F15Rules

I've never looked through an AP scope, but when I was much younger I drooled over  the magazine ads (behave, Jeremy!!) of their Star ED and Starfire models..to this day the name "Starfire" is one of my favourite names for a scope!

I was aware of someone in Loughborough (he now lives in Scotland), who owned a130mm f8 Starfire EDT..I saw it when I went to his home to pick up a (very nice!) Pentax J80 achromat he had sold to me in 2010. I just remember thinking how lovely the AP scope was.

I also saw a second AP when I went to pick up "Andromeda", my beloved D&G 5" F15 achromat from near Cheltenham..the seller had just taken delivery of the latest AP130 scope (this was in 2015) which he had been waiting years for..I'm pretty sure it had the letters "GT" in it's title, and looked quite short, perhaps F6? (mind you, any scope would have seemed short next to the almost 2metre length of Andromeda!😂). I also seem to recall it had a tube made from Carbon Fibre, could that be right? And I'm also pretty sure he said he didn't get much change from £10k when he imported it😱!

I do recall reading the CN review that David (dweller25) linked to..at the time I was seriously considering buying my FS128, and although, if I'm honest, I felt the review took far too long to say what it did, I did take their overall assessment (ie that the Tak fully matched the AP in the view of the reviewers) as a good endorsement of my feeling that the FS128 could be a "lifetime" scope for me.. and 4 years on from buying the Tak, I know I made a good decision for myself.. 

That conclusion was based on a deep respect for everything I've heard about Astro Physics scopes. And I'm sure that all the top brands mentioned in this thread are as satisfying to their owners as mine is to me👍

Dave

Thanks Stu, that's interesting.

Last night was, I think, exceptionally transparent. Interestingly, the stars shown on your graphic do look to be spaced where I recall seeing them. I think I can say with some confidence that I saw 5 stars, two of which were close to the "edge" of the pan asterism, or maybe even just over the "boundary"? The stars were right on or close to the limit of my averted vision, but definitely there.

In hindsight I should have counted them with my low power Vixen 8.5x32 Apex pro bins - but instead I'd taken out my Orion 9x63s, and they would have shown too many stars I'm sure!

Does Safari give actual magnitudes for each star, or just a range such as mag 5-6 or 6-7m?

Thanks Stu 😊,

Dave

Beautiful scope Marki, many congratulations 👏👍.

Enjoy and wish you an early first light!

Dave

Although I didn't have a proper session last night, I did spend a short time outside with my binoculars and naked eye..

It was a really beautiful, very dark transparent night here (Bortle 4 skies), and I finished the short viewing session just looking right up to the zenith at the Plough, (Ursa Major) a lifelong favourite asterism of mine. I also looked across at Ursa Minor and noticed how easy it was to see each of the "mini Plough" stars with direct naked eye vision ( with the exception of Polaris and Kochab they are much fainter than the main Plough stars).

This made me wonder how many fainter stars I could spot inside the main 4 star quadrangle formed by Dubhe, Merak, Phad (or Phecda) and Megrez?

To my 65 year old eyes, all of the stars inside the above grouping are very faint for the naked eye (for example, I could easily see nearby Alcor, the optical visual companion of Mizar, with direct vision..Alcor is about magnitude 4, so, by  comparison, I'd estimate the stars I could see inside the "Pan" of the saucepan, all with averted vision, were between 5 and 5.5 or even fainter. Anyway, I reckon I could see between 5 and 7 faint stars inside the Pan  - I can't be exactly sure of the number, as to my eyes they were all averted vision only, so difficult to count.

I'd be interested to hear how many others can see, and what magnitude you'd estimate them to be?🙂

Dave

7 hours ago, AdeKing said:

Sadly, the bag for the 102 f/11 is a bit tight with the CNC tube rings attached and looks like it probably won't accommodate a handle even with the slimmer and lighter Skywatcher 102mm tube rings

Wot...no handle, Ade??? 😱😂

Dave

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Something missing from that frac, Dave @F15Rules?

 

er..Dusty Bin? Bicycle? Tube Clamp? Red Ink? DFCs (Droopy Flexible Controls)?..

