Highburymark

Interesting. Unlike night vision, they don’t seem to appeal so much to astronomy enthusiasts. But they’re well backed and clearly making more people interested in the night sky - so good luck to them.

That’s an interesting point. How much harder is it to control CA at 130mm than 100mm? I notice the Agema 130 fluorite doublet is an eye watering £6.3k in Europe - advertised with “great colour correction”. Whether that means zero CA I don’t know. It’s also 9.5kg! Lovely thing, but at those prices, I’d rather have a TOA.

My take on it is this: the FC-100DZ is already £2.5-£2.6k. Even an FC-120DZ (not as big a scope as you are suggesting) would cost at the very least £3.4k. And the TSA-120 triplet is only £500 more. With this scenario, can only conclude that there isn’t enough space or profitability in an DZ120. How much would a 130DZ cost? £4k? Is there a market at that price? I’d love them to extend the range, but I maybe it doesn’t stack up financially?

Congrats - the Maxbright II is a lovely thing. Light, excellent EP holders and the views as good as the MKV to my eyes. I also have the Zeiss Apo binoviewer and will often choose the Baader if I want a wider view. In the range you require, I mostly use 18.2 and 11mm Delites. As others have commented, the fov seems wider than 62 degrees in a binoviewer. I don’t think you’ll find anything on the market that beats them on transmission or sharpness. But - and it’s quite a big but - they are quite wide at the top, and, without removing the eye guard, not as comfortable as some other eyepieces for binoviewing. For example I find eye positioning and comfort much improved with Panoptic 24s, or TV Plossls (at least between 11mm and 25mm). So I’d advise, if possible, trying before buying.

Very nice Alan. Gotta love that old school Celestron design. Not the first time an older astro design has humbled the brand’s modern equivalent….. (cough cough Vixen….)

😁 Just a pair of binoculars for the birds, though you’re right, the telescope would have been excellent. Must put Barnes on my list of birding destinations. Have visited a few cemeteries and wetlands in north London over the past year, but Barnes looks great

Agree they look and sound superb - but also pricey in Europe for a doublet - they cost the same as a TSA triplet fitted with FT focuser

At these apertures, scope size and weight really do increase quickly as the amount of glass rises exponentially with each 10mm jump (particularly when upgrading to a triplet). The TOA 130mm looked like a sizeable increase in bulk from TSA-120 - incredible telescope though. Just weighed my fully laden TSA-120 as 8.7kg - I can still use it on a carbon fibre Gitzo 4-series tripod rated for 25kg (with a Skytee mount), but must admit the 2 second vibrations are distracting, so I’ve just found a secondhand 5-series Gitzo rated for 40kg payload - and even more importantly, improved stiffness. Am hoping this will work well with the Tak. I just don’t have the space for a bigger wood/steel astronomical tripod, so this scope is as far as I can go with a camera tripod. Never used one, but looks like the Rowan mount could probably handle all of these scopes, though.

Indeed Peter - that’s how we spent Sunday morning, in one of several hides near the beach - me trying to appear more knowledgeable about coastal wading birds than I clearly am. There’s also an impressive birding visitors’ centre, which among other attractions has its own optics shop. Mostly binoculars and spotting scopes - but nice to see a real store where you can go and try the goods before you buy them.

Yes - it’s a DC with the green ‘spacer’ section removed (shown at side) as I needed the extra light path for binoviewing. The size doesn’t stop me from going out, but whereas before I had two refractors of similar size (85mm and 100mm), I now have greater distance (between my TV85 and 120mm TSA) - so if I want a really short session I grab the TeleVue, and for longer sessions, particularly in good seeing, I’ve got the bigger aperture. I know I won’t be able to handle the TSA for ever due to my bad back. I’m hoping I can get at least 5-7 years out of it before it proves too much. But that might happen far sooner. I am 100% sure that I will then go back to a light fluorite doublet - almost certainly an FC-100DZ (or an FC-115DZ would be nice if anyone from Tak’s product development department is reading).

Bad news that your LP is growing - but to be able to see M13 naked eye blows my mind!

I was impressed that so many people in the area are aware of light pollution and minimise outdoor lighting at night. Local authority obviously proactive on the issue. Tbh I’d be happy to move to Norfolk tomorrow and work remotely, but think it’s going to take several years of campaigning if I’m going to persuade my better half.

How many nights a year would you put in that rare category living where you do Mike?

Having just upgraded from an FC-100 to a TSA-120, I’ve been impressed by the extra resolution on planets and the Sun. I think that extra 2cm collects 44% more light. Yet to use it for lunar or deep sky. The optics are to my eyes perfect, no false colour on the brightest stars even out of focus, but there are also several other scopes out there that deliver essentially perfect views. But you can’t underestimate the physical implications of moving from a 3kg to a 6.7kg scope (around 9kg fully laden - pics show two scopes together for comparison). For me, everything had to to be reassessed - dovetail, clamp, mount, tripod, storage space, routine for setting up the scope, and of course cooldown time, though I won’t know exactly how fast it cools until we get further into autumn/winter - at the moment it’s usable immediately. Most of the 130mm/140mm scopes represent another step up in bulk, so making sure you can physically accommodate whichever choice you make must be the first question to be asked.

Thanks. Not sure of the SQM. Would be an interesting experiment to compare a large dob or SCT with a small NV set up under such conditions.

Any prizes for guessing your little confession correctly Stu? I’ll hazard a wild guess - a new solar scope?

