Saganite

Very steady seeing here this evening, lovely transit with plenty of detail on Jovian disc at 159X with the Vixen,

That is rotten luck Pete ! Hope you are back in action asap.

At the time you were not to know, and you still had a fine telescope at the end of it which you used quite happily. It might have ended up in a collection, unused, so at least you gave it a life....

A great session beautifully described ! Weeks, months of disappointment in the sky are instantly erased and forgotten after an observing session such as you have just had. Thanks for the report. Cheers

There is no chip in the glass at all, in fact if you handled this lens with your eyes closed, you could not tell that it is so damaged. I replaced the doublet with a TAL doublet to make an f10 lens in an f9 tube thereby making it ready for native focus binoviewing. There are pictures and write up in this very forum, 9 threads below entitled " I have a bino friendly TALwatcher". cheers Steve

Hi , You may have seen this before as I posted it some months ago to canvas opinion on what caused it. The consensus was that it was damage caused by the shock from a blow. It is the inner element of an ED100 Skywatcher doublet, and the outer lens is pristine. The chap from whom I bought the scope , for parts really, did not say what had happened. Curiously, in spite of the damage it still worked very well. The lens looks awful but there is not the slightest external damage, all internal, and the glass is perfectly smooth. The rest of that telescope has been utilized into a new hybrid scope, and the lens is a rather good magnifying glass/paper weight.

Now I am confused......who am I....

Oh dear , I hope that doesn't happen...

Er.......No, That honour is reserved for Andromeda... She is special, I can easily handle the others.

Cheers Ade, If you can it certainly is an easier option, but in my case it all fell into place long before I even thought about it.....

Hi Dave, Sorry I have taken so long replying, but I have been on holiday recently. I appreciate your interest and approbation, as always. Made from spare parts, it does look good and even better, it works very well ! I am in the middle of another and more exciting refurb/restoration, as you well know ! Practically a skip find, very long focus refractor of local heritage, begging to be compared with my beloved Andromeda once finished, the results of which you will be the first to know......

Hi Rob, Thanks for the interest. I thought it was a good idea. It is a very good TAL doublet so will work well. Thanks to the appalling weather I am yet to try it out, but it will be compared to the Vixen ED103 sitting alongside, as soon as the opportunity arises. The binoviewers work at native focus as expected, that I can confirm....

Hope the move went well Stu and that you enjoy your new home. As you know, the village in which I now live has pretty decent skies, but I have just returned from a camping trip to Lands End and the sky there is a different level to be sure. I was quite stunned by the sight of the Milky Way stretching almost from horizon to horizon with such brightness and detail, with chunks of it that I have never seen before, quite awesome. I did not have a telescope, there was no room for more than a binocular, but just a pair of eyes was quite enough ! I should imagine that moving from where you have lived to where you now live will register a similar improvement, I hope so , and look forward to your future reports.

Congratulations John, and thank you for all the great information that you have given.

Excellent scope Rob, and you will love it. I too have the f5.3, Strehl 0 .987, PV wavefront 0.116

No worries Stu. It is probably because I am always reminding everyone that two of my now four refractors came from Dave.....

Agree completely with this Al, except that I will never get an observatory. It is true that I need the tall and fixed pier for my long focus refractors, but I would have gone for a semi permanent set up regardless. My tripod and my Dob go wherever I want them. You have a large garden Al, so do yourself a favour and put a sliding roof obsy around that slab .....

Thanks Stu.......its Steve BTW...🤣

A few years ago I bought an ED100 for, I think ,£50 the objective of which was ruined ( the severley damaged internal lens of the doublet I showed a few months ago on the forum ). At the time I was about to sell my own ED100 but wanted to keep the Moonlite focuser , so a quick swap with the 2 speed unit from the damaged scope and away it went. The remains of the damaged scope sat in my parts cupboard for some time until a very generous stargazer with whom I traded, gave me FOC a Tal doublet, which also has sat in my parts cupboard. The Tal being f 10 and ED tube being for an f 9 meant that I had what amounted to a cut down tube ready for native focus binoviewing, so I assembled it complete with a Skywatcher single speed focuser, perfect for the job, having miles of focuser travel, which I also had, and it all worked as it should......well , almost. The doublet fitted nicely in the Skywatcher cell although I managed to make a mess of it, and despite trying several rearrangements of the glass I could not seem to obtain a perfect image, so I took it to Es Reid, who performed his magic, cleaned and assembled it perfectly, pronounced it a typically good quality Russian Objective, and sent it back. In the interim, I stripped the single speed focuser, 'nibbed' it, primed, and sprayed it, and had the tube and dew shield powder coated at the Company with whom I traded a great deal before my retirement. They made a superb job of it, and all I needed to do was reassemble and ad some red coach striping. The dust cap by a supreme stroke of luck, was made from a tin which has held picture frame hooks for at least twenty years and after etch priming and spraying with the same white aerosol, needed just a bit of felt inside to make it a snug fit. The result is I think , a fine looking scope which works superbly, and all at an absolute minimum of cost. What appeals with this pairing is having the use of binoviewers and single eyepiece options in the Vixen , for tight double star splitting without having to change anything. Thanks for reading.

Well, I left the scope and went to bed. From 1.30am to 3.30 am however, in the blissful cool air, glorious views of Jupiter and Saturn at powers from 159x to 254x . Two hours well spent !

Not a patch of blue sky to be seen now..... you have to smile !

The last few days have been pretty good observing days judging by what I have read on SGL. I have been unable to make use of them for reasons too boring to mention. Today I have had a non taxing work free day enjoying the company of my Daughter and Granddaughter, hot day , BBQ, clear blue sky etc and I thought I would round it off with some relaxation and observing. Before the bino was in the focuser......**** Well, the garden is fragrant, and so I will enjoy being out , and hope.

Hello Roy, I look forward to your thoughts and observations with the Tal. I have one that is identical , which I bought a few days before first lock down last year. I had a home build 6" f8 in the mid seventies and it was, I think , a sense of nostalgia that compelled me to buy mine. To my shame I have not yet used it. I have a 12" Dob which I have also left in the cupboard, so to speak, preferring one of my fracs on most occasions whenever an observing opportunity arose. If their refractors are anything to judge by, I bet it is an excellent performer.

Hi Linton, I purchased the Vixen last November just after selling the TakFC100. The pair of beauties shown came from Dave (f15 Rules). You are both welcome anytime the sky obliges....