paulastro

Fabulous image, you must be chuffed to pieces - or you should be 🙂. Thanks for posting it.

Look and tremble Mike 🤣

🤔 X 609 🙂 ? Certainly too much for the conditions I had Mike, I was limited to around x170. I agree with you that you really should consider upgrading to a full four inches aperture though Mike - it would make a huge difference🙂

Thank you Mr Spock. Yes, the weather has been so changeable and variable hasn't it. At this time of year especially, my sessions tend to be short and sweet when there is an all too brief window of opportunity. 🙂

Thank you John. As usual, my visual observations showed far more of course, but I do like to have a momento to remind me of the lunation.

Joy? Nick never had a therapist until you became a customer of his. Coincidence? 😄.

Many thanks Alan, that's very kind of you. I had planned to go out again later myself, but luckily it was cloudy 😁.

I'm certain he will miss you Mike 😁.

Nice to have a session on the Moon. The first for about three weeks following some challenging weather, including Christoph! I started about 5.30pm, but had to curtail it around 6pm when the bitingly cold wind brought in a sudden intense hail storm. Followed by a degree of panic while trying to get the equipment out of the tempest 🙂. Before this, I did have some good views with the Tecnosky 102mm f7. It was a fine terminator and I took a few single frames with my Olympus E-M5 Mk11. The frame below was taken at 5.53pm, 1/320 at 400asa with a couple of crops from the same frame. Apologies if the pics are rather large, I'm using my phone and dont know how to make them smaller - my computer is throwing a wobbly at the moment 🤨

Phew, thank goodness for that! 🙂

No prize, but probably some aggro if the buyer isnt happy with any aspect of it 😄.

I hate to be a party pooper Mike, but it is possible there might be some telescope owners out there (not to mention a few telescope manufacturers) who may not agree with this. Happily, I'm not one of them, as I couldn't afford any telescope even more expensive than a Takahashi - however good it is 😄.

I wish I had a £1 for every person I know who has sold their 'keeper' telescope 😄.

Carl, I assure you, whoever AstroPaul is, he isnt the same person as paulastro, cus that's me! I've only been to Hull once, and I didnt go to the university 🙂.

Yes, I think you probably are Peter 🤣.

Yes Mike, there is e version of this TS configuration with FPL53, which is supposedly the same as the Altair Astro version of this scope and also the Tecnosky version - which is the scope I bought just before Christmas. All three of these FPL53 versions are the same price - £899, or they were when I was considering purchasing this optical configuration. As these models are all around the same price as the Stellar Mira 80mm f10, perhaps one of these would be a better comparison than the cheaper non FPL53 version? As you say Mike, my vintage Astro-Tech non FPL version was excellent in every way, an impressive scope. Having said that, my new Tecnosky FPL version (in the limited opportunities I have had to use it so far) appears to be rather better. In due course I'll post a review, but I have to say its performance has thrilled me every time I have used it.

I've, as John with the 80ED, found the Skywatcher series of Evostar pro ED refractors to be of excellent optical quality and probably by far the best value for money. In this range I've owned several examples of the SW 80ED, the SW 100ED and SW 120ED and they have all been fine telescopes. I have also recently bought a Tecnosky 102ED F7 FPL53 Doublet. I bought it in preferance to the SW 100mm ED, which is F9, as I paticularly wanted an F7 focal ratio. I've found this to be excellent both optic wise and in build quality - at least as good or better than SW in every way. I will say I have no other experience of Tecnosky telescopes so I can't comment on any other telescope in the Tecnosky range. TS and Altair Astro sell their own branded version of the 102mm Tecnosky I have, and people have said good things about them, but I've not used any of them.

I think this is a very good summary of the situation John. What's written on the side of the dew shield, and if the lens has two, three or more elements, isnt necessarily a good guide to performance. As youself and Stu have said, a good doublet refractor is hard to beat visually, and is my weapon of choice. The current range of Takahashi doublets are the best in my view,, but the good news is that there are a few other makes that have a high % of the performance of a Tak for a fraction of the price. In a similar theme, though FPL53 is considered the choice of glass after fluorite, I've owned a couple of non-FPL53 doublets that I'd certainly buy again - in fact I did in one case! If you are an experienced refractor user, you will know a good refractor when you look through it, and if you're not, SGL is a good place to point you in the right direction. In the end of course, it's always best to try before you buy.

