Louis D

4 hours ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Personally I prefer the uhc over the OIII. Its not just about the darkness of the sky but also the aperture of the scope. I also use an 8inch newt and find it's at the limit of usefulness for an OIII filter, it's just about enough for this filter but I definitely wouldn't bother with a smaller aperture because an OIII will just darken the image too much, you need as much light as possible with this filter which is why it is not the best for an 8inch. I find the UHC better as it has a wider bandpass. I love observing planetary nebula, many of them can be seen without a filter, a UHC will assist in making it stand out against a black background, some, even in light polluted skies. The same object disappears from view with an OIII...when it would look great with a 12inch scope. I use the Astronomik filter (all my filters are Astronomik or Baader) and can fully recommend it.

At what exit pupil(s) are you observing?  I've used my 1990s Lumicon OIII down to 2mm EP on brighter nebula to good effect in my 8" Dob.  Yes the view dims, but if you study the image for a few minutes, fine edge details will tend to pop out that weren't obvious without it.  It's also indispensable to reveal the Veil nebula under Bortle 5 skies.

12 hours ago, badhex said:

Whatever they are made of now is a very lightweight, silver-white non-magnetic metal, possibly aluminium. 

Generally pot metal is majority zinc.  That's what we're dealing with here.  Metals alloyed with it can include lead, tin, aluminium, and copper.  There is no standard for it.  In all cases, it has a low melting point and a porous, brittle structure.  Based on the images below of a broken SkyTee-2 mount, they're also cast from pot metal:

I'm sticking with mounts machined from solid billets of aluminum like my DSV-1 and DSV-2B mounts for my scopes.

13 hours ago, vagk said:

I recently bought one brand new Pentax XW 5mm that says on its label "Made in Japan". Does it mean the lenses are made in Japan and the assembly in Philippines ?

It could simply be old stock in new packaging.  Did the box say Ricoh anywhere?  My XWs are similarly marked as "Made in Japan", so it might come down to origin of part percentages under US law.  It could also be they're not concerned with US labeling laws.  Clearly APM isn't.  There's no way their eyepieces qualify as "Made in Germany", but many are marked Germany rather than China.  Perhaps by leaving out "Made in" they can skirt these country of origin laws?

57 minutes ago, Ags said:

I've tried my Explore Scientific 20/68°, and felt it was pushing the magnification. Also, I think an eyepiece with a deeply recessed eye lens works best for solar. That's partly the reason why I favor the SLV 25.

Good point.  Trouble for me is that I can't wear my eyeglasses with most of them to correct out my 2.0 diopters of eye astigmatism.

Although, you could try these:

or these:

to block the sunlight.

Check the Orion version for price as well.

Meade UHD is another branding.

AliExpress sells them under the KUO factory brand Sky Rover.

At those focal ratios, give the SVBONY 68° Ultra Wide Angle 20mm a chance.  I was surprised at how good they are Barlowed and binoviewed:

They handily beat my widefield, long eye relief vintage B&L 15x microscope pair that I've used as my benchmark for years.  Both pairs are terrible below f/12.

I like the wide field, long eye relief, and sharp/contrasty optics of the Svbony.  The price is nice as well.  They're only $30 each from the Svbony store here in the US.

I hate to tell you I told you so, but...

On 16/06/2022 at 20:01, Louis D said:

I recommend swapping out all GSO supplied thumb screws immediately upon purchase for high quality tool or stainless steel cap head screws.

2 minutes ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

They were originally made by Barsta. They have been marketed with several brand names. I'm not sure who actually manufactures them now. The Barsta site has disappeared. 

Barsta appeared to be an aggregator/wholesaler of stuff made by a multitude of unnamed companies.  I never got the impression they had their own factories like KUO, JOC, Ningbo Sunny, GSO, Long Perng, etc.  Barsta seemed more similar to today's Svbony except that Barsta didn't seem to sell directly to the public.

16 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Yes, but you live in Texas 🤣

True this. And, the University of Texas (at Austin) fires off a cannon on the field after every (American) football touchdown made by their team.

1 hour ago, Stephen_M said:

So with an EP, 180 degrees for the EP, and 45 degrees where the focusser is?

Sounds about right.  You can see that the horizon has swapped corners with the eyepiece inserted vs. the camera view, but is still slanted 45 degrees.

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Which reminds me: when my obsy was delivered (see my pic), several neighbours thought it was a new septic tank…. 

When I first got my 8" Dob and used it in my front yard, passersby would ask if it was some sort of cannon. 🙄

5 hours ago, jamesc96 said:

Are there any other alternate brandings for the Starguiders? I'm located in Ireland so would like to know of alternatives that are easier to ship here than the BSTs.

