mikeDnight

I used to like going to the barber's, until one Saturday morning when Harry the barber showed me the back of my head through a mirror. I was mortified at the sight of a balding patch. I asked if I could have a discount, but Harry said he charged for the search. (I was only 25) I later learned that those who lose their hair from the front are good thinkers, while those losing it from the back are good lovers. And that those who lose both front and back think they are good lovers. Guess which I was!

If its good enough for the great William Shatner, its good enough for me. Only in my case it was my friends wife who shoved a feather duster down the back of my shirt. Could have been worse I suppose!

All will be revealed in time. I'm still nursing my bank card better!

I think your current scope will be better in every way, except with regard to width of field. Wide flat field is where the magic lies for any 4" Televue with the exception of the TV102. But whatever you decide to do, you can greatly increase your scopes ability to reveal unbelievable detail if you block out any stray light from entering your peripheral vision. A simple blackout blanket will do this. Honestly, you don't have to live on Hawaii or even in a completely dark site to see every bit as good as, if not better than Steve O' Meara.

Having hair is a luxury! Some of us have to resort to desperate measures.

I think astronomy has some romance to it, and having an attachment to a particular scope because it pulls on your heart strings isn't nonsense. If you love it you'll use it, and appreciate it for its merits and not its weaknesses. I can't remember if I've ever looked through an original Genesis, but i have owned and observed with a NP101 IS and more recently a Genesis SDF. As wide/rich field refractors they are jawdroppingly, eyepoppingly, blow your socks off awesome, even SUPERLATIVE! This is where their strength lies, at least from a visual perspective. Sweeping through Perseus using my Genesis SDF on a particularly transparent night in January, I came across the Muscle Man Cluster, which is alongside the double cluster. The beautiful rich colours of the stars in the double cluster contrasted with the piercingly sharp peppering of what appeared to be thousands of brilliant white stars in the Muscle Man. The latter twisted and turned with tendril-like arms of stars giving a strong impression of depth to the 4.5° field of my 35mm Panoptic, which the cluster filled. Very few scopes are capable of showing this cluster in such an impressive way, but the Genesis will. You may want to hold onto your Starfield though, as the Genesis is unlikely to perform nearly as well on the Moon, planets, and at high powers. (Hope I didn't offend anyone with my enthusiastic terminology)!

Just a thought Gerry. Could the lagging performance be due to atmospheric ice particles forming in the low temperatures, and washing out the definition?

Thanks for sharing your experience with youre superlative 120. It sounds like you had terrific fun. You started by mentioning your 2.5mm XO. Did you have fun with that too?

Just a few pic's from the Kettering show. And not a Takahashi in sight!!! SORRY! I MEANT TO POST THIS ON THE PAS KETTERING SHOW THREAD. PERHAPS A MODERATOR COULD MOVE IT ?

I've just shown the pic of the Old Astigmatics to my wife. She considered it for a moment and then said "hmm, they all look like astronomers". I think she thinks we look good!

It really was nice to meet up with you guy's at Kettering today. It really made my three our drive each way worthwhile, and better than checking out the astro gear on show - genuinely! The photo even makes us look civilised - well almost!

As I'm a member of The Webb Society, which may come as a surprise to other members of the Webb Society, I thought it only right to buy a beanie hat. Last of the big spenders!

It would have been illogical to attend if Tak was Spock, sorry - Michael's intention, as there wasn't a Tak in sight.

Here's a pic of an unsavoury looking character (paulastro) with that 'I've got a DL' smugness in his smile. Only he hasn't got it now, so begging or bribery won't help. h

The DL is a terrific scope without a doubt. When the two runs of DL's were first released into the astro community, they floated around for a while with some being bought and resold until somehow they disappear into the ether. Eventually they seem to settle into the hands of those who really love them and so become, as you say, "rarer than rocking horse poo". Occasionally you might find one come up for sale on AB&S or Astromart but they normally go fast. Saving now is a good idea, as you can guarantee one will come up for sale when you're least expecting it.

Thanks so much for thinking of us Jeff. Leslie's Starlight Nights has been a major influencer over the last 40+ years. To see him and his telescope has been a real treat. Many thanks, Mike

May be you could post a request on UK astro buy sell Stu. You never know if someone will know where it is and return it to you. Is the serial number written on your receipt or on the little certificate that came with the scope? It may be possible to have it professionally engraved onto your feathertouch.

It must have been a misprint Jeremy. Paul's wallet would need some delicate surgery to open it without it turning to dust.

Back in April 2017 Roger Vine and paulastro paid me a visit. Roger wanted to check out my FC100DC, and brought with him his 76, while Paul brought his FC100DL to the party. (Pic's below). The night was unusually steady and so the seeing was quite simply perfection. Roger asked if I often get seeing as good as this, so I told him "Yes, all the time!" Sorry Rog! The spring moon was high and around first quarter and so displayed a terrific terminator, while Jupiter rising later in the evening put on a stunning display too. We all spent a long time with each telescope, and I can honestly say that the views of the Moon and Jupiter through the 76mm were an absolute joy, revealing intricate belt detail in Jupiter's equatorial belts. Moving to the 100mm DC, the views were significantly more detailed due to the extra brightness and resolution, but both were tack or TAK sharp and you could tell these scopes were both seriously high end optically. For me however, the real star of the show on that evening had to be the FC100DL which was situated at the bottom of my garden, away from the DC, and the 76. We'd started our observing session around 5.30pm I think, and all scopes performed great, but around 10pm the seeing suddenly deteriorated through the DC. At the time I couldn't account for the drop in definition on Jupiter as there didn't appear to be any image shimmer or other obvious cause. So I turned to the DL to complete a sketch of Jupiter that has to be one of the most detailed I've seen through any scope. It was only on the following day that I realised what the potential problem had been with my DC. It had been looking directly over a neighbours chimney. Anyhow, as it turned out, as the evening progressed the 76 was abandoned in favour of the two FC100's. There was nothing at all wrong with the smaller scope, it was just that the DC & DL had better resolution. Jupiter as seen through the FC100DL.

A knee bucklingly gorgeous set-up Stu. But the non-Tak rightangle finder is a slightly different shade of white. And now we know where all the feathertouch disappeared to!

That's lovely John! I was allowed to borrow a 0.96" 25mm K from a Burnley telescope manufacturer called 'Cosmotron' (remember them?). It had a grey volcano top and I used it for a short time in my 60mm Prinz Astral. That little Kellner transformed that telescope. However, I was conscious the eyepiece didn't belong to me and so I returned it too soon really. It didn't occur to me to buy it, although it was probably beyond my financial means at the time, as I was only a poor apprentice, coughing up my weekly wage to my mum and getting £7 spending money in return. Happy days! 🌞

When I bought my Vixen 102mm F13 achromat from Peter Drew back in 1986, it came with a 40mm Kellner just like that one. Honestly, in that Vixen the 40K was wonderful. I'd love to be able to turn the clock back to see if the eyepiece and scope really were as good as I remember them. I had some very memorable views of some brighter DSO's using that eye piece and scope. Of course being only F13, it was a comet seeker.

Yellow snow is always bad, but Amber snow is worse! Let's hope it's white and not so deep!!

No, the dewshield on the DC, DF, DL & even the DZ can be unscrewed, as can the focuser, leading to a short tube for transport.