F15Rules

1 hour ago, wibblefish said:

I am a little in awe of the setups on this thread but hey got to start somewhere, SW 90/660 so its only a nipper but provided me with some fun sights so far and it fits snug in the small space I found in the garage that isn't clutter 

Don't be in awe of anything (except the night skies!)😊. 

We all started somewhere, and many of us began with much smaller scopes of 60mm or so..and that 90mm will show you a wealth of great targets for years if need be!.

If you haven't already got one, get yourself a decent star atlas, and a great book for beginners is "Turn Left at Orion" - just Google it for the best price, but it's a wonderful read👍.

Dave

Couple of poor but real.phone images via my FS128 earlier this evening..I was straining to get a view this early evening, and the different orientations are due to moving the diagonal to get a clearer view..in the 2nd image Jupiter is literally cut in half by the roofline of our house!

John Huntley's very interesting thread in the Planetary Observing forum is well worth a read👍..

Just search for "19th December 16:25 hrs: Jupiter & Saturn 1/4 degree apart" in the forum shown above..

Dave

That was just bad luck Chris, sorry for the laugh, but your Hamlet recollection hit my funny bone!😁

Dave

I had packed the little Carton 60mm in the car ready to drive up a nearby lane for a view..

..I was cooking supper and took some peelings to the compost bin at the end of our (slightly sloping) garden: as I turned back, I noticed both Jupiter and Saturn low above our house roofline!

I literally ran back towards the house, and called to my wife "I can see the conjunction love, I'm going to nip out for a quick look!!" She didn't even look up as she was watching the TV briefing, disbelievingly, as our long planned trip to Devon to see our eldest daughter and her husband for Christmas disintegrated before her very eyes😔😞..

Anyway, I did go out and grabbed the FS128 ( the small Carton being already in the car), and I did manage to see it for about 5 minutes..I had to put the scope as far back in the garden as I could, short of standing on a flowerbed, to get them in the field of view..

I only had time to grab a Morpheus 17.5mm and Nagler T2 12mm, and just managed two lousy shots, one with each eyepiece, via my android phone held up to the eyepiece - it's SO difficult to see anything via the handheld phone, let alone a decent photo! But here they are anyway🤭..in the 2nd pic, Jupiter is literally half concealed by our roof line! ( I had the diagonal at either side of the focuser for each shot, hence the different orientations).. but I'm genuinely chuffed to have seen the two planets so close together in one field.

Dave

On 29/11/2020 at 11:44, philj said:

My 1960s Towa as it is now.

 

Scope updated with Craford and extension, (the scope and how I did the mod featured in Astronomy Now in 2010)

Sitting atop my Berlebach and recently acquired Vixen GP with drives mount (thanks John)

 

This is my grab and go ish set up, e.g. when I havent got time or cant be doing with setting up the HEQ5 and / or Meade 127edt  and goto. Just set up, point at polaris , switch on the drives and away I go 😀 cloud permitting

Hi Phil,

That is a thing of beauty! Cracking scope and a "proper refractor"..

And, no, Jeremy, it doesn't need a handle..

Dave

No chance for me from my back garden, too low down behind trees and the house..

..however, tonight sounds as if it could be clear here early on, so if it is I'm going to try to pop my new to me little Carton 60mm  in the car and drive a out half a mile up the lane to get a much flatter horizon. And I'll take the Vixen 8x32 bins too..wish me luck!🙂

The weather man on TV has just said looking good for Christmas Eve and Christmas night frosty skies! Fingers crossed 🤞☺️!

Dave

16 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

You really need to ask? Every chance it's down to £

Yes, it was a rhetorical question..of course it's down to money.. having worked most of my life in tendering for high value publicly financed contracts, they have mostly only been unit price driven, whatever they might say about looking at true value for money in terms of "whole contract life costs".

But we are entering a new world now, where environmental responsibility and sustainability will HAVE to drive procurement far more than ever before..let's hope we will soon see more truly sustainable and sensible public investment in the welfare of our planet and all its citizens (not just the human ones!).

Dave

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Petition signed! 
I contacted my local council more 18 months ago about the bright LED light outside my house and got to say they were more than helpful in replacing it with a much dimmer light with an adjustable black plastic deflector.

Couple of pics below of what we used to have and what we have now (note deflector fitted around LED light)

That's great!!

Now, why can't all councils specify that 2nd design as the standard, not as the exception?

They could put this in their tenders for lighting provision..these contracts can be for 100s, if not 1000s of lights, worth huge sums of money - so it's just a matter of being clear in the tender specs as to what is required, then letting the competitive tender process do it's work. Good commissioning delivers good outcomes - but bad commissioning sadly delivers what all too often we see in our towns and cities today..

Dave

I've just signed 👍..

