Saganite

That is a lovely sight Richard. I just wish I could binoview with a pair of 22mm LVW's.

Buy another and put them in a binoviewer Helen, they become astounding then.

These would have come by post but were purchased from a fellow member of BAS, and collected from him during Sunday's meeting of the BAA Deep Sky Section at Bedford School, the home of my Astro Society. It was a terrific day of lectures, and good food,enjoyed in the company of well over 100 kindred spirits.

Excellent Mike !

WOW ! That is just beautiful, congratulations

Hi Louis D, Wow, I will consult you the next time I want an eyepiece! A beautiful pristine Celestron Ultima 35mm arrived on the morning of 31st March from the US. I need another now, so any predictions ? cheers Steve

Well, I shall find out tonight, Andromeda is up on the pier and ready.

Well spotted Dave. I even went through it again when I edited it ! Doh I have now corrected it.

Lovely oculars Chris, well done. I have never tried these.

This beauty arrived this morning to pair up with the one I bought 4 years ago, and will give me 139X and 248X in the OOVX12.............. 79X *140X in the 4" frac..........and in the 5" f15 Andromeda, 119X,( native focus) 166X, & 297X. I have read of other people's good fortune, turning up amazing bargains, but rarely does it happen to me, however I recently opened a dialogue with a fellow stargazer, during which he said that he had a very old and cosmetically challenged eyepiece that he felt sure would work well at f15. Apart from the scratched barrel and body, there is what appears to be tarnish/ coating degradation on the very edge of the enormous eye lens. He said that if I wished to have it, he would send it FOC !! I thanked him for his generosity, paid the postage, and it arrived this morning also. The eye lens still looks like a lump of liquid glass, and I was quick to put it into the 4" f9 and test it out. Now I admit that daylight testing is not a good indicator necessarily of how it will perform under the stars, but I have seldom been disappointed with a night sky view after the daylight chimney pot test ( today the test was greatly improved by the arrival of 5 starlings with their irridescent plumage, cavorting and preening for several minutes). During the test I compared it with my University Optics 40mm Konig, and the 42mm Vixen LVW, and it was the only eyepiece which was as sharp at the edge of the field as on axis, not by a huge amount, but no adjustment of focus was needed. Of course the apparent FOV is narrow compared to the other two, and so the result could be expected, but looking into a very large lens( 42mm diameter) and seeing sharpness everywhere was excellent. It does have very long eye relief, and I had read that eye sensitivity is a problem, but I do not find it so. The next three nights are looking promising so hopefully I will get a chance to try this 48mm Brandon in all three scopes.

My telescopes, eyepieces, and all the other paraphernalia that I have collected over the years in pursuit of this passion/hobby, lie around and remind me only of the pleasure that awaits, the next time the sky is clear. You still have your strong interest in Astronomy, Olli, that is all that matters really...

A classic set of optics Dave, and I see you managed to find some eye guards.

Very nice collection Mike.

Dave, you crack me up .....Freda the Funnel indeed !

A bit late to join this thread but when I had a Skytee 2 I mounted a Starwave f11 and a Tal RS at the same time to make a decision about which to keep, and they were both solid on the mount, so you will have no problems, though you may have to fettle it a bit to remove excessive backlash. The Starwave 102 f11 is a beautiful scope BTW.....

A beautiful line up Dave, and I am sure they will be superb.

Hi Alan, I understand where you are coming from.I cannot really justify the spend on one of these, but they are probably the best available at 4". I recently told Dave (f15 Rules) that my Celestron ED102 c/w Moonlite and Baader T2 prism diagonal was a set up that would take some beating at 4" in a refractor without a lot more outlay and I believe that, so a part of me still hankers after a top flight model such as the Tak 100. Whether my eyes or indeed my skill as an observer , or both,would benefit is a moot point, I actually think not, but still the desire to own one is there. I don't incidentally hanker after a 5" Tak, Tec, or otherwise, simply because they don't come in big white tubes 2 metres long,and have not been ingrained in the DNA these past five and half decades.

OOPS, I missed that one Alan, I thought it was yours.

Probably where the comparison ends Alan. Beautiful scope though.

My goodness that is going to be amazing !

They are very fine eyepieces and I almost set about collecting them myself, being such fine performers. I had a 16mm but sold it a couple of years back to someone on this forum.

Cheers Dave. This eyepiece had never been in my thoughts, but I picked one up quite cheaply, out of curiosity, and was so impressed with it both with its optical quality and its small size, so it was a no brainer to get another and put them in the bino, in which, for me, they excel, and give me 146X, and .56 deg at native, in Andromeda.

Hmm decisions decisions. Good luck Alan, I'll be watching with interest. Your gonna love the 19mm Pan I think......

Drat !!....

I'd love a pair of those Mike, trouble is they only appear once in a blue Moon