F15Rules

4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Here's the little fellas sitting in their case 

Interestingly the 18mm and 9mm have a slightly larger FOV than the others.

That's a cracking selection Michael. The LVWs are superb too, very underrated IMHO: the LVW22 is probably my all time favourite eyepiece between 20mm and 30mm and I hope to acquire another one at some point 👍.

Back on the VT orthos, I always felt the 18mm and 12.5mm were the pick of the bunch..I predict eventually you will have an OCD urge to complete the "proper" set!😁

Dave

36 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

At the risk of being rapped across the knuckles by @F15Rules here is the Topic branded Towa 339 80mm f/15.

Never, Ade! - having until very recently been the keeper (not owner) of "Bessy", an identical Meade 300 89mm/F15 which had the Moonraker makeover, I could hardly not make an honourable exception for your scope!

Thanks for posting! Here's Bessy below, she has now gone to live in the Lake District where her new keeper will use her for public outreach 👍❤️😊

Dave

PS Stu..that little TAL Alcor is amazing for its size, isn't it? And so quirky!!- it feels like it was a battlesight on a Russian Tank at one point, not what you'd call elegant, but sharp as a razor. There have been one or two on fleabay recently, all quite cheap - but you'd need to hire an artic to carry the weight of it!🤣🤣

1 minute ago, Stu said:

There is also FLO’s very nice Scopetech STL80 f15 in there too which I still have for the moment but that breaks the rules a bit much perhaps?

That's a heck of a selection of mini goodies there Stu! Sadly, I fear the Scopetech 80mm F15 is a bit of a big boy for this company..- but I'd dearly love to here your thoughts on it as a long achronut! Do you have plans to write up a review of it?

Pretty Please??😉👍

Dave

5 minutes ago, Nakedgun said:

 

What is it?

Is it a binocular tube with a diagonal and TV eyepiece fitted?

13 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice thread! I have a couple which fit the bill. My William Optics Zenithstar 66SD - very useful on a tripod for quick grab and go, but also good for birdwatching. And the Altair Astro 60mm guidescope, which when fitted with a 21mm Hyperion gives a view of nearly 6 degrees, exit pupil of nearly 6 mm and is a true “richest field” telescope. Incredibly light weight too. In fact I must get it out again! 😁

Hi Robert,

A lovely pair there..the Zenithstar is beautiful! And your Altair guidescope reminded me that I had one a few years ago on my 5" F15 achromat as a finder..here it is, now on the big scopes' current owners pier setup (Steve aka "Saganite" here on SGL..). As you say, a great little widefield scope - F4, I think, so plenty of little seagulls at the edge of the field!😂🤣

Dave

5 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Did you mention Trigger, Dave?

Jeremy, 

I think you will trigger (with vigor - and rigor) a bigger rigger who's driving a digger to bury poor Trigger - go figure!

I'd rather handle a candle while drinking Zinfandel...hic!!

Dave

7 hours ago, Pancho61 said:

mini scope collection some items was sold for new stuff.  Love this models.

From left to right:

Vixen Planet 80S frist model

Vixen Halley 70S

Meade

Vixen 60S

Pentax J60c

That's a great collection, Pancho!👍🤘😊.

How did you find all if those? I love the little table tripods.. and they could also make great finderscopes on a larger scope too!

Thanks for showing us your collection!

Dave

How cute, Barry!!🤗😊..

Of course they are welcome..a d don't worry, I won't "dob" you in to the Mods!!😂😂.

That's a lovely little scope..how does it hold collimation? I bet the secondary is fun to adjust!?

Have you considered a small used refractor for grab n go?- they do come up quite often and don't always cost that much at all..

Thanks for sharing mini dob👍

Dave

40 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Even thought it would fit, one placed that I've never put the Pocket Borg is my pocket. Too full of dust, old mints and hankies 🙂

 

..and don't even MENTION underpants!!

Dave

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

And since you mention the Tak 60

Dunno about a Mini Scope Jeremy, that looks more like a "Mini Counterweight".. - so small I can't even see it!!😂😂😂

Dave

I've just this morning taken delivery of this beautiful little Carton Japan 60mm F11.8 refractor 😊.

