F15Rules

I've owned both the Aero 30mm and the Vixen NLVW 30mm.

I'm a big fan of most Vixen EPs, and of the now discontinued LVW range, especially the 22mm, but the NLVW 30mm is NOT like the rest of the LVW range and I was disappointed with it: build quality, ergonomics and optics were all well below usual LVW standards, I felt.

The Aero 30mm was a much nicer performer optically in my F8 Tak, no contest, and ergonomically as well.

I've not looked through the APM ultra flat field 30, but it seems very well regarded indeed, by some very knowledgeable observers. If your budget will cover the cost, the APM would get my vote, or alternatively the Aero rather than the NLVW.

Dave

On 04/04/2020 at 11:41, timwetherell said:

Miraculously we had clear skies last night and was able to see venus amongst the Pleiades for the first time in my life. Very cool, especially being able to see venus' half phase! Anyone else get any nice pics? I was hoping to capture some of the nebulosity but venus was so bright it swamped it.

That's a lovely image Tim!

What equipment/scope were you using?

Dave

Double post deleted

I've got a Geoptik Nadira which I had as a Christmas gift from my children the Christmas before last.

I do like it a lot, as Jeremy said the seat on his is a bit small, mine is similar, and I'm intrigued that a couple of guys on here have added padding for comfort..how exactly did you do that guys?

Thanks!👍😀

Jeremy, your grab n go setup looks good enough to eat!

Dave

"Take me to your leader"?😁

Dave

32 minutes ago, John said:

I'm not an "eq man" these days I fear, despite how well they look

Well, John, you seem to do pretty well with your Altaz setup, so why change what works for you?

I remember the old Vixen SP, forerunner of the GP, and that could be used in both Altaz and eq modes, very clever. So could the Zeiss Telementor mount 😊.

Dave

Got the Pup!😀👍

After reading John's post about the good seeing, and his sighting of Sirius B, I decided, on impulse, to whip my FS128 out and aim it towards Sirius. I popped in my Carton 10.5mm, giving just about 99x, adjusted my fine focusing ep holder..and there it was!

The Pup was elusive, but definitely there. I knew the scope could show it, but the atmosphere had clearly settled down after yesterdays high winds, and tonight the air was very calm.

I was only outside for 10 minutes and looked only at  Sirius, low over my house roof!

Thanks, John, for the heads up!!

Dave

16 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Also compared view with Vixen HR3.4 and TV Zoom set at similar FL. No doubt about it, the Vixen was clearer and sharper.

I only owned the Vixen HR 3.4mm for a short time Jeremy, but I honestly think it was the best high power eyepiece I've ever looked through.. it delivered 305x in the FS128, more when barlowed, and was a superb close doubles splitter👍

Dave

That's a great result John!👍😀 - especially with an almost full Moon to contend with..

The very good diagram you include above shows just what I saw 3 years back through my ED103s.

Sadly, I've not seen it since, even with my FS128, due to our local micro climate. I've concluded that my best seeing here now comes in the early hours of the morning, which means I won't probably get a chance again til the autumn.

But at least I'm retired now so no worries about getting up for work the next morning!😎

Congratulations and enjoy your session tonight.

Dave

Yep, loving those Uber long slo mo's too!

They remind me of the ones that came with the old Towa Topic (Circle T Japan) F15 80mm achromats from the 70s/80s..😊

They made a great old scope much more usable!

Dave

I don't wear glasses to view and find the Morphs very comfortable, especially since they introduced the much improved screw-on eyeguard and extender. 

The 17.5mm is for me pretty much a perfect eyepiece, but they are all excellent (my first Morpheus was the 14mm and it supplanted my Pentax XW14, which had significant field curvature, second only to the XW20mm which was even worse for FC - that one I replaced with a Vixen LVW 22mm, one of the most underrated widefields ever IMO).

Oh, and they all work well with a decent barlow like yours..in my case a Hyperion zoom 2.25x Barlow. Buy with confidence👍

Dave

7 hours ago, Louis D said:

You will of course need all the Morpheus and all the Vixen HR's. 

And the Takahashi TOE 2.5mm, 3.3mm, and 4.0mm eyepieces which have been getting rave reviews..

...and a very healthy and readily available bank balance!!🤑😊

Dave

On 01/04/2020 at 14:55, Size9Hex said:

used a Baader zoom which I find to be very practical for casual sessions on double stars.

Nice report👍😊.

What scope were you using?

Dave

...and the FS128 has a 145mm diameter tube with that large (and heavy!) "manhole cover" dewcap..she rides really well on my Tak EM2 mount ( earlier version of the EM10 & EM11) on a robust home built (not by me but another SGLer) hardwood  fixed height tripod.

Dave

The thing that strikes me Jeremy, seeing your lovely Family Tak portrait is how slim the TSA tube is next to the FS102.

I know the FS range had oversize tubes (although very lightweight), same as most Vixens (I used an FS102 clamshell with my ED103s tube, which was also very light).

I  see that the TSA120 tube weighs only 6.7kg, very light for a 5" class triplet. By comparison, my FS128 weighs 7.5kg, even though it's physically almost as big as an Evostar 150mm F8 achromat which weighs between 10kg and 12.5kg depending on which website you look at (the difference is probably the finder, diagonal etc).

Here's a photo (source C N website) showing a TSA120 and FS128 dual mounted, for size comparison 😊.

Enjoy your new toy Jeremy, and look forward to a first light reports

Dave

7 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Something like this, Andrew?