Street lights are just one part of the problem..unneeded, undirected industrial estate lights are a menace. I'd like to see all such lights required by law to have shades fitted at the point of installation.

For those who don't understand what shades on lights are...they are covers that sit on top of the light, sometimes to one side of the light, with the purpose being to protect people against night light intrusion and sleep deprivation, and to preserve as much of the natural night sky as possible, whilst still providing adequate downward directed light to allow passers by to see and walk safely.

Sadly, the current situation is currently heavily weighted in favour of unnecessary, wasteful and unwanted artificial light.. the clue is in the term Light Pollution.

Dave

Well, I got out for an hour unexpectedly this evening..

I'd hoped to see the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, but sadly it's too low and hidden by our house to see it..I'd have to go about half a mile away to see it over some flat farmland horizon.

I wanted to do a star test on Cassie the Carton (), so I used Capella for that.. the 1.25" adapter I'd ordered came two days ago, so I was able to use modern eyepieces no problems at all, nice concentric rings either side of focus, and nice tight stellar point with the quite large airy disk typical of long focus refractors.

I also looked at the Pleiades and had a lovely view with a Carton 28mm 55 degree ep, the whole cluster sharply displayed in one field. 

I then checked out M42 with the Carton, still very low down at c 7.45pm, and little more than a grey smudge. I could only see the Trap as a shimmering blur - but in fairness M42 couldn't have been much more than 15 degrees above my horizon at the time.

By now more clouds were scudding across but I couldn't resist getting the Tak out for a quick look at M42 as well..although much brighter than the Carton it was still not a great view, too much wind and turbulence.

I did get a quick and nice view of Mars (much smaller disk now)..I tried both blue and orange filters, but the best view was unfiltered tonight, with the Morpheus 17.5mm with the Baader 2.25x zoom Barlow, giving about 130x. I tried the Nagler 12 with the Barlow but it was just too much tonight at 195x.

The Carton showed a nice sharp, bright small disk at 59x with the Nagler T2 12mm, but too small a disk now to show identifiable detail at that magnification.. also, there is so much moisture in our atmosphere now and I'm starting to fear it is becoming semi-permanent - I can't recall the last really steady and transparent night we had here..

I did get a couple of shots of the two scopes, including one of the 60mm Carton with the big Nagler in it! I bought this scope for those odd holiday and quick half hour sessions, and I'm well pleased so far. I just need a bit of prolonged clear sky to see just what this little scope can really show me😊👍.

Dave

3 hours ago, MercianDabbler said:

Assuming the central one is also M6 then I am able to drill and tap if you like. M6 is the biggest I have though.

I'd need the dimensions though - my mount is an SP which has a completely different arrangement.

 

That's very kind of you, MercianDabbler ( great handle!👍).

If I need to take you up on your kind offer I will send you a private mail message.

Dave

Firstly, thanks guys for all the replies! 

I'm sorry for the delayed response, we had to dash to the Midlands and back today due to a family health emergency, just got back.

I also messaged Pete Gamby, who used to represent Vixen while Opticron had the Vixen UK distributorship.

Pete confirmed that a batch of GPs were shipped without the plate and bolts..it was thought that these mounts were originally destined for low latitude regions where the presence of the adjustment plate and bolts could have interfered with the operation of the polar axis: however, these mounts came to Europe by mistake, and Opticron bought in a small supply of bolt sets to ship to their GP customers. Sadly, they have all long since gone.

Ade, thanks for confirming the bolts are M6 (my electronic calipers have died! - rubbish anyway!). Yes please, I'd love a pair if you have some please, I will pm you, also about the plate.👍.

Several of you have suggested the bolts may not be needed, that gravity can do the job? 

As I haven't got the mount on a tripod so far, I can't move the mount manually to a lower latitude setting at the moment, only to a higher setting with the bolt on the opposite side which pushes the mount higher.. I need to put it on a tripod to get enough torque to push back manually in the downward direction.

I agree with John that it looks as though my mount never had these bolts and plate fitted as there are no bolt marks where you'd expect them to be. So presumably any past user(s) must have been able to push the mount manually to their local setting.

Anyway, a lot of food for thought here and I will take up Ade's kind offer of the bolts and see what can be done about the plate..I may have a small metal plate that could work .. I could drill the two M6 end holes myself, but of course a central bolt hole would need to be tapped for the bolt thread, which I'm not able to do.

My grateful thanks to all who responded, you're a great bunch!

I'll post again to show whatever solution I come up with👍😊

Dave

Thanks John,

I actually meant to cut and paste this link..

If you search "Any Vixen GP2 owners here" on the Mounts forum - it's from 2013 I think..

I don't think GPs could be used in Altaz mode, there's no facility for the mount to rotate through 360 degrees horizontally as would usually be the case?

Dave

Thanks Dave.

I don't think I've seen such a plate on a Vixen GP before.. however I did find this short thread..

