Victor Boesen

Thanks Joe! You should definitely try binoviewing at some point I think getting my Quark a little more than a year ago made me decide I finally wanted to try binoviewing. You just can't help yourself doing some Gitzo advertising after all can you? Are you affiliated with them or something But yeah, going to think about it for some more time before buying anything. Another option would be to just save the extra money to get the Innorel RT90C which should be sufficient for my setup. Unfortunately it seems like there are few options sold locally in Denmark, and the price isn't too great either.... Will do some more research Good point. I definitely spent a good while to find the best observing strategy, eye placement and interpupillary distance before I got entirely comfortable with the view. I think the long eye relief of the Baader Plössl 32mm also made it slightly more difficult but not too sure. Hopefully going to have a pair of 18mm BCO to compare with sooner or later

Thank you!

Thank you Malcolm, I was not aware you owned that tripod! Hearing from your experience it sounds like I should be looking for something a little more heavy duty. Excellent to get first hand experience on it - thanks a lot! Victor

Excellent advice, thanks Stu

Thank you Stu Can hopefully start using it for white light too asap! Who cares what magnification you're observing at After all you only need to know the exact magnification in two instances - When people ask you about the magnification, and when you need to share it on SGL I was surprised spotting four moons too. However, it's worth mentioning the fourth was barely visible and had Skysafari not confirmed my observation I would probably not have included it in the count. If I were to get a carbon fiber tripod I would, unfortunately, not be able to justify the price of the Gitzo so would need to find an alternative well aware I won't get the same sturdiness/quality. However, if I can find a tripod to carry the Berlebach Caster II and 102mm APO comfortably then I'd be very interested. Still eyeballing the Innorel RT80C with a load capacity of 20kg and a more manageable price. Victor

Thanks Rob!! I'm also very happy with it and relieved that I have not issues with collimation, image merging and etc. I totally agree with you about the image size/magnification. I purposely didn't calculate the magnification while outside and waited until this morning when I made the post. I was very surprised that I was under 100X the entire time! To be honest I didn't feel the need for much higher magnification either. However, I will most certainly get myself second Baader Classic Ortho 18mm for some higher magnifications. I can only imagine what the view will be like. Nice solution with the Baader Classic Barlow Much similar of what I did with my VIP it sounds like. I'll definitely post some more about my binoviewer experiences. I still have some issues to solve for white light observing as I briefly mentioned, but I hope I can fix it somehow. Just need to save up some money for some time now.... Victor