Thanks Voyager. It's a pic taken at prime focus (the camera attached to the scope with no eyepieces or lenses) . The scope has a focal length of 714 mm, but because the camera has a macro 4/3 sensor, it is effectively 1428 mm. This gives a prime focus magnification of just over x28. This is the mag of the 1st picture, slightly cropped for framing. The 2nd pic is a crop of part of the 1st pic. Approximately this is around 1/10 or less of the first pic, which would be about x280 - x400 - but it only looks like that !! Of course the 2nd pic iin reality is only an enlargement of the first pic taken at x28. It only looks bigger because of the cropping to the picture.

I observed the Moon from about 4.45 am to 5.55 am. There was snow on the ground still, and the temperature was - 2 to - 3 degrees C while I was observing with a thick frost. When I went out the cover I had placed over the GP-DX mount was so frozen that when I pulled it off I could stand it up on the ground! I had got up to see the sunset over Clavius, but also because the next few days don't seem too promising. There was very quick fine scintillation so that while observing I had to adjust the fine focus almost constantly, but there was a lot of good detail on view. I was using the 102ED F7 Tecnosky and my binoviewer with 24 and 16.8 Orthos. I did take some single frames with the Olympus E-M5 Mk11, but it was difficult due to the scintillation to get a frame with most of the disk in focus. Anyway, the pick of the bunch is below with a crop showing Clavius.

Many thanks Chris, that's nice of you. Yes, still snow and ice here too. I'll look forward to the time we are able to get together again and do some observing. Looks like it will be clear again in the early hours of Thursday 🙂.

Yes, I paid the same amount, so is the Altair Astro version of the same scope. I chose the Tecnosky version as I've dealt with Rupert at Astrograph before and he's a top man. As you say, it's a good price. The only comparable for about the same price is the Sky Watcher f9 100mm ED. I wanted an F7 version anyway. Also, the fit and finish of the Tecnosky is much better, and dare I say it, the optics appear to be noticeably better too. This is no disrespect to the ED pro series, I've been happy to own many of them over the years, and I still have the SW 72ED which is excellent - and it achieves this without using fpl53.

Usually the camera goes straight on the telescope rather than on your diagonal. You just rebalance the tube on the mount to accommodate the change in weight. The T adapter you'd need is the macro 4/3, I use one of these to attach my camera to my refractors. For imaging, it might be helpful to post questions to the appropriate imaging section. My astro photography is very limited as I'm mainly a visual observer. I only do simple things imaging wise that wont take up valuable eyeball time 🙂.

Many thanks, that's kind of you. A great camera the Mk1, I still have mine as well as the Mk11, but I seldom use it - though I wont part with it. I cant remember why I 'upgraded', but there were some particular features that were useful for the different types of photography I do. The feature I find indispensible on the Mk11 is the ability to magnify the image on the rear screen by up to x14 and focus on it to ensure you have the best chance of catching the moments of best seeing. At prime focus my 102 has an effective mag of just over x28. When you magnify this by x14 you are focusing on an image magnified x392 !! Fabulous for lunar purposes. I dont recall if the Mk1 has this facility? I think it may, but I'm not cerain.

Yes Mark, unusually for me I did buy it new 🙂. I bought it from Rupert at Astrograph, he imports them from Italy, and then checks them out before sending on to the buyer. I've nothing against non - fpl 53 optics, and if I could have bought an Astrotech version the same vintage as the one we had, I might well have done so. Also I was wary of buying any new incarnation of a non-fpl53 version as I couldn't be sure it would be of the high quality of 'our' Astrotech. Having said that, the Tecnosky, in the brief time I've had it, has really impressed me.. It's one of those scopes you get excited about before going out to observe with it. The small tiny star images are very apparent, as is the contrast and sharpness of the images and the lack of CA. I will write a report on it when I've had more time with it. But do PM me if youd like to know anything else in the mean time. And, it hurts me to say it, but it does seem a step up from 'our' Astrotech 😔.