Louis D

ROR MSDS:

• Ammonia 26° - 0.775%
• Sodium Chloride - 0.830%
• Isopropyl Alcohol - 4.266%
• Liquid Soap - 9.011%
• Distilled Water - 85.118%

Baader Wonder Fluid MSDS:

• Ethanol - 25%
• Propan-1-ol (n-Propanol or n-Propyl Alcolhol) - 35%

Zeiss Lens Cleaning Wipes MSDS:

• AQUA = Water
• Propan-2-ol = Propanol
• Ethanol = Ethanol
• 5-CHLORO-2-METHYL-2H-ISOTHIAZOL-3-ON = Methylchoroisothiazolinon
• 2-METHYL-2H-ISOTHIAZOL-3-ON = Methylthiazolinon

Windex Glass Cleaner MSDS:

• 2-Butoxyethanol - 0.5-1.5%
• Ethylene glycol hexyl ether - 0.5-1.5%
• Isopropyl Alcohol - 1-5%
• Water - 60-100%

So, some combination of distilled water, ammonia, isopropyl or propanol alcohol, ethanol, and liquid soap would seem to be the common thread here across cleaners.

I've found that the purely alcohol based ones do a poor job of removing organic crud like tree sap.

21 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Stellarvue does not have any dealers in in EU for example. The list goes on and on.... 

Doesn't Altair Astro sell very similar scopes under their own label in the UK?

5 hours ago, Deadlake said:

any cheaper way of not paying the £8 handling charge to Royal Mail for imports?

Buy local within your home country? 😉

2 hours ago, John said:

That looks like the Celestron Regal Zoom. One of our members, @Louis D uses those with a binoviewer in astro scopes I seem to recall, and seems to think quite highly of them.

Yep, the same with different markings for multiple scopes.  They work great.  Just make sure it has a smooth zoom movement.  I recently picked up a used one for my daughter's scope for $50, and it's action is somewhat stiff.  Same optics, but stiff for some reason.  Both of my copies are buttery smooth in motion.  One is the Celestron, the other is Olivon.  The only difference is the Celestron has a ribbed metal grip while the Olivon has a rubber grip.  I think I paid $65 each for my copies a few years back.

If you ever want more eye relief for eye glasses or to attach a camera or other device to the top, just keep twisting the eye cup downward and eventually it will start to unscrew and come right off.  It's reverse threaded (righty loosey).

4 hours ago, banjaxed said:

It seems to work fine so I wondered if there is any significant difference between spotting scope and telescope eyepieces.

There's no filter threads on the bottom to reduce insertion distance for spotting scopes that don't have a lot of back focus available.  The moving lower element literally bottoms out flush with the bottom of the insertion barrel, so be careful when setting it down upright without a bottom cap.  Otherwise, no significant differences.

1 hour ago, wulfrun said:

Thanks to all. I've pressed the button and a 32mm plossl should be appearing at my doorstep before too long...

Good choice.  When I went to Nebraska for the 2017 eclipse, I brought along a 32mm Plossl and an 8-24mm zoom along with my ST80, solar filter, and Bogen tripod.  I didn't feel like I needed anything else.

A 32mm Plossl at f/8 will provide the largest TFOV in your scope and be pretty well corrected.  The only downside is the 50 degree field of view.

You could get a 24mm wide field like a Panoptic, ES-68, or APM UFF for about the same TFOV at a higher power and wider AFOV.  However, the difference between it and your 20mm ES-68 wouldn't be all that much.  There's also the 25mm BST Starguider that would come close to maxing out the TFOV as well, and might perform well at f/8.

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

One question Stu, if this thread is around prices rises and a lot of the dealers I talk to (delays and cost increases) say corvid is not the only factor in prices rises but due to changes in trading arrangements shall we say how can you keep policitics out of it?

He's not saying that.  He's saying that even if politics were a part of it, it would not be an allowable subject to discuss on here.  You could probably say that new tariffs (Trump's 25% China trade war) or Brexit added X amount to the cost, but you couldn't discuss the merits or underlying reasons for either.

