mikeDnight

She's looking rather beautiful there John, assuming she is a she?

It looks to me as if Pete's observatory is easy to keep clean. There will naturally be the occasional squatter, just as there is in any house with a garden, but they are soon evicted. My own 8 by 7 run off observatory rarely has any unwanted guests and has been that way for twelve years.

An awesome refractor Neil. Looking at the pic of yours makes me want to buy one all over again.

I'm not certain as I've never used a gpc, but I'd imagine if it says 2.6X that's what you'll get, and not 5.2X. That would mean using shorter focal length eyepieces to attain the same magnification given by a barlow. The 1.6X extender Q is beautiful, but it can be a bit fiddly in the dark with all it's screw on extension tubes. The Q is completely invisible optically, but adds quite a length to the focuser end of the telescope. I would often use the extender Q attached to my telescope along with a 2X barlow attached to the nose of the binoviewer. One evening as I was sweeping across the surface of the Moon using this set-up on my FC100DC, which gave around 449X, my stomach rolled as I unexpectedly drifted over the cliff edge of the Apenine mountains which towered in 3D. Below is a pic of my 1.6X extender-Q attached to my FC100DZ, with binoviewer plus barlow.. The Q effectively turns the F7.4 DC/DF and the F8 DZ into F11.8 & F12.8 scopes respectively.

I bought a Maxbright II a little under two months ago and love it. I have however been bino viewing the Moon and planets since 2008 using a cheaper end Revelation Binoviewer. The Revelation cheap option was very impressive and compared to top end planetary TMB super monocentrics proved to perform at a different level all together, leaving the superb mono lagging noticeably behind. The Maxbright is itself in a different league to the Revelation, not just mechanically, but optically much better. I've never used a gpc but have used a 2X barlow on the nose of the binoviewer. The increased distance between the barlow and eyepieces amplifies approximately 4X if you use a 2X barlow. My scope is a FC100DZ and when using the maxbright without a barlow, I can see no obvious aberrations, and also none with a barlow. Personally I've found good plossl's and ortho's give excellent views, and because of their relatively small physical size and minimal glass they don't add too much weight or bulk to an already quite heavy binoviewer. Using both eyes makes it easier to see fine lunar and subtle planetary detail as you're doubling your retina area. You obviously can't increase the resolution of your scope but it certainly feels like you can, as detail on the limit of visibility with one eye becomes obvious when using two.

I really like the Pentax XW 5mm and 3.5mm for planetary viewing, but even better, for me at least, is a binoviewer, 2X barlow, and a pair of 18mm plossl's. The 70° apparent field of the XW's also lends them to high power deep sky viewing. The 4.5mm Baader Morpheus is a nice eyepiece too!

And which "one" is it that you don't have?

No, not in a ring as such. Some I met at a local observatory that was/is open for public use on Saturday night's, but others I met and conversed with from around the world while being section director to the Society for Popular Astronomy's planetary section. They were every bit as passionate about the hobby, and every bit as good as the best male observers I've met. I was only kidding about the wrestling, although I wouldn't like to push my luck too far!

I don't need to wear glasses while observing, so find both the 5mm and 3.8mm quite comfortable to use. I prefer the comfort of the 5mm to that of the 7.5mm. I think the 5mm & 3.8mm incorporate some kind of barlow into the design.

Mine has to be my FS128 as shown in my current (April 2023) avatar. I've loved all my scopes, perhaps with the exception of my NP101 IS, and I really love my FC100DZ, but the FS128 will always hold a special place in my heart. My favourite scope and the best mount I ever owned!

I was introduced to this old 5 element super plossl design back in 2015 by paulastro. At the time I was using Pentax XW's as my prefered eyepiece, but I was immediately impressed by the clarity and on axis sharpness of this pseudo Masuyama's / Zeiss astro planar design. I'd love to have them all with just one brand name, but I've had to settle for a mixed bag of Celestron Ultima's, Orion Ultrascopic's, Park's Gold, and Baader Eudiascopic's. All identical in design and performance, so i cant complain. I have 35mm, 25mm, 18mm, 12.5mm, 10mm, & 7.5mm pairs for bino viewing, and a 20mm, 5mm, & 3.8mm as singles. A few nights ago while observing Mars, I compared the 3.8mm Parks Gold with my Vixen 3.4mm HR and was quite impressed at how close the were in terms of sharpness and the definition they showed. Below is a pic of the Moon from the April 28th taken through the 25mm in my binoviewer with a, not very clean, hand held phone camera. It goes without saying that the view through the eyepiece was considerably sharper and more detailed.

Although Mars is tiny, too much magnification will kill detail. I'd suggest keeping it below 250X and study the image. I can still just see there are albedo markings visible at 128X, which to be honest is too low for meaningful observation, but 180X or 200X may be ok. Sharp is good, but once the view turns soft you know you've gone too far. Orange 21 and blue 80A filters may help bring out the darks and lights respectively. Theres also been some fast moving currents of air over the UK of late, so it may not all be down to your scope, although SCT's are very sensitive to even tiny amounts of internal heat.

That's excellent!

I suspect that our wives culinary skills are just one of many endearing qualities, with Just Eat coming a close second. It would be sad if any of our lady astronomers were made to feel uncomfortable due to misinterpreting the playful banter of the boys, but I doubt that would happen. I know a few female astronomers personally, and I've met quite a number over the years; I've yet to meet any who weren't prettier than me, more intelligent than me, more quick witted than me, and who couldn't wrestle me into submission within 60 seconds. I only wish there were more of them!

