Commanderfish

Not at al! Excellent, thank you. That's the kind of thing I'm after but I will try and track down a non-marring one - edit: just found an Svbony non-marring clamp on ebay for £20. Ordered.

Excellent, thats useful. I think I'm going to get hold of one of those clamps for starters. Do you reckon the 6" is going to be better on DSOs than an ST 150? The CC 6" should have better contrast and cooldown but maybe not as much lightgathering?

John, what exactly is that vixen-looking clamp that you've used to attach the scope to the Manfrotto head, and how did you attach the clamp to the head? I've still got the original quick release plates on my head which I screw to the bottom of telescope dovetails. My solution isn't as solid looking as yours.

Ah that's clever John. I also have a Manfrotto 405 which is great for grab and go! I also have a similar dovetail counterweight kicking about. Is the 6" any good at DSOs like globs/Orion nebula though? Have a feeling the 8" is going to be better with it's light gathering?

Thanks that's very helpful - sounds like the pan 41 would vignette with a reducer if that's the right term?

Hi there, has anyone been using the above 6" or 8" Classical Cassegrains (StellaLyra, GSO, TS Optics, Orion CC) for visual on small DSOs, like the Orion Nebula, Globs and Planetaries? I'm pretty sure it would be good on globs and PNs but I do like Orion and similar nebs. Also has anyone used a focal reducer for visual? I could get a 1.5 degree TFOV out of the 8 inch with FLO's x0.75 reducer using a Panoptic 41mm, or a 1.15 degree TFOV using an Ethos 21mm. Not sure if the focal reducer would create any significant aberration for visual purposes though? I like the compactness and quick cool down of the scope for a quick set up at home. I guess the 8" could be a little heavy though. Was thinking about on using this on an Ercole mini next to a 115ED F7 frac, but if the mini can't take it I'd use a full sized Giro Ercole. The mini happily takes an ST150 with upgraded focuser, Ethos lenses and a big finder alongside the 115 ED.

Heh heh now I am on the frac list and the dob list too. Decided not to mess about and went straight to 16" in the form of an Orion Optics VX16 with 1/10th mirrors. It's got the milk carton mod. I've added Mark's colliimation knobs and an OOUK friction brake. I'm about to flock it and mount an ST80 as a finder/co-axial richfield scope with an ES 100 degree 20mm EP to give x20 and 5 degrees TFOV. I have made a dew shield out of 3mm foam folded to double the thickness, but is a bit floppy still and may need to be revisited (not pictured). Should I create a new dew shield in 5mm or 8mm or maybe even thicker (camping mat)? Needs to be stiff enough not to flop and obstruct the light path.

My Explore Scientific ED127 had the same problem, I couldn't get all my EPs to focus with just one of the two 40mm extension tubes supplied with the scope, some needed both 40mm extensions. I looked at how far out the focuser was with each eyepiece and did a bit of maths. It looked like they'd all come to focus with one 50mm extension tube. I got one from Altair Astro (2" self centring twist kind) and sure enough all EPs come to focus with that one extension. If you still have issues then you need a focuser with longer travel as well as a single extension tube.

I have the Antares Versascope 10x60 RACI and it is really excellent for the price. I can easily pick out things like M13 Hercules Glob. Much better than a 50mm finder. RACI is useful.

Not as such. The ED80 produces a wider field than the 152 but doesn't have the light grasp or magnification of the bigger scopes. The widest field I get out of the 152 is 2.72 degrees using an ES 82 degree 30mm at x30 magnification. I tend to use the ED80 with an Ethos 21mm giving 4.4 degrees at x23 magnification. I could use the ED80 with the ES 82 30mm giving 5.1 degrees at x 16 mag, but I find the sky background is a little too bright to be enjoyable. The ED80 is a wonderful apo wide field scope and acts as a great finder at 4.4 degrees and x23. It doesn't have the ability to pick up faint objects or produce as much detail, which is where the 152 comes in. There IS an overlap between the ED80 and the Antares 60mm Versascope though. The Versascope is a RACI producing close to 7 degrees at about x9 mag. This is a great finder scope, although it is a little confusing as it is the only scope on the rig that is RACI!! I can do without the ED80 and just use the Versascope as a finder. The Versascope's 60mm obviously picks up a lot less stars than the ED80, so it can't be used as a wide field scope, and obviously it's not apo sharp, so it's really just a finder under UK skies. If I can't be bothered to mount the ED80 then I make do with the 152's 2.7 degree field.

Dual scope set ups? Amateurs L to R: ES ED80 Triplet, ES ED127 Triplet, Baader SSV RDF, Antares 60mm Versascope (RACI), Ercole Giro mount, Altair Starwave 152

Well technically it's four fracs, as hidden in there just to the left of the mount is an Antares Versascope 10 x 60 achro frac in use as a RACI finder

What's better than two fracs?

