Highburymark

Instead of DSOs, consider DSEs.

Do something else. 

15 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Well there’s more to worry about, @MalcolmM.
I hesitate to raise this spectre, but I saw on a US website a photo someone posted of their new TPLs, but it seems Tak has changed the design of their EP boxes. Instead of a liftoff lid, it’s a flap. 
I’m not sure I can take this change.

Naturally, we will have to wait until @Highburymark takes delivery of his 3 TPLs (or was it 6 for binoview?) to see if the UK is subjected to this change.

But at least the boxes are still blue, with the lovely Tak writing.

I might be tempted by a pair of 12.5s.  Must confess to having an huge amount of 25mm/20mm/18mm eyepieces, especially orthos, so the 12.5mm TPLs are the most attractive. Going to have a big eyepiece cull in next few weeks.

1 hour ago, maw lod qan said:

Those are so amazing!

Does this activity die down during the minimum period?

It does sadly. Solar minimum means we can go for weeks with very little, if any activity. And that pattern lasts for several years. There’s normally something of interest to see, particularly prominences, but just as active periods are remarkable, it’s equally remarkable just how little activity is on show when the Sun’s sleeping.

10 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

The title of this thread is pure clickbait, the reality is somewhat underwhelming. Is there really a market for what seems like a plossl variant when there are plenty of good equivalents already available at much lower cost?

Maybe: “Pointless, overpriced eyepieces announced - nothing of interest here (apart from lack of undercuts)” would have been better?

18 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Looking forward to you testing them and reporting back @Highburymark 👍🏻

I’ll sit this one out thanks Jeremy. 

7 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Plossl in that the image forming section is two doublets.  Beyond that, it is a highly optimized negative/positive design of 5 or 6 elements:

Good point

My first reaction wasn’t so much a problem with the AFOV - people buy Plossls and abbés at all focal lengths and don’t moan about the narrow view. My concern was that it sounds as if only half of that fov will be sharp in faster scopes. If so, it will be a very specialist eyepiece.
But it will be interesting if they can deliver on-axis benefits over the LE and abbé ranges. The Pentax XO is a plossl-type design, and they succeeded in making an EP with clear, on axis improvements over other eyepieces. The Starbase ‘orthos’ are actually Plossls, so the new range should be a step up from those.

There’s a CN thread about them. The link is to Starbase’s website rather than Tak’s apparently.

Just announced on Tak’s Japanese website, new range of TPL eyepieces. 12.5mm, 18mm and 25mm. Four elements, two groups. Replace the abbés and the LEs. Around £175?? I can’t copy the link. Maybe someone else can?

I use the 2.6x most - in fact it’s necessary for me to reach focus with my binoviewers for solar Ha. As you may know the 1.7x is actually only 1.5x, so the 2.6x is very useful if you have nice low power eyepieces that you want to use at higher mags…… or if you need a more powerful barlow element to reach focus. It’s very sharp - although all GPCs are in my experience.

Think you’re spot on with your solar strategy. Starting small and working up. The 115 will only be usable in excellent seeing. But it will be awesome - particularly on proms - when the time comes. Maybe keep an eye out for a cheap pair of 40mm plossls? 

Anyway, rant over.  
Back to the more interesting stuff - have you used your Quark with the 115?

32 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Just with the rings, dovetail and handle (for @JeremyS) the 115 comes in at 5.4kg so I reckon the quoted lower limit, around 4.6kg I think, for the naked ota is about right. Mine weighs around 6.5kg with 2" diagonal and beefy eyepieces, though I can get the working weight down to 6kg with 1.25" gear and 6x30 finder.

 

Thanks Tim -that’s impressive. 

Why aren’t telescope manufacturers all over their retailers’ promotional material? I overlooked this scope when I was upgrading last time because I thought it was almost as heavy as a TSA-120 triplet. It’s not just Vixen with this problem. There was also contrasting information about the TSA when I was researching it. It’s not as if manufacturers have a huge dealer network and a sprawling product range. A top class FPL53 115mm apo at well under 5kg is something I’d want to shout about. Who knows, it might be my next scope now I know how light it is.

On 24/03/2023 at 16:42, Franklin said:

Been setting up my new SD115s today and all seems well, I'm very pleased with it and can't wait to get it out under the stars. Some pics of it mounted for @F15Rules as requested. Love the way I can balance a 6.5kg rig with a 1.9kg weight using the SXD2, the dual-speed add-on is the MoreBlue offering, I thought the Vixen one made the course focusing a bit too "Gritty", maybe it needs adjusting but I don't really know how.

 

 

Hi Tim - do you know the weight of your basic OTA?  The advertised information on retailers’ websites tends to fall between 4.4kg and 6.2kg, but I’ve seen various other weight claims for the 115. Not specific to Vixen - it’s an industry-wide problem in my experience. Stunning set up by the way. 

