Louis D

9 hours ago, JamesF said:

Why do you need a towel rail on your new telescope?

James

Interesting.  They're usually called towel bars in the US.  We do have handrails for steadying ourselves, though.

The used market in the US for the Synta 127 Mak is far larger than for the ES/Bresser version.  I picked up an Orion and a Celestron labelled version for $200 each over the last couple of years here.  I have noticed the used prices have jumped 50% to $300 over than last year, though.  However, I've never seen a used ES/Bresser come up for sale.  Either there aren't that many here, or there are lots and no one wants to sell theirs.

My point is, if you want to buy used, the Synta 127 Mak is really the only option, at least on this side of the pond.

8 hours ago, Deadlake said:

I’m looking for a 2” wide field eyepiece around 40mm.

Searching the forums apart from the obvious 41 mm panoptic, the 40 mm paragon comes up. The paragon was discontinued some time ago however clones where made of it.

Are any of these paragon clones still be made?

The 35mm Aero ED is still available from a few vendors (verify availability first) and has a field stop only 1.5mm smaller than the 40mm Paragon, and at a higher power to boot.  Correction-wise, Ernest in Russia has tested it to be above the 30mm and below the 40mm.  It's decent in the inner 75% at f/6.  If you look in the center and keep the outer field in your peripheral vision, it should work well for you.  It's priced very competitively, it's light, and it's compact.

Here's how it compared to my other 32mm to 42mm eyepieces (minus the 40mm Pentax XW-R which I didn't have at the time):

7 hours ago, Ricochet said:

There's a 40mm Maxvision in the classifieds at a bit of a bargain price. The Maxvision is a rebranded Meade SWA and optically the same as the ES68. 

I have the 40mm Meade 5000 SWA version, and it is slightly better corrected across the field than my 40mm Pentax XW despite costing me 1/3 as much.  It is about 7 ounces heavier than the Pentax once decloaked, though.  The Pentax has slightly less SAEP and significantly less usable eye relief (17mm vs 24mm) due to the inexplicable 7mm eye lens recession.  The tapered top of the Pentax makes it more comfortable.  The Pentax is also slightly wider in AFOV (70° vs 69°), eAFOV (66° vs 65°) and TFOV (46.2mm FS vs 45.7mm FS)  than the Meade.  Overall, though, I haven't been able to make up mind as to which will reside in the A-team eyepiece case.  They're more alike than different.

5 hours ago, jetstream said:

A 5mm exit pupil is a great all round one for most skies, some buddies over there will go 4mm and up to 5ish.  Its too bad there are no 100 deg eyepieces for the fracs ie 30mm+. The Pentax 30mm XW had a great reputation, personally I use the adequate but not great 42mm LVW at f7-7.5.

There certainly is a 30mm 100 degree eyepiece for refractors, the 3" Explore Scientific one.  You just need a 3 inch compatible focuser and a 3 inch diagonal.  It is reportedly a very well corrected eyepiece.

5 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Maybe I should try the 30 mm first, is the APM based on the paragon design?

http://apm-telescopes-englisch.shopgate.com/item/333631373637
 

Excellent eyepiece not at all related to the Paragon.  It is world class in every way.  It is better corrected than the 30mm Pentax XW despite being cheaper, lighter, and thinner.  You do give up quite a bit of true field of view relative to maximum true field of view available in a 40mm 70 degree eyepiece.

It is available under the Altair UF and Meade PWA brands as well.  They're all made by KUO in China.

You see how well corrected it is compared to my other 29mm to 30mm eyepieces below:

The full width views are taken with a super wide angle, but lower resolution, camera to capture the entire 70°+ views that extend beyond the edges of the narrower, higher resolution camera used for the first set of images.

4 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Backyard Bortle 4 (whatever that means) 20.5 SQM. What point do you think the cut off is for my light polluted sky.

I'm under Bortle 5/6 skies and find views at f/6 with a 40mm eyepiece to be very rewarding.  If you're looking at bright open clusters like the Pleiades, the brighter sky background isn't a big deal.  I can even pick up on some of the nebulosity around some of the stars despite the low contrast.

5 hours ago, Adam J said:

The camera is more sensitive to blue and red than the human eye and hence in AP you will see CA that you cant see by looking through the scope.

This being said the 115 F7 is a excerlent example of a well optomized FPL 51 design and I have seen many great AP images with it.

Adam

I'd totally believe that.  I wonder if a fluorite doublet outperforms an FPL-53 triplet.  Based on the cost, you'd think it would.

From my yard stick field stop measurements:

24mm APM UFF: 27.5mm FS

22mm AT AF70: 28.4mm FS

There is a bit of falloff/fuzziness for the APM at the edge, so it's not a good, clean 27.5mm FS.  Measured AFOV=63°, eAFOV=66°

The AF70 has low distortion toward the edge, helping maximize its TFOV. Measured AFOV=70°, eAFOV=74°:

Here's my comparison image of ~24mm eyepieces.  Your 25mm Celestron is probably similar to the 25mm Meade HD-60.  The 24mm APM UFF is optically identical to the Altair Astro.

It's a decent eyepiece that suffers a bit toward the edge.  I much prefer my 22mm AT AF70 (Omegon Redline, TS Optics Expanse) for just a bit more TFOV.  However, it does require a 2 inch focuser.

This diagram from telescope-optics.net gives some idea of the color correction of various glass combinations.

Seemingly, an FPL-51 triplet will perform similarly to an FPL-53 doublet at like aperture and f-ratio.

This question has been discussed repeatedly over the years on both SGL and CN.  Google "fpl-53 doublet vs fpl-51 triplet" for hours of reading.

Small, lunch sized coolers also make great binocular cases.