I'm not encouraging dishonesty, but a number of years ago I learned of a man with a similar problem. I was browsing Stockport Binocular & Telescope Centre, when the owner said to me "We've just had a chap call in with a self printed winning raffle ticket that he apparently got from us." He'd asked the owner if he'd post the winning ticket to his home address so that his wife would open the envelope and reveal the surprise win to her equally surprised husband. The reason he went to such lengths is that he'd been admiring a brand new Tal 4" refractor on display in the shop window and needed a way of getting it past his wife without suspicion. He paid for the scope up front and simply waited for the good news. Brilliant really!

Thanks John. I've missed your posts, unless I've just not been paying attention, so It's great to hear from you. Hope you're well! It wasn't easy as mars is very tiny even at high power. The trouble is that increasing the magnification reduces definition and amplifies any poor seeing or turbulence. Even at 128X using my binoviewer in the 100mm refractor I could just detect a tiny north polar cap and some darkening around the north polar region. At times the polar cap looked as if it was standing proud of the northern limb. That was probably due to some atmospheric wobble going on.

I used a FC100DC for five years, and although I would use the visual back configuration that you're using, I also used the 2" back that with the D.C. needed to be bought separately. Along with the 2" Tak adapter I'd also use a SW low profile 2" to 1.25" reducer which enabled me to use my Tak prism. This got rid of the screw in fittings that unwind, and gave me a visual back that would hold my prism and binoviewer at any angle without issue. I now have a FC100DZ and use both the Tak prism and the Baader Zeiss BBHS prism with a 2" nose. The 2" Tak adapter holds the 2" nose of the Baader prism, and the 2" to 1.25" reducer I use with the Tak prism solidly and at any angle. The pic's below show a close up of the DZ 2" visual back and Baader prism, and one with the Binoviewer with Tak prism at the usual angled position I often observe from. (Tak offer a standard 2" v back as seen here, but also a shorter version that will permit more inward focus).

Not charcoal Neil. It was a number 6 graphite pencil smoothed over using a cotton tipped ear bud. Trade secret! Ear buds are actually brilliant for softening detail drawn with a pencil. You can even scribble some graphite on a spare piece of paper, then use the ear bud to pick up the graphite and transfer it onto a drawing. That way you don't get pencil marks. A soft malleable putty eraser can then be used to sharpen edges and lift graphite off the sketch to create highlights.

Venus is growing and Mars is shrinking. Both are challenging, but worth the effort.

Hi Malcom. I love your honesty! I've attached a pic taken with my phone hand held at the eyepiece of my 4". I've enlarged the image so as to make the bright ridge opposite the dark rille easier to see, but the sky was a bit milky with thin cloud. I hope you can see that it really does exist, although not immediately obvious. The original magnification was 128X and its a prism view.

Nice sketches Malcolm. I like your Venus, it does seem you've caught the dusky equatorial cloud, but if it was 20.00 UT you may have been struggling with a thick turbulent atmosphere, and brilliance of the planet against a darkening sky. Also, there may have been some fast moving air interfering with the image. I really am taken with your sketch of Petavius. You seem to have caught the bright ridge that's on the oppisite side of the central mountain peak to the rille. You even sketched the slight bow in the dark rille as it nears the terrace wall. Excellent!

It looks to me like in the second image the arrow is pointing at the wrong spot. I'm no imager but I see the same structure, althougha little subdued. I think your Image is gob-smackingly awesome Stu. ( Hope you'll forgive my arrow drawn with sausage fingers!)

The 3.5mm XW is an awesome eyepiece and way better than you might expect. A Takahashi TOE is another that comes to mind, but the TOE has a narrower field which I think is 52° apparent. Another alternative would be to use a longer focal length orthoscopic with a barlow so you maintain comfortable eye relief. A Televue 3-6 zoom is a nice eyepiece too, though it wouldn't be in the same league as the Pentax XW or Takahashi TOE. You might also look around for a Vixen 3.4mm High Resolution eyepiece on the secondhand market.

It clouded over here this afternoon and along with the cloud came strong winds. Still, as the Sun set below the high tree line to my west, the sky cleared and a lovely crescent moon stared down at me. I set the 4" up and took a look at the Moon against a blue sky, but although there was a promising amount of detail, the bright background lowered the contrast. To pass some time I decided to find Venus and doodle a sketch or two. As it happened Venus was troubled by a stream of fast moving air, but at only 128X through the binoviewer it was quite tolerable. At times the turbulence subsided momentarily and a beautiful , approximate 69 - 68% phase was sharply defined. I made a sketch but haven't yet had time to make a cleaned up version. There was some light cloud still floating about, which interestingly filtered and steadied the view of Venus and aided in detecting the wispy Venus cloud detail. Back to the Moon and an attempt to sketch the floor detail of Petavius, which was full of beautifully defined detail, but was unfortunately brought to an early end as clouds returned cutting short the observation. Still it was a great sight showing some fascinating detail, and gave me my astro fix, so I'm happy.

It looks like a SW or Vixen half pier will attach to it, then your GP will attach to the pier. However a more simple solution would be to use a couple of pieced of 3/4" ply, drilled circular using hole saws and glued together, so as to accommodate the GP base. Sanded and painted Matt black it would do the job nicely at minimal cost, and will be solid. Alternatively you could use an old SW eq5 tripod top to sit on top of your existing tripod top.