F15Rules

On 07/11/2023 at 21:43, John said:

There is an Intes 6 inch F/12 mak-cassegrain in the classifieds for your budget. Nice double star scope I would think 👍

(I've nothing to do with the sale I ought to add)

Guy, John is correct..the Intes MK67 F12 Mak is a superb double star scope. I have owned 3 150mm Maks in the past, including an MK67, and all were excellent: compact, solid, easy to mount, and with great Optics. I now have a Tak FS128 but the MK67, once cooled ( and with a Sitall glass mirror it cools quickly), would give the Tak a real run for it's  money.

And the one for sale on SGL, is right on your budget at £500! ( I have no connection with that sale..😊).

Below are 2 pics of previously owned Ylena 150mm F14 Mak, made by Lomo. This scope was very similar in size to the MK67 being sold on SGL. And very happily  mounted on an EQ5 class mount (a Vixen GP would be perfect!).

Hope that helps!

Dave

On 06/11/2023 at 12:44, JeremyS said:

Yes, you've definitely won the Pools!👍🤣

Dave

On 06/11/2023 at 12:44, JeremyS said:

Won the pools, Jeremy??😉

Dave

+1 for David, Mike and John's remarks..all good, sensible opinions from highly experienced UK based people who have first hand experience of the vagaries of UK seeing conditions.

I have come to believe that as we get older, factors other than just optical ones become more important to the practice of our hobby..

In no particular order, I'd suggest the following have become, and are becoming ever more important to me and my observing (I'm now 67)..

- weather, in terms of temperature, (how cold, how warm) seeing (sky steadiness), transparency (sky clarity), light pollution, atmospheric pollution (local fires, log burners, bonfires, Saharan Dust, etc)..

- weight of equipment, ease and speed of setting up, (here, refractors have a big advantage versus reflectors, needing little or no collimation or other adjustments)..

- local micro climates- wind direction, local horizon, temperature inversions, neighbour's  lighting and late night interior lighting 

- age related factors..the call of the TV on a cold night, fatigue, inertia against spending a long time in the cold setting up, family ties, unexpected phone calls, physical deterioration eg tolerance of cold, bronchial/rheumatic and other health/age related problems, compliant (or not) partner, unexpected phone calls and visitors etc etc.

For younger observers other factors can be more influential:

- work early start, young children responsibilities, fatigue from daily grind, lack of funds, and need to sell equipment and/or take a break from hobbies.

My take from the factors that affect me personally where I am in my life now are slowly starting to  convince me that a 100mm to 115mm high quality refractor on a relatively lightweight EQ or Altaz mount and wooden tripod are the way to go.

As someone said above (Stu, I think), a smaller instrument that you use more, can actually show you more than a larger scope that you don't use so much due to any combination of the above "what counts" factors.

So, taking everything into account, it's hard to argue against a really good 4" or so refractor. I wish you well with your new 100mm Tak, and I also wish you many healthy years in your later life to enjoy it! 😉 

Dave

5 hours ago, JeremyS said:

But Dave @F15Rules won’t get beyond this page

Humble Thanks, Jem San..and felicitous congwatulation..

From Han Del San😋😆

4 minutes ago, knobby said:

Our garden floods (clay soil) get something like this https://www.diy.com/departments/einhell-dirty-water-pump-370w-power-9000-l-h-submersible-pump-drain-floods-empty-hot-tubs-and-pools-gc-dp-3730/4006825587203_BQ.prd a decent length of hose and leave it in the hoe you've dug.

I have a similar pump which I use to empty my (c 1500 gallon capacity) pond once a year. This pond takes over 3 hours for the garden hose to fill on full flow from the mains, but only c 30.minutes to empty with the pump..but you do need somewhere for the pump to drain the water to of course.

The French drain is not difficult to make (I put one in adjacent to an outbuilding wall which was very wet) and they work well..but again they need to be dug long enough, with a natural slight incline in the ground away from the area you want to drain.

Hope you find a solution that works for you Michael.. (oh, and of course a dry warm spell is the time to dig a French drain of course)..

