bomberbaz

It is indeed, excellent on planets and the moon but also still very good on cluster, globulars and doubles. It will work on nebula and galaxies as well but planets are it's real strong point.

I just had a play in word and I managed ( somehow! 🤣 ) to create circles of the right size for 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12 degree and it fits on one sheet of paper. Just need acetate now and I should be good to go. Thanks for the help and suggestions, it did help me think it through clearer. Steve

Yeah I read about this now you remind me but where would I get a print template for such. 4 degrees on the PSA is 19 mm

At a loose end and just looking over S&T sky atlas when my mind drew back to devising some kind of template to aid with measuring out distance on the sky atlas for when planning a star hop or similar. Previously I had tried making one with a thick celophane type sheeting but it was to dificult to work with. I had a spare bit of foam from a once mouse mat, so I got to work with it, a compass and sharp knife and came up with this. Not the best cutting out I know but it covers 12 degrees on the pocket atlas. The centre is 4 degree exactly as a telrad. I got the inspiration from a moonshane sticky on star hopping but wanted something that can measure over a longer distance. TBH I am surprised no-one produces something along these lines in a clear resin or plastic material to help with star hopping. Unless they do. Anybody else got anything they use as an aid to planning star hops?

Instead of another refra tor have you considered a mak? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov.html The 127 would be a huge leap up from your existing collection and is very portable and easy to store. Get looking around the 2nd hand market and you could pick one up for under $200 easily. The only issue might be your tripod and mount as we don't know what you have. Trouble with astronomy, every upgrade can become a bit of a money pit as I recently found out.

Your right Louis, I didn't notice when I clicked on it. I do have both turret type and screw in, the turret type is the best.

There are loads available, this one is a good option. extension tube or this screw in ext tube

Good point well made John. When I see people cooing over ortho's I am thinking, noooh, don't like that, couldn't be doing with the tight er and small fov. Some of those same people might think 100 degrees fov, so what. It's all very subjective.

As you have stated you have a lack of storage, something like this is an idea worth considering when funds allow. It is small and lightweight but importantly will give you a massive boost to your night time viewing prospects. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html

I Think this is an excellent suggestion. It will be a timeless purchase and you will use it more than any of the others. Extension tubes cost a few dollars btw.

I got it last night too Don, in my 26mm Nagler. It was a strange thing for sure.

hahaha, you got me laughing now mate. You would have 6 out of 7 in the range if you did the above, you may as well grab the 25 as well if your going that far. It is nice to own a set. I have twice had full sets, kinda miss not having them but that's a different story. 👍😅

If I were you I would be doing as Louis says above and thinking about getting a decent scope and you will suddenly find a whole new cosmos out there. Is there a reason you are only buying very small scopes such as space limitations or similar? I only ask because with your current outfits you are very limited to what you are going to see. Sorry don't want to sound downer or anything but just trying to help you make the right decisions instead of throwing your dollars at things that aren't really that much help.

Yes they were Louis, it was much better viewing at this level. On the M13 the views were really good, nothing wrong with it at all. If I were getting those views all the time, I would be more than happy. It was just the NPL and the APM which seemed to be teasing that little more out than it was. Also on the dumbbell it was a really good view too, this was located S/East so sky was perceived a little darker here which obviously helped. it was on BODES and the RING (North) where lack of structure and lower contrast, even in not fully darkened skies became evident. Again though, not huge and a perfectly acceptable result. It didn't help against a not fully darkened sky. However one could argue that it is under these conditions where the eyepiece has to work that bit harder to get the results. And I have to say I love the powermate, it really is a superb bit of kit that does not give any false colour or other distortions.

