Highburymark

Thanks Neil. It has extraordinary eye relief of less than 4mm, AND the eye lens is quite recessed, but it’s possible to see 60-70% of the fov by careful hovering. Rather that than clean it after every session. Need to sell some other gear now to pay for it…..

A nice addition to my planetary line up. Tight eye relief but worth the effort, by all accounts.

Very nice - like the design too. Amazing how difficult it is to find a solar finder that meets all the basic requirements. My TeleVue one is too inaccurate. My Altair is too heavy. My Baader Skysurfer combined day/night one is too faint so is difficult to use. And have you see the price of the Coronado - £120!!

Thanks - images look lovely - though I’m on my phone at the moment so can’t see close detail. Certainly interesting if there’s a benefit using the new filter through such a fine apo.

I don’t think you’d see much of a difference Neil. I’ve had the Lacerta (1.25”) and Baader (2”) wedges, and both provide sharp images. But I didn’t take the Lacerta up to the magnifications I use today with my 120mm refractor - between 150x and 250x with the Baader. As Stu has reported several times on SGL, it’s these high powers that deliver the really jaw dropping views in WL. Two nice features of the Baader are a clicklock eyepiece holder (useful for my Powermate 4x), and the nifty ‘finder’ on the back screen. The Baader Continuum filter also comes as standard. So it’s a nice package with lots of features - better value than the Lunt. But Herschel wedges have been around in almost the same guise since the Victorian era. They are pretty basic technology - and yet today the Lunt (and Baader - let’s see how much the new model will be) 2” wedges are the same price as a nice secondhand PST or Lunt 35 scope, with an immensely complex hydrogen alpha etalon incorporated. How these two different technologies are in the same price ballpark is amazing really. Let’s not forget there are some other more affordable options if you want a 2” wedge. APM, Meade, Lacerta and Altair - among others.

Which scope are you using, out of interest? I’d be first in the queue if I thought there was a visual benefit to the 7.5nm filter through an apo. Or even ‘double stacked’ with the 10nm.

Do you prefer binoviewing the planets Mike, or using your lovely Vixen HRs? Although I’m a complete convert to binoviewing the Moon and Sun, I’m still on the fence when it comes to planets, often preferring a single eyepiece for best detail. I accept that a binoviewer may be best solution with Gary’s 72mm ED, however.

Apart from the shorter length, I’m not convinced this new Baader wedge is offering anything new. The general feeling among the solar intelligentsia is that the 7.5nm continuum filter’s only benefit might be to reduce CA with achromatic refractors. A couple of imagers have reported slightly more contrast, but as a visual tool it’s not supposed to have any advantages over the previous 10nm, unless your scope shows a lot of false colour. Prices of solar wedges have shot up in the past couple of years - the Lunt is now £565!! Yet they are not offering anything more than a few years ago, when wedges were considered something of a bargain.

And if you really want to see every possible detail that your telescope can show, then any of the Tak TOEs - the 3.3mm and 2.5mm are wonderful. Quite pricey though.

I’d recommend Lunt over Coronado too - Meade has been through a challenging few years. On average their etalons are not as consistent as Lunt’s, although there’s always variability with solar Ha, and Lunts are very expensive these days in Europe. Lunt 50 is an excellent little scope, though the focuser is poor. Finally, the Lunt zoom is a good eyepiece, though massively overpriced new - it’s a clone of a Chinese eyepiece that can be found elsewhere at a third of the price. For £250 or so, the Pentax XF zoom is far superior for solar Ha.

Beautiful Dave! And well done on finding the BGOs! Both pairs will be superb in the Maxbright.

Great story Mike. I can’t compare views between a 4-5” refractor and a larger Newtonian, but I can compare them with those of 6” and 8” SCTs. In my experience I would choose the refractor every time - whether FPL-51 or 53/equivalent. But then I’m city based, and most interested in the planets, Sun and Moon. If I had access to dark skies, I would certainly have a bigger reflector to complement my refractors.

A couple of other under the radar EPs I’ve enjoyed over the years: Baader Hyperion 10mm - admittedly I didn’t use it in any superfast scopes, but it was an excellent all-rounder - sharp and bright. Meade 12.5mm (or was it 12.4mm?) 4000 plossl - my main planetary eyepiece for best part of a decade. Celestron 32mm Omni plossl. Even better - Celestron 30mm Ultimas - lovely binoviewing pair.

The GPCs aren’t just there to reach focus. They also correct aberrations introduced by the binoviewer. Because they go from 1.25x to 2.6x, they provide lots of power options.

Your W-Pl 10x/23 are right up there among the best Stu. It was your WL reports that sparked my interest.

Amazing - what a lump. But a very useful lump, at far less than half the price of a Panoptic. I still have a 36mm Hyperion aspheric which I bought for night vision (it’s one of the few non-TV eyepieces that accepted the NV adaptor). I keep reading reports about how poorly it performs in fast scopes, but I’ve seen far worse.

Would be interested to see any pics you have of the Scopos Louis

Very nice Jeremy. There’s one for sale at APM in Germany for a considerable sum - 330 euros or thereabouts. First one I’ve ever seen for sale in Europe. Just looked it up and the 3.8mm appears to have 5 elements in 3 groups (same as 5.1mm XO), though the other XPs have 6/5 configuration. And like the XOs, the shortest FL XP actually has more eye relief than the next shortest. Yours apparently has 2.7mm ER, though the 8mm XP only has 2.1mm.

Entering the murky world of microscope eyepieces can be a little daunting for astronomers. You have to familiarise yourself with complex numbers and names (what on earth is a pl-10x/18 444132-9901?). You have to deal with 30mm barrels - 1.7mm less than 1.25”. And then you have to work out where to buy them - virtually all the best and most affordable models usable for astronomy must be sourced secondhand from eBay, or the many dealers in pre-owned microscope gear. But it’s worth the effort. The three binoviewing pairs I have are exceptional, easily outperforming my long focal length astronomy eyepieces. First - Zeiss OPMI, based on an Abbé ortho design, were made for medical operations. Then I have two pairs of Leica HC Plan S, with different AFOVs, which I understand are revised Konigs. Hunt around, and you can find excellent examples of Leica HC Plan S 10x/22 for £200 upwards, less than a pair of TV Plossls. Best place to start researching is CN - there are a number of long threads there. Most pairs are the equivalent of 25mm, and between 40-60 degrees. So they are specialised tools. But when people are paying thousands to buy a pair of ZAOs, these offer a much more affordable route to eyepiece nirvana.

Spectacular - fantastic capture and thanks for posting

Ok got them - well done on some great captures!

How do I access your screenshots Nigella?

Very nice Peter. The Lunt 35 etalons do seem to have been mostly excellent, but I didn’t know they were compatible with PSTs.

Wow - spectacular - it’s gone now

Not from you they’re not. I’m out.