jetstream

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.

7 minutes ago, Stu said:

Of course we are Gerry! You probably have the best skies of anyone on this forum, or at least equal to, so we definitely listen to what you say!

Whew!

I know there are brand loyalties out there but I'm only loyal to my eyeballs and what they show lol!

Last night gave a unique set of circumstances -very high transparency and superb seeing, the little 90mm SV APO gave an excellent view of Saturn- all the way up to 262x with the HR2 2.4mm, man I never thought this scope could do this so well!

6 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Hericy !!!! The E21 not Top Dog!! 

I wonder if everyones still talkin' to me?

Oh well, not much sense doing a review/comparison if I don't report what I see.

Tonight gave a window of opportunity to compare the Lunt 20mm HDC to the 21E on some nebs in very transparent skies with 21.7 mag darkness. So the stage is set... 15" cooled and collimated dob, an OIII and a UHC (Lumicon).

The Veil was a tie between them as was Pickering Wisp with all of the features in the borrowed image easily visible in both eyepieces. It was a tie here really but the 20mm HDC did best the 21E on "E" on the map, whereas the 21E did a tiny bit better on the core of the Wisp.

The NAN was a tie but the 21E gave a hair more contrast on the closely detached patch just of the tip of the Gulf. The Pelican a tie.

Over to NGC 6888-the Crescent and here the Lunt bested the 21E no question, the brightest section of the neb was that much brighter in the Lunt, with no filter and both filters.They both gave a nicely filled "brain" look to the interior- a tie on this part. I'm not sure which direction to go here first... I'll go up to LBN 208 I guess. In this whole area the Lunt excelled- not that the 21E is a slouch, both offered VG views of the area, but I preferred the Lunt. Once you start seeing these nebs around the Sadr area they really do blend together- from the Crescent to SH2-108  to IC1318E with LDN 889 cutting in between, with IC1318D on the other side. This whole area was better in the Lunt, IMHO.

The views around Sadr are rewarding and when beginning, confusing. I must say that on the "Butterfly section of IC1318 (E, LDN 889,D) the Lunt was the clear winner.

After tonight's somewhat shocking results, I can say that on nebs I prefer the Lunt to the Ethos! Most was a tie, but where the Lunt was better, it was clearly better. Much more comparisons need to be done, next time galaxies I think.

This was a great night to observe!

ps everything I listed, I saw and very well...

Thanks Niall!

there is much to do here to get set up...

7 minutes ago, John said:

Don't blame you Gerry - "you only live once"

With your dark skes and experience, the reach of a 24" scope is going to be awesome !

Thanks John and yes this is my idea on things too.

I'm building a temperature/humidity controlled building so my scopes are equalized all the time and hopefully this controls the condensation issues etc. I will be able to wheel it out assembled, collimate and use it.

19 minutes ago, Piero said:

 Did you get an Astrosystems?

Thanks Piero!

I just ordered that too... f ratio etc in the f4.5-f4.6 range. We're shooting for January, or possibly the spring. I'm not ready for it yet lol!

2 minutes ago, Piero said:

 

I just ordered it.

2 minutes ago, Stargazer McCabe said:

That's one piece of advice of yours I might ruminate on for a bit longer than I did on the Lunt 20 & 9mm eyepieces !! ?

Well, right now I'm living in very dark skies and with enough property to leave the 24" set up (and equalized) and wheel it out whenever the sky allows (lots). I guess I'm thinking here's my chance...

8 hours ago, Paul73 said:

It also lost a tiny bit on contrast.

I find that the 30ES 82 also loses a bit of contrast compared to the Ethos line but it is VG eyepiece. I have heard that the Lunt 20mm HDC is a bit better than the 30ES in this regard and goes a little deeper. In reality I think this must be the "golden age" of eyepieces for us to have such a great selection at the prices offered on some of these.

Me, I'm thinking of a 24" dob atm...