Paz

Reading all the posts got me thinking further about improvements for selfish reasons i.e. for visual observing which his my thing, and I keep coming back to a couple... one is weight savings as I originally mentioned but the other one, odd as it may seem, is active cooling of both the OTA and the air within it to reduce the cool down times on more mainstream scopes. Those two things combined would open up the opportunities of being able to handle bigger apertures and spend more time observing with a cooled scope which is especially useful in my circumstances where a lot of sessions are opportunistic with no time to plan ahead and cool a scope properly. On the weight topic I have half an eye on those Explore Scientific 127mm carbon scopes which do very well for weight, but they are triplets. If they did a doublet that would be even lighter and I would be very interested in such a scope. I would also like to hear about FLO's secret plans for the next disruptive developments in kit!

In the relatively short time I've been in this hobby I've seen things like the mass production of higher quality scopes keep on expanding, the use of night vision gear appear, much improved astronomy apps that hold huge amounts of easily accessible information, and the list goes on. I have been wondering what developments and improvements we might expect in telescopes, mounts, and other gear in the future. The one thing I would welcome would be more weight savings in any/all areas of astronomy kit. That would make bigger apertures more easily manageable by more people and that would mean better views for more people. What are your predictions or requests (however possible or impossible they may seem right now) for improvements in astronomy gear over the next 10 or 20 years?

Nice review, you have passed the initiation process of having to try out various contraptions and permutations to get it working but once it's working its great!

I discovered that it may be possible to replace the twist lock on my 102ed with a compression ring like this... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-ultrashort-2-inch-eyepiece-clamp.html I've tried gently unscrewing the existing end of the focuser and nothing feels like it is designed to come off and I don't feel like brute forcing it to find out. Does anyone have experience of swapping out the end of the focuser, I understand there may be a female m68 thread in there somewhere? (My scope is the altair star wave fpl53 version). In the photo below I've tried unscrewing the knurled ring and the three-pronged 2" nose piece holder to no avail.

The ST80 is great value for money and is very light for the aperture so you can get away with using a cheaper or lighter mount. Various tricks can give it a boost for little additional cost like the semi apo filter and other filters, and stopping down the aperture.

Yes some types of cloud can make the views better by steadying the air but this was the kind where you can tell a cloud bank is imminent because the image starts to swim.

I drove out to a spot to observe venus this evening. The clouds roll over and I had a Hamlet moment thinking to get back in the car and go home. In the end I set up anyway and had a look through thin cloud.

That will be good if I ever make it to retirement! I have always thought there are two criteria for enjoying this hobby properly. One is retire. The other is leave this country (the uk)!

I have a preference for dso's but in practice I will observe anything/everything, daytime, twilight, light polluted, dark sky, full moon or no moon. There's a lot to be seen by being a generalist. If I ruled certain things out then combining that constraint with work, weather, etc then doing any observing at all would be much more of a rarity.

I've pored over the optical chain and I will get a quark-to-t2 connector that will shave off 10mm or so between the quark and diagonal, I can also possibly get away with a lower profile t2-1.25" adapter between the diagonal and binoviewers and save a little there if I have a rummage through what I've got lying around. That will hopefully make things more civilised!

To update I've had a go and ended up with quite an unusual set up needing a 2" extender plus 85mm of focuser travel to get focused. I've never had a focuser hanging out that far, I felt it was almost an abuse of my scope but the views were really good and with a big enough sweet spot so I stuck with it. I seem to have just swapped from worrying about a ridiculously tall stack to worrying about a ridiculously long backfocus. I think it might be clipping and doing so slightly asymmetrically or the alignment is struggling when the focuser is given that much to do as the view reminded me of how it looks if I use an aperture mask (i.e. seeing finer details) and rather than a dim area inside of the field stop all round instead there was a very dark area and no clear field stop at one edge (the bottom) but a clean and clear field stop at the opposide edge of field.

Have any forum members used the Daystar Quark in front of the diagonal? I am looking at all my bits of 1.25"/2"/T2/etc contraptions (I seem to have accumulated an unhealthy amount of such bits) and coming up with a set up putting the Quark first. This is driven by the precariousness of having a Quark and binoviewers after the diagonal, which I find quite stressful. My main thoughts were will it result in clipping the light cone having that little blocker aperture so far forward, and if it is clipping will that mean less aperture, slower focal ratio and possibly introduce some scatter, and the issue of causing even more magnification. I use it mostly with a 102mm f7 and sometimes with a 72mm f6.

