Roy Challen

Dual purpose map reading - for finding dark sites, and for knowing your way round the sky. And weather-watcher!

I had one, it was black inside, so as mark says, probably a few versions were available over the years.

M81/82 are impossible from my town centre location, with or without optical aid, due to severe light pollution. I know exactly where to look, but have never seen them. It used to be frustrating because photographically, even from my garden, they're easy targets. As I now only concentrate on planetary and the occasional double stars, it's not an issue. I save the DSOs for bins and dark sites.

My great grandfather, (or was it great great grandfather?) was a partner in an engineering firm that made presses for minting. They were based in Birmingham, Taylor and Challen was the name. There are still some buildings that bear the name, and apparently, many examples of the prsses still exist in operational condition around the world. T and C were taken over in the 70s but that company still makes spares for Tand C presses almost a century after they were made. Test samples are easily available to buy on eBay etc.

Zeiss eyepieces, regardless of design, are pretty much as good as it gets, as long as you can accept a narrow fov, and ridiculously high prices that they now command. Televue never made a bad EP either, although their modern eyepieces seem to better somewhat than their earlier designs. Plossls made today aren't really any 'better' than than those made 30-40 years ago, IMO. You can search for rarer designs (pseudo- masuyama etc), and these are good, but not necessarily better than modern designs, but to many collectors, their appeal isn't always about the optical quality - they are good though 😉. Plenty of nice vintage orthoscopic designs around, try Baader BGOs, almost any Japanese ortho of the 80s-90s is worth a try too.

Yeah, very true. I kept the Huygens because they work best at f/10+. The design of the telescope does indeed make a difference, and my 'fastest' scope is f/10😄. I would like a Telementor one day, although I'm not sure it would offer any more than what I already have, and an APQ...but this is an eyepiece thread!

I guess for many people, this is true. However, many of the eyepieces in this thread were premium in their day, and are seriously collectable now. The only drawback may be their relatively narrow fields of view, and poor eye relief compared to modern eyepieces. In all other (or most) respects, they are as good, if not better than most moderns. IMO , of course 😉. Someone with a set of ZAOs will probably be along soon.

Lovely sets folks! TBH , I very much prefer the aesthetics and very possibly the views from these older EPs. Here's a set I really, really shouldn't have sold. At least I still have the Huygens. I did have half a set of the Celestron Ultimas too, another regretful sale.

Hi, welcome to SGL. I'm in Watford, and apart from a brief dalliance with AP, I only do visual. You mention Ashridge and Ivinghoe, and I think these are your best bets - certainly for visual. However, flight paths from Luton airport could be a problem for AP. Good luck, you'll need it!😉

Serious question, could a comet in a retrograde orbit not give the required impression?

No probs, as long as you understand that the real power lies with those behind the scenes, ie Mrs C! 😂

Tell 'em what they want to hear. Great conjunctions are portents of significant events, this one tells us that a saviour will soon appear to deliver us from the pandemic. When the vaccine finally appears, you can say to your friends: "see, I told you so!" 😉

Lovely scope Dave. It's not just Skywatcher, they're all like that. Even my lovely Tak mount is EQ only. The mount that came with the Prinz 660 I bought from you is EQ/Alt-Az, I fettled it to fit on a Horizon tripod, it works nicely as a grab and go but the 660 is a bit long for it really.

Damn, my previous post sounds somewhat depressing reading back. Sorry about that.

Yes, possibly. But it will take so long to do whatever it's going to do that we will never know. So maybe there will be a trace, it's just that we won't be around to see it. That, I think, is the sad part of it all.

Blimey! It was only on Tuesday that John posted this

This may be a fake advert, @John reported a very similar one recently. The true value of this scope is way higher than the starting bid. The text is almost word for word the same as in the link below. The pictures are the same. https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/offers--lists/secondhand/apochromatical-refractors-2-lens-opt.-tube.html It may also be genuine...but I doubt it. Nope, it's fake, I'm sure of it. I deleted my ebay account only the other day, so I'm unable to report it. If someone else would be so kind...

This definitely doesn't apply to humans.

A lovely setup Dave! I don't have any fresh photos of mine, but here's a link to a thread I started when I first got my Tak mount. Everything is clean and working now (has been for ages actually), except for the LCD screen on the control box. I also found a more suitable counterweight. I did refit the original black dew shield though as it better matches the rest of the components. My garden looked tidier back then too😁

Hi Rod, As far as I'm aware, it's a Kenko lens. The scope itself is based on a Prinz 660 which is also 76mm aperture.

I had a few CZJ orthos a little while back, and have to say that they were the best eyepieces I've used in any telescope. And I still have a 25mm Zeiss Huygens, which is a fantastic ep in my f/16 (one of Dave's old scopes!).

Oh yes, I forgot about the annular eclipse in 2012. My wife and I were on our honeymoon in Japan, we saw the eclipse in Kyoto. That was pretty special. That's what my avatar picture is of!

You win! I think my eyes are the oldest astro equipment I have, they're 45 in a couple of weeks. My Skylight is based on a Prinz 660, so it could be older, but I can't prove it, and my Tak mount is probably mid/late 80s.

It was 2004 for me, 2012 was clouded out where I was. Neowise would definitely be a recent highlight. Number one though, the first time going to a truly, truly dark sky although that wasn't really an event, it felt like one though!

Had a go early this morning with the bins, the moon was in the worst place possible and only just past full so just washed everything out. I'll be keeping an eye or two on this one though.