bomberbaz

An inclinometer can be bought very cheaply for the altitude aspect of your finding and there is a thread here about making your own az setting circle for a plain dob base. Degree Circles - Equipment - Cloudy Nights

I don't feel it is a bad thing to want to share your love of something that is in effect a work of genius. When I read / examine details of innovations, for example the Nagler 82 degree eyepieces which were world leading when first released, you have to feel that boundaries were being pushed at that time to extremes and most of us were curious enough to want to at least see one. Owners of these eyepieces at that time was something to show off without being smarmy. I mean, we have on this forum "show us your eyepiece case" & "show us your frac". What is this if not a little showing off. However being the level headed people we are, we tend to just drool a little at certain pictures and plan future potential purchases. 🤩

I remember having this discussion a while back but about eyepieces. A similar thread in many respects in that a mid range eyepiece such as the explore scientifics can give you 95% of the the top range glass such as televue. However I remember one respondent saying how it was just nice to hold a well engineered, designed piece of glass carefully wrapped in precision machined metal in ones hand and know that you have something of true quality workmanship. I think this is the case with a great telescope. The difference between performance between mid and top range scopes is similarly very little but there is that feeling you get when it isn't a mass produced item built to a price but an item that is built to a standard, a high one at that.

Don't know is the honest answser vlaiv. I used them in an 8" SCT years back and loved them, then upgraded to the previously mentioned 12" F4.7 dob and ugh. Great on axis but outside about 50% and quite mushy. My guess is and it is just that is they would be ok down to F8

Awful in a fast scope such as an F5 dob but put them in a mak and they are great eyepieces.

My take on this is based upon personal experience and akin to what others have said. My first big dob was a 12" SW flextube goto, I liked using it but it was quite a beast to shift around, didn't hold collimation particularly well and it's tracking was ok to a point. Anyway, I sold it and got myself a 10" Orion Pushto. I really did enjoy using the pushto as it was quiet, very easy to lug around and kept you in touch with the sky so was a little more interactive however there was a problem, it was 10". During early lock down I started getting itchy for more aperture again, 14 or 16 inch was what I had in mind. I also wanted something I could settle with and call my forever scope. I looked at the usual suspects of SW and the flextubes but the weight of a 14" flextube scope was over 40kg and so it was with anything 16", too heavy. I did consider the the ES range but some reviews made me hesitant. I looked at different brands overseas retailers, notably Teleskop Express and that is where I came across the Taurus. Did a little reading on here and found someone who owned one. Hearing nothing but good things I took the plunge. In my eyes it is a thing of pure beauty. It is pushto so quiet and works with a phone app so keeps you very much in touch with the skies, it is very lightweight at just 22kg so very portable and it is given a lovely Oak look finish. I added the optional bells and whistles because I thought if this is going to be my forever scope, I do not want to find myself wanting once I own it. I could have got a SW flextube for less than half what I paid for the Taurus 14" but in my eyes it is worth every penny and won't be leaving me until my health tells me to stop. In short the quality in this instance was worth paying extra for as it ticked all my boxes and even some I didn't know I had.

Thank you my friend, if the QC is on the ball then at £20 cheaper they seem an obvious choice for what I am planning. Thanks

Hello all. I found these EP's on opticstar website and they appear to be a perfect clone of the ES 82 degree range. Apologies in advance if this has been done before. Opticstar XL 82° Ultra Wide Angle Eyepieces. Explore Scientific 82º Series Eyepieces | First Light Optics Has anyone bought these or better still, compared them directly to the ES, would be interesting to hear anyone's findings.

Cheers Mick. How do you find the mount for using and panning around? Also are your bins 45 or 90 degree eyepiece and how do you find viewing at zenith please. Oh one more and I realise it may sound obvious but is the counterweight requirement at least the same as the bins? TIA Steve

