Mak the Night

So the UK is only 150 miles across if you are bang in the centre? lol I believe the UK has around 5000 km of coastline, which is the same distance approximately from the US Eastern Seaboard to the Pacific Coast.

Uses for a Celestron AstroMaster Kit box #783: Now part of my grab'n'go kit for my 90mm Mak. 10mm Baader Eudiascopic 8 & 11mm TeleVue Plossls 15mm Antares UPL (Masuyama clone) 18mm Astro Hutech orthoscopic

I decided to lose the 20mm WO SWAN's and make room for the Baader 32mm BCO's. 2x 12.5mm Astro Hutech orthoscopics 15mm TV Plossls 18mm Baader BCO's 25mm Astro Hutech orthoscopics 32mm Baader BCO's 1x 1.6x Barlow, 1x 2.0x Barlow

That's so beautifully neat, it really helps my OCD lol. I'm sure there's room for some more black and green!

I was quite amazed with the orthoscopic like view of my 18.2mm DeLite.

Yeah, but don't let Nurse Ratched vote, she's a tad biased.

OK, how are these for ersatz eyepiece cases? These cardboard boxes go out with my 90mm grab’n’go bag. I have a selection of eight grab’n’go EP’s ranging from a 30mm Vixen NPL to a 6mm AH ortho’. The box on the right fits into a compartment in the top of the Omegon OTA carrying bag, it is an old TeleVue Barlow box and now safely houses an 18mm AH and 8 and 11mm TV Plossls. The other box has been conveniently fitted with some foam bits and fits into a side pocket on the flight bag which carries the entire grab’n’go set out. I don’t have names for any of the non-TeleVue EP’s, I mean that would be crazy right? You can see Dumpy’s twin brother there (I have two 19mm Panoptics). Incidentally, the 8mm TV Plossl is called ‘Squinty’ and the 11mm Plossl is called 'Legs’ (Legs - Eleven ... get it?). Is Nurse Ratched coming with my medication yet?

Yeah, posting eyepiece pictures on the Interweb really would be weird. lol

I've given all of my TV's individual names: The 19mm Panoptic is 'Dumpy' (because of its shape), the 24mm Pan 'Big Dumpy' and the 16mm Nagler the 'Spacewalk'. Is that weird? The Dumpies:

I'll sometimes open up the case just to have a look at them. Is that normal? And I thought I was the only person to do that lol.

I like my 10mm Luminos and I used it for lunar/planetary viewing predominantly. It is beautifully made though and heavy, at least 300g. I thought it had a tendency to glare when using it on a brightly phased Moon though. I believe this was a problem that the 10mm, particularly, suffered from. It is lovely and shiny though lol.

You're welcome. Those little Dob's can be great fun just as long as you realise they can have limitations. You should get some decent views of the Moon though. It won't rise over the UK until around 05:00 BST today though lol. I got some good lunar viewing a couple of days ago on a tabletop Dob mounted Mak. Check these freeware programs out for lunar/planetary positions: http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/ I started a thread about my lunar observation: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.celestron.skyportal

Those little Dob's have a 300mm focal length. That means the 10mm eyepiece will give you a 30x magnification. The 25mm will give you a 12x magnification. At 30x Jupiter won't be much more than a tiny disc. My guess is that you hadn't focused properly and therefore were seeing the secondary. I wouldn't expect too much from that little Dob. You should get some pretty good lunar views though. I've seen the Orion Nebula and the Moon with a 76mm SW Dob at about 53x. I was using a 9mm William Optics eyepiece with a Barlow element threaded into it essentially making it a 5.6mm eyepiece. I've seen Jupiter with the SW 76. Jupiter was a tiny disc, but the four Galilean moons could be seen as tiny points of light.

Which eyepiece were you using, the 10mm or the 25mm? I have one of those little Dobsonians and I can often see the secondary with a low magnification.

Weight is certainly a factor, although size can be more problematical for me. With my bigger scopes, once they are set up I carry my two eyepiece cases out. They are only medium sized but I can carry them out together. One is an Orion case and the other is a modified Celestron Eyeopener Kit case. I also have a separate case for my bino viewer. I normally take that out on its own if I decide on a bino session. There are also two extra bino pairs of EP's (32mm BCO, 20mm WO SWAN) in a modified Celestron AstroMaster Kit case, but that is only a small case. The Orion case contents are in a state of flux as their contents change. The empty spaces were once filled with TV 8 & 11mm Plossls, now a feature of my grab'n'go bag. The Celestron case, modified with the judicious use of a Swiss Army knife and some spare foam plugs hasn't changed a great deal since I added the Delos. I have a feeling the TV 3x Barlow may be being replaced with a 9mm DeLite one day lol. I had to add a carrying strap to the Geoptik bino case, it's too small to have a strap connection, so I ordered the Geoptik carrying strap and loop it around the handle of the case. It works! I think I'm logistically sorted ... for now.

It is nice to maximise the actual viewing time though lol. Organisation and logistics, for me especially, are the real factors to achieve the amount of time actually looking through the telescope.

I've recently discovered orthoscopics and it has been a bit of a revelation for me. I was quite impressed with the brightness and contrast of ortho's and some designs which give similar views. I have a pair of 18mm BCO's for my binoviewer and I rate them as good as my Astro Hutech ortho's. It was this 18mm AH ortho' that started it for me. Later I acquired this five element Antares UPL 'Plossl' which gave views that were so orthoscopic-like I ended up acquiring the Baader 10 and 35mm Eudiascopics. They were not cheap, but I certainly haven't been disappointed.

