mikeDnight

The benefits of jumping from 80mm to 102mm is massive. You definitely won't regret it if you do. As for mounts, I really like a German equatorial, as it follows the object you're studying but simply turning one knob, or if motorised it will track for ages with very little tweaking. Of course an Altazimuth gives you the ability to sweep across large vistas of star fields, stopping to admire the sights as you go. Ideally having both types of mount has its advantages.

I've always found tripods and piers to be too short. For me there's nothing worse than being scrunched up while observing, as it hinders breathing and becomes uncomfortable and distracting. Years ago after buying a sizeable refractor I decided that the scope, heavy mount and my back would benefit from a tall pier. I also had the silly viewpoint at the time that looking directly through the scope was better. With all this in mind my pier, which was buried into my back lawn, had to be above head height including the mount head. It worked well for many years, and when not in use I'd take the scope inside the house and cover the mount and electronics with a canvas garden chair cover tied with a bungee cord. It never got wet! To give an idea of the pier height I was 6 ft 1" tall. Today I still use a pier for most of my observing. When I designed this latest pier I wanted the scope to be comfortable to observe with from a standing position, although nowadays I always use a diagonal prism. So I can stand and look down into the eyepiece without being uncomfortable. My pier is a 6" steel square section tube made by a local sheet metal worker, and has a 7" square, 1/2" thick top plate. These days I observe from the comfort of an observatory, and after burying a couple of feet of the pier int a hole filled with concrete, and the added height of the observatory floor 1 ft above ground, the pier top allows me to observe from both a standing position, and with the use of a hydraulic swivel chair and by tilting the diagonal, also from a comfortable seated position. Again my scopes are refractors, so the pier needs to be tall. If for a Newtonian I'd design it so that the scope eyepiece would be in a comfortable position view able from a standing position. In this second pic, the top of the mount head is just shy of 6ft above floor level. It is very comfortable to stand and look down into the eyepiece while observing the Moon and planets. Equally I can observe while seated by simply tilting the diagonal.

Very pretty! And even through single glazing it still a thrilling sight. Nice scope too!

Here's a nice bucket list target - Venus as thin as you can get it. It means the observer has to be extremely conscious of the Sun as the planet's phase becomes semi annular, but this can be achieved in daylight or when the Sun is getting low and shielded by buildings. Can you see the dark globe against a lighter background sky or is this a contrast effect? I have my own views on the matter. It would be nice to hear the views of those who have followed Venus in this way.

Great sketches of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina. Not easy targets by any means, and as a first real life attempt I think the sketches are excellent. Anton Rukle's Atlas of the Moon is hard to beat.

The sky gradually cleared as the afternoon drew to a close, and the Moon was well placed and in a clear stable sky. The seeing was actually superb. I decided to get all my toys out and started off by observing the Moon using my 60mm Carton refractor. Although only 60mm, this is a remarkably good telescope, and as it has a 1.25" focuser I could use a binoviewer which was a great advantage for lunar observing in the 60mm. I next moved on to the FC100DZ which showed the intricacies along the spectacular terminator in much more detail. Meanwhile the 5" was lying dormant but soon to turn its attention to the Moon revealing breathtaking detail in the first class seeing. After uncapping the 5" and fitting it with a maxbight binoviewer I settled myself into my comfy chair and spent the next hour just studying the awesome terminator. Arago a medium sized crater was on view, and alongside it was Arago A & Arago B, both sizeable domes i believe. Arago A certainly had a craterlet on its summit. South of Arago was the Apollo 11 landing site, just on the border of visibility was the washing line where Buzz dried his socks. Just kidding about the washing line and socks, but the seeing was as steady and clear as can be. Then the wobble moved in and I knew my best seeing was over. A cloud front began to encroach on my view but I wasn't too upset as I'd had a great time, over two hours in all, and I was content to close the roof on my obsy, but not before taking yet another pic of my 5" refractor. What did we do before cameras on mobile phones?

I think I've achieved many of my desires as regards visual astro but the pup us one I'd like to tick off. It would however only be a tick as it isn't something that would wow me. The largest aperture I've used for this list is 6 inches, while the smallest 4 inches. Mostly with a SW 120ED! Things I've wanted to see and achieved are: Halley's comet, Colour in the Orion Nebula (pearl green), Transit of Venus, Veil nebula along with cirrus nebula, Alpine Valley central rill, Spokes in Saturn's B ring, Streaks in Saturn's A ring, Encke minima, Encke gap, Vortex within Jupiter's Great red spot, White oval's on Jupiter, Festoons, garlands, and barges on Jupiter, Clouds on Venus, Albedo detail on Mercury, Albedo features and polar cap fracture on Mars. Olympus Mons, Detail on Uranus. IC434, the notch of the horse head, and the Flame nebula, Nebulosity enmeshing the Pleiades, Spiral structure and bridging arm of M51, Dark divide in M82, Spiral structure in M81, Bright spiral arm in M33, Dark dust lanes in M31. Veins in M1, The success list is seemingly endless, but I would like to see Halley's return, as well as Hale Bopp. I doubt I'll make it to the first as I'm already a bit long in the tooth, and I know I won't make it to the latter unless someone invents an everlasting life pill. May be the central star in M57 would be an achievable goal before I pop off, but I reckon I'll need at least a 7" and top class seeing to catch that!

