johnturley

Hi Ron Sorry to hear about that, as I mentioned my original appointment was for for 15 March, only after I arrived at the treatment centre (and paid a £20 taxi fare to get there as you can't drive afterwards) did they tell me that the operation had been cancelled, supposedly due to a power cut in the operating theatre, allthough I suspect that the actual reason might have been staffing issues. Originally they offered me an alternative date of 17 April, some five weeks later, but then the next day they rang me back offering 21 March, probably due to a cancellation, so you might get yours done sooner. Good luck John

Hi Carole They used some sort of anaesthetic gel on my eye, although uncomfortable I can assure you that the procedure is not painful. John

Finally had the cataract operation on my right eye last Thursday (21 March), it had originally been scheduled for 15 March, but this got cancelled supposedly due to a power cut in the operating theatre at the treatment centre on that day. I had arrived there (by taxi as you can't drive afterwards), and had been waiting 15 minutes before being informed. The operation was not a particularly pleasant experience but not painful, one of the other patients described it as not being as bad as the dentist, although I wouldn’t quite agree with that. Immediately after the operation I could see distant objects through my right eye a bit clearer than before, but then my vision deteriorated for a time and I could see little other than blurs and flashes of purple light, about which I got quite worried. Fortunately after a few hours things started to improve, although there was still a halo of light around bright objects. By the following morning the vision through my right eye had improved dramatically, I could now see distant objects clearly and could still focus on objects down to about 50cm away, so don’t need glasses for a computer screen, but as anticipated, I am now more dependent on glasses for reading. The sensation was similar to having a contact lens (which I used to wear) permanently inserted in my right eye. Prior to developing the cataract I was just slightly short sighted in both eyes (about -1 dioptre), but subsequently became very short sighted in my right eye. Comparing the vision in my right to that in my left eye, in addition to distant objects being clearer, whites seem a lot brighter, and the view through my left now appears to have a slight brownish hue in comparison. I am therefore probably getting a much higher percentage of light transmission through the implant than in the natural lens in my left eye, so I am hoping that I will now be able to see fainter stars. As I mentioned previously they have inserted a mono focal (optimised for distant vision) implant, I did enquire about multifocal implants, but was told that they are not generally available on the NHS, and that if I wanted a multifocal implant, I would have to pay for the entire operation privately (elsewhere), and that it is not possible just to pay for the extra cost of the multifocal implant. Having read several articles on line, although some people do end up with both good distant and near vision with multifocal implants, more people have problems with the latter, in particular with car headlamps when driving at night, which is probably another reason besides costs why the NHS generally does not fund them. Incidentally so far at least (touchwood), although I’ve experienced slight discomfiture, I’ve experienced no pain whatsoever, this compares to my daughter who suffered quite a lot of pain after less drastic laser eye surgery. John

Not impressed by Astro Eclipse at all, only after someone on SGL sent me an email, did I find out that the probable departute date (which still has not been finalised) will probably be on 27 June (evening flight), despite it saying in all the information on line and what they have sent me, that the departure date was 28 June. My wife now needs to try to book an extra days holiday off work, and we need to book our dog in at the kennels for an extra day. In addition they were not helpful at all when in came to checking visa and vacination requirements. John

Hi Ceramus Thanks for your reply I've previously trips booked Eclipse trips with Explorers Travel Club (Brian McGee's company) which I think now goes by the name of Astrotrails, most recently the 2012 Australia Eclipse. The reason I booked with Astro Eclipse this time is that they were offering an itinery including visiting Machu Picchu, and at the time I booked Astrotails appeared only offering a trip which included visting the Chilean Observatories, which was also more expensive. I understand however that they've subsequently added on options including visiting Machu Picchu and other locations. John

Has anybody else on this forum booked an itinery with the above company to see the Total Eclipse of the Sun from South America this July. With only just over 3 months to the scheduled departure date of 28 June, I'm getting increasinly concerned that I've still not received any detailed information regarding flights, and hotels, or even which airport we will be departing from (I was planning on booking an airport hotel for the night prior to departure), and no further details of the itinery other than those when I first booked the trip about 18 months ago. I keep ringing them up every couple of weeks, and they keep telling me that they will send me further details shortly, but that has been happening since January. I've already paid them more than two thirds of the cost of the trip, but at least they are ATOL protected, and all my payments were made using a credit card. John