49 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I'm new to buying proper astro kit, but I've looked covetously over adverts in astronomy magazines back in the days when the internet was science fiction . I seem to recall that 20-30 years ago the 'name' quality kit was mainly from Meade and Celestron, don't think Skywatcher was even a brand I'd heard of. However, prices (in the UK) were  higher, to the point where altho' my disposable income back then was double what it is today, I could never contemplate actually buying any halfway decent telescope.

Skywatcher ( perhaps I should say Synta)  have built themselves up to dominate the mass market  since then, producing acceptable kit at comparatively reasonable prices for years. Hardly surprising that now they have a good name and a huge % of the market, but a reduced ability to produce due to covid19, high demand due to covid 19, and difficulties with shipping (ditto) they are putting prices up. After all , businesses exist to make profit ,  demand & supply, John Maynard Keynes and all that ...

Or this is a huge plot by Chinese companies to buy up non-Chinese companies (e.g., Meade, Celestron, etc.), move production to China, keep prices low taking advantage of their lower production costs until they've bought all non-Chinese companies in a particular market, and then raise prices back to pre-Chinese ownership levels and pocket the difference and use it to buy up more non-Chinese companies in another market.  Nah, they wouldn't do that. 😏

Try poking around the bins at a home improvement store to see what sorts of angle brackets and mending straps they have.  With some nuts and bolts to connect everything and a nice heavy ankle weight on the end, you should be able to MacGyver something together for under $20 like the first link.

I did something similar for my daughter's 127 Mak, except I just wrapped bubble wrap around the whole thing, so it has about 3 inches of protection on all sides.  The finder is in bubble wrap in a side pocket, as are the other accessories.

It's also nice because it doesn't look expensive sitting in the back of her open SUV at a public campsite like an aluminum or Pelican case would.

If you can get a good view to the south, Orion is loaded with open clusters as well as the namesake nebula.  If you can go low enough in power (15x or lower), Collinder 70 surrounds the belt stars and is quite a surprise if you've only ever looked at those stars at higher powers.  It's a case of you can't see the forest for the trees.

I also like small clusters directly adjacent to the nebula.

3 hours ago, Goldenmole said:

 Luckily, I can very easily just walk out my door and observe

Then an 8" Dob, probably the Bresser 200p, would be your best bang for the buck.  You might never feel the need to go bigger for observing.

5 hours ago, malc-c said:

There have bee reports where the normal cost pre covid to "book" a container was £1000, and is now £10,000.

It's also taking longer to unload shipping containers due to the backup of ships at many ports due to short-staffing of dock workers due to C-19.

9 hours ago, Goldenmole said:

Can anyone suggest a good reflector within my budget shown in the title?

Alright, back to the title subject.

It depends on your observing conditions.  Can you just walk out your backdoor and start observing or do you need to haul it up or down many stairs?  Does it need to fit in a car, a backpack, or on public transit?

There's not much in stock anywhere, but the top contenders tend to be various 6" or 8" Dobs, the 130 or 150 SW Heritage scopes, or the 130P and 130P-DS scopes on various mounts.

1 hour ago, MrFreeze said:

The Svbony diagonal is real, not at all 'too good to be true'.  It's not a 'cheap Chinese knock off' at all. You WILL get full after sales support, at least as good as any UK dealer. I have been dealing with Svbony for years (far longer than FLO) and have had nothing but excellent service. Even got given a pre-production sample of their SV225 camera for evaluation - not had that from dealers in this country!

Heres a picture of my diagonal, and it is brilliant.

Can you confirm the Svbony doesn't have the WO style constrictor ring at the bottom of the eyepiece holder as seen below:

24 minutes ago, John said:

The GSO diagonals that I've used have combined good build quality and good optical performance with a reasonable price eg: ones like this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/stellamira-1-25-90-di-electric-diagonal.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/stellamira-2-90-di-electric-diagonal.html

Those look more like Synta diagonals, such as the WOs that have the nasty constriction ring in the bottom you noted:

GSO diagonals look like these:

GSO 1.25" 90-deg 99% Dielectric Mirror Diagonal with Compression Ring:

GSO 2" 90-deg 99% Dielectric Mirror Diagonal for Refractors:

Notice also the 2" to 1.25" adapter.  This is a hallmark of many GSO 2" products.

On 09/02/2021 at 10:00, John said:

I keep my Quikfinder off the scope when I'm moving the 12 inch dob around and when it's stored. It clips on and off quite easily and seems to hold the alignment with the main scope quite well.

 

So do I now that I've knocked it off a couple of times. ☺️

There was very little signal in the red channel to work with, so I think your DSLR's built-in UV/IR filter is being too aggressive and is clipping the H-alpha line as shown below:

Compare my results with your image versus one taken with a QHY168C camera in this thread:

Notice how much more red channel signal I was able to dredge up from the before image in the after image.

Before:

After:

You may want to get your DSLR astro-modded to make it full spectrum if you want to dedicate it to astrophotography.

22 hours ago, Miguel1983 said:

Covid is a temporary problem, but as is mostly the case, there’s only one way prices go 

We'll have to see if astro gear pricing moves like car prices, ever upward, or like gas (petrol) prices, wildly up and down.

Just now, CraigT82 said:

Those selling used stuff will tend towards increasing their asking prices to be 2/3 of the "new" price, rather than 2/3 of the new cost at the time they bought the item. 

I'm seeing used prices on many CN classifieds matching new prices from 5 to 10 years ago, and they're still being marked as sold within days.  The US is also starting to see the effect of 25% additional tariffs on Chinese sourced goods.  Thus, I expect to see used prices matching new prices from 2018/2019 in the very near future.