This was my SDF which is physically longer than its actual F ratio. It was definitely significantly longer than the NP101 IS that I had. The SDF is a great RFT!

The Altair 24mm Ultra flat is superb, as are any of the UF brands.

Thats not quite my experience from a visual only perspective. Actually the heat of the day during summer months can be a real problem as buildings around you lose the heat they've stored throughout the day causing unstable seeing locally. January through to May generally gives me my best seeing, though I also get stunningly good views throughout winter months quite regularly. So I'm not a fan of making statements that plant limitations in our minds, as having such a mind set means observers will miss many great opportunities.

It's looking good so far Michael. I like the Pergola and the use of the mirror to make a feature too. It crossed my mind to use a transparent roofing material for my observatory simply for lightness and ease of rolling by hand. In the end I used 1/2" ply and covered the roof with a sheet of rubber roofing material which is glued to the ply. By allowing the rubber to hang over the roof edge it created a skirt that prevents rain from blowing beneath the roof. Also, to help with ease of rolling by hand I used 5" wheels. The inside walls and floor were covered with black interlocking matting to help reduce any stray light when the roof is open. It's worked flawlessly for the last thirteen years. It still gets quite hot inside in summer because of the black roof. If I'd have used the white plastic to cover the roof I'm pretty sure it would be cooler. I'm looking forward to seeing your final decision on your roof and how homely you make the inside. ☺️

Is the chance of probability you obtaining the telescopes, or the chance of seeing the targets? My late observing buddy Phil once said "Mike, you have eyes like a sewer rat"! I think he was paying my visual acuity a complement, though in reality I'm not certain that sewer rat's have good eyesight at all. Anyhow, although I've looked for the pup many many times, I can't honestly say with hand on heart that I've ever actually seen it. There have been times where I've had a possible may be, but not a dead certainty. My problem may be due to my local seeing but whatever the reason, I'm still on the fence as someone who may have seen the pup. E & F stars are both observable with a 4" scope, but as with the pup, they need steady seeing rather than large aperture. I've definitely seen both the E & F stars many times when using my 4" refractor. Both the scopes you're considering could easily show both the pup and the E & F, but the seeing needs to be steady and transparent. The refractor will have the sharper cleaner star image out of the two, which may work to advantage with a relatively low object like the pup, but the 8" has the advantage of greater resolution. Whichever you eventually choose persistence is likely going to give you the prize rather than one scope besting the other.

Thanks Dave. I had chance to look through it for the first time earlier this evening. The Moon was crisp and highly detailed despite the low power. I think the finder stem should really be attached to a Tak accessory ring which goes around the lower end of the scope. I know Tak provide them currently for the TOA and even for the FC100D series, but I think I've missed the boat for the FS128 as I think its a different tube diameter. However I bought the 70mm and worried about how I was going to attach it when it arrived. I decided to use a threaded rod that extended the length of the top dovetail bar that has doubled as a handle. On the underside of the dovetail bar there's a channel through which I ran the threaded bar. At the top is a nut and at the bottom a fancy knob that I scrounge of an old Japanese mount. Together the nut and knob allow me to tighten the stem which is sandwiched between the the knob and the bottom flat face of the dovetail/handle and lower ring. There are washers on either side of the stem to allow movement. It will suffice until I acquire a FS128 accessory ring in another twenty years. Unfortunately for me, by that time someone else will be looking through my telescopes most likely.

Here's a blast from the past. When I first bought a Takahashi telescope back in 2003, their catalogue showed some lovely large aperture finders/guide scopes. Unfortunately for me, buying the scope itself wiped me out financially and by the time I'd recovered, these large finders were nolonger available. It seems to be my lot in life to miss the boat by minutes! I guess I'm not alone in this? Today Mr postman drew up outside in his time machine and handed me a package. Inside was a vintage 70mm Takahashi finder/guider with swivel bracket. Now attached to my FS128 I'm hoping it will give me a slight advantage when it comes to fuzzy finding and double stars.

There are 28 in my two eyepiece cases, and I have a few straglers lying around that I don't use too often. Also couple of Barlow lenses, two Tak prisms and a Baader/Zeiss BBHS prism along with a max right ll binoviewer.