There used to be a 37in Reflector when the Royal Greenwich Observatory was at Herstmonceux, don't know whether this got moved to Cambridge along with the others. John

I've now got a date for my cataract operation of 15 March. Partly because of my interest in astromomy, I opted for the standard monofocal lens optimised for distant vision, as besides the fact that the NHS will not fund having a multifocal lens (I would have to pay for this privately), I thought that the latter, which is similar to bifocal or varifocal glasses, might not result in me seeing star images as sharp as with the former. John

Thanks Pete I must admit that I'm a bit nervous about it, I expect mine will be done under local aneasthetic too, but if my vision improves as much as yours did, it will be well worth it. John

I was diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye last May, I had suspected something was wrong for some months previously, as my vision through an eyepiece was starting to get cloudy, and I was getting increasingly short sighted in this eye. I was however informed by the optician at the time that it was not suffiently bad for a cataract operation to be funded by the NHS. In December I was aware that it was getting worse and arranged another eye test, I explained to the optician that it was causing me problems when viewing through my telescope, and was then informed that this would probably be sufficient reason to justify the NHS funding the operation, and I am currently awaiting an appointment at the treatment centre. Having read other reports of the positive outcomes, I am therefore hoping that my astronomical vision will be much improved following the operation. John

I did have an AP 6in f8 mounted piggyback on my 14in Newtonian with no problems, I think the Esprit 150 is a similar weight, but a shorter tube with it being f7. John

Many thanks to all those who have posted comments. What I have read so far reinforces my initial preference for the Esprit 150, it would be mounted piggyback on my fork mounted 14in Newtonian, so I wouldn't be purchasing a mount specifically for this scope. The one advantage of the APM 140 would have been that I could have mounted either it, or my existing ES 127 on an HEQ5 mount. The replies also reinforce my feelings that:- It would not be worthwhile spending a lot of money just to upgrade to a high end scope in the 130-140 mm range such as the TAK 130 or the TEC 140 There would be relatively little to gain over the Esprit 150 by spending over three times as much on a high end 150-160 mm scope such as the TAK 150 or the TEC 160 John

I am planning to upgrade my main refractor in 2020 (partly because of the favourable opposition of Mars in October of that year), which I will mount piggyback on my 14in Newtonian, on which my ES 127 is currently mounted. My two most favoured options are the Skywatcher Esprit 150, and the APM 140, but I am not planning to sell my ES 127, instead I intend to purchase a portable GOTO mount (probably the Skywatcher HEQ5, and possibly with the Rowan Belt modification), which would give me a more portable instrument than my Celestron 9.25 CPC. I also prefer the shorter tube length and wider field of an f7 rather than an f8 instrument, so was not considering the APM 152 or other makes of 6in f8 refractors. The APM 140 would have the advantage that I could also mount it on the HEQ5 mount, whereas the Esprit 150 would probably be too heavy for this mount, requiring a heavier duty mount such as the EQ6 and not be very portable. The main snag however with the APM140, is that with only having an extra 13mm of aperture, would I notice much improvement over my ES 127 FDC 100 scope, and being a doublet it may not be as well colour corrected. The Esprit 150 with an extra 23 mm of aperture should show more of an improvement, and would be at least as well, if not better colour corrected. Although doublets do have the advantage of cooling down faster, with being housed in an observatory shed, the longer cool down time of a triplet would probably not be an issue. If I really wanted to, I could stretch to a more high end refractor such as the TAK150, or the TEC 140 or 160, but would it be worth spending more than three times the price (Esprit 150 £4k, TAK150 and TEC 160 £13k) for something that would only be marginally better. A comparison between the Esprit 150 and TEC 160 was done on Cloudy Nights a few years ago, and the TEC 160 came out as being only marginally better, in addition Es Reid (a well-respected optician whom I know personally), regularly checks Esprit 150’s and considers them optically to be almost as good as the TAK’s. Another possibility would be a TAK 130 at around £5k, but would I notice much improvement over my ES 127, although I have no doubt that some TAK owners will claim that there would be no comparison between them, and that a TAK 130 would equal or even outperform the Esprit 150. John

Any idea why they sold it so soon John

In the case of ES triplet refractors it specifically states in the manual 'Never take the objective out of its socket and do not modify its adjustment screws, as it is not possible to reinstall in an accurate manner without specialist knowledge'. This in effect means that it is a profesional job if the inner lens element ever requires cleaning, which it probably will after several years. John