Plus 1 here for not bothering with a kit, they are pretty much a waste of money, just my opinion. Your current eyepiece collection does not need anything between 26 and 40 in an F4/450 OTA. 40 gives x11 which is basically a spotter scope, the 26 is x18 and this is a widefield set up really or simply a higher magnification finder/spotter. You will gain nothing putting an eyepiece inbetween these two. UPDATE: The 40mm is giving you a 10mm exit pupil, this is too large and you are losing light so in effect your views will be very washed out. Personally I wouldn't be using this eyepiece in your scope. You do not state what your existing eyepiece collection is. Are they basic plossl's or something a little more exotic. Do you enjoy using the existing eyepieces or are you struggling with tight eye relief. You did state it is an eyepiece kit so probably fairly basic plossls. A photo of your eyepiece collection may help. Personally I would be looking more at improving the mid to higher magnification eyepieces if indeed anything but lets not jump ahead. Figure what your own thoughts are on the current eyepiece collection and more importantly, what is it you are wanting to mainly observe though this scope. The latter will really drive what you buy next, if anything. Steve

I placed a caveat comment at the end of the review merlin in that I bought it to use with a mak where it has performed far better than it does in the dob. That was to be expected. I hope to do another shootout in a frac come the end of next month when we almost hit astronomical twilight so results will be hopefully more telling.

Yes I realise tonights comparison under not so good skies didn't do any of the combatants any favours, particularly the nagler. I am not in a rush to sell anything though so will hang fire for a couple of months but now I have something to work on. Oh and @John, next comparisons can be done using the Taurus, that will be fun 👍

strange you should say that and you have just prompted me. My session tonight I got the same thing on Jupiter using a nagler. What OTA were you using mark?

they are here paul

So I recently purchased a APM 24mm UFF eyepiece and decided to give it a workout tonight at a new darksite I was trying out. Just briefly on the darksite, it was hard to tell what it is really going to be like tonight due to the lack of astronomical dark but it is promising and less than a half hour away. Anyway, here we go with the starting line up. 1) Nagler 26 mm/82 degree FOV 2) Vixen NPL 25mm 3) BST 25mm 4) APM 24mm UFF. Equipment used with the eyepieces an Orion 10" dob, TV Powermate and Astronomik UHC I tried to choose a range of objects to get a really good cross section. These were the Moon early on, then Albireo, M13, M39, M27 dumbbell nebula & M57 the ring, Bodes nebula (Galaxy) and finally Jupiter. I spent a good deal of time on each object and mixed up the eyepiece running order to try and remain objective. The moon gave a lovely crescent with both the Nagler, APM and NPL giving the best and sharpest views with the nagler and APM just shading the NPL into 2nd. The BST with a FOV of 1 degree was a little sloppy towards the edges of the moon, slightly stretched. On albireo I clapped a powermate into the focuser and all 4 eyepieces showed good colour but the NPL seemed just that tad brighter. I retested this several times and there just seemed to be something extra. NPL shades it. M13 next still with the powermate in and first big surprise here was that the Nagler came second to the NPL and APM with the BST coming last. There appeared to be a little more diamond dust with the NPL and APM with the APM maybe just that bit better, inconclusive that aspect. Again it wasn't a huge difference but it was there. I have a theory about this but I will mention it later. The Ring and Dumbbell now. Still with the powermate I tried both with and without a UHC filter. A three way tie with the BST sadly following the other three. This wasn't a significant fail for the BST but the other three resolved more prominent structure than the BST, it was just more pronounced especially with the ring. M39 was the time for the Nagler to shine and test the edge correctness of the eyepieces. TBH the APM and Nagler performed well with edge correctness, just that the nagler is giving it over a deeper field of view and I just love it when you fall into the spacewalk of a good open cluster view. The NPL didn't do well here. When I was looking at the cluster, there was a kind of black fuzzing all around the edge of the FOV, last 10%. I hadn't noticed this before. The BST didn't have this but it is sloppy at the edges from around 50% gradually getting worse as you travel out. Bodes nebula again three way tie with BST in last place. It was very faint and this was near 1pm but the skyglow north with dark adapted eyes towards where the sun was below the horizon was pretty horrendous. Anyway, it was faint, I had the PMate in still but it wasn't darkening the sky enough to liff out any detail at all. Like I said, barely visible. Just it was noticeably less visible with the BST. (I feel like I am picking on the poor little blighter now) Quick break from comparisons and the double double. First time I have split this in a while but for this the PM and 12.5 Nikon go into the eyepiece holder. Spent a little while on this, such a lovely thing to behold. Back to viewing and Jupiter, although low in the sky beckoned. I will point out that BST had gone to sulk and put itself back in the eyepiece case. Right Ok I did but it was at the stage where I had seen enough. Up steps the nagler to claim top spot here. Only just but slightly more detail coming from it. Again not a huge difference and checked it several times to be sure. This was a brighter object of course. Finally I haven't seen Saturn in I don't know how long so I put the PM/Nikon combo in again and settled on it. Ahhhh gorgeous, even at 10 degrees through a mushy low atmosphere she it beautiful. I spent a good 15 minutes looking at a pretty rubbish but none the less amazing view of Saturn before calling it a night. Points to note. The Nagler with the powermate is giving me mag x92, the NPL x 96 and the APM x100. On a not fully dark sky this may be the reason why it seemingly underperformed on M13. M13 was in the south where there was distant sky glow, M39 was more SEast which was seemingly a little darker. I am not making excuses, just pointing out an observation. The best corrected FOV was the Nagler, only just, over the APM/NPL and followed by the BST. Considering the FOV differences I chalk that as a very narrow win to the APM. Contrast wise, Nagler/APM/NPL draw. I am taking into consideration magnification discrepancy and poor darkness conditions here. All four eyepieces were very easy to use. Nagler and APm have the rubber style eyeguards and NPL/BST the screw adjusted type. I didn't have any concerns regarding any of them through the session. I never really checked for coma I will be honest. The sharpest views came from the Nagler/APM/NPL, the BST was great on axis but suffered badly in the outer 50%. I didn't buy the BST for a dob though, it for my mak and frac where it performs far better. For me the overall winner is the APM. It was simply the more consistent performer of the night followed by the nagler, NPL and BST. Value for money wise the NPL takes some beating, it really is a smasher. Quality wise, the nagler goes without saying but the APM is a little known quantity but £1 for £1 has the potential to become a serious contender. I know I haven't got everything into this report, I was making notes all night but I got to a point where I simply marked them 1-4 and hoped I would remember 😆 In conclusion I will soon be amending my eyepiece collection after some more testing in different ota's. The one that will definitely be a keeper is the APM Steve

