Mike73

John that probably one of the best reviews I've read on here for quite a while just because you can feel your excitement! Looking forward to hearing more of your deep sky adventures.

Hi Ruud Yep the rubber eyecup is the only thing I can fault the Morpheus with so far but I really think Baader messed up big time with it. Its not as if it only happens when you pull it, the eyecup comes off with very little effort your then left trying to get it back on in the dark. Its almost as if they have used the wrong diameter eyecup!? I'II have a little play with it today and try and fix it, like you say it shouldn't be too hard with some tape or something. The 76˚ seems perfect for me, I feel the same as Bill when it comes to 100˚ EP's in that I found myself having to look around the corners to get the whole view (I understand the personal thing though ) but for sketching its great to see the whole FoV in just one quick look. I'm looking forward to trying the Morpheus again at my dark site in a couple other focal length's.

Well I've just tried the new 9mm Morpheus and I'm very impressed! It seems to have more ER than the stated 21mm, there really isn't any pressing your eye into the eye cup, come to think of it your eye doesn't get anywhere near the eye cup. I found this tricky at first but it soon became very comfortable. Something that was also very obvious and I think Bill also mentioned was you really don't see very much of the eyepiece housing when looking through. its almost like you see a black ring of the field stop and thats it! Its hard to explain, I haven't looked through any eyepiece which has given the same effect. My only negative point was that the changeable eyecups come off too easily. You take the cap off then try and roll the rubber eyecup out and it pops off, this happened maybe 50% of the time I used it. I'II probably be able to add more in the morning but I've seen enough to know that I'm going to get one (or maybe two) other focal lengths, the tough part now is to decide which ones!

The Morpheus seem to tick all the boxes for what I like in a EP and Bill's review where he compares them to the mighty XW was enough to sway me to try one, if I like the 9mm I'II probably go for the other focal lengths.

Very interesting Ruud. My 9mm should be arriving today and I'm really looking forward to trying it!

Blimey Shaun thats nuts!!!! I think the hatred towards cyclist mainly happens in towns and cities (at least from my experience anyway), I've kinda got used to the odd close pass while cycling in the country but that only seems to happen once or twice during each ride. I just try to avoid cycling during the busy parts of the day and pick my route well. Cant believe the police didn't even get back to you after having a gun pulled on you!! You'd think that in these times any mention of a gun and the police would be there in a shot. Despite even a couple days ago mentioning that my astronomy is on hold, after this recent run of cloudless nights I've pulled the trigger on a new scope and cant wait to get back under the stars again! Happy days. :)

Yep Strava premium is good, something else I've just started is using https://www.trainerroad.comwhich will help when the weather gets bad again and you cant get out on your bike. Yeah hilly as hell down here but you get used to it and I actually quite enjoy the hills these days. Sportives down this way usually have around 10000ft of elevation for the 100 miles! Think I'II do the Dartmoor Challenge and Plym Gran Fondo again. The Plymouth Gran Fondo was a killer this year, I had a really bad nights sleep the night before and struggled all the way around. I think thats the biggest problem with trying to mix astronomy with cycling, they just don't mix. Trying to train when your tired is pretty pointless, if you don't train for these events you just make it very hard for yourself but on the other hand you don't want to miss out on clear nights for observing! Astronomy is on hold for me at the moment, I do miss it though!! Na I haven't registered on any cycling forums either the the reasons you said.

I wondered if it was you when I saw your username on RCUK. :) Yeah cycling is pretty good isn't it? I've been on a similar path as you, packing up smoking and then realising just how unfit I'd become and set about changing that by riding my bike. It just takes time but I've found that the whole fitness progression thing happens pretty quick (or it has done so far). How do you find the Edge 1000? I have a 510 at the moment but could do with some kinda mapping just to do some new routes. I'm on Strava as Mike Meal

The way that we change our minds we'd be spending more money on custom cut foam than EP's!

Really cant help it but I still drool a bit over XW's....

I cant believe you put your Leica in your case like THAT!!! ............Stu its screwed all the way over to x25 surely it should be between x30 and x40!! Could you change it please? It makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Just finished my EP case today, thats it I'm done.....Noooooo more!!!!!! Never again will I buy another EP!!!!!!! Edit: Just a bit of Monday afternoon light humour there don't take it too serious! Along the bottom left to right 26mm Nagler, 17mm Nagler, 12mm Nagler, Leica ASPH + Baader VIP barlow.

