Nakedgun

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The toys we acquire in pursuit of this hobby come dear to us in many cases, and it's tough to admit you've made a boneheaded move which nearly resulted in the destruction of a fine optical instrument.

My TEC MC150 mak-cass has rings bolted to a Losmandy D-type dovetail plate onto which I have added an ADM Vixen-type adapter. Tuesday evening I mounted the scope on a non-goto CG-5, tightening down the mount's locking bolt securely, then loosening it enough to slide the whole thing forward just a bit to offset the weight as I would be using a binoviewer, then re-tightening the locking bolt again.

Next I rotated the R.A. axis to horizontal to balance the counterweights, and watched in horror as the scope pried itself out of the CG-5's saddleplate, dropped three feet and thudded onto the concrete slab!

You can imagine my thoughts and emotions at that instant....

I heard no glass break and as I reached down to pick it up my mind raced - HOW?! How could such a thing have happened?!

Not only had no glass broken, the finderscope mounted atop the OTA was not damaged, the diagonal with eyepiece was still intact, the ring-handle attached to the rear of the OTA was undamaged, as well!

So, what's going on here? The scope fell in such a way that the impact was absorbed by the detachable steel dewshield and then the aluminum rings, which are felt-lined. The OTA never touched the deck.

But why did it separate from the mount? I pushed the Vixen dovetail plate forward just enough that the rear portion of the mount's saddleplate was no longer wedging the dovetail.

I mounted the scope again and checked operation, finding the collimation off just a teensy bit, but now the secondary holder could be turned in the meniscus by hand.

I phoned TEC today and was relieved to hear that Yuri would walk me through the process of re-tightening the secondary by hand; it would not have to be shipped back to them.

Dewshield a tad worse for wear:

DON"T slide the Vixen dovetail, slide the Losmandy dovetail, stupid!

To say a valuable lesson was learned would be understating the case considerably.

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Tuesday night I set up to observe the planets with my Borg 90FL on a non-goto CG-5, after some earlier trauma with another scope (a report I'll post elsewhere).

Seeing was forecast as fair, with some moments of poor thrown in just for irritation.

Saturn: getting low but able to sustain powers up near 200 when things settled.

Neptune: at highest power (217x) still just a blue dot, but I don't go after it regularly so it was good to see, again.

Jupiter: all four big moons seen, and some patterns in the equatorial belts easily discerned, no GRS till much too late this evening.

Uranus: I spent quite some time under my light-polluted skies with 6.5x32, then 10x50 binos putting together the star-hopping patterns to be followed in my 24mm ep to arrive at this pale blue/green dot. It has been poorly placed, of late.

Mars: by now, the cold is penetrating my clothing so I was glad for an easy target, though my 90mm had not the light-grasp to make features more than guessed at, and some brightening by clouds at the pole.

That's it, I'm done. 

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Welcome!

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This older (2014) camera body needed a lens to reach out with.

At least, that's what it said to me....

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Discussion here:

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Just about every manufacturer will make something at the price-point you're looking at. By all means, if you can visit a retailer who stocks a variety of them, try a few on for size. 

Someone else's favorite may not turn out to be your own. In any case, make sure a good return policy exists.

Good luck.

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Wait. Isn't this the "longest-thread-title-in-the-history-of-SGL" thread?

Just wondering.

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Last night (Sunday) I took out the trash and was shocked to see a clear sky! Weather forecast had rain on the way, and the afternoon cloudiness attested to that very probability.

Mars was almost directly overhead, so I scrambled to get my 80 f/7 refractor, photo tripod, and a new set of eyepieces rounded up and outside. At least, I could get the ep's tested before the forecast ten-days-of-clouds arrived.

First took a look at Jupiter, already well-west by now, and the seeing unsteady with all the optics still warm. Went through all the new f/l's, one by one, then moved over to M42 and did the same thing while everything cooled.

Now, it was time for Mars! Elevated the rig straight up and was dismayed to find the Crayford focuser adjusted too loose to hold the diagonal/ep - it slowly drifted down - too quickly to make a useful observation!

Then, I see clouds drifting my way. Yikes! What to do?!

I decided to lower the scope down to catch the Moon, at least that way I could test the ep's on a bright object,  which I did, one by one, then barlowed them, one by one, to get an idea whether the ep acquisition was a good one. It was. And, the seeing/scope cool-down allowed a fine view up to 204x.

OK, now to grab up the rig, head into the garage and find the correct size Allen wrenches to adjust the focuser. A few iterations later the drawtube now stays put. Take a look outside....cloud bottoms as far as the eye can see.

The scope I failed to optimize beforehand:

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Let me be the third in line to recommend the 8x binocular with ~40mm objective as the place to begin looking.