I've also seen them sold as just Dual ED along with the aforementioned Paradigm branding.

19 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Actually no that laser isn't any more powerful then normal.  Its just a basic run of the mil Z Bolt green laser.  

Not like this one.  You'd definitely NOT want to shine this GLP at the sky.

I was mistaking the eyepiece's 180 rotation for the scope.

12 hours ago, Zeta Reticulan said:

I like a white plastic garden chair.

I can leave it in the garden, and being white it's easier to see in the dark so I don't fall over it so often. 

Me too.  More often than not, it works fine.

Well, I went to lean forward one night to better peer into an eyepiece, and BAM!, one side of the stool collapses.  Basically, the asymmetric load sheared off some of the load bearing tabs around the periphery of the upper rings under the side I leaned toward.  See my write-up below:

Basically garbage now.  I'd say I got 2 or 3 good nights of use out of it.  I'd consider it a disposable stool at this rate.

19 hours ago, NGC 1502 said:

I’ve owned all focal lengths of BST Starguiders except the 25mm.

I found the best of the bunch are the 5mm, 8mm, 12mm and for the price are exceptional. The 15mm and 18mm were not as good with my f4.8 Dob but still not too bad considering the price.  The 3.2mm was a disaster and perhaps a faulty unit. I realise the 3.2mm produces very high power, but compared with my 2.5mm and 4mm Vixen LVs the BST 3.2mm Starguider was only sharp in centre field and very fuzzy off axis.  

I agree with your experiences.  The 25mm is a slight improvement from the 15mm and 18mm units, but it is certainly no 24mm APM UFF.  See my write-up versus the Meade HD-60s:

I recall someone on CN also commenting that the 3.2mm has off-axis issues.  I didn't pick one up because it wasn't part of the used package I bought, and I saw no reason to complete the set based on these shaky reviews.  Besides, I rarely use my 3.5mm Pentax XW, so the 3.2mm BST/Paradigm would have just about zero utility for me.

3 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

something that looks like a recycling bottle bank.

OMG, got the mental image of neighbors tossing recyclables into your observatory. 🤣

Has anyone tried this Barlow with any other eyepieces or zooms?  Is it a one trick pony in that it only works well with the BHZ?

10 hours ago, Don Pensack said:

I posted a review here:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/782373-apm-super-zoom-eyepiece/?p=12043283

Nice detailed review on the technical side of things.  Based on all the feedback so far, it seems like a 7.7mm-14mm design stretched to 15.4mm to make it a 2x range.

That reminds me of comments on the BHZ not showing any more true field beyond 20mm.  From there to 24mm, it just shrinks the AFOV and magnification proportionally to keep TFOV constant, so not a particularly useful range.  Again, the design was stretched to make it a 3x range.

It definitely sounds like a good Christmas present to me from the wife.  It's not something I desperately need, but it would be a nice item to have at my disposal.  I could see it being useful for travel.  Right now, I use a Celestron Regal 8-24mm zoom for travel.

2 hours ago, Stu said:

I think I would always be nervous observing when the 31mm is pointing straight down!!

I believe that was a Vanslyke Instruments 2" turret.  His stuff was way over-designed and overbuilt.  I wouldn't fret it.

22 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

Which was your one, Louis, so we can avoid it?

It is a Mini-Max 17.7.  Below are pictures of it.  I did a brief write-up 2.5 years ago here:

Open with its box to the side:

Open but tilted over after I sat on it (notice newly broken tabs around it):

View of the broken rings underneath the top:

Sat on it again, and it broke further:

Completely broken in two now:

Box label and broken tabs:

Basically, it's a piece of junk.  What a waste of $40.  Worst astro accessory I've ever bought by far.

2 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

  

The plastic tabs sheared off on several of the plastic rings on mine when I leaned forward toward the eyepiece and put excess pressure on one side instead of evenly around the whole circumference.  Great idea, poor execution.  It needs to be made from a stronger material that is more shear resistant.

11 hours ago, col said:

I'll check collimation again as the star test didn't show concentric circles but what looked like a tiny globular cluster

It could have been seeing conditions breaking up the airy disk.  Make sure to pick a semi-bright star near zenith to minimize seeing conditions.  Also, the star must be centered or the star test won't tell you much about collimation.

Patios and decks in the US are usually right up against the back of the house which seems like a terrible place for an observatory.  You haven't exactly said where your patio is in relation to the house, shed, trees, shrubs, etc.

Why would your wife be willing to give up the patio?  Mine would dead set against it since she likes to sit out on the patio in the evening sometimes.  This would be difficult with an observatory plunked down on top of it.  Most folks in the US put their observatory toward the back edge of their backyard to get it far away from the house and neighboring houses.