Thanks, and you're welcome. I don't mind spending nearly an hour setting up, it's good physiotherapy lol, but sometimes the grab'n'go approach can lead to some great viewing opportunities. Of course, with any portable gear there has to be compromises, principally in aperture size usually. For me, a tabletop scope solves the problem of making multiple journeys as the table is already in the garden and I don't have to carry the tripod separately. I'm getting a much bigger SCT soon with a GOTO. I know carrying it out piecemeal and assembling everything, let alone carrying my two main eyepiece cases as well, will take time, but that's half the fun for me. It can take me at least 45 mins to set up my 102mm Mak on an EQ2 mount. I keep the counterweight in a greenhouse at the bottom of the garden to save me physically carrying it. Astronomy is so dependant on the weather and it can be disappointing to spend nearly an hour setting up only to find the weather has suddenly turned inclement. Or worse, not to take a chance and find out later it was a clear night! Flexibility and adaptability is the key. To paraphrase the motto of the Special Air Service: 'Who dares views'.

Admittedly, technically not exactly an EP case, but I have discovered a way to carry these seven eyepieces and two Barlows (apochromatic shorties of 2x & 2.5x) in relative safety along with my 90mm Mak in a convenient nylon ‘hand luggage/flight bag’ style carrying case. So effectively they now all live together in one place. There is provision in the Omegon bag (pictured) for the OTA and a compartment above it housing a diagonal, one of the Barlows and three of the eyepieces. The Omegon bag is then placed inside the light flight bag which contains the other eyepieces and an Orion 6x30 RACI. The idea of a grab’n’go bag with a highly portable tabletop telescope makes taking advantage of breaks in the weather a reality for me. As I’m disabled (the right side of my body is partially paralysed), being able to set-up quickly with little preparation means I can get out and view at a moment’s notice (more or less). Only the tabletop Dob mount is carried separately, also in a light nylon bag. This enables me to carry both shoulder bags together relatively easily whilst walking with a stick. I may only be going to the bottom of my garden but it can be a major expedition for me lol. The 32mm Celestron is the least used, giving me a 31x magnification, but can be useful sometimes. The ‘dumpy’ 19mm Panoptic is the heaviest eyepiece I can get away with on the 1.3 kg 90mm tabletop Mak. Weighing 187g effectively precludes its use in combination with a Barlow. Although at roughly a hundred grammes heavier than the other individual EP’s it is surprisingly well balanced on the little scope compared to others I’ve tried. The small 19mm Panoptic isn’t often mentioned by many people, but I find that it is ergonomically almost perfect, with its 13mm eye relief, 21.3mm field stop and 68° FOV. The ‘dumpy’ gives me approximately a 53x wide angle view. The smallest eyepiece is an 8mm TV Plossl giving me a ‘squinty’ 125x. Altogether, the little eyepiece collection gives me a comprehensive range from 31x to 182x maximum (0.5mm exit pupil) on a 90mm (f/11.3) Mak.

I've been experimenting with Solar System Scope: http://solarsystemscope.com/ I'm looking forward to the Mars opposition too.

Thanks. After some experimentation I have arrived at these magnifications for my 102mm Mak. Bearing in mind I'm going to be using these eyepieces in a 235mm SCT soon as well though. No Barlow 1.6x 2x AH 12.5mm Ortho 104x 166x 208x TV 15mm Plossl 87x 139x 173x BC 18mm Ortho 72x 115.5x 144x WO 20mm SWAN 65x 104x 130x AH 25mm Ortho 52x 83x 104x BC 32mm Plossl 41x The 12.5mm ortho's, depending on which nosepiece Barlow (1.6x, 2x) I use will give me the most powerful views. The 12.5mm is comfortable to use and give a sharp, 'contrasty' view, as do the other orthoscopics. The 208x gives me an exit pupil of 0.5mm. Depending on conditions, my usual high power combination choice would be the 12.5mm's with either the 2x or 1.6x Barlow. Then, depending on how I feel or the general seeing, I would use the 18mm BCO's with the 2x Barlow for 144x. High enough to see planetary detail with the ortho contrast tones. I'm guessing I'll be using them a lot with a bigger telescope. The BCO 18mm gives 50° FOV as opposed to the 42° of the Astro Hutech’s, which makes locating targets easier marginally. The TeleVue 15mm's give an excellent 'warm' view. I can't decide which are the best out of these, they both (Plossl & ortho') have their attributes. I particularly like the high contrast cool tones of the ortho's in combination with a Baader Neodymium filter. I'm not so enthusiastic about the wide angle 20mm SWAN's and prefer them as a lower power alternative for open clusters or objects like M42. Having said that, I'm more likely to deploy the 25mm AH ortho's or the 32mm Baader Plossl's for that kind of observing (with no Barlow obviously).

Revamped bino case(s): 12.5mm AH ortho's, 15mm TV Plossls, 18mm BCO's, 20mm SWAN's, 25mm AH ortho's and 32mm BCO's.

Actually, now I've been thinking about it, the 15mm TV was the first TV Plossl I bought. It basically replaced my 15mm Celestron Omni. I acquired some Omni EP's and an Omni Barlow but later I upgraded my Barlows with the TeleVue 3x, 2x and Powermate. The compression rings in the Barlows caused the Celestron Omni Plossls to hang up on extraction as they had older undercuts (below right). The inexpensive 15mm Kellner was fine being a 'smoothie'. It still gets use as a finder EP. So the TV 15mm Plossl was a logical choice as it has a tapered lower undercut. Later I acquired the 11mm, 20mm and 32mm. The 8mm and the 25mm were the next and finally the 40mm. As the 16mm Nagler essentially replaced the 15mm Plossl I decided to get another 15mm for a bino pair (the bino has compression rings).

I have two! (bino pair)

Plus it was the excuse I needed to collect all the TV 1.25" Plossls.