Louis D

The Hyperflex zoom has a narrow field of view even by zoom standards as seen in this post of mine:

In my experience, SkEye gets me within a few degrees of the target each time running on an old Galaxy S7.  Once centered, I then realign and it's a bit better for the next target in that region.  Once in the general vicinity, I'm usually good to go finding it in a widest field eyepieces or a RACI.  I can zoom the screen view to see what the immediate neighborhood looks like and match it to the eyepiece view.

I have an aluminum phone holder on a cheap ball mount that doesn't seem to interfere with it:

1 hour ago, globular said:

Agreed.  I've measured my Hyperflex 7.2-21.5 as 38.3° @ 21.5mm and 56.5° @ 7.2mm.... as opposed to the claimed 40°-60°.

I haven't measured the eye relief.... but the claimed 15mm might be a but optimistic too.

My Surplus Shed zoom version has 33° AFOV @ 20.6mm (a bit short of 21.5mm) and 11mm of eye relief and 51° AFOV @ 7.4mm (again, a bit short of 7.2mm) and 10mm of eye relief.  Eye relief bottoms out at 9mm around the 12mm focal length.  If it weren't so stiff to zoom, I could probably live with it.  Since I only paid about $35 for it on sale, I'm not complaining too loudly.  It is pretty sharp, but being sharp over such a small AFOV isn't all that hard to achieve design-wise.

On 04/09/2020 at 21:11, John said:

I have the Aero ED 40mm and it is very good. Even in my F/5.3 12 inch dobsonian (not a scope which I use a 40mm often with) the Aero ED 40 shows good correction across most of the field of view

Well, it only took a couple of years, but Lacerta ordered a batch of the 40mm EDs (along with the 30mm EDs).  I picked up one before this batch sells out.  It competes very well with the 40mm Pentax XW while being lighter and slimmer, although a bit taller.  That, and it's quite a bit cheaper, too.

25 minutes ago, Charlie 2436 said:

Hi globular

sorry. I can’t help you with the 9-27mm ,as I went for the 7-24mm version and like you say I find the eye relief very tight and because I never really got on with it I just gave up on zoom lenses. Although I was tempted by the good reports on the badder zoom but the stated eye relief isn’t any better 12-15mm I think, maybe someone else have the 9-27mm and let us know what it’s like.

cheers Robert 

The new APM SuperZoom is supposed to be easily usable with eyeglasses.  If they're back in stock for Christmas Eve delivery, I'll be asking Santa for one.

36 minutes ago, Davesellars said:

A concern with the zooms though would be getting them both at the same focal length setting with the binoviewer (since there's no click setting).

I zoom the eyepieces simultaneously until the image size seems best.  I then fine tune one against the other until the images snap together at the same image scale.  It's really pretty easy to find that sweet spot because nothing quite matches up radially until then.

I remember reading a sci-fi novel about 40+ years ago where no one on a multi-generational interstellar ark had any idea they were even on a spaceship.  There was no "crew" on the bridge, and it was only a nosy teenager who went exploring and discovered that they were nearing their destination after reaching the bridge and looking out the windows to see an approaching sun.  I can't recall the details, but no one would believe his story or theory of their existence.  In the end, I think he figured out how to take a shuttle launch by himself down to the planet they were supposed to colonize while the ark sailed on past the planet into oblivion.

14 minutes ago, Ed the Fox said:

I thought the 5mm BST may be pushing it a bit with my scope but you think it's OK?

It would be right at the limit of what your scope can do.  You might want to explore the Barlowed zoom route to better explore the magnification limits of your scope and the seeing limits of your skies.

You could try a quick experiment with your existing gear.  Try the Barlow element on the front of the diagonal in the frac, assuming it's a 1.25".  That would add at least 60mm of extension, so your magnification might go up to between 4.5x and 5x.  That would boost you to somewhere around 180x with the 18mm BCOs.

I would get a pair of lower cost zooms so you can dial in your maximum magnification based on the seeing conditions.  At 3x and f/21, they'd perform excellently.

2 hours ago, Ed the Fox said:

I will be buying the 12mm and 18mm in due course.

The difference in magnification between the 12mm and 15mm is only 15x (75x-60x) and 10x between the 15mm and 18mm  (60x-50x) for your scope.  Both would be negligible differences.  I usually recommend the 12mm and 18mm for a 75x-50x=25x difference which is noticeable, but you've already got the 15mm, so we'll work with that.

I would get a 32mm Plossl for widest field at 28x and a 5mm BST for 180x.  That would give you 28x, 36x, 60x, 113x, and 180x with exit pupils of 4.6mm, 3.6mm, 2.2mm, 1.2mm, and 0.72mm, which is a nice progression.

You might want to hunt down a 6.5mm or 7mm for 139x or 129x for nights that won't support jumping to 180x.  A barlowed zoom might fill this role:

7 hours ago, dan_adi said:

Why would you need the mount unbalanced?

I was just trying to understand how similar it's out of balance load capacity would be to a harmonic drive.

40 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

The Astronomik UHC-E passes one of the Swan bands I believe. 

According to the SearchLight data Don pointed to, The Astronomik UHC-E (the blue line) passes both Carbon lines (olive green) quite well along with a particular Orion SkyGlow from Japan (olive green) and one from Korea (magenta).  However, other SkyGlow versions don't, so it's pretty hit or miss on Carbon lines for them.

