Highburymark

Picking up an old thread here for the benefit of any Takahashi owners who are looking for some high quality replacement tube rings, and don’t want the red Primaluce offerings. I can thoroughly recommend the More Blue rings (and dovetail/finder shoe) which FLO now sells. Extremely well made and user friendly. The grey metal seems to suit most Tak scopes - even my banana coloured Epsilon looks smart, which is quite some feat.

It’s a difficult decision. Quality of Coronados is variable, and there’s not much of a support network here in Europe if something goes wrong, so it’s important to buy from a trusted supplier. If I were buying a Coronado now, I’d want to test the etalons first, which normally means buying used. Lunt’s quality is higher, though still far from certain that you’d get a top performing scope, particularly single stacked. Also the new modular Lunts are very expensive. The basic LS80 with 1200 blocking filter and crayford focuser is £9,000 double stacked!! All reasons why I opted for Solarscope filters when I upgraded - double stacked SF70 filters are cheaper here in the UK than the DS Lunt 80, though they are considerably pricier in export markets. A Quark would be fantastic for your large refractor, but only the best examples show the detail and uniformity needed for imaging. Having said all this, and apologies for making your decision even more difficult, but I know someone in the States who recently bought one of the last Coronado SMII 90 DS scopes, and loves it. They are hefty beasts, but get a good one and you’ll have a scope for life.

Very nice indeed! Good luck tracking down the 5mm and 6mm. Will make a superb collection. Presume these are the spiritual successors to modern Fujiyama orthos, made by Kokusai Kohki? Do prefer the volcano tops at shorter focal lengths. Have a 6mm Fujiyama but the eye relief is too tight for me, so it’s in the ‘to be sold’ box at the moment.

I don’t have any problems with the Delite design either. If the lower caps are a little tight, they are easy enough to remove by holding the barrel with two fingers and pulling off the cap with the other hand.

Missed this Dave - what a beauty, and a lovely companion scope to the 128.

Thanks - will give it a go

I store my solar scope with desiccant packets tied around the blocking filter in a small plastic bag. Think it’s particularly advisable if you don’t use the scope much over winter. Haven’t had any problems with blocking filters in 6-7 years.

Will be interested to hear your experiences with this Stu. I’ve got a UV/IR (only 1.25”) that I used with a Quark before buying a full ERF. Have never considered it for white light. Are you expecting any further improvement in image quality?

I have a pair of Hawke Sapphire ED that I picked up for about £250 - absolutely love them. Mainly use them for birdwatching, and the optics are top notch. Very sharp over 90% of the fov, and can only see CA under the most testing conditions - ie looking through leaves with brightest skies beyond, so it’s not an issue Best bins I’ve owned - though I haven’t used them for astronomy yet.

No need to worry! Solar scopes are built to be used over a long lifetime, as long as they are looked after. There are solar observers still using etalons from 25+ years ago. In fact, some older filters will outperform new ones. Particularly prized are Coronado etalons from the 1990s, manufactured before Meade took over the brand.

The peaks and troughs of the Moon’s surface are very clear even at 60-70x - particularly in the area of widest contact

Still counts..... even the briefest of glimpses is worth setting up for 👍

So fortunate here - skies just cleared in past ten minutes.

3 seconds of glorious clarity in London!

I completely agree too Paul. At least half of summer days which are forecasted as cloudy/overcast provide some observing opportunities. And even if we don’t get clear views, partial eclipses can look spectacular behind light cloud cover, though not great for imaging, granted. I remain hopeful for this one.

New ‘More Blue’ rings for my Epsilon. Very nice they are, and much cheaper than Takahashi rings.

The DC is the only FC-100 to have that removable (green) section just in front of the focuser. Makes it really flexible for binoviewing and travel. I’ve never reattached mine after removing it years ago.