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/651821-vixen-gpdx-and-gpd2-latitude-adjustment-bolts-question/&ved=2ahUKEwjc6NDzy9PtAhUKAcAKHQZOB4UQFjAAegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw1Y_QSlbhDmpZK7v6WNaUKz

..it might explain why mine had the two empty (but threaded) holes. I believe they may be M10 size, I will try to guage how deep they are and see if I can source replacements..

Dave

Hi all, 

Could anyone please advise me what diameter and length the two adjustment bolts are on a GP mount?

It's the pair of bolts at the base of the mount that work against the single bolt on the opposite side of the mount to adjust the latitude setting of the polar axis..I need to source a pair of missing ones for a mount I've had as a project for a while.

If anyone has a pair surplus to their needs...?😊

I attach some photos that I hope might help..

Thanks in advance,

Dave

Nagler T2 12mm.

I've only ever had one other premium TV, a 13mm T6, which was a nice, small, lightweight unit. Also a couple of their plossls in the past.

I was attracted by this one by its excellent reviews and it's a bigger unit altogether, slightly bigger than my Morpheus 17.5mm.

Looking forward to trying this one out!

Dave

56 minutes ago, Second Time Around said:

If I can't choose my beloved Baader zoom I'd vote for my 22mm Vixen LVW.

A sharp 65 degree FOV in a 1.25 inch barrel and slim enough for binoviewers - if I can find another to make a pair as they're now discontinued.  

In this focal length I need to use a Televue Dioptrx to correct my astigmatism and this fits the 22mm LVW.

I use it on all my scopes, and especially like it for solar work with my Quark.

Most of all, it's one of the most comfortable eyepieces I've ever used.

Joking apart, definitely one of my top 3 favourite eyepieces, ever👍

Dave

4 hours ago, Louis D said:

That's like asking a parent to choose a favorite child. 😲

Ok, if that's the analogy..

1. Which (child)/eyepiece costs me the least money?

2. Which (child)/eyepiece gives me the least hassle?

3. Which (child)/eyepiece will look after me when I'm old?

Answers:

1. HM 6mm 0.965" - utterly useless but came free with a scope.🙄

2. Celestron Omni 32mm.. lightweight, cheap, and a pair of them just sit in my binoviewer and show me lovely views of whatever they are pointed at..👍

3. Baader Morpheus: probably my most valuable eyepiece so when I'm old I can sell it and buy about one hour's care in a nursing home..😱

Dave

On 11/12/2020 at 17:35, Stu said:

Looks lovely Dave, though you may have to change your forum name soon! 😉

The mount seems more substantial that many I’ve seen for these little 60mm scopes  which  hopefully means it will be nice and stable.

Everything looks in excellent condition too, really nice! Hope you get a good first light soon.

Thanks Stu.

I must say the build quality of the mount is very good, I could see it easily taking an 80mm ota of up to say F9 or F10.

I think the photos do make the scope look larger than it actually is.. I'll have to take a picture of it on its own much shorter tripod next to the FS128 for scale 😁.

Dave

15 hours ago, John said:

I don't think I've ever bought a new achromat other than the TAL100R back in 1999 which at £250 with a mount and good eyepieces, delivered from Siberia was quite a bargain I think.

 

That's interesting John, I too bought my first, also a 100R, in 2000. I remember I bought it from Warehouse Express and paid £249.95 for it including shipping..

It was delivered to my works office, and arrived in a huge Siberian Birch and Ply "coffin" wooden crate and my colleague who took delivery didn't know what to make of it! 

It (the coffin) was covered in scratches and several deep gouges, not pretty, but then it had travelled overland from Siberia by truck apparently, and it certainly did its' job: the scope, mount and tripod were immaculate. The 100R had the most beautiful purple coatings, very reminiscent of Lomo and Lzos objectives.

I owned several of the later 100RS versions, but I always felt the original purple lens versions were the best..so sharp and with great contrast and slightly less CA, I felt.

However, the RS had a much better focuser, initially a 2" Rack and Pinion and later a very smooth, rotating 2" Crayford focuser - I bought one of the first versions with the Crayford, I think around 2010 or 2011.

Both great achromats, sharp, lightweight and easy to use.

I've actually got a mint 100RS OTA at the moment, dating from 2011.. I thought my son in law would want it it, to replace his rather bulkier Evostar 120mm F8, but although he has a PHD in Astrophysics he seems disinclined to actually get out under the stars for real! 🤔🙄..

So, I'll probably let it go in the new year as I'm trying to stick to just two scopes and with one of them being the FS128, I can't really justify keeping the Tal long term.

Dave

On 09/12/2020 at 19:12, vlaiv said:

Ok, let me first say - no, I'm not going to complain about prices of exotic ED glass - on the contrary!

