Ruud

I have this one, but it might be too small for all you want to pack.

It's big enough for me though and quite inexpensive, so I thought I'd mention it anyway.

I got a 16mm Nirvana (82°) many years ago and use it to this day. It's the best budget eyepiece I ever bought. Well corrected down to f/5. There's also a 4 and a 7mm version.

Link.

Oh. Maybe  try a strip of rubber around the rod.

Have you tried adding a washer?

Excellent sketch, Mike. Thanks for sharing!

4 hours ago, WinchesterAstro said:

One of the longest monopods I can find is actually a 67 inch (170cm) Amazon Basics Monopod! Is there really nothing longer. It seems much easier to find a tripod up at 180cm or so.

I also have a larger carbon tripod/monopod. As tripod it is 187 cm high. As monopod (using a leg + tripod column + ball head) it is 196 cm tall.

It is this RT85C,. Scroll down a bit and you will find a very elaborate description.

Innorel tripods are sold under many names. Mine is branded Coman. It cost me €280.

As a tripod the thing will carry 25kg. I haven't tried that, but it feels really sturdy.

Hi, welcome.

Most monopods aren't very tall, but that's not really a problem.

You can rest the foot of a monopod on a chair, stool or small table and use the monopod while standing up, or you can sit on a chair and rest the monopod between your feet on the ground.

I do the first. I rest the monopod on a stool and adjust it so that it has the right height for looking straight up. For looking at lower angles I need the eyepieces to be lower. I achieve that by taking a step or two back, so that the monopod slants and holds the binoculars less high.

You don't want the monopod to slip, so it's nice if you have one with a rubber foot. My small monopod has a simple hinged head that can only bend forward or back. The hinge has adjustable friction. It is ideal for changing the altitude of the binoculars. For changing the azimuth I just walk around the stool.

It's a very good sketch!

Thanks for sharing.

Lovely photo. Thanks for joining!

A 5" Maksutov-Cassegrain on a goto mount would be a good idea. Get a power adapter for the goto mount. You also need a couple of good eyepieces to go with the telescope. And a dew shield to keep the corrector from fogging over (you can make one yourself).

You really need a 17.5mm Morpheus (76°) . It combines Delos quality with a larger apparent field of view and a lower price.

Wow, that works!

"C:\Program Files\Stellarium\stellarium.exe" --scale-gui 0.6667 -platform windows:altgr

I really have to study the Stellarium command line options!

@alexwolf

Ooh, 200% is enormous! I need smaller rather than bigger.

I think there is a bug: I tried  the standard version, ANGLE 3D,  4K Spout sender, open GL diagnostics, all look the same

1. starting Stellarium with windows scaling =100%
   result: bottom bar is 966 px wide
      
2. starting  Stellarium with windows scaling = 100%,
   keeping Stellarium open while changing windows scaling to 150%
   result: as expected, bottom bar changes to 1449 px wide (1.5 * 966)
      
3. opening Stellarium with windows scaling = 150%
   result: bottom bar is now too big, 1933 px wide (2 * 966)

This is what it looks like:

So I suspect a bug: when opening Stellarium with windows scaling=150%, the interface of Stellarium is scaled by a factor 2 instead of 1.5 (at least in Win10 on my hardware, see post above)

-------------

some more things:

Starting a 200% version of Stellarium (with 150% windows scaling): this makes my bottom bar too big for the screen. I think it tries to be 2 * 2 * 966 px wide instead of 1.5 * 2 * 966 = 2898 px.

About openGL diagnostics: That too has the scaling issue & the screen occasionally goes black for a split second. I'm now trying 4K Spout.

------------

We owe you a lot Alexander. For previous versions of Stellarium, but especially for this one: you have been doing so much work for 0.20.3!

      Hi George,

Thank you Alexander!

I have no scaling problems any more. I tried OpenGL diagnostics, ANGLE Direct3D 11, ANGLE, ANGLEDirect3D. On all the graphics and print look good (GTX 1060 and 27" 4K monitor, Windows scaling is at the recommended 150%).

It's just that the menus and print on the screen are quite big now. See zipped screenshot. If Stellarium had it's own user interface scaling option that would be wonderful. screenshot Stellariun 0_20_3.zip

I'll be trying OpenGL diagnostics for a while.

-------------------------------------------------

Stellarium - better than all the rest!

It's a nice one. Thanks!

Hi Matteo, just want to say welcome to the SGL.

Likely someone will know what's needed for your mount and computer, but I don't.

It's wonderful!

The second best wide field experience I have is from my Maxvision 34mm 68° (5.14° ifield n 430mm refractor). These's also a 40 mm version. Identical optically are ES 68° and Meade series 5K SWA. Only the ES is available new. With a bit of luck the other two can be found used.

I have my very best wide field experience with binoculars:
--  5.5 mm exit pupil with 8x42  (8.1° field)
--  5 mm exit pupil with 4x20     (17° field)

They're actually very similar, so to me both are lovely. 

Excellent sketch, Mike. Thanks!

Is this at all useful?

Welcome to the SGL!

Like this it looks like you have just the legs. What does the underside of the head look like?

      Hi Muc,

It sure looks great. Happy observing!