mikeDnight

Thats a shame. The SGL 2025 Muppet calendar won't be complete without you.

Are you P.A.Sing it this year Jeremy? It would be good to have a group pic as we perform a scrum around some expensive refractors. Lots of lenses to lick!!!

Do you mean Richard's quote, or mine Jeremy? Deep down I realise that's a silly question. ☺️

We're special alright! The late great planetary observer Richard Baum once wrote "Many look - few observe"!

Currently, three Newtonian's - 80mm, 115mm, and a 150mm. And six refractors - 2×60mm an Astral and a beautiful Carton, a 70mm modern Meade achro, and a 72mm ED, 100mm fluorite apo, & 128mm fluorite apo.

Not really very interesting as the background is quite boring, but this was my 128 looking at a thin crescent moon through thinning cloud. It gave me a chance to look through my recently acquired Altair 10mm UFF. Its gorgeous, as was the beautifully detailed lunar terminator. It was a very mild night too, so perhaps this is a sign of things improving. Shortly after my look at the moon, Jupiter made an appearance, so I changed from the 10mm UFF to the 3-8 SvBony Zoom for a very nice view. Soon though, cloud covered the sky again, but I'd still had a good time. FS128 Comfortable observing is nice too! And a hand held greasy phone camera pic of the moon through encroaching cloud.

Thats fantastic John! A great pic from a history, and a lovely old scope too. I honestly think these old small aperture scopes are better than we've been led to believe. That photo of Venus in transit deserves framing!! Do you still have your Tasco?

I'm not a Meade fan if I'm being honest, although I've had no direct experience with this particular scope. I bought something similar for my younger son when he was young, and it sapped the life out of the batteries in no time. I mentioned FLO because they are incredibly helpful and you'll get sound advice. You'd also have the reassurance that you could return it if it wasn't suitable. I've always been one of those unlucky ones who always seem to be in the wrong queue. I've spent hours waiting in line to look through goto telescopes over the years while the guy at the helm, red faced, tries to convince everyone he knows what he's doing and its just teething problems. Meanwhile, everyone in the queue for the push/pull Dob or refractor are having a great time. It's probably just me!!

I may very well have posted this before. If so I apologise! Very early morning at Huddersfield astro society where my wife and I set up my FS128 in readiness for the much anticipated 2004 Transit of Venus. My younger son Daniel spent the day with us rather than wasting his time in school, and after eating his apple, followed along with his StarTravel 102. Both scopes had home grown Mylar filters. Despite early cloud hindering the view as first contact was seen, it soon cleared and the day ended up being a great success. There were many visitors, some thrilled at the spectacle, while others wondered what all the fuss was about. One woman looking through my telescope commented "Is that it"? I was most disgruntled, as a little over a year earlier I'd spent almost £4000 on this telescope plus a new mount, the best mount I've ever owned, a Celestron German equatorial made by Losmandy. Wish I'd never parted with it!!! Obviously some people have little appreciation for fine optics and how well defined a transiting black dot can be to a nutter like me! There's nowt as queer as folk!! My FS128 observing the transit of Venus, June 8 2004, along with dad & lad. (Interesting to me at least, was the fact I saw no black-drop effect. Only a very slight contrast effect as Venus limb touched the edge of the Sun. I believe it to be due to limb darkening being emphasised next to the black disc of the planet). What did we see?

I'd worry you'd spend more time, getting frustrated by messing with the gadgetry trying to get it to work, than looking through it. There are better options on FLO.

Lovely pic's Paul. When I scrolled down and saw the picture of your insane good looks, I at first thought it was Dickie Mint running off with your telescope. My like was for the second pic.

Heres another wonderful UFF to my collection - an Altair 10mm Ultra Flat. I've just looked across town through it with my 72ED and reassuringly its as flat as flat gets, right to the edge. Its also very comfortable to use. All I need now is the 15 and 24 and I'll have a full house.