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3 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

Well, the advice changes a lot when you know the details.

The eyepiece most likely to meet his requirements would be the Stella Lyra 24mm Ultra Flat Field:

--large eye lens

--long eye relief

--low power

--good performance/well corrected at f/5

--large field stop diameter for maximum field

--not excessively heavy

--in his price range.

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Is this ep available under other brand names?

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Recently, I bought an Astro Tech 5.5 & 25mm flat field ep, part of a series with several f/l offered, the design of which is available under quite a variety of brand names.

Impressed with their good eyerelief, flat field, light weight, soft rubber eyecup, small girth for the entire range, and low price, I decided to get the complete set - times two - for use in a binoviewer. Testing through a 120mm f/7.5 refractor Friday night proved my choice a good one. I have been using other ep pairs in the past, and will continue with them depending on the venue/scope, but if starting over, this set would be the one to get/recommend.

They can be had in 25, 19, 15.5, 10.5 & 5.5mm flavors:

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From the backyard:

Got lucky with the clouds:

A crop of the above shot:

Reemergence:

Pentax K-3iii & D FA 150-450

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9 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

 

It has been ridiculously wet even down here, we had 512mm of rain in Oct-Nov and 1115mm from June-November. 

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Yikes! That would be catastrophic, here. 15-inches is normal for an entire year around these parts, with more than 90% falling from November through April.

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Well, better them, than us!

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Or, perhaps it won't find, at all!

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122° wide rectilinear on full frame!

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Based on weather forecasts, I thought Tuesday night's observing would be my last for the next week, but by Wednesday afternoon it became apparent that this was not to be the case. Clouds were coming, no question, but I might get some eyepiece-time, beforehand.

The GM-8/Berlebach was still outside so I mounted my Agema SD 120 near sundown and hoped for the best.

Went outside 1830hrs to still-clear skies and immediately zeroed in on Saturn. The seeing was a solid good, with all-to-brief seconds of excellent. This allowed scaling up the magnification to 298x, and I simply adjusted my chair to allow me to park my eyeball at the eyepiece without effort, where I remained for some time, transfixed. This proved to be the best view during the current apparition. Titan and Rhea were the only moons seen.

Noting the increasing clouds approaching, I moved on to Jupiter and watched as Io was occulted by the gas ball at 2000. No GRS available, alas.

On to the 1st-quarter Moon, where I was able to ramp up to 418 horsepower at the eyepiece and love every minute.

By 2030 the clouds began to enshroud our satellite, so I quit the field, satisfied.

Stopped for a moment at 1930 to capture the rig with this 30-second exposure. A plane makes its way across the sky, entering from the upper left.

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Any observing is better than no observing - sometimes compromises must be made. So long as you're enjoying the experience, all is well. Please continue, and keep us posted.

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Had everything set up by 1800hrs, which is when the photos above were taken (floating ISO makes it appear much brighter than it really was) and I took a peek through the SCT at the Moon to check on conditions where they showed fair to good (but not excellent) seeing. Called my neighbor over to have a look and he was impressed with his first use of a bino-viewer. He does not own a telescope of any kind, but does enjoy an occasional look through mine. He went home, and I went inside for evening meal and to await darker skies.

Returned to the SCT at 1915 and immediately went for Saturn only to discover the seeing had slid down to average/poor, evenly mixed. Titan and Rhea were easily held, Dione appeared on occasion, but no Tethys, and Enceladus was not seen, either. I can't remember the last time I saw Enceladus, probably because I've not trekked to a dark sky site for a number of years, now, or maybe it's just poor luck. I stayed at the eyepieces a full 20 minutes, but no improvement came forth.

Moved on to Jupiter, as the GRS was crossing the meridian at 1940. I must say, my impression of last night's image made it appear to have shrunken tremendously of late, almost as if were an afterthought. I wonder if it will last through my lifetime, and I ain't young! I gave up on Jupiter, due to seeing, near 2000hrs.

Moved over to the Moon, and perhaps because of the larger canvas and/or greater light throughput found the seeing was not such a hindrance, here. The day-short-of-first-quarter phase was pleasing to view; Aristoteles and Eudoxus both having portions of their floors still shadowed; rills and wrinkles winding across Lacus Somniorum and Mare Serenitatis; further sough along the terminator the oh-so-battered highlands.

My neighbor returned near 2030, so we retraced my earlier steps, beginning with Saturn. By now, it was a complete mess, as if a jet engine were sending its exhaust across the scene. We quickly moved on to Jupiter, and found the seeing beginning to improve considerably in this portion of the sky. We did spend some time examining the cloud patterns displayed, and as the seeing continued to improve into the fair/good rating, more was revealed while the GRS moved closer to the limb.

