jetstream

Awesome findings!

You might find that, like me the Tak LE series is not in the same league as your better eyepieces...

Great eyepieces

The 42mm LVW is a favorite of mine as is the HR2 2.4mm.

7 minutes ago, ngwillym said:

"While the Quark has a blocking filter in its nose which should kill any residual energy"

Great post and I know this isn't quoting you Neil but I wanted to mention something.

This mention of the "blocking filter" in the nose of the Quark is misleading IMHO. This front filter is the induced transmission filter (ITF) which serves a completely different role than the blocking filter. As the etalon is a "comb" filter the actual blocking filter isolates one line for us to see or image.

To me this ITF is the fail safe energy reducing "broadband" filter and not the actual blocking filter.

I thought it might be worth mentioning this.

1 hour ago, spaceboy said:

I don't always think "people can do what ever they want" is the best advice!

Some make choices and hopefully they are informed ones....

A few have tried the reflective filters but the con to this is the reflected light- I wouldn't want to inadvertently look at a D-ERF while its tracking the sun.

BTW there are more choices for the full  aperture ERF and not all are reflective I believe.

20 minutes ago, spaceboy said:

they can fail due to absorbing the heat and expansion

Very true- but having a filter that "rattles" ( a bit loose in its cell) and figuring out the energy from the solar disk size can prevent this. My 120ED has no issues with this filter (with my diags). I chose KG3 because the nature of the KG3 allows it to filter IR regardless of coating. If the KG3 breaks I'll know it immediately vs a coating failure with the other types which may go un-noticed.

The reflective filters shoot light out the objective...

I guess its all about choices-to each their own.

Edit- I use this filter for keeping IR from reaching my eye as well as protect the Quark or wedge...

BTW I use this filter for solar use. Mr Smie did calculate if it was safe based on the f ratio (solar disk size) at the distance inside the tubes using my diagonals. It is an absorptive IR filter (KG3) vs a reflective (Baader UV/IR).

http://beloptik.de/en/left/if-uv-ir-cut-on-kg3-infrared-blocking-filter/

Just now, spaceboy said:

I think moonshane has removed his rusty itf

People can do whatever they want- its a free country (ies) so to speak. I personally like the metallic ITF features better (ie they block more light when they fail).

Whatever we do here we must not ever consider removing the "little silver" filter (ITF) from the bottom of the Quark.  I believe the goal of a true front mounted ERF and a "mini ERF" (UV/IR,35nm Baader 2") is to keep heat (energy) from the Quarks filters.

https://www.andovercorp.com/products/bandpass-filters/standard/600-699nm/

27 minutes ago, Pingster said:

I assume this would greatly change the look of the sun?

The Quarks filters let deep red-656.3 nm through (in "steps down to it") so the wide Baader 35nm Ha filter will not cause a color difference.

Be very careful when considering and using filters ahead of your diagonal for solar.

14 minutes ago, RobertI said:

I immediately thought of my Heritage 130p when saw this mount, could be a perfect combination.....on a solid tripod. I'm not actually sure I need goto for visual, might be useful for finding dim objects in areas where there few stars, or small PNs at higher magnification, but then I'm not sure this is a good mount for using at high mags. Would save a lot of bending and twisting of the neck though. ? I guess its one of those things you just have to try and see if it improves the observing experience.

Yes its stability as a unit would be nice to know as would other tripod options if we want to enhance stability if its needed. It is quite possible it will work well as is though.

Thanks!

The grand daughter wants to be able to have a scope that "finds" things but loves the Heritage. This mount just might be the ticket!

On 2017-07-28 at 10:56, FLO said:

Sky-Watcher say the mount is quiet in operation, has a payload capacity of up to 5kg

I wonder if this mount would work well with the Heritage 130?

1 hour ago, Piero said:

 So, Gerry, how does this Lunt perform on galaxies under your dark skies?  

Really good... I need more time though- there is a nice little 5 galaxy cluster in UMA where one of them is a nice test of things, they are NGC 3998,NGC 3990,NGC3972,NGC 3982 and the tricky NGC 3977.

I'll try the 21E vs the Lunt on this set but the trees are in the way atm lol!

2 hours ago, Stargazer McCabe said:

Should you wish to provide said 10mm BCO I should gladly provide options on mailing addresses Gerry ?

I've been hugely impressed with it thus far. Even when used in a 1.6 Antares Barlow with the f4.5 Dob

I actually would send you it - but it is one of my deepest eyepieces so I still have an icy grip on it lol! I'm glad you like the Lunt, we are very fortunate to have such a good selection of optics these days.

Well I think it is Skywatcher that is sneaking up the quality on things really- their mirrors are getting some VG reviews these days and I respect David Shen/Synta for bringing astronomy within reach of many. These Synta 100 deg eyepieces might be an indication of more things to come.

There is no question the Ethos is top notch but for an eyepiece to even come close to its performance is an achievement and the Lunt exceeds this achievement IMHO. I personally love low power Hyperwides, now I just need an excellent 25mm 100deg... maybe we can all email Markus with some hopes and dreams lol!

36 minutes ago, John said:

Lots of interesting history where you are as well Gerry, as my wife and I found when we visited Canada last year. Really enjoyable trip - we will be back !