I'm also going to do full disclosure here - I'm suffering cloudy skies syndrome at the moment - you know, have not been observing or doing anything astronomy related for months and I'm starting to fantasize about new scopes, different combinations, examining prices - making up needs and all those weird stuff we amateur astronomers do when we get this syndrome

It all started with focusers. I have M90 Monorail focuser that is leftover form an upgrade. I wanted to fit that focuser on My Evostar 102mm F/10 refractor for some time now but I can't seem to find suitable solution. While looking at other focusers and thinking about focusers - it hit me, most are quite expensive in comparison to cheap units that come on most entry level scopes.

You can't really find entry level refractor telescope with a decent focuser, and often, focusers themselves cost as much as entry level refractor scopes (achromat types).

For some reason I then started thinking about very cheap portable refractor type telescope that I would upgrade to make a decent scope (might have been prompted to this behavior by recent thread - "Show us your small refractor scope" ).

Say you take Skywatcher Mercury 705. I believe it to be decent glass, and with decent focuser, diagonal, maybe zoom eyepiece like Hyperflex 7.2-21.5mm - could make very nice portable / grab'n'go / quick peak package. I would also like retractable dew shield if possible.

Ok, let's see, how much would it cost? I'm going to quote here TS prices that are in euros and without VAT, so those are not final prices - but they do serve the purpose - comparison purpose.

OTA ~ 116 euro

Focuser  ~ 125 - 145 euro (125 is 1.25" model, and 145 euro and upwards are 2" models - all having 1:10 reduction. There are 1.25" and 2" single speed GSO crayford models that are for newtonian scopes but could be adopted - for about 76 euro each)

Adapter to mount focuser onto tube - at least 40 - 50 euro if not more.

Ok, lets add that up - OTA + 2" with 1:10 + adapter (cheapest estimate) = 116 + 145 + 40 = 301 euro.

On the other hand, you have something like this:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p1151_TS-Optics-70-mm-F6-ED-Travel-Refractor-with-modern-2--RAP-Focuser.html

And yes, it costs 301 euro and it has ED glass. Maybe not the best ED glass out there, but it will sure beat Mercury 705 in color correction and planetary views.

It has retractable dew shield as a bonus.

Moral of the story? Entry level refractors are actually expensive for what they provide!

Agreed 👍 - unless you trawl eBay etc and buy a well looked after old scope🙂..

Dave

Thanks Steve, a bit like a tiny Andromeda!🤣😂.

Here's another shot in equatorial mode..it only takes a turn of a spanner to lock/unlock the polar axis. Straight up at 90 degrees and it is an altaz mount. Or tilt the axis to 53 deg north and it's an equatorial..simples!

I really don't understand why modern mount makers like Skywatcher don't just make a simple design change to allow their manual equatorials to convert to altaz mode..? The cost would be minimal and yet you'd have two mounts for the price of one🤔??

Dave

Oh, and the eagle eyed among you may have noticed in the first photo the original black focus knobs..in the later ones I have swapped these for a larger pair of spare knobs from my Tak FS128 - and they fit perfectly. Being larger they make fine focusing much more accurate too!

Dave

Earlier this week a well packed box arrived..it contained a lovely 1980s 60mm F12 (F11.8 to be exact) in immaculate, original condition..

The scope came complete with full equatorial mount, tripod, high quality finder, camera holder/adapter, 3 0.965" eyepieces and matching Tak style prism diagonal with rotating collet to secure eyepieces.

The little scope oozes quality and is virtually unmarked: the manuals (in Japanese!) are present, and the lens cleaning cloth has never been opened!

This afternoon I got a chance to set up the scope.. I quickly noticed that the supplied wooden tripod, whilst of good quality, is much too short for comfortable observing for anyone much over 5' tall, (I'm 6')..so I mounted the equatorial mount onto a Skywatcher tripod from an EQ2mount..this setup is rock solid with this light setup (grab and go is what I bought the scope for), and the scope sits beautifully on this tripod.

Whilst setting the scope up I noticed that in fact the mount can operate in both equatorial mode, as shown above, but also in Altazimuth mode too, which I'm delighted about - rather like the Zeiss Telementor mount😉. Here are some quick photos I took earlier today in very grey skies:

You will see, just In front of the tube collar that secures the scope to the mount, an additional black painted additional collar which is quite weighty and can be used to help balance the tube if extra weight is to be carried: I managed to remove the original 0.965" tube end to reveal what I believe is a 36.4mm Vixen thread..if I'm right about this ,I should be able to use modern 1.25" eyepieces and diagonal, and I have ordered an adapter to test this out!

So far, I'm very happy with this little chap!

Thanks for reading,

Dave

On 07/12/2020 at 12:48, CedricTheBrave said:

thanks everyone for the input

I have decided to go for a couple of the Morpheus ones to start and see how I get on with them

 

Great choice!!👍

Dave