 

L to R: FS 60 C, FC 76 DCU, FS 102, TSA 120.

Oh, all Taks. Did I mention that?

One missing: another FS60 permanently mounted on another scope.

A lovely collection to be sure!👍

I know I'm biased, but I do just think the FS colour scheme and livery is the pick of the bunch😊

Dave

Just fabulous looking scope Jeremy.. Congratulations!! 😎😁

Your ES 34mm grenade will deliver wonderful summer milky way vistas through Tessa.

All you need now is....a handle??😁😁(that's the last time, honest!)

Dave

2 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Sorry to hear you’ve been having a tough time Dave. Hope things improve. 

Thanks Mark, that's very kind of you🙂.

We are now one week into having my mother in law with us..it's not easy at all, there is no denying it, but we are still smiling most of the time. 

It's lovely and clear outside, but my wife is having a well deserved rest this evening, chatting to one of her sisters for an hour or so, so no observing tonight,  (have to keep an eye on her mum), and Orion has all but gone from view from our garden.

Never mind, by the time this crisis is over, Orion might be rising again into view!

Stay safe Mark and thanks again for your good wishes😊.

Dave

Short answer.  No.

Longer answer. If you want to "upgrade your views" at a reasonable cost, try getting some used Morpheus, they are in a different league optically to the Hyperions, and offer a lovely 76 degree fov, with superb images, great edge correction and wonderful contrast and comfort.

They come up used for c £110-130, and a spread of say 6.5mm, 12.5mm and 17.5mm would give you a great range of options.

Finally, the Hyperion zoom Barlow is excellent quality and will screw right into the Morpheus's too, giving you 2.25x each of your native magnifications. There have been several of these for sale used recently for £50, a bargain for the optical quality..😊👍

Dave

It might sound odd, but try increasing your magnification..higher magnification increases contrast and often makes details jump out more.

A good example of this is M13 in Hercules, a fine globular which looks fabulous in my 5" Apo at x175-x250. I start to resolve a lot of 11th and 12th magnitude faint stars with higher power. In your 8" you should be able to go at least this high and once your eyes are dark adapted you will see more. M57 in Lyra (the Ring planetary nebula) is another target that can take high power and stand out more and will be well places in the rising wast over the coming months.

Also, get a dark hood, or towel to put over your head, and consider winged eyeguards for your eyepieces if possible. And finally, if you have any artificial light sources overlooking your garden try to position yourself with your body between the source and your observing object (I appreciate this may not always be practicable).

Double stars are often a rewarding target if you suffer from light pollution..again, higher power = darker background and your 8" reflector if well collimated should split hundreds of close and colourful doubles quite easily, even with LP to contend with.

Good luck!😊👍

Dave

14 hours ago, JamesF said:

One day I fancy trying binoviewers and I'd be quite tempted by a pair of 12mm or 18mm BGOs as eyepieces.

Great eps for binoviewing natively if you can (ie without an OCS/Barlow), in those lengths. A pair of winged eyeguards really help keep out stray light, too!

Dave

 A few questions..

-I see you are in Canada. Which region are you in? What are your local atmospherics like?

-You are using a Triplet refractor. Can you have the collimation/spacing checked? (I wouldn't advise you to try this yourself). Pinched optics or misaligned lenses could affect the images but that fact you get great views of some objects makes the optics being the problem seem less likely.

- Your age and eyes. I'm 64 and my right eye (my main observing eye since I was a teenager) has been steadily deteriorating in sharpness for some years. But my left is still pretty good. I only really noticed this after an eyetest 2 years ago. I have retrained my left eye up to be my main observing eye, it to took a while but it is much easier now. 

I also use binoviewers more now, and that helps on some objects, especially planets and moon.. I find they make viewing more relaxed, and a relaxed eye sees better.

For single eye viewing I use a black eye patch more now.

It's worth having an eyetest (when you can, assuming you are in virus lockdown as we are in the UK).

-your eyepieces (certainly the Morpheus's) are great, so unlikely to be the problem.

My money would be on your eyes, or atmospherics, or a combination of these. Some great tips from Old Nick  (Cotterless) in the first reply

Good luck, don't worry, and I hope you get to the bottom of this😊👍.

Dave

It's good to see these great eyepieces are really gaining traction at last.

My first one was a 14mm which replaced a Pentax XW 14mm because it had much less field curvature and the extra 6 degrees fov was very noticeable.

I was an early buyer of the 17.5mm after it came out 3 years after the main range - Baader must really have been pushing the design at that focal length, but it was worth the wait!

I also owned the 9mm for a short while too, but sadly, enforced early retirement last summer forced me to slim down my Astro gear..but I will most definitely buy more once my finances are more healthy and I get my pensions started.

Did all your set come with the new, improved eyecup? The eyecup was in my opinion the only weak spot with the range.. it was ill fitting and flimsy, not worthy of such a good eyepiece, but to be fair, Baader did put it right, and the much improved, screw on version is available as a retro fit, very much worth the price of replacing any older ones you might have.

Enjoy your set, and the 5mm XW will fit in perfectly to compliment the Morph 6.5mm, it's a superb eyepiece👍😊.

Dave

1 hour ago, Tyson M said:

Been enjoying this beauty recently!

 

 

Lovely scope!!

But, do you think it has enough baffles? 😈😂

Dave

14 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

come to think of it... so has the wife.... 🤔

Let me guess...Shoes? Clothes??Expensive Cars??? 😱😊

Dave