Space Hopper

I'd upgrade the focuser asap. The scope deserves something better. See if you can get hold of a moonlite. You don't say what size the scope is ? It looks an 8" or 10" If it is a 10, i have a Moonlite fitting kit for it (the base plate & spacers) They are normally around £30-£40 i think. You can have it for nothing if you want it.

We'd love to see some pictures.......? 😃

Over £4k ? I think i'd better pass thankyou......

Fascinating read Magnus. I take my hat off to you sir.

If its any consolation, i'm yet to see the elusive E & F myself yet. On those rare nights when i can actually get the scope out the seeing has never co-operated.

Where there's a will ; there's a way ! 😉

I remember i read a similar thread about this a few weeks ago, either on here or on CN. A bit of a worry ; i also have the same similar age 10x30s and an even older pair of 15x50s. They have also always been kept in their 'crappy' cases and not subjected to a lot of use or left in the sun for hours at a time. But thankfully mine are both okay, as good as new really. But it seems the rubber armour is vulnerable to anything with a vaguely chemical content coming in to contact with them ; even sun tan lotioned hands can have detrimental effects later down the line. I'd hate anything like this to affect them : they are such super binoculars. I'd be very wary about 'cleaning' them 'willy nilly' with anything. I found the other thread that mentioned it :

Let us know how it performs if you would, both with bino & cyclops. I take it the BBHS is the mirror version ? I use 3 diagonals ; all Baader. 2 are the Zeiss spec prisms ; one has a 2.6x gpc permanently occupying it, the other without. The other is a Baader Amici (not the megabucks one) All 3 diagonals perform very well.

Lol !! At my age, with my knees, and in this freezing cold climate, sitting wins every time !

He could, but if he wants to use the scope with the Denk, he'll still need to deal with the bino induced spherochromatism. Stu : i'd not considered the 105/650 F6.2 that fast a scope to be an issue, but evidently it is ? I have no such issues in my larger scope with prism and bino sans gpc for low power / wide fields and thats F7. I will test my own 105/650 with various combos and see if i can replicate what he's seeing.

Like i said, its not the diagonal thats the issue. You could buy every diagonal on the market to no avail. Its the binoviewer. There are several prisms in there. I'd say 90% of the SC you are seeing is caused by the binoviewer. Its the nature of the beast.

I believe what you are seeing is sphero-chromatism rather than chromatic aberration as such. And this is primarily caused by the binoviewer as it has much bigger prisms. The prism diagonal will add a little but a much lessor extent. With the Baader bino's the GPC's counter this issue. As well as giving extra lightpath they also correct the sphero-chromatism. They are also designed by refractor guru Roland Christen who knows a thing or two. Looking at your system, i'm not too sure what the way forward is ? You may be able to fit a Baader GPC into your diagonal, but that may tie you in to quite a high power ? Do you have access to a Denkmeier Powerswitch ? This may be what you need. Question : do you find this an issue only when high power viewing or is it there when using lower powers as well ? I can use my own bino natively (i only use prisms btw) and i don't notice it (spherochromatism) when low power viewing. Maybe thats my 52 yr old eyes ! High power, using higher power eyepieces is a different story. On something like Jupiter, its immediately noticeable, and not nice. But pop in a gpc, and its gone. Beautiful looking scope btw ; i love the Feathertouch on it. I have something similar, but it doesn't look as sweet as that ! 😃

Theres actually a 5" on UKAB/S thats been reduced but it does appear to need some TLC.......

One day, i will get myself one of these little Russian gems. Such a pity they are no longer available.

Reminiscing a bit in the above post, but OP.......if you get the chance to buy a used Vixen LVW 3.5mm (or the 5mm) then jump at it. They are lovely eyepieces and you may find a bargain out there.

Crikey yes, it was 10 years ago when i sold my set off, and i remember your review from 2010. The 3.5 took a while to sell if i remember. It was a nice eyepiece for splitting the double-double in Lyra. I had all 7 of them ; including the quite rare LVW 42. When i sold that , i advertised it on UKAB/S and 15 mins after i'd uploaded the ad it had sold. I replaced the 42 with a Nagler 31, but thats gone now as well.

Back in my cyclops days, i had a set of Vixen LVWs and i often used the 3.5mm when i wanted to crank up the power. If i remember it gave 264x on my old WO 132 refractor. They were fine eyepieces and are often sought after now, with their nice wide fov and luxurious 20mm of eye relief. They do come up on the used market from time to time.

Arrr its on Amazon is it ? Thats why i couldn't find it on Netflix.......😃

I'm surprised by all this Betelgeuse hype, certainly on here. Ok mainstream media whips up all this sort of thing, you expect that. I've read all sorts of nonsense about it. Betelgeuse is a variable star : its normal for it to fluctuate in brightness periodically ?? It is not about to go Supernova. I tell you what : lets come back to this thread in another million years or so, then we can all start getting excited 😆

Greetings......😃

.......and me 🤭

Quality Alt-az : you can't beat it. Did you bag Mercury as well ? I thought it looked quite sharp earlier. Its the first time i've seen it since transit day last November.

I'm on the list for one (just the tracker) and been waiting a year. Its hit a few delays, but i've been told they are 'on the home straight' with it. Good to see it up and running. Thanks for sharing. Anyone else have any more photos.......??

If theres anyone who has any pictures of the 'Astro-trac' stand (who i believe are in attendance) i'd be interested to see Richards latest gizmo.....

John : it great to see one of these rare Bray mounts. I remember about 15 years ago looking at Alt-az mount options and being very keen on a Bray Tablet mount but they sadly went out of production before i'd even started saving for one. In fact it was this sort of design that led me to the DM-6, although it was another 5 years before i started the ball rolling on that one !