Like many of us, I grew up with 60mm class scopes as a first "proper" telescope. I was 14 or 15 when I had my first scope, a 60mm Prinz F15 from Dixon's camera store.

Nowadays most of us have much bigger scopes, but as the recent flurry of activity (and sales) of Zeiss Telementors demonstrates, there is still an affection and demand for these little instruments. I myself owned a Telementor until about a year ago, and had some wonderful views through it.

All this made me think how nice it would be to see some other "mini scopes" and hear what people have seen through them and how they use them.

I suppose I should define what I consider a "mini" or "small" scope, so let's say scopes up to 70mm aperture, of any type, any focal length, on any mount.

I will post up my thoughts on this new little Carton once the wretched clouds clear, but I'll start a new thread for that..

For this thread, please show us yours, if necessary get up in the loft, in the shed or garage, or show us your brand new 60mm Tak - all are welcome!😊🤘.

Thanks 

Dave

On 02/12/2020 at 15:17, TerryMcK said:

A DynaSun WT011H Professional Tripod Head Grip for use when using binoculars. First impressions are it is absolutely astonishing - why didn't I buy one of these years ago for use with my cameras too.

 

That's the same as the Ravelli branded and the Amazon basics trigger grip and ball heads set up. Great value for money, had mine for 5 or 6 years. Just be sure to check tensions now and again, they can need adjusting sometimes.

Our resident Binocular expert, Steve Tonkin (@BinocularSky) posted a very useful unofficial "manual" for these heads, if you search the Binocular forum for Ravelli Trigger Grip or similar you should find it👍

Dave

Been waiting for this for 10 days..

Feels like Christmas!😊👍

Vintage Carton Japan 60mm F11.8 refractor in complete, mint condition with EQ mount, finder, eyepieces etc.. imported by first owner direct from Japan.

Dave

Thanks guys for all the helpful info!

I know I've heard of these in the past but as a purely visual hobbyist (no offence to the imaging community, I think some of the images you get nowadays seemed as detailed or better than the Mt Palomar 200" reflector photos you would find in astro books in the 70s and 80s!!), anything with wires and or a camera scares me witless!!😂😂

I'll probably put it on UKABS and see if someone wants to give me £20-£25 for it with the two filters and postage included..

Thanks again,

Dave

Hi,

Sorry to gatecrash as a visual only observer but I'd be grateful for some advice on this (I think!) Philips webcam..(it says "Philips" on it -but nothing else!).

I acquired this recently with a scope I bought..it came with a carrier bag of bits and bobs and I didn't even realise it was part of the sale until I got it home (socially distanced handover!).

It looks  to be in good condition (the seller said he hadn't used the scope for over 10 years due to ill health, so the camera must be at least that old), and has a cable running from it which ends in a usb connection, so I assume it works via a pc or laptop?

I wouldn't use it, but might be of use to someone else..would it be worth anything? Oh, and it had with it the two filters shown..an IR Blocking filter and an "ND 96" filter, unbranded but looks well made..

Thanks for any insight you can give..I've attached a few pictures🙂👍.

Dave

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Congratulations @John 👍

Jeremy,

Is "@John" John's handle?🤭

Dave

14 hours ago, John said:

I've just realised that I have just passed my 15th year of membership of the Stargazers Lounge. I joined on the 28th of November 2005.

This was my 1st post

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/1422-its-nice-to-be-here/

I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU to First Light Optics, the admins and the moderators for creating and maintaining this amazing place and also to all the members here who have helped me, put up with me, replied to my posts, been polite when I've (often) been mistaken, joined in when I've been excited about something and generally made this forum the most important contribution that there has been to my enjoyment of the hobby.

Thank you very much indeed folks

John

Hi John,

I think others have said all the important stuff..I've followed your content, good advice and your good humour ever since I joined in 2009, and I have learned a great deal in that time, and also learned that I have a great deal more to learn yet!

I remember that my first significant sale of Astro kit was to your good self..a nice Meade AR127 L refractor ota, must be at least 10 years ago or more. .wasn't your SGL "Jahmanson" or something similar at the time? I recall how nervous I was at selling to someone who clearly knew so much more about kit than me, but fortunately the scope arrived intact with you and you were happy with it👍😊.

