niallk

Hi, Apologies if it has already been mentioned in this thread, but is your primary mirror centre spot accurately positioned? My f4.43 mirror has the centre accurately etched, in the glass, but the sticker ring was frustratingly off by several mm!! I realized this after less than stellar images of Jupiter vs my 10" dob. I re-spotted, and have enjoyed great views of Jupiter this last apparition, usually employing 330x mag, 430x on very good nights, and up to 560x once - holding image crispness. So much is down to atmosphere, cooling and collimation For planetary viewing, I'm pretty selective on the nights that I go out: the jetstream forecast really has to be promising! While I do like upping the mag, it's not the be-all; my scope is manual so undisturbed drift time through the tfov is an important tradeoff to me, even though 560x was ok for tracking with smooth fraction-of-the-fov movement with quick damping. Best of luck, -Niall

- Following this thread with interest: I hope to get one of these at some point. I've read many threads about the pressure tuner needing to go almost the whole way in, and also about o-rings and re-greasing... some people getting a kit sent out from Lunt. I hope you get help here, and start seeing stunning views soon! The impression I have reading up is that Lunt give very good support. Best of luck

Nice one - looking fwd to darkness returning and getting the dob out

Personally, I'd recommend a cheap Telrad if you don't have some class of a red dot finder rather than go-to, and see how you get on using it and 'Turn Left' as suggested by scarp15 - it is a great book. The Telrad is the #1 accessory I got for my dob Others are better equipped than me to recommend eyepieces. Best of luck -Niall

Reduced to €240 now... Dark skies a comin'

Blue skies all day ... High cloud rolled in tonight Oh well

Wonderful stuff beautiful detail - It was a cracker - even in a glimpse through Baader film in a dob, and I got a kick out of spotting it with just eclipse glasses. I'm saving for a Ha scope ... Keep the images coming

"... all I need" 'Need' is a funny little word I find when it comes to justifying astronomy purchases to myself You've a wonderful ep collection - I'd hazard a little guess that you might miss it (So just add the Lunt + zoom... )

Some day I hope to look through a frac, and do a side by side comparison on say Jupiter with my 15" to see what I'm missing out on. Because I like to observe galaxies, planetary nebs and DSOs in general, a dob makes sense to me, and still allows me to have what I, in my blissful ignorance, consider to be very good all round views of a wide range of targets including planets and comets. That said, my next scope will be a frac I hope! It will exclusively be for Sol in Ha - and will be just shy of 2" in diameter - 'tis the dream

Didn't someone here have an excellent report where they had a drawing of it many years ago, then returned to it recently and the sketches showed the movement? I'm sorry - I can't remember who it was just now, but I remember being very impressed!!! Very cool.

For my 10", I used 3 EPs + a PM. For my 15", I'm up to 5 EPs now + PM. I use them all, and really like the range of exit pupils available from 6mm to 0.75mm: all depends on the target, and conditions. Not aligned with a minimal set approach I know, but hey - each to their own - I will set my 15" up just to observe the moon! I'll look at anything and everything I can

I can only comment a little on a 15" vs 10" - that's a factor of 2.25x light gathering compared to a 14" vs 8" which is an bigger 3x increase. Globs, star clusters are dramatically improved: real 'wow' factor territory. Jupiter at 200x or so is similar: brighter in the 15" with a little higher resolution. I had my 10" for 8 years, and the 15" for 2yrs: I routinely use higher mag with my 15" observing at 330x, and sometimes higher on rare really stable nights. On Saturn, I see more shading on the planet, and haven't failed to see the Cassini division with the 15", and also see the A and B rings as distinctly different colours, and have seen the C ring. Saturn is brighter at higher mag in the 15". Now Saturn has been lower altitude but with the rings far more open since I got the 15", and I haven't done a side by side comparison on Saturn like I have done on Jupiter (I have to travel to get a low enough horizon!). I've also had my best views of Mars with the 15". I like to observe planetary nebs, and here I also find that the 15" is a dramatic enhancement over the 10": I find that I observe at higher mag while preserving sufficient brightness - ie larger image scale. At the same mag, I detect hints of greeny blue colour more in nebs. Things are brighter when using filters at higher poweraiding teasing out more detail. Galaxies are a favourite type of target for me, and my first light with the 15" wowed me: I looked at M81/82 (ok not a faint targets to push limits ) but M81 was just huge with the extended arms, and the detail discernable in M82 was great and I could up the mag on its 'core'. I've finally seen spiral arms in A M51 from my back garden. Ifind success observing galaxies to be highly variable and sensitive to sky conditions - transparency and how the crud in the atmosphere is catching the light pollution. There's no doubt for me: I love the increased aperture. The 15" takes a little more effort to set up/ tear down, and I give my mirror >2hrs with a fan to cool compared to 45mins for the 10" if observing at high powers. 90% of the time, I choose the 15"!!

FWIW, it looks to me like prices for T6 Naglers and also Ethos are now higher than I remember from a year ago on TS in Euro... I don't know if Pentax or other brands have crept up too?? I reckon that the 9T6 was €295 for a very long time, and now it is €356.

Fascinating findings Gerry thanks for writing up the report. The resale value of Ethos EPs might be about to take a very serious hit - d'oh! Those Lunt EPs are very well priced indeed.

Wow!!! Maaaannn I want a Ha scope