Dave

58 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Makes a change from your usual cloud, Dave:

No, Jeremy, you got it the wrong way up..it's a heavenly walking stick for departed astronomers..😉

Dave

6 minutes ago, DirkSteele said:

Oh and I see FLO are back to telling the truth with their sticker seal! 😉

Well, it IS closer to the real truth..which is, of course, "Will Most Definitely, 100% Certainly, Without a Shadow of Doubt, contain Cloud, Rain, Hail and Thick Clouds"🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Dave

22 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Actually today is just such a day! Amazing views, far better than with solar film. Sun getting a bit low now but this is a whole new dimension.

What's that strange coloured pigment in the background Magnus? I think, here in England,  it might have been called "blue sky" many years ago??🫣

Dave

On 21/10/2023 at 17:22, JeremyS said:

Happy Anniversary, Magnus. It must have been a major one 😊

I think it's  known as the Kidney Anniversary, Jeremy..🙄

Dave

As above, no problem, just enjoy the views!👍

Dave

I must admit I too feel I've lost my astro mojo this year..Trinity, the FS128, has sat in the house in her Oklop Holdall since July..initially for protection from wretched Thunder flies, but August and September came and went with no sessions, and then we had a holiday overseas, and now here we are, about to hit November, and still the scope sits in it's case😵‍💫.

I really hope we get some decent sky conditions soon...🙏🙏

Dave

On 18/10/2023 at 10:45, John said:

One issue that has affected me (non-bladder related !) is that having been in the hobby for quite a long time, when the conditions are doubtful it can be quite hard to get motivated. It helps if there is some new gear or modification to try out or a special event in the sky to try and see though 🙂 

That is also why doing some outreach is important to me perhaps more so now than it was in the past. Being with folks seeing things for the first time is almost as good as seeing them yourself for the first time 🙂

I have occasionally thought about selling up most of my portable stuff, buying a big dob and a small mobile home with a trailer for the dob and travelling around just showing people the sky. I suppose it's following in the John Dobson tradition in an odd way 🤔

Not sure my other half would approve of me turning into a type of wandering astronomy minstrel though 🙄

 

You should ask her, John.

She might find herself to be "quite content"...😁

Dave

On 17/10/2023 at 22:10, Saganite said:

I have bought 3 reflectors in the past few weeks  Stu ,by mistake...can't help myself... 😅

One of them is a little 130mm Perl Vixen, never seen such a focuser on a scope before. It was in a bad way but I have fixed it, and it is super smooth.

Had two sessions so far and I really like it. I will do a write up on it eventually.

 

Very nice, Steve..

..and I never thought I'd press "Like" for a ships funnel🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️!

Dave

On 24/10/2023 at 15:49, Franklin said:

A review of the Vixen 80mm F/15, if you haven't already seen it.

Vixen NP POLARIS 80L, Vixen 80/1200, 80 f15 achromatic refractor, Vixen New polaris refractor, Vintage Vixen 80L, LV vixen eyepieces, Vixen Lanthanum, (dark-star.it)

A wonderful and engrossing read,Tim!

Thanks for posting.

Dave

43 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

It’s a 77mm f12 Hilkin in lovely condition, and complete with all its accessories.

Much better pics here in the ad.

I guess I’ll have to do a side by side with the FC-76DCU now 🤪🤣

Lovely scope, Stu.

Yep, thats a re-badged Swift (831, I think).. it's got the distinctive Eikow symbol, like an inverted Circle Y..

I believe Eikow was an early foreunner of a certain Takahashi brand.. see this thread..

Should be optically excellent 👌👍.

Dave

Nice one Wookie., and John (@Telescope40)..

The star maps are handy, as they're not too big and no need to be precious about the book getting marked etc🙂..

Dave

On 14/09/2023 at 12:18, Telescope40 said:

Hello all. Just bit of help here maybe from knowledgeable people on this forum. Always been intrigued by a pair of binos ( see pic ) from a book I was bought by my Uncle back at Christmas in 1974 !!!  Star and Planet spotting - A field guide to the Night Sky. One of my most treasured astro items. 

Photo in the book shows a bunch of differing binos sat on a garden table. Very interested to know if anyone can ID the big set at the back. I cant quite make out the markings on the side - maybe DF 10 x 80 but no makers name. They have always caught my attention whenever I had cause to pick the book up!! 

 

John 

Hi John,

Hope you're well🙂.

I thought the following might be of interest to you: I have the same book, but I also have Lancaster Brown's  later, and updated (1971) book, "What Star is That?"