On 06/07/2023 at 19:44, Paz said:

4.7kg ota, and 5.8kg with rings/dovetail/handle is a noticeable advantage in weight compared to the other currently available versions of the 125mm f7.8 doublet (it looks to be more than 2kg lighter). 

My C8 is 5.6kg with its dovetail so this 125mm apo is similar in weight albeit the mass is not as centralised. I think it would be fine for visual on the likes of an EQ5 or Skytee 2.

The closest I've found to what I've been looking for to date is the carbon fibre explore scientific 127mm f7.5 doublet. In comparison the Stellamira 125mm scope looks to be about 1kg lighter and costs only 2/3 of the price 😲.

Obviously there's more to consider than just weight but on this point it looks pretty good.

Yes - totally agree. If 4.7kg is accurate this scope is a real breakthrough for those of us who count weight as one of the key features in choosing a refractor. 

On 02/07/2023 at 21:53, John said:

The Vixen ED102SS gets down to around 22 inches in length with the dew shield slipped off. With the stuff in the photo the weight is around 4kg. I don't know what airline limits are these days 

(apologies to @Ags - this is off topic)

 

You’d have to lose the focuser too unfortunately. 22” is the maximum bag size on most airlines, which means the scope needs to be around 19” or less. Weight is rarely a problem - it’s dimensions that prove difficult. Lovely scope to take abroad though if the Moonlite’s easily removable?

12 minutes ago, The60mmKid said:

Would you say there's a noticeable difference in on-axis sharpness between the plossls and Naglers when binoviewing?

I can only comment on solar Ha really, as I’ve only directly compared the two types through a solar scope - I’d always slightly favour TV Plossls here. Delites are excellent in a binoviewer, as good as any complex eyepiece, and frankly often as good as orthos and Plossls. But the Nagler 13s have surprised me - I actually slightly preferred them to Morpheus 12.5s, but all these choices are very close in quality. It’s just a nice option to have a pair of widefields for the MBII - or any other of the BVs with wider prisms that have recently been launched.

19 minutes ago, Stu said:

Interesting to hear this Mark. Question though, are you able to look around the view, or do you keep your focus on axis and just enjoy the fact that the Moon (for example) fills the fov? 

Looking too far off axis causes blackouts Stu, but I find there’s a natural compromise where I can scan around a medium wide field and certainly appreciate the ‘majesty’ factor beyond that. The Naglers work really nicely for solar Ha too - seeing the full solar disc at 120x creeping into view is pretty awesome. I still use orthos and Plossls 90% of the time - particularly for sharpest study of solar features. But it’s only a few years since the only widefield BVs on the market were £1k-plus. The MBIIs changed that so it’s nice to have some eyepieces that can take advantage of what they offer. 

4 hours ago, CeeDee47 said:

I read on Cloudy Nights that one successful strategy is to add a cpf between the etalons. I can't see how a cpf would work unless you actually rotated the etalon in which the cpf is installed. By their very nature cpfs are rotatable. I have used the in photography in the past.

I think this was the solution I read about on Solarchat too. But it was several years ago.

It depends what your targets are, but the main selling point of the Maxbright II is wider views, so it’s nice to have at least one pair of eyepieces that exploits this feature. I love TV Plossls and microscope ‘orthos’ in my binoviewers on solar system objects, but I’ve recently been enjoying some Nagler 13s on the Moon and Sun. Seeing the Moon at 180x with 82 degrees of AFOV is wonderful. 

I hoped that the Lunt anti reflection filter would largely fix the problem, but it appears not. Your best bet is to ask the same question on Solarchat, where there are a number of member who have had the same issue. Haven’t seen it covered on SGL. It was the glow that put me off the LS80DS - otherwise such a fine scope. But I’m sure Solarchat will help you.

I remember expert predictions just three or four years ago that we might be entering a new Maunder Minimum - 75 years of inactivity as experienced in the 17th century. 

2 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

I have had good results with both tuning systems.  The only criticism I have of the pressure tuning is the amount of effort needed to turn the adjustment barrel compared to the light finger touch of the tilt wheel.       🙂

That’s fair. Both the pressure tuned scopes I had only came on band at the end of the piston travel, so required quite a lot of force - and that can be an issue with light mounts. But otherwise they were fine.

There’s no reason to avoid pressure tuning. In general the system works very well. There are some cases where the internal o-rings have needed replacing, but out of thousands of pressure tuned scopes out there, it’s a pretty robust system - definitely should not put you off buying a particular model.

After 25 years of starhopping, going to give push-to a try. Celestron Starsense Explorer unit repurposed for a typical Synta finder mount. Thanks to the much missed JohninDerby for the original inspiration, and others on the forum for help sourcing the bits.