I've noticed popular items that are long out of stock are commanding near new list prices on Cloudy Nights Classifieds and are selling within a day.  Things like Celestron EdgeHD scopes, for instance.  It really depends on the demand for the particular item you're selling.

As another example, houses in our local area are commanding 7% over list price with an average of 70 cash offers in the first 24 hours.  Thus, it depends on the situation for used items.  Desirability and scarcity for astro gear and location for real estate.

I observe less in the summer because of the later onset of darkness (partially due to DST) and the onslaught of mosquitos, heat, and humidity.

We switched to DST two weeks ago.  It affected me less this year because I've been sleeping in while working from home because I don't have that hour commute into work every day.

2 hours ago, MiladyB said:

My heart sank when I saw the news

Hopefully not many imports to the US go through there.  Most Far East imports to the US just come straight across the Pacific to west coast ports.

29 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Public transport in Texas? One person one vote? Where will all this end? 🤣

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." - Debatable attribution

On 25/03/2021 at 11:51, moriniboy said:

Saw one the other day, considerably faster than the usual satellites. In fact I would say it was faster than a meteor.

Perhaps a spent rocket stage?  A SpaceX rocket just reentered Earth's atmosphere last night above the US Pacific Northwest.

58 minutes ago, lenscap said:

To paraphrase Churchill  " . . . democracy, the worst form of government, apart from all the alternatives . . ."

After seeing local voters approve a $7 billion bond package to build a light rail system after most business owners and property owners vehemently opposed it, I realized it was all the college students registered to vote in town along with all of the renters who thought having new trains to ride sounded great, especially because they don't directly pay property taxes.  At first, I thought the original US Constitution allowing only land owners to vote sounded pretty elitist, but as a property tax paying individual now, I get it.  Since it was amended to allow all citizens to vote, this is what we get.  Voting for expenses we may never be on the hook to pay for, even indirectly.

You may need to put silicone bumper feet on your finder base's corners to keep it from rocking on the small diameter focuser.  I had to do this with my QuikFinder base.

I forgot to add this thought of mine on uniformed individuals like my kids:  It should scare us informed voters that many, if not most, voters are completely uninformed or worse, misinformed, on most topics, and yet they choose our representatives via their votes.

2 hours ago, billhinge said:

I  blame TV or lack of now.

My grown kids don't watch TV except to stream Netflix and such.  They don't watch the news because it makes them upset.  Better to be uninformed and happy than informed and unhappy is their mantra I guess.

3 hours ago, azrabella said:

Canvassing opinion on the best way to clean eyepiece optics - especially the eyelens element as I am forever laying down eyelash grease and detritis on mine - tight eye relief issue, I guess! Anyway, I am sure many visual observers have this issue and I would like to gather others thoughts here. Currently I  use the classic LensPen and am reluctant to try fluid as I have had past experience of over applying which is then a mini nightmare to remove. Always the worry of fluid getting between the optical components.

So, if anyone wants to volunteer advice, I would be very interested to hear.

Thanks in advance

I only use long eye relief eyepieces and always wear eyeglasses, so I only clean my eye lenses once every decade or so.  I just went through a thorough cleaning of them last summer.  I just use the edge of a microfiber cloth to lightly flick away any loose particles.  I find Windex on a clean cotton cloth works best to remove stuck on tree sap dots, my main problem.  I then use a dry microfiber cloth to buff out any remaining streaks.  I sometimes turn the eyepiece upside down and huff moisture upward onto the eye lens to facilitate wiping away the last streaks.  I've used this same technique for 40+ years of cleaning camera lenses as well without any issues.

7 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

If your have a good vendor who accepts returns and the time and experience to do the QC at home.

This is my experience of a SharpStar triplet - strange spikes and CA.

