Highburymark

Indeed it does accumulate. I have three different solar set ups. 85mm frac with two 70mm Ha filters. 120mm frac with Baader/Solar Spectrum filter. And same scope with Herschel wedge. The pairs of eyepieces I need for solar binoviewing are: 40mm, 32mm, 25mm, 20mm, 15mm, 11mm. With barlows, that gets me from 35x to 250x - 12 eyepieces. Mostly orthos and Plossls for solar. And that’s before I start thinking about night astronomy.

Beautiful shots! But it’s the live view through the eyepiece that fires up visual observers. Having said that, I enjoy night vision astronomy which upsets some of the purists, so always best to adopt a ‘live and let live’ approach…….

For many visual astronomers, it’s equally mystifying that people buy telescopes without intending to look through them Nigella! Anyone who has a hydrogen alpha solar scope and hasn’t tried binoviewing is missing the most extraordinary views.

I use them for solar binoviewing too. They’re great for eyepieces like the 25mm microscope pairs pictured left and centre which don’t have deep eyeguards. Also long eye relief eyepieces like 25mm orthos and 32mm Plossls. One of those simple ideas which should have been commercialised decades ago. But EPs with long eyeguards/deeply recessed lenses, like the Leica pair on the right, don’t need any further light blocking, I find.

Think Lunt sells a version of these. And probably many other brands.

Doesn’t get better than that - many congratulations.

Yes - Baader only makes a plossl at 32mm but it’s packaged with the classic orthos. And you’re right about the 30mm pseudo Masuyamas - they are glorious in a binoviewer

I have pairs from 4mm to 40mm - mostly Plossls, Delites and microscope eyepieces, but also Panoptic 24s and Morpheus 12.5s for wider viewing. Solar hydrogen alpha and white light, and lunar, are almost 100% binoviewed these days. I’m so accustomed to using two eyes for these purposes that I now find single eyepieces almost physically uncomfortable. I use binoviewers about half the time for planets, but still use specialist single planetary eyepieces otherwise. Magnifications are: Between 120x and 250x - lunar and planets. Between 40x and 150x - solar Ha. Between 140x and 225x - solar white light, depending on seeing. I haven’t used any BCOs, though hear they are excellent for binoviewing. Light, sharp and affordable. The 32mm Baader Plossls seem to work well for solar as the eye lens is nicely recessed to block out unwanted light. Generally, binoviewing is a great leveller - even cheap eyepieces and binoviewers tend to work well for most purposes - as Mike says above. Pricier gear gives you either wider views or a little better performance at high powers. The most important thing is to make sure they are perfectly collimated to make merging easier and ensure longer observations are comfortable without eye strain.

Thanks for the heads up Paul.

Congrats. You will be amazed how light these scopes are - have to say I rarely used counterweights with my DC visually. A fairly robust mount barely noticed any of the FC-100s.

I have the three TOEs, and Delites 4mm and 3mm. Both Delites are excellent - bright, sharp and superbly corrected for fast scopes. In an F/6 refractor, stars are pinpoint to the edge. In average to poor conditions, you won’t see a difference. But in steady seeing, the TOEs will show more detail on Jupiter and Mars. Festoons which were hinted at in Delites will reveal themselves, and subtle band detail will stand out. If the telescope’s optics (and the seeing) are up to it, all three TOEs are stunning. Comparatively wide for specialist planetary eyepieces (52 degrees or thereabouts), they are comfortable, and just as well corrected as Delites - no field curvature in my F/6-F/7.5 fracs, no astigmatism, no visible distortion in any of the TOEs. If you want pure performance at high powers, then the TOEs are an easy choice. If you want more than 10mm eye relief, slightly wider views, and comparable views to Delos/XW, then go for the Delite.

Thanks for the clarifications Steve

Think you’re correct. 15lbs sounds about right

That is light for a 140mm. My TSA-120 is 6.7kg and I thought that was very good for a large-ish triplet.

New Starfield Gear 115mm Apo on FLO website caught my attention this morning. But can it really be 3.7kg, or 4.2kg with rings as advertised? For a 115mm triplet? If so that’s astonishingly light. Although not described as such, I believe it uses FPL/53 glass, which explains the £2.2k price.

With decent optics and a Herschel wedge or solar film, you can get above 150x on good days. But it really depends on the scope you are using - and obviously the seeing. Plossls and orthos are both good eyepieces for solar white light.

Depends on the scope’s focal length - and hence magnification, and the type of white light filter you’re using.

Great news Alan - it will become an even more prized scope once it’s all finished.

Nice set up Robert! I love widefield views with small refractors. Don’t have a 2” diagonal anymore, just T2 prisms and mirrors - but still see sharp field stop with 60ED/APM 100 degree 20mm and Panoptic 27mm, my only two 2” eyepieces.

Wow - that will be a great trip.

It is borderline orange Jeremy. It’s like the colour of an egg yolk with your breakfast bacon at the poshest B&B in the Cotswolds.

It’s a Takahashi Epsilon 130d, a very fast (F/3.3) Newtonian with an added corrector to tighten up stars. What inspired Takahashi to colour it yellow in the first place I’m not sure. Maybe imagers have more flamboyant tastes than observers, who seem happy with black and white?

I’ve got one of those Dave! Banana is a much underrated colour for telescopes in my opinion.

It was a Skywatcher 76mm ring that I used I think - should be available from most astro stores/websites. Don’t have the scope any more but it worked well as a finder mount.

Ooo, that’s very nice indeed.