Louis D

I wonder if the problem is simply that the gap in the original isn't large enough. The two ends meet before maximum pressure has been achieved. I've heard of this being an issue with locking collets on binoviewers. Simply snip out a bit of material and put it back in to see if matters improve.

Too many people cheap out on their car's tires and end up paying for it later. I've been rear ended many times by people driving on crappy, high mileage, bargain tires with no traction. Traffic comes to a sudden halt on the road. I stop in time thanks to my excellent tires. However, the car(s) behind me screech and crunch into the back of my car because they bought the cheapest tires possible. Then I get shoved into the car ahead of me that I hadn't hit in the first place and get blamed by insurance for hitting them.

I just remove color in post processing to get rid of any color cast. A simple way to do it is to desaturate colors to zero.

Generically, it's at about $450 per eyepiece. I was able to get the ES-92s on sale for closer to $400 a few years ago. I would never drop $1250 for a TV Apollo 11mm, no matter how fantastic it might be. Of course, it's a moot point now since they're sold out. Edit: Just found out that the ES-92's new US list price is $799.99. It still lists for 479,00 € in Europe. Guess I won't be getting anymore of them at the new US price should new focal lengths ever be introduced.

I would probably bungee it to the dolly.

Just be aware that the side panels are thin, textured plastic that are easily punctured. As such, they are completely inappropriate for checked luggage.

No, I mean the solar film. I'm not even convinced it's a full ND5 at IR wavelengths. Has anyone confirmed this with a spectrometer? Before adding the IR/UV cut filter, I couldn't continuously solar observe here in Texas with my 8" Dob for more than about 20 minutes before severe eye fatigue set in. Adding a moon filter didn't significantly help, so it wasn't due to the image brightness in the visible spectrum.

A Pelican style case big enough for that scope might cost nearly as much as the scope itself. There are the cheap, fake aluminum cases as the OP alluded to. I would try to look for the cases that look similar to those but have the heavy black panels. They are more resistant to puncture.

Clearly, Baader Solar Film leaks IR as I have always maintained. It feels like your eyeball is being cooked without an IR/UV cut filter.

Is this for mass transit (planes/trains/buses) or personal vehicle transport? If the latter, simply wrapping the scope and diagonal separately in bubble wrap and packing them in a suitably sized duffle/gym bag is sufficient as long as you don't pile heavy items on it. If the former, try to do carry-on if at all possible with the same type of bag.

I mount my cell phone running SkEye at an angle convenient for the part of the sky I'm observing using a cheap photo ball head. Using a three way finder mount, I also mount two of a QuikFinder, a GLP, and a RACI. I use the RACI with the 127 Mak and the QuikFinder with the 90mm APO. At 600mm focal length with a 40mm 2" eyepiece, the RACI is completely redundant for the APO.

Does anyone know of a good pair of 8x42 or 10x50 binoculars with a wide field of view (at least 65 degrees) and long eye relief (at least 18mm of USABLE eye relief) for astigmatic eyes? I've been using 8x42 Meade Safari Pro porro prism binos for over 20 years that fit this description, but I have had no luck finding a modern replacement for under $200. I'm aware there is a Nikon WX line for over $6000, but that's a bit ridiculous for what I need. I don't care if there is some edge degradation or false color at the edges since I tend to look only in the center. I'm also good with porro prisms. Weight is not a concern. I was able to snag a NOS pair of 8x42 Meade Safari Pros for about $75 recently. The focus action is a bit loose, but otherwise it's in great condition.

I bought a pair of vintage binoculars form a professional restorer, and he used NyoGel to lubricate them. I assume it was one of the heavier damping varieties like 774H.

That makes sense. Very similar looking externally, but different internally: I did have to laugh at WO's ad line for the 20mm SWAN: The ultimate 1.25” SWA eyepiece. From the context within the ad, it probably should have said The ultimate compromise 1.25" SWA eyepiece. However, that wouldn't have sounded so grandiose.

And quite similar looking when disassembled: Two upper singlets and what appears to be a lower doublet, although the author claims it to be a triplet.

