Alfian

On 11/20/2017 at 17:29, iPeace said:

Got this setup for dad-in-law. Our friends at FLO supplied bins (Pentax WP 20x60), finder and bracket. Gitzo GH2720QR head and TS photo tripod. He uses it for astro and for birding. Couldn't be happier.

Its a nice setup indeed. I have a yen for some nice (I think) 16x80s which would probably mean selling my Pentax 20x60s, but every time I pick them up I think " I can't sell these"! Lovely binos, and yes the fov is narrow, but I found to my great astonishment that I can find objects relatively easily with them, no need for a finder. Open clusters, M34,M44,M45,etc look  great through the Pentaxs'. Hope you dad in law likes them.  

17 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

Here is one of my smaller ones. 8x50 with 8.5 degrees FOV.  

Aren't they just something. Nice.

Those just look superb Peter. A few more pics and details to make us drool even more? I  must get up there, I don't really have any excuses not to.

Neat, proper grab'n' go.

That is very nice indeed and a great solution.

Thats a nice write up Davy and I think you have found the "complimentary" setup that you were looking for - and in such a portable package too. Glad the 127Mak has worked out for you.

At long last I've organised my eyepieces into  cases. A motley collection with not a green letter to be seen. A while back I had something of an eyepiece rehash thinking I'd have a few less, but after the selling and buying I've wound up with more.  Some have not had a proper outing so I've more than enough to keep me occupied. The main case came as a gift from a retired professional photographer and though the case is old its in very good condition and so sturdy you could drive a bus over it and its contents would be OK, not that I'm going to put that to the test. The small case is one I picked up at a charity shop and was originally designed for cosmetics, I think, so that s been re-purposed to house my small EPs with a little room for additions. I was going to say "little" EPs but there is nothing little about the performance of an ortho.

Big Case: 6mm LV, 7mm Nirvana, 9mm LV, 12.5mm Altair LER, 15mm SLV, 20mm ES Maxvision, 32mm Reveleation Plossl, Rigel 35mm.

Small Case: 10mm BCO, 12.5mm Circle T Volcano Top Ortho', 25mm Circle T Volcano Top Kellner.

Interesting to see the inner workings Mike but unfortunate it came to that. Glad its an easy fix, sure to be helpful to someone down the line.

Nice job, Jules.

Just now, nightfisher said:

How about the beer being called "The maksutov cocktail"

Sure to light up the sky!

10 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Perhaps they help to make good beer, Ian. Definitely time for a star party

 

I'll drink to that. A word to the brewery would be good, a nice winter ale  and  The Mighty Mak would be a good name.

That looks good Jules. Your re-siting of your finder scope down there looks to work nicely.

Are you sure that's enough mount Jeremy? I believe earth tremors are not that uncommon in Cheshire, something a bit more stable?

This is not so much "what did the postman bring" today, or rather a couple of days ago, but a resume of various eyepiece (pictured) arrivals over the last couple of months or so.

In order of arrival,  the 10mm BCO which was the pleasant and unexpected  consequence of a sort exchange of favours with Shane (Moonshane). I was a little unsure about the eye relief but was keen to sample what all this talk of orthoscopics was about. Now I know! The eye relief is a bit skinny on the 10mm but its more comfortable than I expected but the optics are superb. A little EP with big performance. Thanks Shane.

Next the Vixen 15mm SLV. Bought from Jon (parallaxerr) it was the natural upgrade for my much used and well liked 15mm NPL. Great eye relief with great optics and a solid build quality. I've not used it so much yet but its one of those instant hit, make you smile, type eye pieces. Thanks Jon.

Next was the Circle T 12.5mm ortho', an impulse buy from Dave (F15Rules) based on my experience with the BCO. Dave was also selling a Circle T 25mm Kellner and as he made me an offer I couldn't refuse I bought both!  Again, not much time at the eyepiece yet but first impressions with the 12.5mm are very good, perhaps not as immediately impressive as the BCO but I need more time to compare them. The Kellner, a type which I tend to associate with cheap lightweight barely adequate eyepieces shipped as OE with many 'scopes, is a quite different animal. Again ,when I get to spend a bit more time with it I'll hopefully be able to report back. Thanks Dave.

Finally the 7mm 82 degree Nirvana.  After hunting around for an eyepiece that would give about 120 - 130x with the ED100 and spending ages pondering a barlow, I decided to wait and see if a  7mm (ish) eyepiece from my very short shortlist would come along which included the Nirvana.I'd looked at the Nirvana a few times, it had a good reputation but the 82 degree fov?  I had pretty much decided that 68 degrees was plenty for my eyes, in fact I'm quite happy with 50 -60 degrees. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained so when Paul (martindale) advertised his, I jumped and it arrived on Friday. Its a big eyepiece, compared to the others,with a solid feel to the build. Its eye cup arrangement is identical to the one on my 35mm Rigel which is very comfy to use.  I've not had chance to use it under the stars yet, but views across the valley look good, so we will see how it pans out. Thanks Paul.

In addition to these I have a couple of Vixen LVs to get to grips with. What started off as an eyepiece "rationalisation" exercise has finished up as full cupboard, more than enough to keep me occupied.