I totally get the spikes as well until it acclimates.  I was a bit shocked at first, but I gave it some time, and they settled down.  If you were still seeing them hours in, then yes, you had a bad sample.  Visually, I haven't seen any CA in focus.  It's kind of blue-green on one side of best focus and sort of red on the other.  That too, was a shock to someone who had always used reflectors where there's no color on either side of best focus.

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I would have to disagree and say no 

Edited after re-reading comment:  Maybe the best triplets from China, I don’t know, but certainly not “the best APOs” 

If you know of a better APO consistently coming out of China, I'd like to know so I can recommend them.

I will admit I forgot to mention Long-Perng's APOs which are also pretty decent.

If your budget stretches to $5000 or more, TEC and AP make excellent APOs.  I'm sure Europe has some fine locally made APOs as well, for a price.

19 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

In particular, the one linked to above says <5mW, and the UK limit is 1mW. And some chinese models have been known to output way over the stated value.

I have no doubt those ebay laser sights are way over 5mW.  They tend to be brighter than pen lasers.  That, and they burn through large lithium ion batteries.  It does make them easier to follow into the sky, though.  All that and the unfiltered IR is why I won't use them at outreach events.  They're just too dangerous for casual use.

The Luminos are not well known for outer field sharpness.  They are also known for edge of field brightening (EOFB) where the outer field looks slightly brighter than the axial part.

I would recommend the BST Starguider (Paradigm, etc) 5mm for a starter.  At 60 degrees AFOV and 12mm of usable eye relief, it will feel like a massive improvement over the 6mm Plossl for not a lot more money.  It's also only 6.8 ounces, so pretty light and compact.  I also find it to be quite sharp across the field with no blackout issues.

56 minutes ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

I have never noticed any temperature related issues like tube currents in the APM 80 mm triplet, unlike in my C8. I do store the telescopes in a fairly cool garage (there is a radiator there, but that is only switched on enough to prevent things freezing), so that might be the reason. I only get some reduced sharpness due to tube currents if I observe the sun with Herschel Wedge or Ca-K module without my tri-band ERF. The ERF clearly keeps the air in the tube cooler, and cuts back tube currents.

I get spiky stars with my triplet for the first 30 minutes or so at high powers, then it settles down.  Despite it claiming to have a temperature compensated lens cell, I have my doubts.

I would err toward an FPL-53 doublet over an FPL-51 triplet.  The correction is about the same, but the former is lighter and acclimates more quickly.

I spent $900 used a couple of years ago on a TS-Optics Photoline 90mm f/6.6 FPL-53 APO triplet.  It takes 30 minutes to acclimate, so that part is a bit annoying.  Otherwise, the images and mechanics are superb.  It's made by Sharpstar in China which has been churning out just about the best APOs lately from there.  The KUOs are about the same quality level, and both are well ahead of Synta mechanically.

My point is, educate yourself on what you want to buy as you are doing here and then watch the classifieds and jump on one when it comes up used.

Don't mess with the three grub screws around the perimeter of the focuser.  Those control focuser rotation tension as vlaiv says above.

It is the larger holes you want to use as vlaiv says above.  One for fixed orientation, one for rotation with the focuser.

I have no idea why you would want to put a finder scope on it.  Get a 2" diagonal and a 35mm to 40mm widest field 2" eyepiece, and you've got an 11x to 12x, 6+ degree finder scope built in.

I do use one of the two holes to attach a Rigel QuikFinder foot to it.  That does make sense.

I have the Astro-Tech AT72ED version of that scope.  I've attached the manual for it below.

Astro-Tech 72ED.pdf

5 hours ago, Franklin said:

The Vixen Lanthanum 8-24 zoom works very well in my grab n go F6 refractor, especially for solar with the Lunt wedge. Not sure if they still make them but they come up used from time to time. I think I paid around £65 for mine.

Multiple vendors in the US report them as being discontinued.  Last price was $169.  I think the Chinese made 8-24mm knockoffs pushed them out of the market.