I'm happy that Nexus works as it should do and I'm still waiting for my Feather Touch to arrive so since I have the week off work I've decided to paint the ground board and mirror box/bearings. Its a pretty easy scope to break down into parts, even the mirror cell is simple beyond belief. When it first arrived I emailed Sumerian asking 'wheres the rest of it??' :grin: Lots to do before I start spraying though, a light sand with some 600 grit flour paper, wipe with some turps and finally mask over any parts I cant take off. I think the only things that will have to be masked off is the cooling fans and connector, looks a bit of a PITA to take them all out but easy enough to hide with some masking tape. The paint I'm using is just black matt spray paint in rattle cans, I figure maybe 2-3 coats of that followed by a minimum of 6 coats of sprayed on matt lacquer should do it but I'm not going to scrimp on the lacquer, if it needs more I'II just keep going. I did a test patch on the bottom of the ground board yesterday which worked well. The colour looked almost identical to its original black satin but I'm hoping this will be more hard wearing than the original paint job. I'II probably update this Paint blog in a couple days with news that it all went well......What could possibly go wrong??!!! :grin:

Sorry Alan I completely forgot your 14", I also didn't know that you made your mirror yourself! Yep will be very interesting, I've never compared a Ultra high grade mirror next to a standard one of the same size. My OOUK is 1/10th pv and compared to my 16" which is 1/6th the OO looks very clean and sharp all the way to the field stop but the OO is f/6.3 so thats not really a fair comparison. I took the Nexus for a spin last night, really mushy horrible sky conditions but the Nexus performed flawlessly. Keeping my Leica zoomed in giving me x205 it got all the objects in the FoV every time, pretty good going I thought!

Oh and I forgot I'm also upgrading the secondary heater to a Kendrick elliptical heater pad and Micro controller, I'II have to wait a few weeks for those but I guess that'll be the last job to do anyway.

I'm not that brave Alan! I'II stick to boring black. :) Rich thats Nexus in the pics, not much to it but a couple of encoder arms and a black box. I like it though, its nice and simple but easy to set up and brake down. The Feather Touch means I can put my Moonlite on my OOUK. Ever since I've been using the OO (which is f/6.3) I can see coma a lot more in the f/4.5 so getting the Feather Touch + SIPS kills two birds with one stone. Already been thinking about next summers upgrade... I'm gonna compare Faulksy's 14" 1/10Pv next to Dan's SW 14" at Elan valley, if there is a real difference I may save for a new 16" mirror from John Nichol if not I'II just get my current mirror HiLux coated. But thats next year, I gotta pay this lot of first! :)

I've had my 16" Sumerian for nearly two years now and a while ago I decided it was time for some upgrades and a bit of a spruce up so this year I've decided to add Nexus Push To from Astro Devices, a new Feather Touch focuser with SIPS and a complete new paint and lacquer job. Part 1 Nexus I've never felt any sense of achievement from star hopping, its always just been something you have to do to find the good stuff. The only thing that has stopped me from using anything with a screen at dark sites is the loss of dark adaption even when viewed in 'night mode'. I've been using my iPad mini with a double sheet of red rubylith covering the screen with the brightness turned down all spring and my eyes feel more comfortable than using my old paper charts under red light, SkySafari also has a huge database of objects and info. Nexus was first recommended to me by Faulksy off here but I also couldn't find and bad reviews so I contacted Serge at Astro Devices and before I knew it I was sold on it and handed over the cash. Next was the tricky part, Serge needed lots of measurements to make the kit up, he makes each installation kit up from scratch and considering he's in Sydney I needed to get those measurements right! It took 5 days to be delivered from Oz which wasn't bad I thought and taken me two afternoons to assemble and install it, I had a few headaches getting the correct SkySafari setting but its all working and ready for its first run under clear skies. I do have to shorten one of the cables which goes to the alt encoder arm but I'II borrow a sparky mates crimpers and do that tomorrow. I'm only putting Nexus on this scope, its not worth putting it on the OOUK as I mainly use that from home for moon and planets, if I do look at DSO's with the OO I'II stick with the RACI and Telrad. Feather Touch and SIPS should be here next week sometime......:)

I havent got an eyepiece case, I just use an old camera bag which holds everything. EP's, collimation tool's, Telrad, SQM meter, red lights, filters, sketch pads, pencils well basically everything that I need is in the one bag! Just two EP's though, a 24mm 82˚ ES and Leica ASPH 17.8-8.9mm and a Baader VIP barlow.