Next on to the Moon, as Mars was not yet at the altitude I wanted to begin with. My neighbor was floored with the lunar view, and spent considerable time exploring the scenery.

Finally, it was time for the red planet. Ten days earlier my neighbor had come over to have his first look at Mars during the current apparition and it was not a terribly impressive one. This night was far different, with Syrtis Major prominent at about three-quarters of the way across the face, moving toward the limb, and the North Polar Hood becoming more prominent as the globe climbed higher. this was my most favorable view of Mars since the 2003 close approach, seen then through my C-14 which has been passed on to another owner. We swapped positions and compared our views for some time, on Mars.

By now, it was 2300, and everything was soaked with dew, my neighbor had reached the limits of his clothing's insulation, and I was getting a bit tired, so I bid him adieu, and began carting everything except the SCT's mount back into the garage, finally retiring by midnight.

Primary magnifications for this evening were 195x and 261x, with 335x proving too much.

The Borg was never used this evening.

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Clear conditions with decent seeing predicted for tonight only, then cloudy for the next week.

C-Nine-Two-Five w/ Denkmeier bino-viewer on GM-8/Berlebach combo (non-goto) for the Moon/planets

Borg 90FL on Vixen Porta for quick panning around

Waiting for darkness

Report to follow...

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7 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Meteorite number three, the collection is growing. Finally a Campo! Small but pleasingly heavy and lovely in the hand.

I have a suspicion that an etched slice of an iron is coming my way for my birthday early December. Fingers crossed.

I now have an Iron. A Pallasite and a Chondrite so that is the three main types covered.

Marv

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Ah, yes! I remember that one falling...

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On 13/11/2022 at 05:35, Franklin said:

I've always had a pair of binoculars to hand, just basic 7x50/10x50 porro prism types, yet I've never really used them for actually observing. They've been used more as an aid to finding my way around the sky and homing in on targets for the telescope. In short, I've been using my binoculars to get my bearings when searching for targets to observe with the telescope. I did try some big bins, 15x70 and 20x80, to see if they could be used for observations. Impossible for me to hand hold binoculars of this size and when tripod mounted, I've still struggled with position at the eyepiece. Any object above 45deg becomes a right pain in the neck and it seems to me that the angled eyepiece type binoculars, like the Vixen BT-81, with individual eyepieces would work much better. So big bins make sense for astronomy but what about the other end of the spectrum?

On a whim, I picked up a Vixen SG6.5x32ed roof prism binocular, used at a bargain price, and what can I say? The last clear night here I never even set the telescope up and spent the whole session with my eyes glued to these amazing little binoculars from Vixen. These are excellent and quite an unconventional size of binocular for astronomy. A huge field of view, great optics and individual eyepiece focusing. For sweeping through star-fields, milky-way, open clusters and nebula from a dark sky these little Vixens are superb. 

I think for higher power viewing of the moon and planets I will continue with my telescope and bino-viewers for now but am saving for some 45 or 90 degrees, big bins in the future.

I like the look of the Vixen BT-70ed, but they don't come cheap!!!

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Like you a 10x50 has always accompanied me while observing, but with diminishing star-counts due to light pollution finding one's way around can be difficult, at times.

Kowa has a 6.5x32 also, sporting a 10° field of view which makes locating areas far easier than higher mags can. These are my first choice when observing from home, nowadays.

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Astronomics, which I believe is the largest astro retailer in the U.S. has their proprietary "Astro-Tech" line of products for us, and recently I learned of the PF flat-field eyepieces.

Bought and tried one in 5.5mm length, which sports a 60° AFOV, 16mm eyerelief, and the flat field, all for $55! Othoscopics and original Ultimas, which I have, at this length are hardly usable, so this quite a nicety. If you have high-end oculars you don't need this, but it truly is an exceptional value. Other F/Ls available, some with 65° fields.

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8 hours ago, markse68 said:

yes- I'm building quite a nice ragtag collection of them

Mark

Which ones? I have found eye relief with the 35mm too long, and with the 5mm too short. The 7.5 is OK for me, but a bit tight for bino-viewing. Orion Telescope, here in the USA, used to market a line called "Ultrascopic" which were very similar in design, but with greater eye relief in the 7.5, 5, and 3.8mm lengths, making them suitable for the bino-view option, for me.

Good luck acquiring more.

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Just about everyone has one of these. I, too, had one at one time and foolishly sold it; now reacquired:

Vernonscope, here in the USA, is distributing this model bino-viewer, which arrived Thursday just ahead of cloudy/wet weather, so I was able to test it under a clear sky. Excellent unit:

Finally, these two publications arrived from Europe. Ordered 01 October, delivered today:

https://discovering-astronomy.eu/index.html

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