Highburymark

The ‘Exoplanet’ app is great for touring around the Milky Way, and with add-ons, out to our local groups of galaxies and beyond. It’s a lot more than just an exoplanet explorer.

If you’ve got a good Quark, and it sounds like you do, there are no guarantees that a new one would be as good - unless you can try it before buying. Consistency does seem to have improved, but each filter is different - and you might get one with a wider bandpass, resolving fewer surface details. Apols if you are already aware of this, but there’s always a risk buying solar Ha etalons, and if you have a really good Quark now, it could be an expensive disappointment.

They are mostly pretty good for astronomy. The Leica ASPH really broke through into astronomy because apart from excellent optics, it offered a wide field throughout the range of powers, and it was sold with adapters for 1.25” diagonals by APM and Starlight (with Starlight being by far the best, though pricey). I’ve read good things about Swarovski zooms in telescopes. The Pentax zooms were developed for spotting scopes, and although the XF zoom is poor for nighttime astronomy, the XL zoom is used by lots of stargazers. Other names like Kowa and Meopta sometimes crop up on astro forums. And of course it works the other way - the current Baader zoom is used a lot on spotting scopes. The biggest drawback with the Leica I found was its limited range (9-18mm roughly), yet adding a barlow for more magnification was a bit of a pain, and not something you wanted to do out at night. But it was a beautiful eyepiece, as Louis said keeping pace with Delos/XW.

The ST80 is a very fast telescope for a Quark. They work best with scopes of F/7.5 and slower, to see best surface detail.

Good post from Ricochet at the start of this thread. I’ve been testing all my eyepieces for edge of field star sharpness in an F/6 60ED refractor. The EPs tested included: TV Plossls - most of the range. TV Panoptics 27 and 24. TV Delites 18.2. 11, 7, 4, 3. Full set of Kasai orthos. Baader asph 36 and MkIV zoom. Leica and Zeiss microscope eyepieces. APM 100 degree 20. Pentax XW5. Tak TOEs full set. Interestingly, the only EPs that maintained sharpness across the FOV, controlling field curvature and astigmatism, without noticeable distortion, were the Delites (all superb, though a small bit of FC with the 18.2), the Pentax XW (superb, though with a touch of false colour at the edge), and the TOEs (all perfect in every way). Most of the Plossls and orthos were good, though not perfect, despite their limited AFOV. Good widefields like the Panoptics showed fuzzy stars at the edge, but they could be sharpened with a change in focus (proving that the problem was field curvature rather than astigmatism). However, they also show significant pin cushioning. Every eyepiece is a compromise. Doing these experiments proves once again that expensive eyepieces don’t necessarily perform well in all telescopes.

Takahashi morphs into Astro Physics.

There are a couple of repeated focal lengths among mine (pairs of 11mm Plossls and 11mm Delites, TOE 4mm/Delite 4mm, and three x 25mm microscope pairs), but every eyepiece gets regular use. That’s ultimately why I hang onto them all.

Binoviewing three different solar set-ups/night vision/and four different telescopes are my excuse. APM XWA 20mm and new pair of Leicas for binoviewing have joined (and Ultima 30s have gone) since this picture was taken a while ago. Still a long way short of Louis.

All the Chinese dielectrics (like your WO unit) are of similar (and very good) quality. However, if you want the best, then they are a) Baader BBHS mirror or b) Baader Zeiss prism, which will produce slightly brighter and sharper views than the Chinese dielectrics - in my F/7 and F/7.5 refractors they give equally pleasing results, though the BBHS mirror is supposedly preferred for faster scopes below F/7, and the prism for F/7 and above. See the William Pasolini reviews for more info. If you want the 2” versions however, they ain’t cheap. I just have the more affordable T2 versions which I then use with 2” (as in pic) or 1.25” clicklocks. The array of Baader diagonals is confusing for the uninitiated . There’s also the very nice white mirror 2” pictured above by Mr Spock, and standard mirrors and prisms. And amici versions.

Beautiful scope Jeremy. Guess you need a night of excellent seeing to really compare the planetary views with your TSA-120. Certainly I see more and crisper detail on Jupiter with my TSA than I ever did with an 8” SCT (C8 Edge), but if well collimated, surely the Mewlon 210 would win that contest.

Nice review - they look like excellent value. Lots of pincushion distortion but then TV Panoptics are no different, and it’s not a major problem for most astronomy applications.

Fantastic set up Nigella. And the 127 is a very nice addition to your solar arsenal. All looks a lot more professional than my solar observatory.