I recently did a lot of research into RACIs. I wanted one with a quality prism where I wouldn't see a line. I wanted the flexibility to change eyepieces. I wanted a wide field and the ability to focus easily. I wanted rings and a synta-fit (Celestron/Skywatcher) bracket. The Stellarvue seems to fit the bill but the price is huge, especially when you include the seperate rings/bracket. Likewise, Baader do a good RACI but the price is high. I was considering building my own finder based around a GSO prism diagonal (which gets great reviews and doesn't cost a lot) and some parts from Teleskop Service but then I found the Antares Versascope 10 x 60 RACI. Having been very pleased with the quality and price of their 2" twist lock 99% diagonals, I thought I'd take a punt. I didn't even have to import, as this can be purchased in the UK from Rother Valley Optics for £99.99. This is half the price of the Baader and less than half the Stellarvue. So is it half as good? Definitely not. What you get is a quality 1.25" prism, a decent aluminium 227mm FL 60mm diameter OTA, a very long dew shield, nice neat low-profile 6 point tube rings combined with a synta bracket, and a reasonable quality, surprinsingly wide-field eyepiece with non-illuminated crosshairs. The daytime views are pin sharp with no lines or other artifacts, so the prism is definitely good. The night views are really nice. Definitely not as sharp and snap to focus as my other 'finder', the Explore scientific ED80 with 21mm Televue Ethos eyepiece, but the price is 10% of that combination - we're comparing it to an ED triplet here! The field is very wide which I found surprisingly pleasing to view. The stock eyepiece appears to give the same TFOV as my ES Maxvision 24mm 68 degree, which gives 7.2 degrees. This is something of a puzzle in as much as I can't find any details of the provided eyepiece anywhere online, nor marked on the eyepiece itself. The sales listing indicates a 25mm eyepiece which is a little confusing as it would give x9 mag rather than x 10, and neither the AFOV or TFOV are listed. From looking through it,I'd guess it's about x9. The dew shield is so long that I haven't had any issues in a few nights of use. Rotating the dew shield also focuses the scope which is very easy to do. There is lots of focus range, although I found that my ES68 24mm was just ever so slightly short of focus - a little extender ring would fix this nicely. The prism is attached to the scope via an Antares 1.25" Twist-lock, which imeans you can easily unlock and change the angle of the eyepiece to the scope. The prism has a thumbscrew to hold the eyepiece. The eyepiece, whilst a little plasticky in the casing, has decent optics and positively refused to dew up despite being left uncovered for hours. Somehow the plastic/rubber eyeguard outer assembly seems to resist dewing (note it hasn't been THAT cold recently, but that didn't stop my binocular eyepieces from dewing up on the first night). The cross hairs work fine, and I can't imagine needing illuminated ones in UK skies (I'll check this next time I'm at a proper dark site. The tube rings were very easy to align to my scope, and as they are low profile they don't tend to get banged about. This scope can be used as a little independent scope of it's own (I've used it out of my bedroom window) and it can be used for guiding. All in all I'm very pleased with the views, the ease of use as a RACI finder and the truly excellent value for money. If you're in the market for a versatile, quality RACI/guidescope, I think this is a real cracker; personally I would now find it very hard to justify paying double or more for the better known equivalents, given that I'm at a loss as to what they can do that the Versascope does not.

Yes I think that's right John. I had the ES ED127 and 9.25 SCT out side by side last night. Viewing M81 and M82 was interesting. The ED 127 gave a decent image; the C9.25 produced a larger image but the contrast was no better, partly due to LP (no moon at the time though), so I wasn't making out any extra details. I'm 3 miles outside Kingston, 16 miles from the centre of London, but I have a grazing field to the east and a golf course to the south so the LP isn't overly terrible. This is why I wonder about a large achro, the 5" doesn't seem affected by LP but the C9.25 definitely suffers. You're right about the SCT serving a different purpose, its the best planetary scope I have. Does anywhere sell a 7" fast achro?

Thanks John. It was that thread that lead me to buying my ED127! I also have a C9.25, and this has lots of aperture and is a good scope, but doesn't have them sharpness of an Apo or the contrast, especially in mild light pollution. I'm wondering whether a 152 F5.9 will be as good or better on galaxies and clusters as the C9.25. Anyone ever compared the two?

Nice review and very interesting scope. Has anyone compared the views in one to a 5" (127-130mm) Apo?

Explore Scientific ED 127 Apo triplet with ES ED 80 Apo triplet acting as uber finder scope!