DirkSteele

Not so much in the UK but in far way dark lands I have had some close encounters in the wild life, some of which could have ended badly if it was not careful. In Namibia I was walking down from the observatory and two eyes were suddenly illuminated by my headlamp. But nothing more could be seen. It then charged me and I jumped back only to realise as it got close it was a hare /bunny. Attack is the best form of defence I guess. Walking back from same observatory again, I came across three jackals and that ended in a stand off. My laser pointer and shouting would not shift them so conceded defeat and then back and used the scope for another 30 mins until they had vanished. Another time in Namibia, my observing partner had a UV torch and switch it on. We were surrounded by scorpions. Dozens of them. Tread carefully. The riskiest one in Namibia was coming face to face with an Oryx. It’s a desert antelope. No big deal, apart from the fact it has 4 ft long sharp horns. I also backed off though it was as startled as I was. I also ran into a porcupine. But I just watched him for a while as had not seen one before. In Mozambique, a massive owl swooped at me and changed its mind at the last second when it realised I was too large to a midnight snack. It was about 3 ft tall though which I realised when it landed on the roof my of my villa after the aborted swoop and grab. I also got surrounded by dozens of crabs on the beach on an island in the Indian Ocean while evening stargazing. Could lots of clicking but did not know why until I switched on my torch and pointed at the ground. In the desert in Oman I did a session in an incredibly dark site and in the morning as the sun rose I realised there were lots of tracks within metres of me and I have no idea what made them!

That was a joy to read (and much anticipated once I saw you had purchased it). Keep the reports coming!

A elegant looking scope. Hope you have time to do a comparison before the LZOS 130 sells. Will be interesting reading. And I never grow tired of seeing the beautiful Tak lenses.

Wow, wow, wow. Must visit one day.

I bought the 3-6mm back in 2012 to fit a specific brief. I was travelling abroad to dark sites with a scope and limited weight and space allowance and the zoom allowed me to cover multiple focal lengths in a single small EP. It fit the brief perfectly and I was so impressed it I bought the 2-4mm Zoom to pair with my two small Taks. Now I use the zoom almost as much at home as I do when I travel. Wrote a review of the zoom back in 2020 which echos a lot of what has already been written in this thread. http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2020/05/16/tele-vue-nagler-zoom-eyepiece-review/

I might have been known to say “mirrors are for shaving” (more than once) but my grail scope would be an 18-20” Dob such as an Obsession*.But only if I had the skies to really make use of it. *I will be handing in my refactor fan club membership at the next meeting.

The filters in question only really work on a specific set of deep sky objects, specifically emission nebula like M42 (stellar nursery), M27 and M57 (planetary nebula) or The Veil nebula (supernova remnant). These objects are known to have strong emissions at specific wavelengths such as the Oxygen III line and Hydrogen Beta lines. By using filters that isolate these wavelengths and reject all others, it improves the contrast of object visually and at the end of the day astronomy is a contrast game. They may actually make the target object slightly darker than without but the background is much darker which enhances visibility. They will not help on any other objects such as M81 that you mention as galaxies for example radiate light across the visible spectrum and all you are doing is rejecting most of that light. Unfortunately, for improved views of galaxies, globulars, open clusters and reflection nebulae, the only real solution is darker skies. So which one if you are interested in enhancing emission nebulae? UHC is generally considered the better starter choice as it tends to have better response to more objects whereas the O III is more aggressive (lets less wavelengths through) but is better for certain specific objects. You may find you end up with both in the end. There is also a question of aperture used. Some conventional thinking suggests O III needs big aperture because it is more aggressive. I tend to find they are usable with small apertures but finding the optimum exit pupil may dictate a lower power in a smaller scope. Hope that helps.

All my eyepieces are Tele Vue and I can almost match Ed in number of them as well which is a bit silly. But just like him, in most of my scopes (not the FS-60 or FC-76) I use the 21mm Ethos and 10mm Delos most of the time.

+1 for the above

This is one of the coolest things I have seen on this forum. In a day dream I thought about something like this for my 4” class triplets but it never moved passed the daydream stage.

As mentioned elsewhere on this forum today, I have been pretty much absent from SGL for the last 2 years as my wife and I welcomed a little girl into our family days before Christmas 2020. Hopeful I will have an observing buddy in a few years. That absence as also extended to my astronomy generally though I have managed a session here and there. However, I did attend the Spring Astro Camp in Wales a few weeks ago. In the welcome pack was a list of 42 targets (some muliple objects) named the Cwmdu Bannau Brycheiniog Marathon. The second part will be presented for the Autumn camp. On the clear night of Sunday into Monday (which was very memorable for the amazing aurora display - see below) I decided to attempt all 42 with my 105mm triplet on a simple Alt-Az. When reviewing the list, it was apparent this was a combination of eyepiece showstoppers and more quirky objects which have an interesting astrophysical angle. The write up is on the link. If you have read one of these before, you know I can get a little poetic and hence wordy. This is the longest one yet (probably should have split in two). Anyway, click this way to see if I was successful.... http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2023/05/05/the-cwmdu-marathon-part-one-at-spring-astro-camp-2023/ This was taken handheld with my iPhone 13 Pro.