Nope...sorry, Jeremy, I've got to handle it to you, you've got me this time

Dave

Beautiful scopes to look at, Stu, just simple and elegant lines, great colours ( you can't beat white IMO😉), and both just shout " Doubles"!

So far, it sounds as though there is little to choose between them based on your notes..I've always liked the large Airy disks that these long fracs put up...it's interesting how you're finding that closer doubles can be perhaps slightly more or less easy to split in either scope, depending on the location and brightness of the companion star vs the first diffraction ring and it's brightness?..

I remember that the two best double splitting long fracs I owned it looked through were either F12.5 or F15. The former was a wonderful Pentax J80,  (80mm F12.5) looking extremely similar to the Scopetech 12.5mm you are using, and the second was of course "Andromeda", the superb D&G USA 128mm F15, which is now in the care of Steve (Saganite), and which looks at first sight like a missile launcher at over 6' long.

The stellar images put up by both of these were simply superb on good nights ( and still great on not so good nights!).

Please keep the observations coming Stu.. I'm basking in nostalgia here!😊👍.

Dave

PS: here's a link to the thread and some pics of the Pentax J80 when I bought it..can't believe it was 11 years ago!!😱😁

16 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I'm a very lucky boy today. I managed to source a prestine 2nd hand 2" William Optics diagonal. Thanks to all that helped me decide on a 2"

Oh and my bongos arrived to!

And another surprise, A clear sky for all hopefully, what a beautiful day!

👍

Bongos, eh?😊. Word will soon get around on the SGL Jungle drums!🥁😋😁.

I'm also trying to figure out if the bongos are Tiny, or if the diagonal is Mahoosive!!

Dave

Nicely packed parcel today brought me this very nicely built (think WO build) Long Perng 80mm F6 widefield refractor.

It's 15 years old but hardly used, and came with a nice carry case lined with foam, retracting dewshield with metal dewcap, about 15 internal baffles (literally!), very smooth 2" Crayford with 1.25" reducer and integrated dovetail which also fits on a standard photo tripod. No finder needed as my low power eps can act as finders!

This should give me lovely low power widefield views such as x16 (Aero 30mm) and x40 (Nagler T2 12mm).

Not a high power scope but that's not why I bought it, and on my test object this morning in bright sunlight there was virtually no CA at x16 and just a tad at x40. I'm expecting it to be a non issue at night..

Well chuffed at first sight😊.

Dave

4 hours ago, John said:

Good point. Must find a way to stop the uninformed having a vote

 

 

 

Hmmm..well, if the uninformed are indeed er, uninformed, then they won't know when the election is, (as they haven't been informed of it, and are therefore uninformed). So, if by not informing them that there is an election, they remain uninformed, they won't vote anyway - because they haven't been informed of it... I think...??

Dave

I really like that wooden tripod John..is it branded or a vintage?😊

Dave

No joy here tonight...very hazy and hardly any stars visible ☹️.

I hope you lucky ones with clear skies have good sessions!👍😉

Dave

1 minute ago, Saganite said:

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

A thing of utter beauty Steve..

All hail, Andromeda!!

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just giving my club’s Zhummel 12” dob a run out after having cleaned the mirror yesterday. Quick view of the Moon at low power so far, but looks good. Will have a try for the nova again if the high cloud clears, otherwise will try some higher power lunar views.
 

Pretty good for £150 👍, hope we can get a chance to finally use it soon.

What a difference in the before and after shots Stu!👍

That reflects really well on your cleaning skills😁

Dave

On 17/03/2021 at 22:17, JeremyS said:

Well, technically it’s not my equipment. We gave this SW 150 dob to our younger daughter for her 8th birthday. She’s now a hospital Dr and we’ve not seen her since Christmas, so thought it would be nice to get it out to reminisce.  I never cease to be amazed at how good this instrument is.

Is that the handle at the top of the DOB mount, Jeremy?

Dave

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I’m amazed how long it remained in the window considering the attractive price and the shortage of quality scopes in the market atm

For a moment I entertained the idea of a bino-scope. Glad that temptation has gone 🤣

I thought you could have cornered the market on "Bino-scope handles", Jeremy??