Thanks john and Don, you said what I expected but I like to ask the question. I have come upon an alternative on the 2nd hand market but will wait until after the test drive before I start making any predictions. Steve

Hi Paul. You posted this at just the right time. I am about to test drive my APM 24mm UFF in my F4.7 dob tonight. I am also comparing it for various aspects against some other good quality eyepieces. My 26mm nagler, 25mm Vixen NPL and a BST 25mm. My results will be posted up tomorrow in this section. Steve

Ah good stuff, nothing to complicated then. Thanks

great report that, I was living that with you as I read it

I have been on one of my website mooches considering a lighter weight, wide field 2" eyepiece for my F10/100mm achromatic frac, At F10 I am happy to buy something at the lower end of the market as they are far more forgiving. Anyway, came across a 30mm eyepiece from Starguider. starguider They are the same purveyors of the BST brand. Further rooting around found this from APM, APM They sell some very good quality glass although this is clearly not the top of the range. I have owned in the past a Moonfish of the same specs. moonfish So I know an eyepiece of this design will perform reasonably well at F10 and offers a lovely 2.5 degrees tfov. So my query really is, excluding the moonfish which would you buy if you had option too of the other two. I thought about quality control but are these produced by the same company with different badges or are they clones produced by different companies with varying QC. APM is slightly more expensive mainly due to shipping costs but which of the two companies is going to have the better QC and subsequent re-sale value. My gut instinct says APM but I really don't know anything for sure. Any information gratefully received. Steve