I bought this in 1971 when I was 15. It cost me £3.50 which was a lot when my only income was c 50p per week!

I have always loved this book, you can see it is well used! 

These come up regularly on ebay and used books stores like W.O.B and Abe Books for a few pounds, and I have a second copy which is in very good condition..the one in the photos above is my original "field copy". 

The sky maps are great, (they go down to -40 degrees latitude) there are also useful variable star maps for identifying individual stars etc.

Finally, they came with a set of colour slides when new, and used copies often still have them..a bit old hat now of course, but a nice bit of nostalgia and quite "cool" when the book came out!

But back to your original post..my version of the book shows what I think are the same binoculars you were interested  in, and are clearly identified  there as being "10x80 binocular telescope, field 7.5 degree, (ex military reconnaissance) "..superb, I'm sure, for astro use..

But the instrument that I really used to covet was the big beast on the same page, see below.."25 x 105 binocular telescope, field 3 degrees  (ex military reconnaissance)"..amazing!!👌🤘👍😃.

Dave

2 hours ago, Franklin said:

I've been after an F/9 ED102S for some time now and have just found one, the "wt" model. It's from the last production line in early 2000 before Vixen changed to the ED103S F/7.7

 

Beautiful  scope Tim👍..and interesting info about the meaning of the "wt" designation.

There was also actually an ED103Swt F7.7, as well as the newer ED103s, which of course was itself replaced by the current SD103s, of which  range you currently have the flagship SD115s model.

Here's a photo of the ED103Swt F7.7 that I owned, and which in 2020 was bought by Steve (@Saganite)..quite a rare scope I believe, and with a single speed but superbly smooth R&P focuser.

Dave

Nice comparison Malcolm👍.

I agree with your assessment of the TAO..I have a 12.5mm pair for binoviewing, but whether in single or double use, they are remarkable..

Key pluses:

-Contrast, inky black background

- very tight, sharp stellar images

- a subjective point  but the Tak Abbes just feel "right"..comfortable, despite typical ortho tightish eye relief, immersive, despite a relatively narrow FOV - the fov draws you into the object being observed, not the surrounding field.

- minimalist, light, simple and exemplary build quality

Minuses

- non for me, although I can see that wide angle fans might find them a bit claustrophobic 🙂

I personally really like the Pentaxs. I currently have a 10.5mm XL and an XL 8-24mm zoom, both excellent.

I'm also a fan of the Morpheus range, and found the 9mm and 17.5mm to be my favourites.

Dave

This summer has been my least astronomically active one ever, for various reasons as well as (of course) our weather.. 

But I did start a tidy up of my stuff this week, and as part of that I took out of storage my son in law's Skywatcher Evostar 120mm F8 achromat (it has been largely unused in the past 10 years since we bought it for him, and ended up in storage when they had no room to store it in their cottage in Devon..😭🤦‍♂️).

Anyway, I mounted it on my Tak mount so I could check it out.

It's a nice looking scope, very light and the focuser, while not the best, is quite smooth. The 6x30mm RACI finder is excellent (I also have one on my vintage Vixen 80mm F15).

Last night as I took the air before bed, it was such a warm calm night that I couldn't resist popping the Evostar outside, especially seeing the Moon and Jupiter so close to each other.

I have to say that the images of the moon were lovely using the Pentax XL zoom giving powers from 40x to 120x. Crisp, sharp images with a touch of violet CA at the limb.

On Jupiter the view was also very nice, the CA was a bit more obvious, and I'd probably use a filter of some kind if I was using the scope regularly. But the 4 moons were nice tiny disks and several belts were clearly visible on the main planet.

Literally a quick 10-15 minutes peek, but when you think you can pick up one of these almost 5" refractor OTAs used, for c £150, they are remarkably affordable.

Dave

That's a Lake fit for an FS128!☺️

Dave

3 hours ago, PatientObserver said:

Now I am tempted to buy an FS-60CB to use as a finderscope. Not only that, it looks like the model is on sale.

You clearly don't live in the UK then..😏🙄

Dave

"Show us your wide-field scope"

What??🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🙂

On 19/08/2023 at 19:16, JeremyS said:

I think he’d say he’d got the measure of you, John 🤣

Yep, he's got it taped Jeremy..🙃