Picture: Circle T 25mm Kellner, Vixen 15mm SLV, Circle T 12.5mm Ortho', Baader BCO 10mm, Skywatcher 7mm Nirvana.

Perhaps I should have said "similar" in appearance or concept even, but "different".  It would be interesting to know how they compare in use, ie quality of engineering etc but I suspect that might a while coming.

4 hours ago, davyludo said:

I wonder how difficult it would be fashion a little converter plate so that the AZ5 head can be attached to the AZ4 tripod.....and if there will be enough demand that someone might start producing these. 

I would like the AZ5, but don't have the available funds right now. Might hold out for some reviews to appear before I decide to purchase. Plus....I don't think I've seen anything but clouds for months 

 

This is a good point. I'd be interested to see someones comparison with the same head and different tripods. I hadn't thought of this, but was surprised by the 5kg.

The skywatcher AZ4 manual states the same load capacity for both steel and aluminium leg versions:

https://storage.googleapis.com/skywatcher-canada/upfiles/en_download_caty01334362158.pdf

This is interesting. TS Optics have advertised an AZ5 for quite some time. Its similar but not the same and thats rated at 8Kg.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p8069_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-with-Fine-Adjustment-and-Quick-Release.html

3 hours ago, TheLookingGlass said:

Had the 12x56's for barely a day or two. Shipped them back. Outer 50% was really bad. Not anywhere near as good as the 8x56's.

Thats interesting. I'd looked at the DXs after reading a review of one of the smaller models, then came across another review on CN of the 12x56 by someone who clearly had a large collection of binos (to which he could compare them) and seemed to know what he was talking about. He really rated them. Its a bit unusual for a bino in that price bracket for the outer 50% to be that bad and wonder whether you got a "bad" example. Quality control is not always that good amongst some binoculars and it makes me wonder, given the clearance of the DXs, whether they have suffered in this way.

Junior team?

On 13/05/2017 at 15:27, Paul73 said:

Alfian - Your wallet has my deepest sympathies.

Pack them up. Send them back. You are not hooked/beyond help yet!

Paul

 

Gulp, what have I done, I hadn't thought, I've got 9 more toes to go.

I never thought the day would dawn when I would dip my toe into the world of AP but these arrived yesterday to go with my Canon EOS. Nothing flashy or expensive but who knows where it will lead. 

Thats a work of art, seems a shame to cut it. Have a great day and a great life together.

9 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

It will be interesting to see how you get on with the mount and scope with time - vibration may perhaps be an issue?

 

I managed some time out with the Mak 127 last night. Early evening skies were big blue clear so it looked promising although the wind which has howled here (1000 feet up) for the last few days  had not abated much.  With the scope nicely cooled and with skies not fully dark the moon was the obvious target and views were not disappointing with the southern highlands looking particularly good with magnification with the 12.5 at 120x. At this magnification there was sporadic high frequency vibration that  undoubtedly tallied with strong gusts of wind and settled in a just a couple of seconds,  but it was clear there was no point pushing magnification any further.

Switching attention to Jupiter , the equatorial cloud belts were prominent with maybe just a hint of variation and the GRS though just a "faint suggestion" was clearly there, so for a shake down outing I was pretty pleased. One thing that I was pleased with was the level of contrast.  I have seen mentioned  that this is  significantly affected by the central obstruction but given that skies were a good way from fully dark, contrast I thought was surprisingly good.

Getting back to the vibration, time will tell whether this is going to be an issue with this mount. I confess last night I was a bit lazy and didn't put the bolt on spreader tray on with a bit of weight on it which would probably help matters. If it comes to it I can easily use the Mak on the AZ4 and leave my Tal setup for use with my TS 80mm/f7.5  refractor.

An inevitable thought was to compare early impressions of the 127 Mak with the ED100 and that properly needs to be done side by side. However though by no means disappointed in any way with the Mak,  the ED100 views of the moon are quite something in a way thats hard to define, lets say "involving". In my motorcycling days they used to call it the "grin factor"! The Mak though packs a big punch in a very portable package and that is worth having. The ED100 and Mak are different beasts anyway so there is no reason why they cannot co-exist doing their own particular things!

Here's my contribution to the Mak brigade. A recently acquired Celestron Mak 127, off an SLT setup, with diagonal replaced with a Circle T item. Its  attached to a slightly re-engineered Tal 1 mount, that I had going spare , now in Alt/Az configuration, atop a Skywatcher EQ3/5 type tripod. The Tal 1 modified top plate has an additional plate which gives me a lot more adjustment and with the dovetail clamp I can get things balanced up nicely. I've just got it all fettled and though I have set it up  terrestrially (finder)  and it all has a good feel to it. Hoping to try it out properly very soon. Have had a 9x50 RACI finder on it but the Tal 1 6x30 goes on it quite well. I have a Rigel which may go on if  the need arises.

Nice. I courted the idea (amongst others) a while back of buying the DX 12x56s. Though smaller I'd be interested to know what you think of them.

11 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Here's my Omegon MightyMak 60. Small but perfectly formed. On Velbon EX-Macro tripod

Jeremy

 

That is really neat. Grab 'n' go is one thing but perhaps there should be a new "pocket 'scope" category! I like the accompanying friends too.