Ratlet

There was a really good video on imaging with a newtonian on the astroimaging channel a couple days ago.  The guy was doing proper astroimaging, but his exposures are something like 8 seconds which puts it in the realms of eaa.  He talks about using filters towards the end.

fascinating video.

Just now, bosun21 said:

Thanks Don for your detailed guide of how to setup the GSO coma corrector properly. I have bookmarked your reply and will be ordering a bunch of parfocalizing rings along with the coma corrector. Thanks again 👍

Welp.  My store credits gonna be short lived.  A coma corrector would be a nice thing to experiment with for visual, and my 130pds is now primarily for imaging soooo....

59 minutes ago, FLO said:

We received an email from Baader today 🙂 

In the next hour, we will apply the discounts on our website and then post an announcement. 

@Ratlet, if you purchased your eyepiece from FLO, please email us to receive a FLO Gift Voucher equal to the price difference 🙂 

HTH

This is why I buy all my stuff from FLO!

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

They're $185 Euros in Germany (no VAT to US).  This equates to $203.  Factor in no sales tax or import duties and $30 shipping, and you're slightly ahead, especially if you can't get free shipping and a seller that doesn't charge your state's sales tax here in the US.  I've bought all of my Morpheus eyepieces from the UK in the past for these reasons.

I'm always surprised by pricing of some things internationally.  Actual Astronomy kind of opened my eyes where they were cheaper buying from the UK (usually FLO) and having it shipped to Canada than buying locally.  Also the Moveshootmove phone holder which is about 2/3 the cost buying from the US and shipping to the UK compared to buying from the UK supplier.

Fantastic sketches

12 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Have you had a chance to observe M13 in the new 10" scope? The difference compared to the 5" will be shocking

I got a good look at it and M92 through the 10".  Worth it getting the dob for globular alone.  That was in proper dark too.  It was astounding.  

1 hour ago, Pixies said:

There's plenty around the summer triangle, that's now rising in the east. Cygnus, Lyra, Saggitta, Vulpecula. Lots of clusters, globulars, planetary nebulae. My first scope arrived in May and there was plenty to observe as I started out.

Globulars: M13, M56, M92, M15

PLanetary Nebs:

M57 - the Ring Nebula (no filters necessary)

M27 - Dumbbell Nebula (good with UHC)

Open Clusters - Coathanger, loads in Cygnus

 

Doubles: there's Albireo and the always fantastic and challenging Double-Double (epsilon Lyrae), which can become a bit obsession-making trying to find the lowest magnification to get a clean split.

 

And as the summer comes along, with a dark Southern horizon, there are endless targets around the galactic core in Saggitarius. this is the time of year you learn to love binoculars!

 

Magic.

I'm a big fan of trying things out.  Early indications were good a couple of weeks back as I got up very early and ended up observing in the predawn twilight.  Thanks for the feedback.  From hazy memory comparing to my first observing session in August the views the other week were good and comparable to the 5".

3 minutes ago, John said:

FLO's price seems quite reasonable for such a well corrected, high performing and complex eyepiece. I guess I'm looking at alternatives such as the Delos and the XW's which seem to be in the same league.

 

Going to be honest, I thought they were on sale because it seemed like a very good price, especially when you look at the price of eyepieces it goes toe to toe with.

40 minutes ago, Elp said:

Baader De has them on sale among other items right now. The UK site you can't buy them and it refers you to find a dealer. UK dealers have them at the usual prices.

Don't tell my wife.

Tonight was supposed to have been the last night of astronomical darkness at my latitude, but it's been completely clouded out and from here on out it's nautical twilight and even civil twilight till about August.

Does anyone have experience observing in nautical twilight?  Are there good targets I should be aiming for?  I'd imagine faint DSO wouldn't be great but the moon, planets (when they're back) seem like they'll still be good.  What about globs and double stars?  Any chance on them?

5 minutes ago, John said:

Your scopes are all quite fast at or around F/5 so getting a wide field that is well corrected and not costing a small fortune is the challenge. The Morpheus does seem to have ticked those boxes from what I've read 🙂

There used to be an often quoted remark along the lines of: "sharp across the field in a fast scope / wide field of view / low cost: pick any two". Maybe the Morpheus is challenging that ? 

It does seem that the 16mm to 18mm focal length appears to be a particularly difficult focal length with quite a few eyepiece sets struggling in that range, having the weakest of the bunch around there with the quality going back up on either side, particularly for eyepieces with a 60°+ FOV.  That might  just be me justifying shelling out on the Morpheus though.

