GavStar

2 hours ago, Deadlake said:

It would of been good if they had allowed @GavStar to of narrated one of his YouTube tours of the sky using NV. Then for once you would get a feeling for what is possible and indeed out there.

That’s tv for you! 😃And I was on the BBC television centre balcony for 4 hours for that!! 🤣

3 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I guess that really depends where you place filter?

There are several places in optical train that can fit it - and you should choose one that provides best angles (my bet would be before prime focus of telescope).

With the pvs-14 there is only one place you can put the filter since the front lens isn’t removable.

In my observing session last night I took a few phone images of the area around Orion and Barnard’s Loop with my pvs-14 at 1x with my chroma 3nm ha filter. I thought it may be of interest to see just how significant the bandshift impact is with a 3nm filter at f1.2 - a lot!! But the contrast on the nebulae in the middle is amazing so that’s why I prefer to use a very narrowband filter despite the bandshift.

I also tried my chroma 5nm ha, but personally I preferred the 3nm views.

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Almost too bright on the Monkeyhead!

Peter

Night vision works so well on this object - I’d never heard of it until I started using nv and it’s one of the easiest and brightest things to see and pick out detail in.

13 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

How much does SQM at observing site effect speed you need to run scope at? i.e. For example in Wimbledon presume you can only use a 41 mm, panoptic for photography whereas in IOW you could use the 41 mm afocally for visual?

It’s doesn’t really. I’m quite happy with the visual views of the 41mm both in London and at a dark site. Just in London there is less contrast. 

A couple of months ago, I made a post about an observing tour of big nebulae from London. I haven’t managed to get out to a dark site this winter so far so was really itching to get to better skies soon.

Despite torrential rain in London today, the forecast was for clear skies tonight. I had an opportunity to visit a dark site and decided to go for it. The instrument of choice was my AP130GTX given it was quite windy.

I was keen to see the dark site views of my latest nv kit setup after some good sessions in London recently. Using my favourite setup for taking phone photo records of my observing, ie a 41mm panoptic with 3nm ha filter, I swept across the sky from Orion on one side to Cepheus on the other. Some stunning views. 😀

22 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Great shots!
The extra aperture of the 130GTX makes a difference or was transparency better? 
Presume just afocal, no reducer used with the 130 GTX photos?

Extra aperture I think. I was very impressed with the 130gtx last night - I must use it more!

Just afocal last night. I do have a nice reducer for the AP130GTX but I enjoyed having the extra image scale yesterday.

Well I had to wait nearly a month for another chance to go observing (been rather cloudy!!). For a change I decided to use my Astro Physics 130gtx refractor. I normally go either grab and go portable (85mm) or big (11 inch plus), but the 130mm does give a nice mid range of magnification with night vision at around 20x, framing, for example, the beautiful Rosette nebula really well. I’m itching to get to a dark sky, it’s been too long…

7 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

What usually happens on Alnitak, blows out?

Yes like this…

7 minutes ago, AKB said:

Very nice! I, too, imaged the Horsehead and Flame last night.

Very impressed with how your system handles Alnitak, showing the double so well.

Tony

Yes, I was surprised about the Alnitak double showing so well in night vision - that’s a first for me on this object.

1 minute ago, RobertI said:

Super results Gavin. Lovely structure in the Crab, although surprisingly dim compared with the others. 

Thanks Robert. Yes the crab was noticeably dimmer than the others. It’s a bit like the Veil which with nv isn’t as bright as you would expect either. I assume the ha signal in these supernova remnants isn’t as strong as it is for standard emission nebulae.

5 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Great pics Gavin.
Even I got the Horsehead tonight! Along with the Flame, Rosette and a very nice California with its extra elevation. Epsilon 130d, TV67mm plossl, Chroma 3nm Ha was the hardwear.
Swapped over to the Baader 685nm and enjoyed M31, M33 (just) and clusters in Auriga, Cassiopeia etc.

Good stuff Mark. I think transparency wasn’t quite as good for me as last week, but it was really fun. Best views I’ve had of the horsehead in London, the “snout” was straightforward to discern which normally requires dark skies…

More clear skies in London tonight 😀

I’ve been enjoying using my 85mm refractor with my night vision kit recently. However the image scale is a bit small (only 10x or so) so tonight, for a change, I got out my 11 inch sct in my back garden in south west London.

With Orion shining in the south, it was lovely to have more magnification on some very well know objects such as the horsehead, flame, monkeyhead and Crab Nebula as shown in the phone pics attached here. Some great views despite the light pollution!!

5 hours ago, Highburymark said:

These are incredible shots from London Gavin. Can’t imagine they could get much better with current technology.

For newcomers to night vision, with extreme filtration for light polluted environments (from Chroma 3nm Ha filters), only the very best NV systems can pick up such detail and clarity, particularly with only a small refractor. Still lots to enjoy with less sophisticated systems, but for example, with my (very decent) FOM2150 Photonis 4G tube, the pictured objects are still ‘faint fuzzies’ observed from my Bortle 8-9 skies. 

Yes that’s a good point Mark. 

One of the key reasons that I bought my first night visio monocular was to observe DSOs from my London back garden (sqm 18). A few years ago, Jupiter and Saturn were low in the sky at opposition and so DSOs were a key part of my observation targets.

It quickly became clear that although night vision was good from light polluted skies it is even better from darks skies like those in the Isle of Wight that I visit on an infrequent basis (sqm 21).

