Highburymark

£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.

No - just sailed through checks at the airport. Normally they do ask what’s in the case but didn’t this time.

Some lovely travel kits in this thread. I’m currently in Menorca with the following: TV85, PVS-14 night vision eyepiece. TV Plossls - 55mm/67mm, 32mm. Panoptic 24, Delite 18.2, 11. Baader zoom, VIP barlow. Takahashi TOE 3.3mm. All fitted easily into cabin baggage on EasyJet flight. Really useful to have a zoom for travel, and the Baader zoom is a great all-rounder - fun zooming in on globular clusters. Wonderful to have dark skies again. First night bagged M13, M92, M4, M10, M12, M9, M14, M107, M22, M28 and four non-Messier globulars. M31, M110, M8, M16, M17, M20, M11, and Saturn.

Ags - the APM XWAs are currently available from Astrograph in the UK for £215, which is excellent value. The 20mm is a bit pricier, but still less than a third of the Ethos 21 cost. Like Badhex I’m usually happy with narrower eyepieces, but I did pick up the XWA 20mm last winter as my one 100 degree EP - fantastic for showcase DSOs, and I was surprised how light it is.

Good luck with the new mount Michael. They are amazingly capable. I have the Rainbow RST-135 and love it.

Hmm. It’s obviously vignetting quite significantly - can you see the field stop visually at all, or is your image an exact representation of what you see through the eyepiece? I’ve seen similar edge colour in my APM 100 degree 20mm - particularly with an F/6 60ED during daytime - but it’s much less exaggerated than your pic.

The first sunny days for years when I’ve not got the solar scope out. Have to make do with Gong until tomorrow.

Is it worth it…..? The LS50 is a very nice scope. You’ll see a reasonable improvement in resolution, so will be able to increase the power without losing detail. Pressure tuning works well. And if you wish later on, you can double stack and significantly improve surface detail. But - In fact the LS40 has a larger etalon than the internal LS50 etalon. In theory therefore the 40 should have less of a sweet spot - it’s difficult to get a 50 which shows consistent detail across the disc because of this reason. However, if you’re not imaging, this isn’t such a deal breaker, as you just manipulate the image to focus on the area you wish to view. So - it’s a yes from me. Only consideration is whether you might want to swallow hard and get an LS60 now - maybe secondhand - and forget the 50. Upgrading solar scopes is expensive - but it’s much cheaper to upgrade once rather than twice if you think you might be tempted by a 60 in the future.

I’ve tempered my hopes for this one after the initial excitement earlier in the year - but it’s one of my main targets for a trip to Spain in early August (with a TV85), and the fact you’ve seen it with bins is encouraging Michael.

Is it just me, or are a lot more Maks being bought these days? Great choice with planet season around the corner.

Beautiful scope! Just in time for planet season too. I was also unhappy with just two tube rings. Although mine fitted tightly around the telescope, there was a degree of sag when I fitted the scope onto my Skytee mount. I eventually moved to a three ring set up, which might seem like overkill, but is much more robust.

I’d like to see a comparison between the T6 11mm and the £££££ Apollo 11mm. Bet they’re not that far apart.

I thought the 11mm T6 was the best in the range Alan. And the most comfortable to use. But at 10mm and below I’d stick with XWs unless weight is a major issue, or unless you need the extra fov.