You have inspired many others like me to delve deeper into our great hobby John, and we share a common interest in visual astronomy, refractors of all kinds (I can forgive your dabbling with ships funnels once in a while!!😂), and a fascination with eyepieces of all kinds too.

Thank you and I hope you keep going for another 15 years..who knows what kit we will be using then??

One last thought..I love your photo at the top of the thread.. a lovely Vixen Apo and your good self.. the caption "Beauty and the Beast" sprang to my mischievous mind - but actually I prefer " The Big man with the Big heart" 👍👏

Dave

Nice report, Jiggy👍.

Some interesting pairs there and a nice mix of colour hues.

Regarding Polaris and getting it centred. I don't have goto but I do have an RA drive for tracking..with Polaris only, what I do, and suggest you try, is to forget you have a goto mount..

..turn your mount with your polar axis facing at approximately right angles to Polaris (in either direction).

Then, loosen off both axis clamps and manually point the scope at Polaris..you should now be able to centre the star with your finder, bang in the middle of the finder field, and therefore, if your finder is properly aligned with the main scope, also bang in the centre of your main scope field. Now tighten up both axis locks to hold the position.

Because Polaris is less than 1 degree from the Celestial North Pole, it will stay virtually stationery in, or very close, to the centre of your scope's field of view.

So probably best to look at Polaris either as your first or last target, then for the rest of the session align your polar axis as normal.

Hope that helps😊.

Dave

Great report Stu, and beautiful images👏👏👏!

So glad that you can get focus with the T2 system too.

That's a cracking little scope!.

..teaser..I've pulled the trigger on a mint Carton Japan 60mm F12 with equatorial mount and all accessories..watch this space😁👍

Dave

Hi Stu,

Looking good!👍

Yes, it does look as if your click lock will use up some backfocus.. below are pictures of my bv setup in the Tak..I did previously have a Tak Clicklock, but was advised by others that this setup would free up some precious backfocus...even a few mm can make the difference between getting focus or not.

The M72/M68 adapter has 10mm optical length.

The Ultrashort Clamp M68-2" has 12.4mm optical length.

Total backfocus consumption is therefore 22.4mm.

I should add that the Maxbrights MKI bv I was using has direct T2 connectivity: the total optical length of these bvs is 110mm.

Therefore, total optical length of that setup was 132.4mm.

Your MK IV  is T2 compatible Stu, but I don't know what it's optical path length is?

Also, I can't recall what the optical length of the Zeiss visual back to Clicklock adapter is? But if you know it, and add that to the optical path of the Clicklock and that of the MKIV binoviewer, it will be interesting to see what the total backfocus consumption of your system is?

Dave

Hi Stu,

Sending you a pm..

Dave

Vin, I've found some detail that might help you..so as not to deflect your thread I'll send you a pm with the info..👍

Dave

Great report Vin..and lovely sketches too! The Telementor is a cracking scope, I've owned several, and yes, you can binoview with them.

I'll see if I can dig out a few pictures of the setup I used and how I set it up, and post them on this thread😊.

Dave

2 hours ago, Moonshed said:

 Tablet.  Where would we be without our ever faithful tablets/laptops? Without them we would be back in the dark ages of astronomy, manually star hopping to find our target. No Polemaster, no looking at the image on screen, no image processing,  no stacking, no GOTO, the list is endless. (Shudder). I remember those days, everything was hard work, but I learned a lot about navigating my way about the night sky.

1. Back in the Dark Ages of Astronomy - I wish!! Bortle 1 skies for everyone, lovely!👍👍

2. Star Hopping - I love it!😁

3. No Polemaster - what's a Polemaster??

4. No looking at the image on screen - go and watch Netflix 😋

5. No image processing - my last experience of "image processing" was when I sent my holiday snaps to Bonusprint in 1975✌️

6. No stacking - get a job in Tesco🤭

7. No Goto - see point 2 above

Oh, and my own favourite 3 accessories are:

- Baader T2 prism and all things T2

- Skywatcher RACI finder

- Electric Drive on my EQ mount

Dave 😊