martinl

That looks increadibly slick! Beautiful engineering and machining - Beat does seem to know what he is doing! An unrelated question: Are those TrekPak dividers without the usual red bits in your Pelican, or have you found an alternative source of the material?

Storing EPs horizontally makes them easier to identify in the dark. Also, when switching EPs you can simply put them back on their sides without worrying about replacing end caps. At least that’s why I prefer storing my most used EPs horizontally. Infrequently used EPs can be stored vertically to save space - if your case is deep enough.

Yeah. Cubed, or custom-cut, foam is really too inflexible for our ever-changing collections. I’m experimenting with dividers cut from camping mat for a more flexible arrangement of my Peli 1400. It seems to work well, but I need to decide on how to keep the dividers in place. Velcro seems the obvious answer.

I used this one to figure out what fits in my cases: https://mycasebuilder.eu/ They have a fair database of different EPs etc to use. For pick and pluck foam I’ve used a simple excel sheet where every (squared) cell represents a piece of foam and simply coloured blocks of cells to represent individual EPs.

The magnification of standard barlows (not telecentrics like PowerMates etc) increases with the distance between the barlow element and the eyepiece focal plane. I’ve measured the magnification of the Celestron Ultima barlow to be X~2.2+0.02d, where d is the distance between the top of the barlow and the EP focal plane. If your binoviewer has an optical length of 100mm the resulting magnification would thus be about 4.2x. Placed between the binoviewer and EP it would be 2.2x if the EP focal plane is at the shoulder and about 2.07x with most TV EPs (d=-6.35)

Just a thought, but are you sure it is the EP weight per se that is causing your balance issues, and not the height of the EP? I definitely have more balance issues with my alt-az mount (TeleVue TelePod) and tall EPs/EPs+barlow. I’ve considered adding a permanent counter weight below the tube to counteract this. When I get a side-mounted alt-az I’ll probably drill new holes in the dovetail to mount the scope slightly below the center of gravity to counteract the torque from tall EPs.

If you use spectacles when observing then yes, you will likely regret the move. I loved my 22mm LVW, but stupidly sold it when I got the 21mm Ethos. Let’s just say that ‘my balance problems are bigger than yours’... So I got a 24mm Pan to try out. Without glasses it is every bit as lovely as people say. Just about perfect, if you’re not bothered by the pincushion distortion (I’m not). With glasses you can barely see the field stop and it is much less immersive. Since I prefer to use my glasses when observing I’ll probably exchange it for something else, just not sure what.

One thing about equivalent chromatic aberration is that the Sidgwick and similar criteria assume the same relative magnification, ie the same exit pupil. In practice larger scopes are used at lower relative magnifications (limited by seeing etc) so the perceived CA is often not as bad as the criteria would suggest. A 4” f/10 should show the same CA at 200x as an 8” f/20 does at 400x, but if the 8” only operates at 300x the CA would be less intrusive than in the smaller scope. At least, that is how I understand it.

There are also the K-astec tube rings from Japan. Users on CN speak highly of them, and they are a lot sleeker (and presumably lighter) than the Parallax rings. That’s what I figured I’d get when I considered an FC100.

The alt bolts on my CG5 were so poor that one got permanently bent. I replaced them with some stainless steel threaded rod and a couple of thumb nuts off eBay. Works perfectly, and was a lot less than £25. That said, sending poorly designed products back might be the only way to make manufacturers realise that there is a problem.

Agreed. I’m eagerly awaiting the 22mm Delos II. It’s also surprising how few, if any, high quality wide angle EPs with decent eye relief there are that max out the 1.25” format. The LVW 22 was probably closest, I kick myself for selling mine.