You k ow you have too many scopes when you forget to include an image of your newest scope (and oldest for that matter, the C11). The 130 f/9 in the Chiltern Hills. Still daylight but well on its way to dusk. Been a bit absent on SGL for the last 2 years as we welcomed a little girl into the family just before Christmas 2020. Has also impacted my astronomy generally but starting to get going again. Most excitingly, she has asked about the moon already so hoping to have an observing buddy in a few years.😀🤞

A variety of my scopes on different locations around the world during the daytime. My Tak FS-60Q in the Namibrand Naturr reserve in Namibia. My Tak FC-76 doing some solar at Astro Camp in Wales (this was the day before the Mercury transit I believe). The APM LZOS 115mm triplet in Stone and Oxney in Kent. The FC-76 on the beach on Benguerra Island in Mozambique. The Tak FS-60 looking out of lake Bled in Slovenia. The APM LZOS 180mm triplet at AstroCamp in Wales shortly before appearing on the Sky at Night. It sunk over a centimetre into the ground over the weekend. Duel wielding LZOS scopes at AstroCamp.

I traveled to Alta inside the arctic circle in 2012 and the display was not that powerful but the green colour was very vivid. Conversely, I was at AstroCamp last weekend in South Wales and we had a massive display but it was mostly colourless with a slight green hue at the peak, but the colour was incredible even in handheld snaps on my iPhone. See below.

Manage to complete it finishing at around 2:30am. I was on borrowed time for the last 15 mins or so as my eyepieces started dewing up and I had nothing with me to combat it. Going to write it up as was a a fun project. Looking forward to Part 2 in September.

Despite rain (and some hail) during the day, forecasts promised clear skies from around 8pm and notwithstanding short periods of cloud cover, we had clear skies from darkness to gone 2:30am when I called it a day. However, we had an unexpected visitor which distracted everyone from those cloudy moments overhead. Why is the sky so bright to the north (which stayed mostly cloud free)? Wait did that light move? Quite the auroral display in South Wales last night. images taken handheld with an iPhone 13.

The APM LZOS 130 f/9.2. One of the finest visual use scopes ever made and certainly the best LZOS makes which says a lot considering the quality of their optics in general.

Awesome! Even as a refractor man who has been known to state that “mirrors are for shaving,” I am rather envious.

Have a few Taks but this is one of my favourite pics of one them. The FC-76 in the villa on Vamizi Island in Mozambique.

I love that scope. Hope you have many enjoyable nights under the stars with it.

As I recall it is 162mm of back focus but as mentioned, that does vary depending on version you have (CB and C) as the main tube is a different length. My measurement is for the CB.

+1 for the baby Takahashi (in both its f/5.9 and f/10 versions). From a dark site, it is amazing what you can see with 2.4" aperture. It is the portability I love. You really can take them anywhere, and hence allows astronomy when you otherwise might miss out. The FS-60 on the beach on Benguerra Island in Mozambique. The FS-60Q in the desert in Namibia.

An ancient thread comes back to life. Time for a full resurection by SGL members. The oldest equipment in my collection is the Celestron Nexstar C11 which I bought in late 2002 from David Hinds. Given they are now shutting down, a nice addition to this thread I think.

I have seen this table before. What is crucially missed off it was that the ratings were based on a specific observing latitude. Anyone who has been quite far south will know clusters like M6 and M7 are visible naked eye and would be V Easy. There are also a few messier objects missing. But generally it points you in the right direction.

if you are seeing the shadow of the secondary mirror and spider vanes using the 10mm and 20mm eyepieces with that scope, you are far away from the focus point. If you are getting a good detailed view of the Moon withe plenty of craters and other surface detail visible, I would suggest first aiming at the Moon, focusing, and then moving to Mars or Jupiter as they are pretty much all at infinity as far as your scope is concerned so the focus would at most require just modest tweaking, If the Moon is not visible, try using a bright star and make sure it is as small as possible in the eyepiece when focusing and then move on to one of the planets. If you are moving the focus wheel along its entire travel distance and the scope is still not coming to focus, I would ask if the scope requires an extension tube between the focuser and eyepiece? If it does, it would be included as part of the equipment that came with it. It will just be an empty tube with the same diameter as the eyepieces. Dont forget Mars is currently 63 million kilometers away and Jupiter is more than 700 million currently, so they will appear very small in the scope. I have seen some of my friends who had not used a scope before adjust the focus so the planets appear large, but all they had done was move the image well away from focus and expand the disc that is seen.