22 hours ago, Scoobyroo said:

lined the laser finder up on the 'star'

22 hours ago, Scoobyroo said:

I mastered the laser finder

Glad you had such a memorable night out!  However, for future reference, I believe you were using a red dot finder (RDF for short around here), and not a true laser finder (typically green and often referred to as a green laser pointer or GLP).

15 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

A test of 8 of them here:

https://searchlight.semrock.com/?sid=a08a1af9-84ee-49d2-959d-153d7e7c0eb8#

15 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

Yes, the wider UHC filters (ES, Optolong, StarGuy, Astronomik UHC-E, etc.) do not provide the contrast enhancement you want.  They're less expensive, which is why they've sold.

Notice that the StarGuy O-III is nearly identical to the Lumicon Comet.  Might not be a bad deal if used for comets.

I wonder if it is the same as my Zhumell O-III I picked up in 2014 for $10.  It's more of a blue-green filter than an O-III filter.  My 25 year old Lumicon O-III totally trounces it.

4 hours ago, dan_adi said:

Steel. No rubber, no belts, no gears.

Interesting.  I wonder what the maximum amount of out of balance it can deal with.

Here's the link on the ES website.  MSRP = $79.99, current "sale" price is $69.99.  No mention of a pulse feature.  I find it hilarious that an ES made finder doesn't come with an ES style finder foot.

For comparison, Telrads cost between $39 and $54 here in the states.  All prices do not include sales tax for those of you used to having VAT silently included in prices.

I'm seeing £65.00 at one UK dealer for the ES, making it about 10% cheaper than in the US (about $63 after conversion) once you knock off the VAT for an apples to apples comparison.

The OVL and WO binoviewers are both Norin BVs.  I would go with the OVL on price and having eyepiece locking collets.  Not perfect by any means as they will tilt undercut eyepieces, but they tend to keep eyepieces centered better than thumbscrews.  Budget for a good quality Barlow with removable lens element to reach focus in some scopes.  On my Arcturus BVs (nearly identical to the OVL), I screw the nosepiece from a vintage Meade 140 2x Barlow onto the front for 3x to reach focus in Newts and fracs.  A vintage Celestron Ultima, Orion Shorty Plus, or Parks GS Shorty 2x (all the same Japanese made triplet shorties) also works very well as-is.  Either come up regularly here in the States on astro classifieds for about  $45 to $65 each.

You did not mention your storage options, transportation options, where you'd be observing from, mobility issues that might affect lifting/bending, etc.  Are you comfortable learning the sky or will you insist on electronic finding aids?  Just about any scope will show the moon and planets.  To see the planets in more detail with require a larger aperture.  Nebula also tend to benefit from more aperture.  Don't overlook open and globular star clusters.  They don't look that exciting in images; but to the human eye, they are like well lighted, twinkling diamonds on black velvet.  Again, aperture allows the smaller ones to be resolved instead of just appearing as a fuzz patch.

There are all sorts of 6" to 8" Dobsonian mounted Newtonians out there that would get you started for the least outlay, leaving more money for eyepieces and other accessories.

Since you're in Utah, I suggest checking with US retailers like Orion USA, Astronomics, OPT, Telescopes.net (Woodland HIlls), High Point Scientific, and Agena Astro to see what's in stock at the moment.  Avoid buying astro gear from big box retailers, Amazon, and ebay until you really know what you're doing (~5+ years in the hobby).  Trust me on this.

27 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

Can imagine a time when a generational ship already en-route say 3/4 the way there and then a newer faster ship is sent out, overtakes it and that crew is sat around drinking their coffee or whatever when the older ship arrives expecting to be the first. Conversation along the lines of "hey what took you so long..." 😉 

Stargate:  Atlantis (TV series) covered this in an episode.  The original inhabitants of Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy leave on a ship thousands of years ago at just under light speed for the Milky Way galaxy (apparently due to their hyperdrive being damaged in battle).  They age very slowly thanks to time dilation.  Our intrepid Earthlings are traveling between galaxies thanks to various borrowed alien technologies when they detect a ship traveling at near light speed.  They investigate.  They bring the Lanteans up to speed on what has happened since they left, and they make the decision to hitch a ride back to Atlantis and order the Earthlings to vacate the premises.  I won't go into what happens next to them.

Yes, I recall going round and round on the S@N first impressions of the Omegon Panorama II eyepieces.

What are they using to transfer torque to the mount from the motor via friction?  Is it some sort of hard rubber wheel?  If so, will replacements be available as the rubber hardens and degrades with time?

SVBONY 68° Ultra Wide Angle 20mm pair:

At f/10, they're not going to be quite as sharp across the field as at f/18 in my setup, but they won't be too bad.

Microscope eyepiece pairs also work well, but require some adaptation.

Try holding your cellphone camera up to the eyepiece to get some idea of what's possible.  I haven't tried it yet, but I've read on here that some folks are having success when showing dim objects to young children this way.

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Waiting for the launch of Artemis 1

Don't hold you breath waiting for it, you'll likely pass out.  It's a case of I'll believe it when I see it.

2 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Were the type 2 an inferior eyepiece in some way? Did it have an inherent fault? I ask because I was considering buying a 12mm type 2. Thanks Don.

Tighter eye relief than the 12mm T4, larger than the 13mm/11mm T6, older coating technology.  They're still popular over here in the astro classifieds.