Just had a good read of that Peter, thanks for the link. Very interesting read but also some differentials in results depending on aperture, exit pupil, filter and skies used under. J.Gardavsky seemed to get some striking and unexpected results using a 15x85 and HB filter, presumably with a near 6mm exit pupil. I keep my exit pupils to below 6mm due to my age and gradually fading eyes. From memory I remember reading an article which gave a rule of thumb for exit pupils when using filters, these being; HB filter 4-6 wzit pupil with 5 being optimum, (this is the exit pupil I used when recently seeing the horsehead), 4-2 for the OIII with 3 being preferred and finally UHC having the broadest spectrum as you would expect at 5-1 with 2 giving best results. However as with all rule of thumb there are always caveats that break them, brightness of object, aperture used, darkness of sky etc. An example of this is the heart or soul nebula, very dim and diffuse and would respond best to a large exit pupil (5 to 6) and a good UHC filter (OIII would also work here). Another good example being blue snowball planetary, filter not really needed because at high power the sky is so dark its inconsequential. However I am only thinking about low powered viewing up to as earlier mentioned x55, this latter DSO isn't being considered. I did do a quick check on 30mm eyepieces at 1.25 after your post above, as you do 😅 and came up with the Vixen NPL 30mm which would offer 5.1 exit pupil, x16 but with no gain on fov over the smaller 24mm. However it is a lovely piece of glass that gives very contrasty views on the moon and I already have 2 of the 25mm for my binoviewers. However I think if I go ahead I shall stick with my current train of thought and do some testing on some nebula and other DSO to gauge results before throwing lots of cash around. Also I should mention I do not intend viewing from town skies, I have a reasonable decent dark site just a few miles away. But that article is certainly very thought provoking and gives me a lot of food for thought. I have bookmarked that page for future reference, cheers. Steve

Cheers Peter, I have given exactly that ^^ a lot of thought. I would be aiming towards asterisms like the coathanger, hercules keystone and similar. Double cluster, pleiades and things of a similar size. M42, North American neb, the whole veil etc. Basically bigger stuff of around 1 degree and more. I would be looking forward to panning slowly across the river of the milky way, that would be amazing. Also done quite a bit of thinking on glass to go with it and two sets with exit pupils at 4mm exit pupil & mag x20 and 1.5mm EPupil & x 55 would cover the bases, option to add an inbetween set later for 2.5mm x 32. < (I already have one ep in this size). Also probably add a couple of astronomik UHC filters to the throw for viewing extended nebula. The above would offer FOV ranging from 3.4 degrees down to 1.5. I have other bins for large fov objects. Still at planning stage yet but things are coming together.

Thanks Peter, coming from yourself that is as much as I need to know. No worries vlaiv, I appreciate your input anyway.

Been doing a little reading, yes I know it's a dangerous hobby but I have found that many of the larger binocular that I have been looking at are achromat. A few notably Vixen and APM produce ED or SD using FPL 51 or 53 glass to help eliminate chromatic aberration. I don't pretend to fully understand how this works and TBH, I am not unduly bothered about the mechanics, but what I am interested in is, is it really worth it as the apparent difference between apo and ED is anything up to £1400 depending on the aperture you choose. I am hoping to use some should I go ahead for wider field viewing, extended nebula, asterisms, some larger clusters, my idea was I would be viewing from around x20 to x50. I have other scopes for higher powered work and planetary. I am aware there will be some false colour on apo but on the listed target group, would it be really so bad as to push one towards ED. I realise this is a choice I need to make for myself and that is why I am asking for other peoples thoughts as I am aware of the old buyers remorse and don't want to fall victim of it. Can anyone tell me of there own experiences of results using ED and Achro bins against the type of objects I have listed above. TIA all Steve

I have had my 130 pd-s on it yes, its approaching its limit and definitely needs the tripod pier extension to it but it works ok enough.

No worries, just another point. I note you use skysafari, is it the free version? Reason I ask is I use skysafari 6 plus which has a one off upgrade payment then I also pay an annual fee for the livesky add on. Livesky is available for free as is I think skysafari 6 plus (not pro) but to get all the extra benefits like anything it costs you. I think its about 20 quid for the pair. The difference here is that with livesky premium you can plan your night time viewing on a pc or laptop (probably tablet too) from the comfort of your house, input into the system what you want to look at by creating a viewing list then take this outside with you on the phone version as it automatically creates the viewing list on the phone app. Its a simple thing to do and I use it all the time now. SkySafari 6 Plus - Apps on Google Play LiveSky Something I pinched off cloudy nights below as an overview although it kinda repeats what i just said. 1) SkySafari Web: A browser-based version of SkySafari. This is really useful if you're not a macOS user and want a more "full screen" experience. Works on Windows. Works on Linux. (Works on macOS too.) 2) The Sky This Month. A nice, curated, daily calendar of astronomical events. Not only are the events described, but we provide .skyset settings files that can be viewed in SkySafari mobile, or directly in the Web version. 3) Full-screen editing. Many mobile users like to create Observations (Logs) but find it frustrating to edit/update them on their small device screen. LiveSky lets you edit your data (observations, site information, lists) on a nice big screen. 4) In addition to editing, you can create new data in the web version. Create a new Observing List, or observation. Fill it in or update it in the field and vice-versa.

