Peter Drew

A S/H 4" F10 Vixen OTA.

The idea seems good in principle but at a distance of 30m how could you guarantee that the artificial array is square on to the camera? Stars at infinity presumably must be.

I'm not well off (financially!) but I can afford to pay to have a pilot fly me to Tenerife, albeit with a couple of hundred others at the same time.

No need, why do you think that Taks are in green?

You have to be well off to do either.

There certainly is a learning curve with Ha viewing, I've been doing so for over 15 years and still finding techniques for improvement!

Oops!, plus a picture of my grandaughter serenading us, posted in error.

My 8.5" F12.5 refractor.

They were built for terrestrial use and I didn't get much of an oppotunity to try it out astronomically. I recall that Jupiter looked pretty detailed with little CA. The terrestrial views were amazing, excellent resolution at 20 miles range, would have loved it myself! I hope it still exists and used somewhere.

Fancy these round your neck? . They are the largest refracting ones I've yet made. I custom built them about 25 yeas ago from a brand new ex Gov pair of 8" F25 aispaced achromats. I had to fold each side with flats to reduce the physical length and incorpoate focal reducers to achieve a more manageable F12.

They were made by Steve (mechanics) and Brian (optics), members of Bolton AS.

A bit cheaper than the WX ! The objectives are from a cheapo 10x50. The eyepieces are Meade 24.5mm Superwides which ramps the cost up a bit but I already had them. I was motivated to make them following a moan on CN that there were no small binoculars with 90 degree angled eyepieces. I have to say that the performance greatly exceeded my expectations and underlined the benefit of mounting even small binoculars.

@Richard. Self built.

Here is one of my smaller ones. 8x50 with 8.5 degrees FOV.

More pics. The OTA's are modified SW Startravels. Each one has a 3" minor axis diagonal to start the 90 degree angle followed by pairs of diagonal prisms for IPD adjustment. Each OTA is sprung loaded with adjusters to quickly perfect the collimation. The mount is a simplified version of the TTS Panther mount. Not had chance to try them on the night sky yet.

My latest 150mm F5 binocular telescope.

The correct focus position was set up using an optimally tuned PST less its 40mm objective. The subsequent mod is a stage2 so the black box is empty. The digonal containing the blocking filter fits in an aperture machined in the rear face of the black box. Spacers have been supplied that make up any difference in the post etalon focus. Any very small adjustments for different eyepieces are by way of the OTA fucuser and lie within the etalon position tolerances.

How much or your local seeing?

Is your house up for sale Mike?, we are seeing a lot of the interior and the garden.

Well regarded achromats in the small range are anything by Vixen F10 and longer, also the venerable Tal 4" F10. Other 4" long focus achromats also have a good reputation. The common theme is long focus, however once you get up to 6" aperture and above, the potential performance is a trade off against the mounting problem. With the current popularity of APO's there is little incentive for manufacturers to service a niche market. I've made a number of 6" and 8" F20 folded achromat refractors, they work very well but despite the relative compactness they still required a substantial mount.

Good heavens Gina, at first glance I thought it was your first solar imaging attempt!

The original configuration was for the inclusion of a binoviewer which required a Barlow to reach focus. The surprising side effect of this was the increased field of view of the eyepiece in conjunction with the 5mm blocking filter as well as better performance. (The "how and why" of this is currently a subject of debate). As a binoviewer is not being used at present, an extension piece takes the place of it.

Practical is better than theory.

When I had the chance to use the 1.25" Lacerta it was on a 220mm refractor. It did have an ERF fitted but it was a transmission rather than reflection type so the heat attenuation was not a great amount.

Pleased to hear that the BV's seem to be ok. Strange about the packaging box, I can't fathom out how an impact heavy enough to cause so much damage to the case would not have penetrated the outer box. I would certainly hold out for a replacement case in due course.