Last weekend we visited my brother in law’s family in Cley, a small coastal village in Norfolk - close to Kelling, which many SGL members will of course be familiar with. He lives in a beautiful house on a hill looking out to sea, and is blessed with the most magnificent views. Compelling though the daytime scenery was, however, I was more interested in waiting for nightfall, and looking upwards. After dinner on Saturday, I grabbed my TV85, and popped out. The skies were as dark and perfect as I have ever experienced - the Milky Way a blazing stripe stretching from one horizon to the other. A few targets to begin with. I checked out Jupiter and Saturn. Very nice at 200x. A few standout globulars - M13, M92 and M15. I swept the area north of Sagittarius, several Messiers prominent, right up to the Swan overhead. Then I replaced my standard eyepiece with a 55mm TV Plossl, attached to a PVS-14 with Photonis 4G intensifier. This is a really nice tube - FOM of 2141, signal to noise ratio of 31.95. For night vision geeks, these numbers are important. They give you an idea how clean and bright objects will appear, while minimising the background scintillation that could compromise astronomical work with cheap devices. Into the diagonal it went, and the heavens were immediately transformed into an breathtaking carpet of puffy nebulae and dust bands. Sweeping through Cygnus was simply stunning - the North American, Pelican, Veil, Gamma Cygni, all extensive and aglow. The Crescent, just hanging there. No effort, no averted vision. Further down, the Heart and Soul and Elephant’s Trunk, framed by countless stars. I switched filters to the Baader 685nm, and swapped eyepieces to the 18.2mm and 11mm Delites to focus on stellar targets. M13 and M92 were superb, and unlike earlier, nearly resolved to their cores. M31 showed dust band detail. M81 and M82 were bigger, brighter and prettier than ever before. It would be perfectly fair to ask whether anyone reallly needs night vision when conditions are this good. Of course, the answer is no. I would willingly give up my NV system for ten clear nights in Norfolk with nothing more than a small refractor each year. But the fact is that the two experiences are completely different - NV shows an entirely unique view of the night sky, where constellations no longer bear resemblance to the familiar patterns we know from star charts, and where emission nebulae become part of a much bigger tapestry of interstellar gas. It’s ironic really, because I bought my image intensifier to punch through the appalling light pollution in London. It does indeed do that, to a degree, on nights of good transmission. But bringing it to a dark site really drives home what night vision technology can do for amateur astronomy. It’s more than a game changer. It can be almost overwhelming - even with my little TV85. I came away from last weekend thinking that night vision possibly makes even more sense for people under dark skies than those plagued by light pollution. How the NV views would stack up in Cley with a large SCT or dob I can’t imagine. [pic showing set up was taken a while ago - thankfully no need for light blocking umbrellas in Norfolk]

No Ha capability at the moment as my DS filter had to go back to Solarscope to be separated from the screw on telescope adapter - as a result it was stuck tight and impossible to tune. In the meantime I’ve been enjoying the magnificent sunspots in white light this week with the TSA-120. Surprised that - as a committed binoviewer user - I preferred views this time with a single eyepiece. Tried two binoviewers, both of which seemed to struggle with seeing, then a single Pentax XF zoom at 6.5mm (140x) - amazing detail every few seconds when things calmed down, and even at 225x (Delite 4), the image held together during extended moments of steady seeing. The single eps seemed able to punch through the atmosphere better. Three light bridges crossing a single spot was a highlight. Curious to compare the two approaches next time.

You beat me to it John - I double checked before using my TSA-120 with the Baader wedge - no issues for air space triplets.

Lovely detail in WL this afternoon at 225x. Don’t have my Ha scope at the moment, but a joy to observe the Sun either way at the moment

Fantastic scope Stu, congratulations. Mouth watering prospect with darker skies. Like you, I decided to go up in aperture to 120mm while I still could. Also had to rethink the mounting set up to cope with the weight - long Losmandy, new rings etc. I keep reading how there’s not much visual improvement between 100mm and 120mm, but I’ve been thrilled with the extra punch. So can imagine 130mm will open up all sorts of targets for you. Galaxies, globulars - and what about early morning solar WL with the LZOS? I was using a 4mm Delite with the TSA-120 and Baader wedge this afternoon at 225x and got some great views, but I shall keep an eye out for your WL reports with the new scope

Happens all the time -spots almost certainly on the outside. Just follow the cleaning advice above. If the spots are inside and it was used normally, then I’d presume the eyepiece is defective and should be returned.

I’ve taken five scopes abroad with me over the past decade: Meade ETX-105: great for the Moon and planets, and so easy - just sat on a table top. But deep sky wasn’t its forte. C6: a better all-rounder, easy to mount. Really good travel option. 80ED Equinox: even better - superb dark sky travel scope. £ for £, the best of the five. Takahashi FC-100DC: 4” scope that fits in cabin baggage - but only just, with focuser and dew shield removed. Required great care to ensure it survived the trip unscathed - so not the ideal option. Unbeatable views though. Televue 85: this is what I have now. Too expensive new and has been around forever, but bombproof construction, excellent ED optics, happy on a light camera tripod, great for solar, planets, dsos, night vision. Not as posh or capable as the Baader, but very nearly the perfect travel scope.

Nice one Paul. Good to see such an active Sun. Not the best time for my Solarscope filters to be out of action! Had to send the DS unit back to the factory.

Wouldn’t a Baader clicklock solve your problems Don?