Saganite

When I had my 5" f15 refractor I would very definitely have had an 8mm and a 7mm they giving a difference in mag of 34x, but now I don't consider it necessary, so my 1.25" eyepieces are 32mm, 24mm, 18mm, 13mm, 10.5mm, 8.5mm and 6.3mm, with a decent zoom lens for double stars.

Hi Gorann, My 5" f15 was made by the American company D&G Optical. She was named Andromeda by my good friend Dave ( F15 Rules ) from whom I purchased the scope in 2015, and I loved the name so kept it. I wish very much that I could have kept the scope but my post, in the " show us your most loved scope " gives the reason for selling. A picture of Andromeda is now my Avatar, changed just yesterday from the image of my beloved dog Bailey. The blue scope shown in your reply is a 4.5" f14 Achromat bought by me and restored to this condition. I named her Arcturus, and she was in a terrible state when I bought her. The details of the transformation are all on the forum. This scope was made by A.E. (Luton) Ltd, a manufacturer of Astronomy equipment based 25 miles from me, but, sadly, long since gone. The thread indicated comes up on Google if you type the name as I have shown it. Cheers, Steve

I would add that I have often thought that a range of TV plossls would be all that you need, and certainly it wouldn't take much for me to decide that route now that I have tracking again, and no longer have a Dob. A larger FOV is desirable when you need to keep nudging a Dob though.

The APM tube having been cut down, I use the Maxbright II's at native with the following pairs; 32mm Erfle 24mm Panoptic 18mm BGO 13mm Nagler T6 Carton 10.5mm Pentax XF 8.5m TAL 6.3mm I also have a pair of Meade 5 element 26mm smoothside eyepieces which are not strictly needed but give such clarity and sharpness, it is a joy to use them sometimes. The Denkmeier with powerswitch is now a fixture on the Vixen 103 and allows me to reach focus and enjoy a large range of powers , low to high.

I had reason to call in on Linton Guise at about 3.30 this afternoon, and he had a Vixen and wedge set up and invited me to take a look. I do no solar viewing...yet, but I was immediately taken by how sharp the view was. I saw exactly the view that you have produced, and I was amazed that there was no shimmer, the seeing seemed to be perfect.

A good point. As a fellow septuagenarian, I worry about the old folks...

Sounds like the same as I was getting. At least I can now wait for everything to sort itself out, I thought my computer was misbehaving.

Exactly my experience, mobile has been fine. Thanks.

This has happened to me half a dozen times at least today.

I have a wonderful life, and SGL and many friends on it are part of it...🙂

Teaser !...

That, I like very much. I have just lately been toying with the idea of using a dedicated tablet instead of my phone, an idea given to me by Stephenstargazer on this forum.

In my working life I had to drive to sites all over the UK and did so by map reading with 'fine tuning', particularly in large cities, by asking directions from pedestrians. As a system it never failed, but today, give me a Sat nav, a no brainer. I see star gazing in the same way, and like most , over a few decades, star hopped my way around the galaxy and beyond with the use of a good atlas. In my seventh decade now I will take the easiest route to the object that I wish to see, and so I use a goto most of the time. I do sometimes just star hop, but I prefer not to struggle to find dim objects in a light polluted sky...

This is the set up now, APM ED 152 and Vixen ED103 Swt, on Az100. The pier which once supported Andromeda is solid as a rock.

I use my Celestron Ultima barlow and it works fine, but don't know about the Antares.

I read your post last night John regarding the split of Lambda Cygni, and thought I would have a crack at that, but when I got outside it had clouded over. It happened very swiftly and was complete cloud cover at 12.40am. I will give it a go tonight.

Thanks. There is now a dome around that pier and I have mounted Arcturus knowing full well it would stick through the slit, and though I would be very careful to rotate the dome as the telescope slews, I don't think I will be trying it... The f14 will be strictly for the tripod in the garden

Tonight is looking good so far, very stable split of Izar , slightly better than last night I would say.

You are in for a treat Dave...👍

I wasn't wrong about Ant then....... Good to know a little of the history, thanks Steve.

This APM zoom arrived recently and I have used it on a couple of sessions so far. I am very impressed with its quality, particularly the focal length click stops, and the constant 67 deg FOV as you move through its range is just brilliant. I have only used it so far on double stars but what I have seen leaves no doubt that it is a premium bit of kit. My little Carton zoom, which is itself extremely capable, is shown alongside for comparison and I had thought that it would have to go, but I shall keep it, one for each scope ! My Celestron Ultima 2x barlow in the optical chain makes no difference to the image quality across the range, and gives 163x to 327x , in my 6"refractor, very useful for star splitting.

Andromeda was a planet killer and for more than seven years I had superb views of most objects, but, she was just too big to put an Observatory around, or to be absolutely correct too big to get it past the planning dept at home, so, sadly, I had to make a decision last summer. A new owner has Andromeda and I have my Pulsar Obsy with two fine scopes inside, so the correct decision in the end. I still have Arcturus though..

Only just discovered this thread and am enjoying it greatly. Keep the images and the humorous comments coming....👍

I always thought Ant was a founding member, but may well be wrong.

An excellent reminder of things to come..can't wait ! Thanks...