Observing through glass will significantly compromise quality but I will admit I observe from indoors from time to time with a small scope. Most recently only a couple of days ago I was observing indoors because I've got covid (again) and am too ill to lug a set up outside and sit out there in the cold. If the aperture is small and the magnification is low those things help to make the best of it. A couple of other things... the more square on to the glass the scope is pointing the better, so whilst when outdoors a high moon is better, indoors a lower moon is better. The other point is radiators, which are often located under windows, if you have windows without heaters under them those are likely better prospects.

Thanks for posting. I've had a look at this on ebay and I admit I would not have realised. How do you tell if it is a scam, and does this mean a normal ebay user doesn't realise their account has been hacked yet?

This is easy for me, my vx14. It still feels exciting like Christmas every time I take it out. I would only let this scope go when I can't physically handle it any more and have to downsize.

I agree with comments above that good eyesight matters when getting the most out of a small high end refractor at high magnifications, and so does experience, technique, and the conditions. The laws of diminishing returns apply but although the gains are marginal and despite me being very happy with my altair 102mm f7, a 100mm Tak remains on my hit list, not right now but eventually. The reason why is the same as why I have T/&×@*e eyepieces (name redacted to avoid further controversy!). I know other lower cost items are very close (and in the real world of the wobbly stack they are just as good really) and unless you A-B them side by side or are very experienced, it can be tough to spot the difference but I enjoy my observing more because I believe I can't get anything better and so it is all down to me and my ability to get the best out of them. This means I'm totally focused on enjoying observing and I'm not thinking about what other kit I might use.

I have thought about this in the past when observing with an eq5 with the RA motor going but I couldn't detect this effect myself.

I've only been observing for 8 or so years and the weather has always been rubbish so long spells of unrelenting cloud is normal to me. I'm in the Midlands and we have a microclimate where I live where very often it is blue skies in the morning, cloudy by late morning, clear early evening and cloudy soon after dark. So usually solar is best done in the morning and night time observing is best done early evening.

Signed, when you sign consider if you can also flag it to your friends on things like facebook/twitter.

Thanks for this, all this time and I just assumed it couldn't be changed!

I really like my 102mm f7 (the altair version) but I really dont like twist locks. I replaced the 1.25" collar with other types with screws/compression rings or I just use T2 connections. The real problem is the 2" twist lock that I assume can't be replaced. If that could be replaced I would use my 2" set ups more often. ...but all of the above is really about not liking twist locks rather than the scope, my 102mm f7 is my most used scope by far, the relationship between the quality of the views, cost, ease of use, and flexibility is the best Ive come across so far.

The field guide is really designed to compliment the atlas. If you were to look up a dso in the index it then only refers you to the page of the atlas that that dso appears in and it says what type if dso it is. Then in the field guide you turn to the pages covering the relevant page of the atlas, then go to the section for the right type if dso and there is your list of, say, open clusters on that page with details like magnitude, ra, Dec, etc. Having said that theres nothing to stop anyone from using it as a stand alone reference.

I think big jumps across the longer focal lengths and small jumps at the shorter focal lengths is a useful principle and is reflected in some of the sets up mentioned already. I have use NPLs/SLVs for light set ups and Naglers/Delos for heavier set ups and use both with my 102mm f7. But if I am taking a reduced number of eyepieces out here's how those full sets will typically get trimmed down if it is useful to illustrate.,.,. NPL/SLV collection is 40, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 6, 5, 4, 2.5, these would typically get thinned down to: 25, 10, 6, 4. Nagler/Delos collection is 31, 22, 17.3, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4.5, 3.5, these would typically be thinned down to 17.3, 8, 4.5, 3.5

That tripod in the link looks a bit like mine, and as I mention mine is great for light weight and small pack down size but it's not as sturdy as I would like. Here's my set up...

I use heat holders socks and over sized sorel boots.The socks wear out quickly if you walk in them but not if you are standing around, and they are super warm. The boots are crazy hot, your feet and lower legs become radiators passing heat back to your body because it can't get out through the boots. The link below is the closest I can find to my boots which it looks like they don't make any more. https://heatholders.co.uk/products/mens-original-heat-holders-socks-6-11-uk-39-45-eur?variant=29960345321581 https://www.sorelfootwear.co.uk/p/mens-1964-pac-nylon-boot-1855191.html?dwvar_1855191_color=011