Last night I was finally able to try out my Omegon/TS binoviewer for night time observing. I had previously only used it for H-alpha solar observing where I found it very comfortable to use so I was excited to see how it would perform on planetary/lunar observing, and what was required for it to reach focus with my TecnoSky 102mm F7 APO. I started on the near full moon since it was easy to find even if I'm way out of focus. Placing the binoviewer directly in the Baader Zeiss T2 prism revealed I lacked slight in-focus without any GPC (no surprise). However, I already know of a few adapters/fixes which should allow me to do straight through observing. I then tried adding my VIP barlow element with two 15mm extensions which reached focus nicely! This gave an approximate multiplication factor of 1+30/64 ≈ 3.19X (assuming binoviewer has an optical path of 110mm). With my pair of 32mm eyepieces this is a magnification of roughly 71X. A quick note - I did also try cyclops to compare the view, which I will briefly comment on in the end of the post. The Moon As visible in the image above, this left nearly 30mm of inwards travel left. Observing the moon at this magnification was amazing! It took some time before I got used to eye placement and etc. but the amount of detail visible was excellent. Craterlet A in Plato easily visible 90% of the time only being invisible for very short periods (less than a second). I am confident I also saw craterlet B and the C/D pair both of which I have never seen before in this scope!! Saturn I have not observed Saturn for a very long time, so I was excited to revisit this beautiful planet. I found it in the bino and I was very satisfied with the view! The Cassini division was sharply defined 75-80% of the time and a slight banding on the planet was also visible. I found that eye placement was slightly more crucial here compared to observing the Moon. What also surprised me was that I was easily able to spot four moons, Titan, Dione, Rhea and Tethys. From the light polluted city with a near full moon and four inches of aperture I didn't expect this. In the end, Saturn was not a day/night difference compared to previous memories of Saturn through this scope, however, it certainly was not any worse, and a great amount of detail was visible like on the Moon. I'm still getting along nicely with the Berlebach Castor II mount, but I will be getting a small counterweight since the AZ axis can be a little sticky at higher elevations. With that said, I'm very happy with it considering its price. I must say, however, the Gitzo purchase of @badhex really has made me reconsider the addition of a carbon fiber tripod for this setup Jupiter By now Jupiter was roughly 20 degrees above the horizon so I turned my attention to the gas giant. I had now added the T2-1.25" eyepiece adapter to the Baader VIP barlow resulting in a multiplication factor of ≈ 3.72X and a magnification of 83X. At first Jupiter was not much more than a beige disk with two faint equatorial bands, however, from past experience I knew this was just a matter of my brain/eyes adjusting and collecting details. After a couple minutes the details started to emerge, and I spotted the Great Red Spot approximately centered on the disk. Studying the disk even further revealed delicate differences in the hue of the Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB) around the GRS. At one point I also thought there was a shadow transit, as I started seeing a dark spot/smudge on the NEB. However, confirmed by skysafari there was no shadow transit. The dark spot/smudge is visible in the following image shared on here by @U Cyg. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/398281-jupiter-mars-12-08-2022/ I spotted the dark marking just northwest of the GRS. Going cyclops I tried observing cyclops where I started on the Moon. A quick peek at approximately the same magnification and I was surprised how uncomfortable and straining it was! I had not been aware of this until now, but the binoviewer is so comfortable to observe through. I tried observing the Plato craterlets, where I was only able to spot craterlet A, and maybe also B, but I'm not entirely sure. Turning to Saturn revealed the same story - The Cassini division and banding on the planet was still visible, however, it required a lot more effort. Comfortability alone makes the binoviewer well worth it in my opinion! And hey, a binoviewer just looks a little more awesome Finishing the session I turned to Mars. At under 9" in diameter and 83X not a lot was visible - perhaps some slight dark marking around the equator and a southern polar ice cap, but I really was not sure if I was just making things up. Mars was also above the rooftops of a couple houses so the view was a little unstable compared to Jupiter and Saturn. Upping the magnification in cyclops gave the same impressions as mentioned, but the view wasn't great. I'm looking forward to observing Mars as it rises higher on the sky A slight sidetrack - I have unfortunately not been able to reach focus for white light observing, but I think it should be possible. I'm considering a Baader 2.6X GPC, but I'm not sure if it can be used with a non-Baader binoviewer. According to Teleskop-Express it can. I already have a T2 adapter for the bino (see the first pic. It's just about visible just after the binoviewer body), so I should be able to mount it. I will do some more planning/thinking before I decide on anything Victor

It could very well also be pollen flying through the air. I've seen that many times in WL and especially in the summer where it's causing a problem for those allergic to it! Victor

I just received the adapter below for my TS/Omegon binoviewer. https://rafcamera.com/adapter-t2f-m28-5x0-6-to-m26x0-75m It fits the thread perfectly and has a T2 and a 1.25" filter thread. Be sure to measure the thread of your binoviewer first, as it might not be the same! The same website sells different adapters for other binoviewer threads. Delivery takes quite a while, but I believe it's fair for the price. It's really well made. Here's the adapter mounted with a GPC in the 1.25" thread: Now with an added T2 to 2" nosepiece, ND3.0 and continuum filter for white light: Unfortunately it still doesn't reach focus for white light with my 2" Lacerta wedge, but the images are just to prove how versatile the adapter is. You can of course also screw the diagonal straight into the T2 thread for a budget/DIY Baader T2 thread system Victor

For the majority of the time, yes. Very well in fact. However, being a friday (or saturday, I don't remember exactly), there were of course also younger people hitting the clubs and bars in the area who then stopped by to have a look. Surprisingly, many of these people actually stayed and talked for a while. They seemed genuinely interested! With that said, we did experience about one or two cases of childish/foolish behavior in which case we kindly asked them to leave. But really, if you say that people joining the outreach most likely have an interest in astronomy in one way or the other, I don't think you should worry about having the same one or two bad examples like I did. Good thinking with your partner too! If I were in your place I'd feel perfectly safe to have both my scopes with me, especially if they're mounted together. I think you'll enjoy it very much! There's a certain joy of sharing the sky with others through your equipment Victor

