Roy Challen

That's a very nice clean set of orthos you have.

5 hours ago, adyj1 said:

It appears I should have been spending the money on spanners 😂 

I actually did spend all my money on spanners when I was younger. Didn't enjoy it much, view was rubbish.

You say you're using a prism diagonal, try a mirror diagonal just to rule that out too.

I found that any speck of dust really shows up, so I leave the setup fully assembled when not in use to reduce the chance of dust getting to the harder to clean surfaces.

Great images, thanks!

A few more glimpses! Could actually see it through the clouds! And let the neighbour look through my scope, wowed him.

The briefest of glimpses☺️

I was out this afternoon looking at the sun, and I thought the exact same thing. I can't remember what the capacity of the SQ is, but if it's anything like the AZ-GTI, it should cope with 5 kg. I don't know what your two scopes weigh, but I would think that they'd be within or just slightly over 5kg once the mounting paraphernalia are in place. Likewise, my Solarscout is about 1.4kg with diagonal and EP, so plenty of capacity for a WL scope to join it.

Now, I just need to buy a nice little ED frac and Herschel wedge!

Here's a rubbish but brighter view from my phone

Yeah it shows on GONG but it had faded by the time the pic went up, it was where the circle is.

Almost faded now, so maybe not a prom, flare? Either way, I hope someone caught it on camera.

NE limb, very bright, started 10mins ago.

Might be worth reading this thread.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/378149-skymaster-pro-20x80-£140/

1 minute ago, scotty38 said:

Had an hour or so scanning around last night and really pleased with them. The forecast had been cloud but I should have set the scope up as it turned out to be not cloudy at all....

So how are they? They sound like an absolute bargain.

Cracking list, Joe. Sounds like you had a good time!

I just used a plastic lid slightly larger than the tube diameter, painted it black and stuck it on with tape. I might get around to 3d printing one at work sometime. 

The solarquest isn't exactly cheap, and the AzGti probably does the same thing, as well as night time goto/tracking, but for me, it's the ease of operation that makes it worth it.

20 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

I've been enjoying white light solar observing for a couple of years now. HA observing is something that interested me but seemed quite pricey to get into. In April, a Daystar Solar Scout 60mm came up on ABS for £375 so I jumped in. Apparently 4 other people emailed about it after me so lady luck was smiling on me that day. I already had an 8Ah Tracer Battery which I use to run the dew heaters for my Dob. My existing Altair Mini-Az mount on a Three Legged Thing Billy tripod are ideal for the little HA scope. The first eyepiece I used was a 25mm TV Plossl which gave excellent views. The only thing I disliked was the long eye relief. I suspect this was more apparent due to the barlow built into the scope. From my first views, with the tuner set at the midpoint, I could see a number of proms quite easily and lots of granulation on the surface. My Baader Hyperion Zoom then became my preferred eyepiece with the 12mm setting seeming to be the maximum the scope would support before the image quality broke down. The twisting focuser the scope is ok but it definitely feels tricky to find the optimal focus point. 

At this point I want to give a shout out to @johninderby. John has unknowingly provided much of the inspiration for this setup. My TS Optics Herschel Wedge was bought from John so in many ways he started me off on my solar journey. I added a clip to support the battery on the tripod along with a coiled cable. These ideas were stolen from John's excellent review on this scope. I also purchased a Pentax XF zoom based on John's and a couple of other members recommendations. The Pentax had proved a great eyepiece for both White Light and Ha observing. It's a definite step up in contrast from the Baader zoom. With the Baader zoom, I used a single polarising filter to help improve contrast, I haven't found I needed this with the Pentax. In terms of surface detail, with some methodical adjustment of the tuning, I've gotten some really good results. It has to be said that I don't have a basis for comparison but what I can see compares well with the images on GONG. The Pentax tops out around 10-11mm before the image quality degrades. This gives a maximum magnification of around 85x, with excellent seeing this may go a little higher. On this point, I'm uncertain whether I should be expecting more magnification from a 60mm HA scope. 

Today, the case for the scope arrived, so I've had a happy morning trimming foam for it. Overall, I'm really pleased with this setup. It was a bit of an impulse buy and has added an extra dimension to my solar observing. 

20 hours ago, johninderby said:

Glad to hear you are enjoying the new scope set up.. 👍🏻

Are you considering a SW SolarQuest mount? Expensive for a single purpose mount perhaps but so convenient. Turn it on and it locks onto the sun all by itself.