Maybe a look through the 24" John? I might be ready by then lol!

50 minutes ago, John said:

viewing the Doomsday Book, one of the 4 Magna Carta copies in existance

I would like to see this someday- there is so much history where you are, I'm envious!

58 minutes ago, John said:

Fascinating reports Gerry

The only reason that I've not commented is becuase I've been away since Thursday so missed all the fun !

My Leica zoom arrives tomorrow so thats going to be very interesting to compare against my Ethos / XW's mix over the coming weeks

Sounds like the Lunt contains subtly better optics than the Myriad / WO XWA's so perhaps not a clone or made to higher standards ?

Good to see something that will take on the Tele Vues without asking for more £'s / $'s and even leaving a few in the bank for other purchases

 

Hi John! were you on holiday?

The Lunt works very well for me and I have no idea about their optics vs the Myriads. These days I sit back and wait for reports (for years if needed) and see what filters through about certain ones. A few things surfaced- "deeper" and "more contrast than ES" grabbed my attention. Every Ethos has bested my ES- but the ES are really good don't get me wrong. Another thing I watch is who uses things... I know for a fact that some people will not use some equipment if it is sub par- regardless of cost.

At first I looked at the Lunt's coatings and thought-"oh yeah, they look just like ES/Naglers..." but the 20mm sure does work!

I often wonder, but don't know, if certain vendors can cherry pick the best of the lot with glass- pretty sure SV rejects a bunch of Chinese lenses and keeps the good ones for their scopes as an example. Thing is where do the rejected lenses go? (or what scopes are they put in?...)

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

The central obstruction affects diffraction which is not an issue at low power and the collection area. I have a 3.1" and 4" secondary candidates, I'm erring on the side of the larger one. Keeping the optics clean and hoping that the surfaces are smooth.... i.e. No micro roughness (not that its easy to diagnose or do anything about... repolish?!)are also issues that will affect contrast performance as well as extreme straylight defeating with baffles and paint.

 

Peter

Everyone has there own ideas about some things and the effect of CO is one of them. My thoughts are based on what my eyes tell me which mirrors what a very experienced "mentor" has told me about these scopes. I have no where near the knowledge or experience of this person so I'm just tagging along so to speak. If the CO% is not an issue then there is no sense discussing it.

I'm very interested in the performance of your f3 newt and how it performs with the 20mm Lunt HDC.

The 8" f4 should be VG for this- what is the secondary size? I got the 200mm f3.8 down to 31.5% with 63mm secondary and it illuminates just fine visually. I sucked the focus in though, reducing "L", if you know what I mean. The 75mm it came with was too much for my liking.

That 13" f3 will be excellent if the optics are good- you will get a nice CO% on that one. This is roughly what an 82mm sec will give at 25% CO-from Mels program.

"Off-Axis	Illum.	Light Loss
0.00 mm	100.0%	0.00 mag
2.00 mm	100.0%	0.00 mag
4.00 mm	100.0%	0.00 mag
6.00 mm	100.0%	0.00 mag
8.00 mm	99.87%	0.00 mag
10.0 mm	98.27%	0.01 mag
12.0 mm	96.05%	0.04 mag
14.0 mm	93.56%	0.07 mag
16.0 mm	90.91%	0.10 mag
18.0 mm	88.18%	0.13 mag
20.0 mm	85.38%	0.17 mag
22.0 mm	82.55%	0.20 mag
24.0 mm	79.70%	0.24 mag
26.0 mm	76.84%	0.28 mag"

47 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Poor SIPS users... I am planning on using the ES HR coma corrector... get all the focal ratio the mirror has... needs some focus in travel, which you can get by chopping truss poles. I agree you select the scope round the EP and exit pupil. The 20mm is the longest I'm ever going to need unless I take eye expanding drops! (Which aren't any use).

 

Peter

What scope do you have now Peter?

5 hours ago, PeterW said:

Goodie... just picked one up myself for my ultra fast experiments. Who'd have thought  I'd even buy another glass eyepiece! Skywatcher have discontinued the myriad so Lunt and teleskop service are the only options left.

Gerry, 24" is a nice scope size, bit "slow" for those big nebulae? Looking forward to your observing reports.

 

peterW

Congrats for the purchase and yes the 24" is a tad slow for large nebs, but at this size it is just not the tool for them anyway. I'm dialing in my 200mm f3.8 and this shows the big nebs extremely well. The 24" will be VG for the Veil, Crescent, Triffid and much more- actually some of these will unbelievably good. The fact is that most f4 or sub f f4's run a SIP's or paracorr that ups the ratio f4.5ish anyway- and I plan no paracorr.

edt: Peter while I may not use a paracorr I'm planning for one- ie around the 30ES - f4.5 CC'd will give an f5.2 (more if we include the CO) for a usable exit pupil of 5.8 with this EP. These days I plan scopes around my favorite eye pieces and exit pupil sweet spot.

2 hours ago, Stargazer McCabe said:

The 9mm is equally impressive.

I'm very interested in your thoughts on this, actually on how deep the 9mm will go. If there is a 10mm BCO available to compare it to it would be nice.