I've discovered Ernest's eyepiece reviews where he puts some quantification of some sort on the performance of eyepieces so I can try to draw some conclusions.

I think I've done well so far I that the eyepieces I've got have helped me understand eyepieces better and what I like from them.  I much rather better correction than a wide FOV.  @bosun21 recently pointed out that that I'd been overestimating the FOV of my 32mm plossl by 10° and that's one of my favourite eyepieces.

Fortunately the baader eliminates having to make a choice between fov and correction as it's provides both.

Going to be fun testing it though.  Down to nautical twilight only up here, and won't be long till even that's gone!

15 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Which one did you go for?

 

17.5mm.  It is the ideal FOV for my setup between the 12mm BST and 30mm Superview.  I wanting to try a well corrected eyepiece and this seems to be near the tippy top in terms of correction.  Hopefully it doesn't start a craving for the rest of the set!

Turns out I was wrong.

Pulled the trigger on the Morpheus.  Apparently there is a sale on?  Oh well.  I told the missus they were on sale...

8 minutes ago, M40 said:

Can you think how much yarn the lady wife could buy for the cost of an observatory? 😱🤣

 

I am now wondering how much space a 1000 balls of wool would take up 🤦‍♂️

She can keep them in the garage.

27 minutes ago, Philip R said:

Were you in mid-sentence? 😜

I was pausing for dramatic effect 😂.

Fixed it now though.

48 minutes ago, M40 said:

We have an open book policy in our house, if I say something like ooooh I want that gizmo, the response is usually great thats some more crafting stuff for me. So we have a Ratlet type problem, crafting stuff has taken over a bedroom and I can just squeeze the car in the garage. The challenge now though is I have to make a decision, do either extend the garage or sell the car? 🤦‍♂️

Observatory.

14 hours ago, Louis D said:

Try the new Svbony 3-8mm zoom if eye relief isn't an issue for you.  I did a write-up on it here on SGL and have read lots of very positive reports both here and on CN.  It punches well above its price.  It's excellent from 5-8mm, and still pretty darn good from 3-4mm.  Add a quality 2x Barlow, and you'll have quite a range of high powers to choose from.

I use my 3-8mm zoom with a 130mm F5 and a 10" F5 and it is great in both scopes.  It takes a barlow very well.  Granted I can only compare it to BST Starguiders, but at 8mm, 6mm and 4mm it is much better than the Starguider (8mm,  12mm and 8mm with 2x ED Barlow).  The big advantage for me is that the one eyepiece covers pretty much every power that the seeing supports.  Having stumped out a couple times with magnification was intensely frustrating.  Now I just drop this in a get the ideal power for the seeing.

If it brings you joy, can you really put a cost on it?  In space or money.

Yes.  Yes you can.

I think my two saving graces has been buying second hand (focusers work better when lubricated with the tears of seller's remorse) and also encouraging my wife's sewing obsession.  She got an entire room of the house for that (and all I got was a 130PDS!) and has since filled it with an overlocker, cover stitch machine and most recently an embroidery machine.  My scopes pail in comparison to the cost of that lot.

Now play "Where's Wally" and try and find Captain Picard, Data, Serenity and Starbug.  The missus is also a massive geek.

Surprisingly more difficult to get something decent in a larger size.  Basically needed an extra thread due to the increased diameter.  Will upload to printables when I can show horn the daughter off my pc.

You could always scavenge a starsense unit from a cheap celestron scope.

I use manual setting circle and digital inclinometer with my dobsonian and look up the coordinates of objects in SkySafari and it works very well.  Pretty much always lands within the FOV with my 16mm and 30mm eyepieces (so 1-1.8 dgrees FOV).

Not tried mine out in anger, but there is minimal flex.  It's made from aluminium and has pretty tight tolerances.  I suspect and eyepiece would break before the holder did!

Small update that I have updated the design of these so that the thread is a bit better.  The previous design was difficult to actually engage the thread and was also far too tight.  Also included a winder range of case sizes.  I've removed the recess on the lid as it made the print look quite rough.  This should be easily added back in when slicing with something like Prusaslicer as it has a negative space feature which can be used to remove a 1mm deep block.  Version 2.6 has the ability to emboss text too and I think that leaving the recess on it would only interfere with it.  Because of the redesign to the thread, this version is incompatible with the previous version.

https://www.printables.com/model/368783-standardised-125-telescope-astronomy-eyepiece-filt

Should have a 2" variation of the design ready soon.

3 minutes ago, Paz said:

That is very hot, it is  a view through a scope but not a normal view.

View through the scope without the objective lens?

Excellent news that.  At least it is a cheap fix.