£419 for a Delos is a huge hike. With Pentax XWs still available at £279, at least there are more affordable options. Just seen the price of a 2” Lunt Herschel wedge - £565!! As much as a decent secondhand PST.

It’s also useful as an indoors eyepiece/optics tester, particularly if you have limited space!

Very nice! They are very capable little scopes in my view - CA control is excellent for an F/6 - inevitable field curvature however.

That’s what the D-ERF’s for over the front Jeremy. Prevents your eyes getting fried or microwaved.😎

My two Takahashis. An Epsilon 130d, F/3.3, used for night vision observing, and TSA-120, on solar duty.

I think anywhere along that coast away from the main developments will be great Jeremy. Beyond Binidali looks good if you can get there. Or even inland a bit to the south of the airport.

We were based just outside San Lluis Jeremy, fairly close to Mahon - with mostly clear views to the east and south over dark countryside. However there is some local light pollution, so for viewing galaxies and faint DSOs, I drove down further south - close to Torret, and found a quiet place to park and viewed next to the car. Best of all is to find a site along the southern coast away from any signs of life. A few years ago I found a place near Punta Prima which was great - but didn’t go back this year. Whereabouts are you staying?

Thanks Stu. Transparency was good in Menorca - better than some previous years as we’ve been visiting the island for 25 years, and better than I was expecting as it was very hot. Last time we went during a hot summer (when Mars was covered with a dust cloud, maybe 3 years ago), I remember the transparency was poor. The worst year for transparency and humidity, I also remember regularly seeing EOFB with a couple of eyepieces - particularly Leica zoom - but there was none this year. For a small (80/85mm) ED scope, I find Cassini is a good test of atmospheric conditions, and it was very clear this year. However, one interesting thing I noticed was that the Tak TOEs didn’t offer any improvement over Delites on the planets - so certainly not prime planet-viewing conditions.

Back from a couple of weeks in Menorca and a weekend on the Norfolk Coast (Cley) with TV85 and PVS-14/Photonis 4G night vision tube. Nice to get out of London and a reminder that you really don’t need a large telescope to get stunning results with night vision. Altogether in Spain I saw 14 globular clusters (mostly with Baader zoom and Baader 685nm filter), only one of which remained fuzzy (M107). All the others presented as resolved balls of individual stars. M4 was a glittering highlight. Having a zoom for the first time with night vision was great for finding best magnification, however then swapping over to fixed f/l Delites did improve views further. Summer nebulae in Sagittarius were also beautiful - M8 in particular. Eagle/Omega/Trifid etc. But the whole area is alive with nebulosity up to Aquila and Cygnus. Similarly with star fields. Familiar constellations and star hopping routes go out of the window - you end up ignoring star charts and just take in the views. Despite relatively dark conditions in Spain, skies on the Norfolk coast are on a different level. Cley is close to Kelling, and provides a perfect location for astronomy, overlooking a mile of protected marshland out to the North Sea. The Milky Way is a grey stripe across the sky, even in August. Dust lanes were observable on M31 and M82. M51 was distinct. But best of all was the North American nebula, which I’ve never seen in such detail (with TV67mm plossl, Baader 7nm Ha filter). Filling the fov, it was full of detail, remarkable for such a normally faint object. Altogether a great couple of weeks. If only I were my brother in law, and lived in Norfolk, night vision astronomy with a larger scope must be absolutely spectacular.

Very nice Jeremy. My only view through one was at Astrofest a couple of years ago. Frankly a wall at Kensington Conference Centre wasn’t the ideal target for such a beautiful eyepiece - but can imagine Jupiter or Saturn might be more interesting.

Well said. And I agree about collimation. It was not a problem on my C6 or C8 Edge.

The most frustrating thing about SCTs, in my experience at least, is that a small minority of examples produce stunning views. If you are fortunate to own one, you have close to the ideal telescope. But a great many more do not. An average SCT does most things reasonably well, but I ultimately found them disappointing when I wanted to push them hard. As a lunar/planetary scope, I’d take a 4-5” apo over an average C8 any day. BUT - there are some superb SCTs out there. Just a case of finding them.

I’ve seen plasma moving in real time twice in many years of solar observing - that’s twice in around a thousand sessions, so it’s very rare. One was an X-class flare earlier this year. And I think both were at magnifications of 140-150x. But as Peter describes, much of the movement was perceived in relation to other comparatively static features around the rapidly expanding plasma - like an area of background space becoming smaller in size, which could be seen in real time.