I had a quick look at the skies with the SVBONY 20mm through my field flattened AT72ED. It is nicely sharp in the central 50% of the field of view, though I wouldn't say pin sharp just yet. It then gets more astigmatic as you work your way to the edge. It had about twice as much astigmatism at its 68 degree edge as did either the Paradigm (BST Starguider) or Meade HD60 18mm at their 60 degree edges. The Paradigm and Meade seemed to be a bit sharper in the central portion of the field as well. The field was close to flat. Of course, with so much edge astigmatism, it's difficult to judge best focus there. The extra 8 degrees of field in the SVBONY didn't seem all that noticeable. Faint stars looked similar in all. Bright stars seemed to wink out at the field stops well enough in all of them. The SVBONY had vignetting before the edge. Perhaps the last 5% of the field. It was slight but noticeable. I take it that the designers pushed the old 66 degree design another 2 degrees to 68 degrees by enlarging the field stop without altering the lens design. It works surprisingly well with eyeglasses. I didn't have any problems taking in the entire field while resting my glasses on the folded down eye cup. There were no indications of SAEP (kidney beaning) that I could discern. Next I'll have to try it in my 127 Mak at f/12. Overall, it's surprisingly good for what I paid for it, but it is not sharp across the field at f/6.

Having a 90mm FPL-53 triplet, I would probably err toward the 125 FPL-53 doublet just because cool down time will be much shorter than for a triplet. It's pretty annoying having to wait 30 minutes or more to use high powers after taking the triplet outdoors while waiting for it to acclimate. There will always be some color at high power with any refractor. It just goes with the territory. However the tightness of star points and their airy discs allows for easier viewing of tight doubles as compared to a reflector even with the minor residual color.

The GSO made 9x50 RACI is probably the most recommended one out there. It's surprisingly well made for the price. I think I paid $50 shipped for my used copy last summer.

That's a different Celestron zoom. I'm sure it's an M37 thread since M38 is not an industry standard. You could look for a T-thread (M42) to M37 adapter or step-down ring. Make sure it has a 42x0.75 thread (T-mount) and not a 42x1.0 thread (Universal mount).

Make sure it has a way to keep them from swinging forward while not on your face and hitting the scope or mount if you lean over to view.

The fact that you can focus on trees closer than infinity, which is where stars focus, indicates you're short of adequate in-focus when wearing eyeglasses which I presume are set for distance correction. I'm guessing you're myopic (near-sighted) which allows you to focus the stars closer than infinity without eyeglasses. I might have that backwards. I'm nearsighted and have to confess I've never checked which way I have to move the focuser to achieve focus without glasses. It seems bizarre that a 6" SCT lacks enough focus accommodation for infinity focus with a BHZ. What diagonal are you using? Have you tried reaching focus with glasses but without the diagonal (straight through viewing)? This would buy you 60mm of in-focus with a 1.25" diagonal removed from the optical path.

You could always look up what forms need filled out and where to file them.

The biggest loss for those of us fairly far south (NM and TX) are the northern skies. Circumpolar objects never get very high in the sky, so they never get out of the murk. I haven't seen the Little Dipper clearly in years.

Unless the cost of forgiven rent exceeds the value of what was stolen, I'd be going after them legally for this.

The best views will require you to either get up around 3 in the morning or wait another month or two. The summer Milky Way is coming. I recommend pushing the magnification up to around 200x to resolve large GCs like M13 and M22. You may need to buy a Barlow to increase your magnification. 150mm should be enough to begin to resolve them. If you missed the Orion nebula, you've missed the brightest emission nebula. Try looking for M17. It looks kind of like a cigar at first. You might also be able to see M16 or M20. Try looking for M57 and M27. Again, crank up the power on these small planetary nebula (PNs). Start looking for M6, M7, NGC 6530 within M8, and other open clusters. They're quite beautiful. I assume you've already bagged the Double Double since you mentioned Alberio. Being in NM, you should be far enough south to get good views of Sagittarius and Scorpius which have a lot of objects. Scan back northward along the Milky Way toward Cygnus for more objects.