Saganite

Rather spoiled of late with observing sessions but the planets are addictive viewing through Andromeda. The motor focus has been an excellent addition these few months past, allowing rock steady image whilst focusing....

Welcome to the forum Paul..🙂

Completed.

Lend me your FS 128 Dave and I will do it. Might take a while to return it though........

Hi Neil, All my UOVT Orthos have these caps which are a nice snug fit, 31mm int diameter. I just seem to have accumulated them over the years. I don't believe they came with eye lens caps, but I would not know , never having bought one brand new.

That is excellent Peter, good job !

Absolutely correct .

Similar story really though I did catch the GRS very sweetly a number of times during half an hour of observing, using my FC100, when the atmosphere calmed ( 148X). As is often the case, Saturn was pretty good and took higher power ( 185 x )showing a good Cassini and some banding. I waited until about 1.30 am for Mars to reach a better altitude but the image was not as good as I had seen a couple of weeks ago when it was stable and sharp, though the white polar cap was very evident. (185X).

Hi Pete, Lovely image of Mars ! I know nothing of Astro photography, but a week ago I was up and observing Mars from 2.15 am, and what struck me was the sheer brightness of the pole through the eye piece !

I have just sold both of my 7mm UOVT's. I never thought it would happen but they were not getting used anymore because of the eye relief, sadly. Enjoy a superb eyepiece Neil...

Very sound advice John with which I can identify. I had a pair of them but struggled to merge the images, and so I sold them when I should have kept one. As MikeDnight has suggested, on axis, I doubt you will find a much better 5mm eyepiece.

Excellent Dave, but the best is yet to come with those two eyepiece gems !

I have seen these referred to by Mike but not seen them until now.. Very neat !

At long last, I have a pair of 10mm Pseudo Masuyamas. It is good to mix and match, and just like their big brothers, they work well together...

Those two will scorch your eyes on Lunar..... Lovely eyepieces Dave....enjoy Steve

Not at normal reading distance with specs, but moving back 30" from screen it was pretty clear. Interesting.

Thanks for the comments Mark, much appreciated.

Cheers Mike. I wish I could draw adequately. The views were pretty special and I cannot wait for opposition. Steve

Awake at 2 am hot and irritable I descended to our patio intent on sleeping outside. The air was very still, blissfully cool ,and the Curry plant was spreading its delicious aroma . The half Moon was at about 30 deg in the east and casting its glow so only the brightest stars stood out, but Mars was much higher and beckoning. I would have loved to put my 5" f15 up for this , but I could not cause any sort of disturbance, so I had to make do with the Tak FC100.... It needed very little time to cool and so was soon showing me a memorable view of the red planet. Like most of us I have a view in my minds eye of Jupiter that I will never forget, so too Saturn, and in the early hours of this morning an imprint of Mars made the grade. On this occasion I did not even bother to set up binoviewers but used a Baader 2.25 x barlow and the really excellent Hyperflex 7.2mm 21.5mm zoom, and commenced with 154X power. A beautiful, fairly crisp orange disc with a dark mass, the shape of which seemed to me to be Syrtis Major, and a bright white South polar region. I was quite surprised how sharp and bright the pole was and it made me think of the diamond ring of a solar eclipse. I increased the magnification up to 236x, by steps, and though the pole remained pretty sharp, no more surface detail revealed itself, so I settled for 189x . With just a pair of shorts on, the night air with its fragrances was blissful on my skin, and a couple hours went by very swiftly. Two satellites across my FOV within 7 minutes of each other ( 3.08 and 3.14 am) and a few 'bumps in the night', the only things to distract me. By 4.30 am clouds which had been forming now began to hide Mars for brief periods, so I called time on an unexpected, but wonderful observing session.

That is a good price, mine sold with original boxes for £100 each, 10 months ago.

Well, I guess based on this, and John's excellent chart, I didn't split them but merely resolved them, though at the time I certainly felt that I had. With a difference of 13x magnification it would have been a very fine line.....

Trawling back through my Astro records, I note that in August 2018 ( I do recall the thread that Merlin 66 refers to a couple of years back and my notes appear to coincide), I split Epsilon Lyrae with my Tak FC100 and a UOVT 12.5mm eyepiece at 59x.

It was not the colour of the scope that amused me John, but the rock solid mount that it was on. Nothing to apologize for.

Simply stunning image !

Hello Mick, This range of eyepieces is marketed under a number of different brand names, and it looks identical to the BST collection that I once had, so you should be fine, but no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong. The BST eyepieces are good, and cost very little. The Vixen NPL 30mm is also a very fine eyepiece...