I would probably go for the dual mounted setup for a couple of reasons. Firstly, like you say, it looks awesome! I think the dual scope setup won't be too difficult to manage even with a large crowd/number of participants since all your equipment will be on one mount and you can easily keep an eye on people looking through the scopes. I plan to bring a similar setup to public outreaches with my Berlebach Castor II and my two fracs - eg. very similar scope sizes and etc. I once brought two setups for an outreach at the city center of Copenhagen (At the town square right next to Tivoli - One of the most popular tourist attractions in Copenhagen and the start of this years Tour de France). We had upwards of 300 people stopping by in the 4 hours we were standing there. My Evostar 72ED was mostly minding its own business on the Star Adventurer, but I was able to keep an eye on it for the majority of the time. With that said, had the Evostar been a slightly more expensive scope with a proper EQ5 or similar, I would probably not have brought it as I wouldn't feel comfortable with leaving it "alone". Another thing to consider is who you will be set up besides/with. I was joined by three other fellow amateurs that I know very well, so that was comforting to know that we each could have an eye out for each others equipment. Finally, I was really happy I brought the Evostar 72 actually. It proved an important point for many people. Of course the majority went straight for the larger scopes, but those who stayed an gave the Evostar a change were very surprised with the view of the moon! Some even preferred it over all the other scopes there. So the ZS73 could certainly prove a great point, that is, a smaller scope can very often surprise! Victor

Wow nice!! Where did you receive it from?

Thank you Joe I was also pretty happy with the images as it is usually pretty difficult to capture the details with a phone. So the posted images are a few among many taken

Thank you very much, and very well said!!

Sounds excellent! I've made a few UI applications with dearpygui, which I've become quite fond of. Quite straight forward to work with. I have also used Astropy for a couple projects of mine and definitely think I'll be using it in the near future again once a relevant project comes to mind! I look forward to see more about the application on here Victor

Perfectly understand this. Using the Gitzo 5 with your zenithstar is perhaps a little overkill Yup There is a RT90 version of the tripod I linked to as well. That is often compared to the Gitzo, but from what I've read the Gitzo is still the better choice if you like perfection! With that said, I think the RT90 or a Gitzo would probably be too large/overkill for me as I'd probably just use the Skywatcher steel tripod in that case! Victor

I think I'm very similar minded when it comes to chasing those last 25% or even 5 to 10%! Would rather spend some more on high quality equipment I have been eyeballing the Innorel RT80C tripod from amazon. Not a lot of reviews out there from people using it for astro, but the generel opinion among photographers seems positive. I still use my manfrotto tripod from time to time with my AZT6 and Evostar 72 which is a nice setup. Ideally I'd hope the Innorel could carry my Castor II with the 102mm F7, but I doubt it... Victor

Alright, no worries I was just curious about the program and wanted to have a look at the code and etc. I don't do imaging so I don't need to code so no need to send it The user interface looks very good and straight forward, what library did you use to make it? Victor

Looks like a very interesting project!! Do you have a GitHub repository where I could have a look around? Victor

Excellent Joe!! I too am considering a carbon fiber tripod for travelling, but I don't think I can justify the purchase just yet... Good to hear the powermate seems to be doing well in your setup! I went with the TV 2X barlow instead, which, like you experienced, is also invisible in the optical train. However, I switched it out for the Baader VIP barlow due to the customizability of the VIP and the shorter nosepiece. A high quality barlow/focal extender is definitely a must have for high power double/planetary/lunar observing with these small capable APOs! Looking forward for more experience with the Gitzo traveller from you Victor

Breathtaking amount of details! Well done

What set is next???

Still getting its use after almost three years! It's definitely a great (one of the best maybe??) budget Alt/Az mount for light scopes and travel setups

At last!! Fitted in a custom flight case with two plössl's and a 2X GPC. And even a brief first light!! First impressions are that I think I will love them for H-alpha! Observing was a lot more relaxing, and the 3D effect in the filaments was beautiful!! I really look forward to observing the moon and planets next! Victor

Already planned However, I have some other expenses I need to prioritize so I will most likely place it at the top of my wish list for my birthday in september! But let's see... maybe I can't wait