Hello Nigel, how did you mount yours, was it via a fork mount or parallelogram?

grreat report and i really feel your enthusiasm pouring out. Reminds me of myself when I first started out. On a note regarding the viewing of Jupiter at higher power, leave it x 217 although even there you may be pushing it with a 130 aperture. I owned the sister scope to it as a first scope and found my best views at about 160-170 for clarity, after that I found they became a bit mushy. However you may find the addition of a ND filter to lower the light hitting the retina will calm it down a little as you alluded too. This one from FLO reduces it to 50% and would also prove useful on the moon and helps bring out even more detail. Astro Essentials 1.25" ND96-0.3 Filter | First Light Optics At just £9 a worthwhile purchase IMHO Steve

Hello all. I came across this documentary whilst researching black holes and I have to say it's both well thought out and thought provoking. spacetv.net/space-documentaries Really decent graphical representations for novices such as I that helped me get my head around this incredibly complex matter. Enjoy Steve

Very nice peter but sadly fails on my portability requirements 😅

Is that one of your hand made versions peter? When opening this thread I remembered seeing some of your own amazing builds when I have been up to the observatory, however that looks quite a beast to move around. Maybe its the perspective from where you are standing, not sure.

Hello all. I have been thinking about buying a pair of large binoculars and currently have some 20x60 but was looking more at a some with the offset eyepiece adaptor (45 degree), more aperture and interchangeable eyepieces for variable power. I have already spoken to a respected member on here but wanted to garner a wider view before I do anything further. I may have ruled out 100mm objectives due to the weight but I am open to ideas. The problem as I see it is wanting a good sized objective with a suitable off the shelf mount to go with it. I have a skywatcher stainless steel tripod so that is my preferred option but again open to suggestions. I did look at the Orion monster parallelogram but a review I read gave it good marks for usability but wasn't great in terms of ease of set up and transportation. I wanted something a little more user friendly. The problem with other parallelogram options was maximum weight issue. There is one made in the Ukraine that does fit the bill but am a little cautious buying from this region. There are a lot of binocular that fit the bill including offerings from Vixen, Altair, Explore Scientific and Helios. There may be others but as often happens when one starts researching you end up suffering with research fatigue. Budget wise I am thinking up to around £2K but may go higher if it seems like a perfect solution. So anyway, please fire away with personal experience and ideas, I am as I said open to ideas. Steve

yeah totally agreed, seeing someone's face light up when you show them some of the wonders is first class. To be fair my GD had a quick five second look and that was it, I think she enjoyed me explaining things nearly as much. However she also saw two shooting stares which I forgot to mention in the report and was super thrilled at that too.

I recently started a thread inviting anyone who wanted to for an East Lancs spot for some viewing. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/386004-calling-all-east-lancashire-enthusiasts/ Well I took my granddaughter there tonight with the Taurus and although it is a great place in terms of location, the foot and other car traffic lets it down. Night runners with bright head torches and so much traffic even though its a remote car park, unreal. To results, well I got a few fairly easy targets for my granddaughter who is just 12 but she is totally in love with space and all that goes with it. So I managed to show her all five planets on show tonight. She was mega impressed when I told her how far Neptune is from earth in KM. She was equally as impressed when I showed her and then explained the distance to Andromeda in terms of light years. She loved both Albireo stars and the colours. Finally I showed her the dumbbell and then explained how filters worked and she was thrilled when it went from a small smudge to an object with shape and definition. Sadly the clouds appeared sooner than forecast and so the session was finished in an hour, I had only planned for an hour and half anyway, don't want to overdo it with a little one. Upside, I know not to go there again and my G/daughter loved it. 🤩

nice improvisation, I may be pinching that idea soon.

Didn't actually know this, that being the case it may change my thoughts on selection. I owned for a while an 8SE which accepted a 2" diagonal so simply assumed it would be the same. An alternative idea are the explore scientific 62 degree eyepieces with a 26mm the highest at 1.25 but having said that a 32mm plossl which is a cheaper eyepiece gives the same FOV albeit with a larger exit pupil.