society, and were shown round the 28" as a private party and had a detailed look at it. I noticed it had a nice Feathertouch focuser on it, just like mine 😊

I like Baader stuff alot, but the Newt focuser has an issue or two in my opinion. As well as being pricy, the base doesn't sit flush with the tube allowing dust and muck to get inside (and settle on your mirrors) The drawtube only extends 40mm outwards which my not be enough for the OP to reach focus if he's using big 2" glass. Moonlite was always a nice option with its perfectly designed curved base, and two included spacers to cater for pretty much all focusing requirements. Such a pity they are no longer available.

Sourcing something that will do the job is going to be the main issue. Moonlite, Feathertouch etc all have major supply chain issues, and in the case of Moonlite (perhaps the best Newtonian option) have no inventory at all and have stopped listing them completely. Baader Planetarium may be an alternative. A lot of the focusers you get with mass produced scopes are simply not designed to be used with big heavy 1kg + eyepieces. And they often have insufficient range to focus at all with 2 inch eyepieces. Here's the naff focuser supplied on one of my old OO scopes from years ago. The drawtube extended internally and even fully racked out still wouldn't reach focus. Unseating the Nagler 31 by about 10mm did the trick but the weight of it left the focuser drawtube with a noticable banana type curve. Not ideal. An upgrade solved that, but if you can't source anything yourself i'm afraid you may be stuck for a time till supplies get moving again.

Like Steve above , mine came today as well. Quite late in the month really, more often than not its usually mid month when it arrives. Maybe they've had a few delays.....?

Good to hear you are getting some nice views. Like you say, getting the results you want usually means quite a bit of experimentation. Its often quite tricky getting a refractor to focus natively : you usually need an 'imaging optimised' scope with a big focuser, lots of back focus to accommodate accessories like filter wheels, then finding a binoviewing system with as short a lightpath as possible, and then having a good focusing range so it also focuses at higher powers. Removing that extension tube will probably do the trick, but i understand it can be a faff in the dark screwing and unscrewing various sections. Is there a way to couple the WO bino directly onto the prism like with Baader systems ?

Well it was end of April 2022, Then end May 2022. Now end of June 2022. Early June is my birthday, so it looks like i'll have to look for something else.......🎁

Planets for me too with my 140mm refractor which will hopefully yield some nice views. Jupiter Saturn and Mars are all going to be good targets later in the year, and at improving altitudes from the UK I've also invested in 'Discovering Double Stars' by Agnes Clarke. 300 to track down, which will keep me busy. And hopefully a bit of imaging with my new mount.