The late great E.E. Barnard claimed that 180 X was the best power for Jupiter even when using the Great Yerkes Refractor. There's just something about that particular planet that doesn't play well at much above that power; I think it's the massive amount of complex detail that gets lost in the fight between high power and atmospheric turbulence that does it. There is a definite jump in performance between a 4" and a 5", but not so great between a 5" and a 6". As regards the DC vs DZ, there's very little in it unless you're an imager, and its certainly not worth the £1000 difference in price IMHO. The DC/DF and DL versions (if you could find the latter) will all deliver silly high powers if the night allows. You dont need Takahashi either, as there are other top end brands out there. An old Vixen FL102 would hold its own against any 4" Tak! The SW120ED is a fabulous scope, but there's a new kid on the block with Askar, and they not only offer great prices, they offer large apertures too. Check them out! What about a 7" Askar as a planetary scope? The best views of Mars that I ever had was through a 8.5" achromat at my local astronomy club back in 2003. The 8.5" was the only scope out of what must have been dozens of scopes of various designs that were on the field that night, that out-gunned my FS128, and many had much greater apertures. The detail in the 8.5" was too intricate to ever draw with precision, so with that in mind, I'd consider the 7" Askar Apo rather than the 6" ED. I was the proud owner of a 6" Takahashi many years ago, which new would have cost over £10,000.00, and can tell you that 5" to 6" doesn't offer any wow factor, but jumping to 7" will certainly pack a noticeable punch.

That's awesome! I'd imagine as you read it, you'll rekindle the thrill and excitement it must have given you all those years ago. I love Patrick's books because he wrote as he spoke, and you can hear his enthusiasm and personality as you read. Well done in finding a copy. It's a Patrick book I've never seen nor read, so you'll have to do a Jackanory review for us sometime soon. 😆

Double post, sorry!

Taking things with "a pinch of salt" is a touch on the superstitious! It's true though that not all telescopes, even of equal aperture, are equal, even if the brand sings loudly from the rooftops of its own greatness. I fell for one such American manufacturers boastful claims and bought one of their 4" refractors back in 2007. "It Is What You Want It To Be!" they claimed. Well it wasn't, and couldn't even reach 200X and maintain acceptable levels of planetary definition. It was gutless and powerless! By contrast, the mostly Japanese manufacturers, tend to offer little more than a whisper of their scopes abilities. They leave that to their countless delighted customers. A top end 4" refractor will have reached its resolution limit at around 200X, and that is down to the "laws of physics"! But, if the optical quality is there in the first place, there's nothing preventing that maximum resolution limit from being magnified way beyond 200X, increasing the image scale for ease of observation providing it remains reasonably sharp and doesn't lose definition or contrast. Local seeing conditions can make or brake even a top end refractors ability to deliver its best. Because of this I've been able to observe discernable albedo features, cloud and ice on Mars while it has been only 4.3 arc seconds diameter; use 474X on Venus, and over 300X while observing the Moon. Double stars love high power, and the magnifications of 500X, and even 1000X while maintaining a textbook image were totally truthful, and neither lies nor exaggeration as your post implies. A good source for the OP to consult regarding refractors would be ScopeViews by Roger Vine. It's well worth perusing for an honest, in depth appraisal of how each performs.

I'd seriously consider the Altair 18mm UFF. It really took me by surprise because of the truly flat field and comfort it offers. The 24mm UFF is another that may be worth considering, as it will give a darker more contrasty sky background than the 32 Plossl, and from some accounts on CN delivers a more comfortable and flatter field than the 24 Panoptic, while at a fraction of the price.

The Tak can definitely do that on a steady night. My FC100DZ gives 500X with a 1.6mm Vixen High Resolution eyepiece, and with a barlow gave an unbelievable sharp and contrasty view of contrasting doubles at 1000X. But you mentioned splitting close doubles! For that you may need a little more aperture and where Tak are concerned that means £££££. A TOA 130 or TOA 150 would make double stars, as well as your bank balance tremble!!

If the eyepieces that SvBony make are anything to go by, the 80mm should be very nice. It will offer a wide field field view and with a barlow will deliver nice views of the Moon, Sun and Planets. With a binoviewer it will give truly excellent views of the solar system. The 90mm has a longer focal length and won't give a wide field option, but it will be very nice optically, especially on solar system targets and double stars. I recon that both are potentially very good telescopes in their aperture class!