Over time, I’ve aimed to improve the views I get from my London back garden. My latest kit test was last night with my little fsq85. Some great nebula objects in the sky and I’m really pleased with the views I can get from London of these wonderful DSOs. Now just to get to those dark skies on a more regular basis…😀 It’s a lot of fun to see the horsehead so clearly with my little refractor from London back garden as shown by the phone pic below.

Unsurprisingly it’s my night vision monoculars - saying they have revolutionised my observing is rather an understatement. 
Last week I was involved in the filming of a short segment on urban astronomy for the forthcoming January episode of “Sky at Night” discussing how my nv monoculars allow me to see the invisible 😉

This photo was taken from the top of BBC Television Centre - definitely an urban location! 🤣

In development now according to WO. F5.6 and 0.98 Strehl (56mm image circle) no other details that I can see!!

I use the 0.7x edge reducer with my c11 edge. The required distance is 146mm so it’s straightforward to use a 2?inch diagonal. This is for visual only with my nv monoculars. Works very nicely in conjunction with my 55mm plossl. I also use a standard c11 with AP 0.75x photo visual reducer and 55mm plossl. Visual views are shown in the phone images in the linked thread (about 1 degree fov)

Here is the latest iteration of my eyepiece cases. As you can see I like my peli cases.

Front left: planetary and lunar set with tec turret and delites

Front right: binoviewing set for solar and planetary 

Back row: Various night vision monoculars with suitable Televue eyepieces for afocal viewing and ha and other filters 

14 minutes ago, apaulo said:

thanks gav for clearing the ir filter up for me. so am i right in thinking that theres no filter  for observing that will  blacken the sky.

Maybe I’m not answering your query, but For standard visual observing, depending on the object to be observed, there are various filters that can help to some extent like uhc, oiii (for emission nebulae) and Baader moon and sky glow (for planets). But these filters have nowhere near the impact that the night vision device plus appropriate filter has for light polluted skies. In this case bigger prices really do have a massive positive impact on what you can observe live.

16 minutes ago, apaulo said:

will this ir  filter  work for general observing. i have realised very quickly that bigger prices very often dont mean bigger improvements in astro gear in general. thanks for the advice and input.

I use my night vision monoculars primarily for live visual observing, not imaging. However I do like taking quick phone shots of the views as a record of my observing sessions.

With respect to the ir filter this should be used in conjunction with a night vision device for live observing. 

1 minute ago, Philip R said:

Forgive my ignorance @GavStar, are you saying the Baader 685 filter can be used for visual as imaging?

Only when attached to a night vision device. 

53 minutes ago, apaulo said:

i was out last night with my gear at a local dark site. a passer by with his dogs stopped and chatted. he had a night vision viewer with him that he asked me to look through. wowwww what a bit of kit. i always knew about them but never looked through 1. it raised an immediate question within me. if they can turn dark into light why not a reverse item for the sky. maybe in my ignorance they do exist and ive never seen or heard of 1. we seem to get offered bits of glass that work with 1 thing and not another and seemingly quite useless. does anyone know of anything affordable that does work to make milky skies dark.

With night vision astronomy we use strong filters to remove the “milky ness”. Eg for viewing stars and galaxies in my London back garden I use a Baader 685 filter which filters out the visible wavebands just leaving the infrared which can  be seen by the night vision device. Works very well and with the manual gain adjustment you can get really quite black skies but retain lots of stars.

It’s expensive though unfortunately.

Here’s a thread I posted recently about how light pollution does affect night vision astronomy. For the observing discussed in this post I was using a narrowband ha filter to observe the emission nebulae. Some light pollution does sneak in hence the more milky views but night vision still allows you to see stuff you would have no chance otherwise.

On 06/11/2021 at 00:52, Highburymark said:

Possibly Stu. A couple of nights ago I was out looking at various nebulae with my 120mm frac and night vision. When I finished I saw the Pleiades and Hyades had just crept over the top of the adjoining houses (for the first time this year), so I swapped the NV monocular for a more traditional eyepiece, and spent the next 30 minutes completely absorbed with the views. Although you can see many more stars with night vision, there’s simply no contest on prominent open clusters, even from London - give me a ‘normal’ set up every time. Night vision doesn’t do planets, the Moon (obv), reflection nebulae, double stars, high magnifications, and many planetaries are better without NV too.
I see night vision as a tool to transform views of particular objects, but there’s vastly more to see with a standard scope. If a beginner sampled NV first and then found views underwhelming with a conventional set up, then it’s probably not the right hobby for them anyway. 

An experienced nv user posted the following comment on CN recently…

”

Acting solely as a facilitator, offering up memories to last a life time, is incredibly rewarding in and of itself. 

The most impactful encounters, have all been with those who will likely never have the inclination to buy an NVD nor a telescope. 

The least impactful and joyless encounters, have been within the astronomy community itself, particularly with the "experienced " amateur.  

Rough heathen outreach is rewarding, doing it to convert, not so much.  

“

1 hour ago, Highburymark said:

Didn’t realise Astrograph had stopped selling NV. So no UK retailers?
Must say, when I was buying I researched the market in Europe and got an excellent tube with great service from Nighttec in Germany. This was for a PVS-14 with Photonis 4G tube, before OVNI - no history of selling to astronomers - but I spoke to them about what I wanted and they came back with a choice of options. Kept me fully informed throughout.

Agreed Mark. Most European sellers of nv equipment are happy to provide options that meet the requirements of astronomers.