This is my exact setup, same tripod as well. Before I bought it, I did wonder whether buying the solarquest mount would be worthwhile, given that all it can do is track the sun , but it is an excellent bit of kit - it's so simple and  it just works.

It's worth making an aperture mask, 30-35mm hole, dramatically improves contrast, although I found that floaters increased too at higher mags (fine for low mag/full disc views).

That's a great price you got it for too!

1 minute ago, iapa said:

Where’s the Stellaxxxx gear stored?

Stella and 4X? You'll find that in the offy😉

Someone will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is the Dec axis lock knob when in alt-az mode. 

My Polaris can operate in eq and alt-az, so I'm assuming that the SP can too.

Views were very good in Watford around 5pm too.

Apart from the clutch lever, it looks easy enough to make good. A skywatcher lever may fit, but would look out of place, and I'd be surprised if you found just that part on its own.

What's wrong with the tripod? Looks fine to me, but a wooden one would look nicer although not necessary really.

If it were mine, I'd definitely fix it up, it's a great mount - I just bought its little brother, the Polaris.

8 hours ago, bish said:

Hi all,

I think i will take a few pics of the partial eclipse, if it is clear. I"ve got a white light filter for my mak and might just hold it over the camera lens hood. Will be a bit more fiddly than buying filter paper and making one, but I probably wont use it again until 2024. I think it should work OK?

Thanks

Should be fine, that's what I did for an annular eclipse in 2012 from Kyoto. I hand held eclipse glasses in front of the lens. My avatar is that very pic.

21 hours ago, tomato said:

Yeah, IMHO a much bigger issue for stargazers near this facility than Starlink satellites.

Not just stargazers. It'll affect all locals, and wildlife.

My wife and I will be moving to Kent by the end of this year, thankfully not anywhere near Ashford.

On 29/05/2021 at 13:27, cotterless45 said:

 

Personally , I've had to adapt observing away from anything faint and get used to observing whatever the moon , breeze or early hours,

careful now ,

Nick.

Exactly this. I now only observe the sun and the moon on a regular basis, and Jupiter, Saturn and Mars when they're visible from my garden.

However, this may change within the next six months as a potential (and likely) house move might allow DSO viewing again. Of course, that'll mean I have to buy a new telescope more suitable than my long 'fracs. So it's not all bad!

I noticed this too. I recall that WL through my f/10 100mm achro gave fantastic sunspot detail. 

This morning I stopped my Daystar down to 30mm f/30, and the improvement was immediately obvious. Much improved contrast and exquisite detail on the two ARs.

Must get another Herschel wedge soon, as a complement to Ha, not an alternative.

45 minutes ago, Chris said:

You know what Roy, I'm not sure about this? It's made by Scopetech of Japan, and I was very tempted by their 80mm f/12.5 and f/15 OTA's achromat offerings at around £430 just for the OTA with finder.

I'm not saying the Starbase's OTA is quite up to the same standard, but having read a couple of reports I bet it's not miles off. Adding to that, the package comes with a great looking mount, and 2 Japanese Orthoscopic eyepieces and what looks to be a decent prism diagonal. I think the money probably adds up. 

I do wish it came with the finder though hehe

I don't know, I've probably just got hungry eyes for it as I've not owned a vintage style frac for quite some time 🔭🤩🤣

 

 

17 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Can’t disagree with this, the finder would’ve been nice and really put the package as a bargain. The star diagonal looks and feels like it shouldn’t be much cop but from what I’ve seen so far I have no complaints. I would love to compare the Starbase to the f12 Scopetech and f11.2 A81m vixen achros to get a sense of where it stands.

If I had my money back having experienced what I have so far I would definitely buy it again. It is almost certainly going to lead me to a premium refractor in the future however, it is Takahashi crack.

 

Now, I'm not trying to say that this package is some kind of rip off. As my signature shows, I am quite the long achromat fan, in fact apart from one 70ED, I've only ever owned achros. And only ever bought them second hand.

I think this package needs a finder scope as standard if you're going to be looking at anything other than the sun or moon, and I would want to swap the 14mm for something wider, say a 25mm plossl or similar. This would push the cost to over £600, which is a fair bit of money in anyone's book.

I am wondering what the Takahashi connection actually is. It's made for them, but why is it listed with the scopetech products? Also why no Tak branding? That would potentially provide reassurance of quality of both scope and mount, thereby justifying the price.

As I said in an earlier post, it does look nice, and if I were a beginner I would be very tempted. Just not at that price.