I can't say that I noticed much of a wind last night though it was a lot colder than I'd expected. The seeing was quite steady but there was a veil of haze over the sky which was probably caused by all the aircraft meshing their vapour trails like a net curtain and killing the transparency. Never the less I spent an hour or so just star hopping and admiring a few pretty doubles, with Tegmine being the one I loitered over the longest trying various eyepieces to see which gave the nicest presentation. For the past 13 years I've had the joy of observing from the shelter of a small run-off roof observatory, which was my wife's idea. She'd noticed that on cold nights my breathing was affected as I'd wheeze a little after coming back into a warm room. I've never smoked so it was nothing to do with that, but she was concerned enough to ask me why I didn't build an observatory to protect me from the biting wind? I'd never given it much thought but once she'd planted the seed I set to work on a few designs. In less than a month I'd built my shed, although no one is allowed to call it a shed. I'm only mentioning this here as it really does offer a great wind break, as well as gives a clean, comfortable and relatively dark environment from which to oggle the night sky. Oh, and she paid for the materials! A doodle from last night: -

When looking at Polaris, did you look at the rings both inside and outside of focus? It's often the case that on one side you'll see a softer outer ring while on the other it will be sharper. It doesn't sound like your scope has astigmatism if the rings are concentric. Often a low power wide field eyepiece might reveal astigmatism in your eye as stars may have a spike or look like seagulls. The higher power eyepieces would show errors with the optics such as triangular rings or the rings not being concentric. So basically, if the rings are concentric and when in focus at high power you can see the Airy disc and may be the first diffraction ring, the scope is perfect. If you can't see an Airy disc then it's almost certainly the seeing conditions putting the breaks on.

It is unusual for stars not to appear sharp in a refractor, but you mentioned the rings were concentric, so that at least is a positive thing. Also, I wouldn't worry about Jupiter as its never good at such a low angle. Hopefully, with the Moon about to give us another glimpse of its alien landscapes, you should have some awesome views. It could be the night that was not good enough.

Not quite dark enough for action, but here's the 5" is getting excited by a clear sky in anticipation of scouting out a few double stars after Sun set.

If you've stuck at it for three years you've probably been bitten by the bug, so even if you sold all you have, the passion will return with a vengeance. You mention you have a double pier set-up, but are both geared for AP? If so, why not dedicate one to purely visual and get that 90mm refractor aimed at the Moon. I know some say they hate the Moon, more likely they are scared of it because of its aweinspiring complexity, but it really is a jaw-dropping sight in a nice refractor, and why ignor it, after all it tends to be clear when the Moon is well placed. Even observing it through gaps in clouds can be wonderfully relaxing. It beats what's on TV - a truly alien world right on our doorstep. By dipping your toe in the relaxing world of visual astronomy from time to time might be just what's needed to relieve the burden that less than perfect nights might have on an imager. Over the course of a year - every year - I have peaks and trough's in my enthusiasm, but I can guarantee that from January through to the end of May will be when I'm most enthusiastic, and that's because of the high Moon as seen from the northern hemisphere. The only other thing that has such a draw on me at anytime of the year is Mars. Together these two targets are my oxygen. Even the instruments themselves can be a life-line. The late great David Sinden, one of the best telescope manufacturers the UK ever had, said that when he retired, he was going to build an observatory containing a beautifully engineered brass 6" refractor. He added " I don't want to look through it, I just want to polish it"! Sadly David passed away before he built his dream scope, but it shows that the instruments themselves can be play things and sources of entertainment, even when it's cloudy or raining.

Great sketches!

And I really liked the Hyperion 24mm in my 4" F7.4 refractor and felt it was both better corrected at the edge of field and significantly more comfortable to use that the 24mm Panoptic. In fact the only person who was batting for the 24 Pan' was the chap who owned it. Goes to show how we all differ when it comes to eyepieces. I think my friend was blinded by the TeleVue black and green!

Seeing conditions are the real equalizer providing the optics are excellent. Forget maximum resolution! You can increase magnification until you run out of exit pupil if the seeing allows, but bear in mind that different targets have sweet spots of their own. For example, Jupiter is unlikely to allow you to use the same high powers you might use on Saturn or Mars. Stars are wonderful at stupid high powers in a good scope on a good night, and the Moon too will eat magnification at times. So don't cage yourself in mentally because a book or popular opinion says this or that. You're the pilot of that spaceship so push it well out of its comfort zone if conditions permit. You'll not break it!

I know you won't want to hear this, but cutting a cm off the length of the tube may help. At the focuser end of course!

I think this book is my oldest. It's a beautifully bound leather hardback. They don't make them like this anymore!