An interesting comparison. After enjoying M3 with the F/7.4 Tak FC-100DC and Delite 18.2mm on Monday night, I tried the same object at the same magnification with F/3.3 Tak Epsilon and Delite 11mm on Tuesday evening. Both systems produced around 40x. Same Baader IR pass 685nm filter both nights. First the maths. The FC100/Delite 18.2 combination was operating (roughly) at the equivalent of a very slow F/12.5, with an aperture of 100mm. The Epsilon/Delite 11mm combination was operating at (roughly) F/7.5, with an aperture of 130mm. No contest surely, for night vision, which thrives on faster systems? Well, if there was any difference in the brightness of M3 between the frac and reflector, it was very difficult to distinguish. The two views were very similar indeed. Perhaps marginally improved brightness on the second evening. Stars perhaps slightly sharper on the first evening. I think it illustrates the impact of transmission on night vision. On really bad nights, it can make you question whether the intensifier is working properly. On good nights, it’s like I’m under dark skies, not London N1. Clearly the transmission was poorer on Tuesday. The other factor is that speed matters less with concentrated targets like bright globulars. Night vision works really well on these objects at higher powers with slower refractors. But on more dispersed targets like nebulae, the speed differences are more obvious - and the superfast Epsilon comes into its own.

Nice one Gavin! 👍

Wow - the surface detail is amazing

Think TS Plossls are manufactured by GSO - they’re very good. 40mm will be superb through your Quark.

Took my F/7.4 Tak FC-100 4” frac out last night to see if I could pick up any spring targets in the SW/W/NW sky with my night vision monocular. Used a TV Delite 18mm eyepiece (and Baader IR-pass 685nm filter) to give 41x. This is particularly slow for a night vision set up - a relatively high power eyepiece in a fairly slow telescope, so a very long way from the brightness I can get with a 55/67mm TV plossl and F/3.3 Tak Epsilon 130d, (equivalent of F/1.5-ish, for faint nebulae). But I was looking for objects that need scale. As ever, I was observing from my garden in North London - the very worst light pollution possible, with a floodlit school at the end of the garden bathing the night sky in local light too. It was a difficult night in that seeing was poor, but transmission must have been excellent because I managed to pick up a very nice M53, a globular I’ve struggled with before. From here I moved on to a superb M3, the core unresolved, but outer stars showing very nicely for short periods, before the seeing mashed up the view again. I didn’t have much time, so I moved on to M81/82, which were showing impressively higher up towards the zenith, but I was most pleased with M64 - Black Eye galaxy, an object I don’t think I’ve seen from home before. Not enough detail to distinguish the telltale dust lanes, but a satisfying way to end the session. Shows once again that though fast scopes work best for NV, it’s possible to achieve great results with slower systems - even from Bortle 8-9 locations.

Well, to report back - a great night! I was using a 4” frac from central London with a night vision monocular ( only way to see deep sky objects from the city). Looking up at my restricted view beforehand I could see a grand total of two stars in the sky (Denebola and zosma in Leo), with Arcturus slowly coming in to view. Aligned with the two Leo stars, and then Arcturus (not expecting great accuracy as they’re all so close together), and the 135 then took over. Super views of M3, a much more obscure M53, then wonderful to see M64 - the Black Eyed galaxy, almost centred in the view with 18.2mm Delite. Tracked really accurately too. The mount was spot on tonight, and is going to be very useful in my light polluted skies.

Haven’t had much time for astronomy since I got my 135. Just a handful of solar sessions - visual in alt-az mode. Important to set up scope pointing south (in alt az only) before go-to with the hand controller. Normally the solar disc is just outside fov following go-to with a 40mm eyepiece. Requires a couple more centre/alignments on Sun to track accurately. Sky Safari over wi-fi seems to work well too. Hoping to test it out on some night targets this evening. Glad others are making good progress.

Not been the best year Nick, I agree. Couple of reasons to look forward to the future - planets will eventually rise out of the murk - really looking forward to that. And Sun is getting more active - several years of rising activity to come - just need some cheap solar film or Herschel wedge to enjoy those Sunspots.