jetstream

Nah, just need the eyes...

Me neither. LZOS used to supply lenses for Zeiss- this says it all IMHO.

@JeremyS do you have the TSA102 and 120's?

Maybe @vlaiv or @Merlin66 can answer. Solar imagers are pros at figuring this kind of thing out.

@Deadlake this is an issue...I try to wipe the frost off and sometimes leave the scope out in the seacan to let things disappear slowly, The 90SV is in there now like this.

Ok I see- you are using a T2 diag? then yes if the dia is smaller than the FS things happen , vignetting reduced TFOV I think.

One thing a polar vortex can do is give very good clear skies. Last night was no exception with the temp of -33c. As I write with my first coffee its -39c, as the sun drives the cold down just before sunrise, and then its stays this way for a bit. Scope of choice? The Heritage 130, fast cooldown, focuser always works and fast to put away. A Pelican insulated case keeps the eyepieces warm so that when one frosts up, there is another to use. The 25mm Super plossl was the eyepiece of choice to start with and with a DGM NPB in the mix too. The puppy was mad and vocal that he couldnt come out to observe and watched me in the window. Soon little buddy soon. M42, always a goto target showed one wing but the the whole object was "draped with nebulosity and a really nice feature was its lower loop. The NPB enhanced a lot of this nebulosity but with the lower loop getting dimmer. Both views were really good. Off with the filter for a quick ride up to M78, absolutely no problem seeing it. Down to the Flame and the glare of Alnitak washed it out...so... in goes a cheap 12.5mm Circle T and immediately the track like segments came into view. I should have organized my trip through Orion differently - out with the 12.5mm, in with the 25mm on goes the filter and up to the Crab. The Crab was very easy to see..so, off with the filter and yes there it was. Up to Auriga and the Flaming star, the boomerang shape showing nicely, the NPB works great. Now the Pleiades...after sky surfing with no filter for half an hour I went to the Pleiades and bam! there was the Bubble feature with its lanes and Meropes nebula fan glowing away. Filter back on for the Eskimo, Rosette and the Monkey head -vg views.But... I went back the the Pleiades and the Bubble wasn't there now? right after the filter use. Puzzled I went after galaxies for half an hour m108, M82,M82 etc and after all this back to the Pleiades and there it was!! The Bubble was back! So, the filter use killed the Bubble feature. Interesting. Btw, for those trying the Rosette no filter (H130 showed it) try finding the large rectangular feature of stars that was leaning to the right and with 6 stars. If found you are in the core. Time to go get another coffee.

Don't know what you mean

Lockwood advocate a 300mm mirror as a reasonable size for a RTF. Using this and with sec to focal plane distance of 190mm a 73mm secondary gives a great 24% central obstruction. Or maybe one of these https://www.loptics.com/articles/okietex2009/okietex2009.html One thing to note: being able to use Ethos class eyepiece at the "right" exit pupil really ups the views with a RFT... M24, got to say again- this is a must see and study...

Eagerly waiting reports! Great scope and one I'm looking at as well.

It can be for sure, but like we were talking dark skies allow smaller aperture scopes (all scopes) to show stars very well. My 90mm SV is a great RFT scope up here but if I took it to the edge of town not so much. Take my 200mm f3.8 to the edge of town and it will much better eventhough the focal lengths of the scope are similar, 630mm vs 760mm. To me under lighter skies my concept of a RFT would include the largest aperture possible at the fastest speed. This same scope performs best under dark skies too. Its only when the RFT is described as a small aperture, fast scope that the skies become that much more important.BUT lol! on nebula and if we believe the exit pupil theory and discount the "Entendue" theory then both types of scopes should perform similarly on filtered nebula...ie NAN Any and all thoughts welcome, in agreement, dispute or otherwise!

From TVs site on RFT "The Sagittarius star cloud. " M24, in the right scope under dark skies is a superbly beautiful object. Would any RFT show this one the same? No IMHO. I have spent 10's of hours observing this one and yes the 200mm f3.8 is vg, but so is the VX10, 15" etc. I think that the widest lowest power views describe a traditional view of the RFT. I mentioned dark skies (maybe too much) but to my eyes a very low power, small aperture scope under less than dark skies does not perform well even if it does qualify as a RFT. Under lighter skies I'll take more aperture any day. Just my 2 cents.

Excellent.

👍 Some serious DSO obsevers us a 1.25" 24mm Panoptic or 24ES 68 as finder EP's in large 20"+ dobs. Like Alvin Huey etc, nothing wrong with 1.25".

Congrats btw! Just make sure your adapter has threads for the filter if its 2"- I'd confirm with FLO.

Yes they are. I don't mean to be flippant or whatever but views through any scope are amazing here, including the favourite Heritage130. The 24" does extremely well, but the 15" is my favourite scope. The Crab is very hard to get detail in, the 24 gives me 4 legs. Focus on the Eskimo try no filter and up the mag as much as "planetary" seeing will allow. You will be rewarded, you have the perfect all round scope btw, IMHO. Try the Rossette to, looking for a shade edge to start, its pretty big. The Owl in Big Dipper will show you eyes with the OIII...

I think you can do very well where you are Kon. But obersving DSO is a skill, that you need to develop. Try the Running Man by Orion to see if you can make out arms head etc. I see the whole figure of the man. Great practise.

Use the link, find Duluth, MN USA- go straight north to the border, through Voyageurs National park. I'm around here on CDN side, just out side Mine Center.(pop 75 lol!)

I think your skies might be darker than you think... perfect! You get the filter ordered? email response? https://blue-marble.de/nightlights/2019

Mike I respect your opinion greatly. But its a different ball game over here. Bringing that scope inside from -20c etc will cause moisture problems.

yes they can be, these scopes are not sealed purged and nitrogen filled. Would a Pelican 1740 be a good addition for you?

The wife made me a "scope coat" out of an old quilt years ago and with a velcro'd opening. I used this for my 10" for years. I would wrap the TSA102 up really well to slow the warm up down and maybe leave in a cool basement or somewhere like it.

Great set! Top notch! What if you decide to get the deadly sharp, low scatter, narrower FOV, Delos or XW's in the future for lunar/planetary? 😀

They pack as many stars as possible in the eyepiece and some do a (much) better job than others. IMHO.

and yet I might not qualify for Bortle 1,- 2 maybe? Yeah , zodiacal light from your place? I can see everything not in the trees under 21.9 mag skies... Once I took my ATV and scope way up a logging road, middle of nowhere. I was observing with the 90mm frac when the sky got bright in one direction. Bright enough to stop me in my tracks from observing. I thought it was light pollution from a town 80 miles north lol! But the glow was in the wrong spot. It was zodiacal light. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/zodiacal-light-dust-thing-beauty101514/ This event (it was stunning) spurred the purchase of the SQM-L and I went on a mission SQMing the area on logging roads. I did about 100 miles by 100 miles roughly and guess what? All the same, 21.8 as a nice avg. I also did edges of towns etc. So now I just use the MW appearance for reference but play around with NELM, but not wasting much time on it. @Deadlake how does the MW look on your best nights? @Kon same for you? I'm curious.