Dave

11 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Actually it was only a year ago Dave.

Did Sky & Telescope charge for handling? 🤣

Well, yes they did, as I had some kind of import tax of £3.49 or something added to the shipped cost..but still much cheaper than buying used over here.

Only a year ago, eh? I must say you do seem to have a detailed handle on my SGL transactions..🤫😂

Dave

This brand new copy arrived today direct from Sky & Telescope,  as UK used copy stockists want silly prices.

I was amazed that it came this quickly as I only ordered it last Friday (12th March !)

I stupidly sold my first copy about 18 months ago, before I'd properly got into it..that is so not going to happen again!☺️

Dave

On 16/03/2021 at 15:32, MrFreeze said:

I wasn't sure about the eyepiece - I have seen conflicting opinions about it.  Some recon that stray light control is very poor, but supposedly it has the greatest  FOV available in a 1.25" eyepiece. I was made an offer I couldn't refuse by a Chinese distributor, so went for it.

David

If it's a genuine spec ES24mm 68degree unit it will be great..I only let mine go a few years ago as I fell in love with the Vixen LVW22mm, which is better, and too near to the ES focal length to justify keeping both - but the ES24mm is a fine, well built eyepiece that delivers great views👍

Dave

On 12/03/2021 at 10:01, Nik271 said:

For finish: the Leo triplet, well... almost. Saw the two brighter members M65 and M66 but the third one regularly eludes me.  Light pollution

Nice report Nik, very enjoyable 👍

I too was out , and was aiming to try to split iota leonis which is a close double around 2" separation. It was very windy, too windy for higher mags, and I couldn't split iota this time, even though it's within reach of my FS128.

The sky was very transparent though, as you said, and although I'm not a big fan of faint fuzzies (A 5" scope  isn't really intended for deep sky after all), I noticed on my atlas that the Leo Triplet was nearby, and so, having never viewed it before, I decided to look for it..

..it proved to be very easy to find just scanning with a 30mm Aero so, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to find. I then popped in the Nagler T2 12mm and wow, all 3 galaxies were very obvious.. NGC 3628 was definitely the dimmest of the three, but also clearly "longer" and "thinner" than M65 and M66, both of whose central cores were brighter than I had imagined they would be. And all seen together nicely in the Nagler's 82 degree field!

So a nice surprise in my short delve into the world of faint fuzzies😊. I must try this again..

Dave

This was partly paid for with a Waterstones gift card for my birthday.

I'm looking forward to dipping in and out of this😊.

Shown next to my pocket Sky Atlas and Cambridge Double Star Atlas for scale. The new book is quite chunky as it contains 470 pages🏋️‍♂️!

Dave

8 hours ago, Marki said:

Took a break for a few years (although did occasionally get some time at the eyepiece) and came back to the hobby in 2020, and these appeared... .

Thanks Marki..good to hear you're back in the hobby👍😊..I did wonder where you'd "disappeared" to..

I used to enjoy reading your posts some years back when you had the Carton 100/Skylight built and also when you got the Tal 125R (I too had one)..didn't yours come from or via Italy? Or was that the Apolar version?

There was something of a resurgence of longer achros back then, and for a while Richard Day at Skylight was in great demand with his lovely 100mm F13s, and I always wished I'd been able to buy one: the Carton objectives were noted for their excellence.

Thanks for an enjoyable read.

Dave

8 hours ago, Pixies said:

Secondhand, but in excellent nick

 

I ordered a copy (new) last week from Waterstones (I'd had a gift voucher a couple of weeks ago for my birthday).

I had to pay list price but due to the voucher it'll only cost me £15 for a new copy..and for once it's nice not to be lining Amazon's pockets!

Dave

6 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Not sure I could handle that much CN froth anyway, Dave

 

Is that "life restoring" froth Jeremy? You look MUCH younger than in your avatar, and you have dark hair too!

Dave 

17 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

We never get into a froth. I might raise the occasional eyebrow, or utter a faint 'hmmm' - but not very often 😜

To get into a "froth" would be illogical.

Live long,and prosper