If it was a true optically flat window it would work well. The old AstroScan reflectors used this method of holding the secondary. Another alternative would be to use a Herschellian design, where the observer looks directly down the tube and there's no need for a secondary. A Brachet reflector design also uses an off axis method but they are long focal length.

Nothing really removes the effects of diffraction, which is caused by anything that crosses the light path. In refractors the diffraction pattern is caused by the edge of the lens cell. In Catadioptric's by the edge of the primary and the edge of the secondary, intensifying the brightness of the first diffraction ring. In scopes using a spider, both sides of the spider vein whether single, double, triple or quadruple create diffraction spikes thet travel right across the field of view. So no matter how thin your spider veins are, both sides of each vein will still cause a diffraction spike across the field of view. Using curved veins doesn't remove the diffraction, just alters the shape so it becomes less obvious. The stronger or more numerous the spikes, the more damaging to definition they become. Better to have four vein spiders than three, as each vein caused a spike across the entire field, so a four vein spider will show four spikes, but a three vein will create six spikes. A single vein or twin vein spider is better in my view, but that's why I like refractors!

I'm another who hasn't yet had chance to look through an SW150ED, but I'm in no rush to do so. I have however owned three SW120ED's. The first was a standard black diamond 120ED Pro which really was excellent. I exchanged that for the 120ED Equinox version. This second ED was a touch on the red side which told me they are not all alike as regards quality. It was however a truly great scope never the less. I sold it and bought a 100mm ED but that didnt float my boat, so I bought yet another 120 Equinox ED. I remember my first view through a SW 120 ED and what I thought about it when viewing the Moon. I told my friend who's scope it was, that "It's very Tak"! That's the best compliment I could ever give any telescope. Years went by and Takahashi returned to producing Fluorite refractors, but with a maximum aperture of 100mm currently. I had owned both the 128 and 152 Tak fluorite and so knew what a dream scope they could be, so I placed an order for the FC100DC. When the FC arrived the first night was clear and I set the FC100DC up alongside my excellent 120 Equinox ED. The 120 gave a very nice view of Jupiter, but when I looked through the Takahashi the equatorial belts appeared much more vibrant, and almost looked like they were braided around the planet. Bare in mind that light grasp made no difference and the resolution gain of the 120ED had no observable impact on the detail on show. In fact the 100mm gave the more detailed view on that first night. Successive nights gave the same results, so I had no regrets when I let the 120ED go. I've used the FC100D exclusively for more than 8 years and wanted for nothing. Last year I had chance to reacqire another FS128 which is a bit of a beast, yet I still love my FC100D. The FC rapidly became my most used telescope, because it was virtually effortless to set up and never failed to offer stunning views. You mentioned double stars! Well, the FC100D is a terrific double star scope. Five hundred X on a steady night is entirely doable with a tracking mount. 1000X if the night is exceptional; I know because I've done it! The FC100 is light weight and can be carried on an EQ5 or Vixen GP with ease. The same mount may very well carry a 120ED providing its on a strong tripod. But a 150ED will need a GPDX or Losmandy GM8 to do it justice. Attached are a few pics. You can measure how good a scope is by the wideness of my grin! 😆 Below is the FC100DC and FC100DZ. Honestly! I really don't believe you can go wrong with either the 120ED or the Tak 100. Both are great scopes, but which is best for your personal needs is a choice only you can make.

I'd be happy to David. I've seen Hellas and Argyre countless times in a 4", and they are large impact basins, or so I believe, so I'm claiming to have seen craters on Mars. I can see me scouting through my many observations after reading this book, to see if anything I've drawn repeatedly, other than Hellas and Argyre, corresponds to actual craters.

This arrived this morning, sent from America free of charge from a wonderful man Keith Gordon, son of the author. I haven't had chance to read it yet but its full of astronomical sketches, and deals with a very interesting topic. 🙂