Saganite

I shall rest easy now....for a while..🤣

Is it another scam?

I have got a completely black screen, nothing .

Hi Malcolm, I am on Jupiter also, but the seeing is not very good so I cannot see a great deal of detail at the moment.

Hi Flame Nebula, The post you have quoted is my reply to Paz. My telescope is an APM ED152mm.......

You were not the only one Simon, and this is the worry, it is clearly all too easy to be taken in, during the period between the ad appearing and it being taken down. Mercifully, on this occasion , it was done fairly quickly.

Hi Paz, I had a tracking platform for a short while but sold it, because for me , it was just something else to 'faff' with and I felt it simply introduces another layer of potential wobble. This is just my view of course and others will no doubt disagree. I use my 12" dob for deep sky and so low powers are adequate, and it suits me that way. I have tracking on my ED152 and that telescope is quite adequate for deep sky and excels at Lunar ,planetary, and double stars.

I agree to a point, but my previous 5" f15 refractor and my ED152 have shortened tubes to accommodate binoviewers at native focus . With Andromeda aka the 5" f15 and a 1905mm focal length, but shortened tube, a GPC/Barlow was not necessary and a pair of 6mm eyepieces at native was as far as I went or needed. With my ED152 and 1200mm focal length and using my MB II 's I would certainly use a pair of sub 5mm eyepieces at native if I had such eyepieces, just to remove the extra glass. As the SV zoom is so inexpensive I perhaps should pick up another and at least try. My view of Lunar a few nights ago with the SV at 400x could only have been bettered with binocular vision .

Precisely, and why I could not binoview with a pair of HR 3.4mm eyepieces. I too had merging/alignment problems and I should imagine that a pair of 3-8 Svbony zooms would be worse with the slight play/movement inevitable in a zoom eyepiece...

Thanks for that Mike, the confirmation that I hoped for as to the excellence of the 3-8 zoom. I have owned them all in the past , with the exception of the TOE. Unfortunately I tried to binoview with a pair of HR 3.4's without success so sold them both. I recently parted with my Pentax 3.5mm feeling that I was perfectly at ease with the Svbony zoom I have used for several months , and I am happy with my decision.

I certainly had to change the primary springs on one of my 12" scopes. I cannot remember now whether it was a Skywatcher or Meade Lightbridge. I tend to think it was the Meade, but any way, it needed collimating every time I moved it into the garden until I put a 'beefier' set of springs under the primary and then it was fine.

There was a time when I craved a 3" brass refractor, or was it a 6" reflector?.... I ended up with a 6" reflector , homemade in 1974, certainly couldn't afford the former. But the brass refractors have a unique beauty all their own....

Never thought I would hear you say that ...ever, about 'ship's funnels' Dave....🙂

Hello Mike, I paid £110 about six months ago, so you got a good deal I think. I have previously owned a TV 3-6, quite a long time ago and although I could not fault it, it was a lot of money invested for just occasional use, so it was sold to pay for something else. I could never swear that the Svbony is optically as good as the TV as I don't feel competent to do so, but it runs it very close IMHO with perhaps a slight fall off at 3mm. I have only used that focal length on tight double stars, and rarely in the excellent seeing conditions required to do that. However, a few nights ago , alerted by a colleague on this forum as to the seeing in our area ( he lives about 30 miles away), I used it to observe the Moon at 400X . I am aware that in my ED152, I probably saw no more detail than at 300x but the image scale was so large and still pin sharp it was breathtaking ! I use this zoom all the time now for double star splitting, I am so impressed with it. For what it cost the Svbony is an absolute bargain I think , and I will look forward to your thoughts when you have used yours.

The endless images of beautiful telescopes !.....

No you are not, they are already here in abundance.....🙂 Lovely set up BTW.

Well said...

So, no change then Al....🤣

That is good to know John.

I am indeed Paul , with most of the gang I believe, so get yourself there Paul and I look forward to it.

You might change your mind when eventually you meet me Paul....🤣

A couple of years ago I discovered that my left eye has developed an Epiretinal membrane, which makes sharp focus impossible. I feel fortunate because I am right eye dominant so 'cyclops' viewing is fine and despite having a 'forest' of floaters, I managed 400x on Lunar, pretty well last night. As Dave has said , using Binoviewers seems to allow both eyes to reach a good compromise, and this I have definitely found. My left eye gives a brighter view than my right.

Thanks to Stu1smartcookie for the heads up on the breaks in the cloud. I was happy to settle for the forecast untiI I saw his post and looked outside. As a devoted user of binoviewers, particularly for Lunar observing, I have spent the last hour using a single eyepiece, the Svbony 3-8 zoom in fact, and that is only because it is quite cloudy and I thought I would be out for a very short time, so didn't bother with them. I am however pleased because I have been enthralled by rock steady views at 400x ! I cannot believe how steady the atmosphere is, quite incredible, and this little zoom is amazing, all I need for this evening.

I did try a particular popular brand of holder Dave, but it was so awkward to adjust that after a few attempts to use it, it was lucky to leave my employ ' alive ' and in one piece, and I passed it on to some poor soul who probably found it easy to use...

The session you are longing for Dave will be 'third time lucky ' of course. I have tried hand held shots myself but am useless, yours, of Plato, is great !