Sunshine

13 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

A low power opens up many star fields to observe. The wider you can get the more immersive the experience. What kind of budget do you have?

Well, about 250 CAD i guess, i think my next eyepiece will need to have better eye relief, i am tired of touching eyeball to glass as i do with my ES 14mm 82 degree.

22 hours ago, Philip R said:

My C6/SCT (left) and ‘re-modded’ ETX105 (right).

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I love that tripod, scopes too, the tripod caught my eye first, love the finish on the wood. That vixen GP holds a special place in my heart lol, such a reliable and well built, no nonsense get it done mount.

Half decent?? uh uh, you've left "half decent" in the dust, beautiful shot! i wonder if it is possible to achieve anything close to this with my 115 Orion and my Vixen GP non computerized mount. Using my 5D Canon, my mount can track but, it is basically a clutch activated motor, i have to try when the weather warms up.

when i bring my scope in from cold winter weather i leave it as is, caps off, it dews up the minute i get in, ill just leave it for a bit caps off and the dew evaporates.

Love it! awesome first go at a galaxy.

Does anyone else find the star pointer pro to be too bright? even at the lowest setting it washes out all but brighter stars, training it on something like M42 it renders it invisible. Are there any solutions some of you may have come up with?.

14 hours ago, Nakedgun said:

Not the biggest or the best but it's all mine.

Thats a fine specimen you have there.

Cat's seem to be fond of lunar and planetary observing, I have yet to train my refractor on a planet so until then, my cat will be the undisputed planetary/lunar champion.

Well those shots are awesome! inspires the lazy donkey that is me to give AP a try.

Beautiful capture, it is amazing how many nebulae there are to image, it seems every day i see a nebulae i haven't heard of before.

Definitely a fun read your report was, its like Christmas all over again, discovering a new scope. Wait till you see M13 in that dob, have loads of fun!.

Cant ever get enough of those, the double cluster is so beautiful.

My 18mm APM eyepiece yields 44x in my 115mm Eon refractor, I am aware this is purely subjective but, should I bother buying a 24mm or 30mm lets say?. How often do you use powers in the 25x range? and, what would I be missing out on at such low magnifications?

Amazing, do you enjoy night observing? aside from the awesome solar gear.

Here is an image I would guess to be a long exposure, how long I don’t know, could be 10 seconds, you notice Andromeda circled. On a dark night, imagine that being about half as bright visually, through binoculars it would be an elongated smudge. 

My new (to me) Orion Eon 115mm triplet and, my first refractpr at that. Having loads of fun discovering refractors, glad I qualify for this thread instead of just looking at others refractors. There once was a time when, I just couldn’t understand the love affair with fracs but, after seeing what stars actually look like, I understand the infatuation.

A TeleVue Powermate, which can be quite a stack when using long eyepieces, yikes! I’ll need a ladder to use my refractor.

That is one of those things that has more value in bragging rights than any special technical attributes, i sure as the sun will rise tomorrow won't be buying one.

Why cant i see the canals Mr.Lowell found?

Ah yes aperture fever, the illness to which there is no cure, short of your bank account running dry.

13 minutes ago, John said:

Its useful to show scale - I don't actually use the Nagler 31 that much

Feel free to donate it to a loving foster parent anytime, namely ME! 

4 minutes ago, John said:

Powermates are superb - as @JTEC says, practically invisible in the optical path apart from the magnification increase. They can create quite a stack when used with a long eyepiece though !

 

Thanks, I see you take every opportunity to show off your “king” the 31mm Nagler, its ok my friend I would do the same haha!

5 hours ago, JTEC said:

As Stu says, the scope will take it and likely won’t be the limiting factor. My 103 is very comfortable with the 6.5 Morpheus and the 4mm Tak (x180). That’s about as high as it would normally want to go I think, though it was fine with the Vixen 3.4 on the Moon.  As far as I know, using a x2 Barlow will retain the apparent field  of view of the eyepiece while, of course, doubling the mag and reducing commensurately the true fov.  I think your idea of going for a shorter Morpheus next makes perfect sense.  The 6.5 seems excellent to me and great value.

Thanks, considering the eyepieces I have at the moment, I believe a televue 2.5x powermate will be a good choice. it seems as though powermate’s have an advantage over traditional Barlow designs. In the near future I would like an eyepiece in the 3.5 range for lunar as I am sure I can ramp up the power on lunar a fair bit. Always taking into consideration atmospheric conditions of course.

6 hours ago, JTEC said:

With my two refractors - TEC140 and Zenithstar 103 - the best (sharpness, contrast, colour rendition, etc) 4mm eyepiece I’ve used is the Tak TOE 4mm. The Vixen HR 3.4mm might be a bit shorter than you want to go but I think is equally good, perhaps even better. No sig difference in quality that I can see, maybe slight difference in ‘character’. For such short fls, both are quite comfortable to use. You might like to check Bill Paolini’s review of the Vixens.

I also use the 6mm Tak ortho and that too is excellent. Increasingly though, around that fl, I find myself using the 6.5mm Morpheus instead - still sharp, no discernible gap in transmission or any other disadvantage as far as I can see, wider fov (useful if you’re using, say, a manual alt-az) and more comfortable. Sticking to the ones I’ve used, the 6mm Delos would be a great alternative but pricey.  I know others speak v highly of the Pentaxes.

With high quality Barlows or Televue Powermates, I don’t think you lose any quality; and the comfort you gain might make for more effective and enjoyable observing - arguably a better option than struggling with tiny eye lenses and short eye relief. A no-compromise alternative, imv, as long as the quality is there. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, I'm not so sure about what sort of high powers I can expect out of my refractor, assuming average to good seeing. Having always had large aperture reflectors, I am accustomed to being able to use relatively high powers. Apparently, fracs handle high power well but, for my 115 frac im not sure if I should invest in an eyepiece yielding 200 or more power?. When I say this I mean for lunar and planetary of course, I would love to push as high as possible on lunar but, until I try I wont know the limitations of my refrator. At the moment I have an 18mm APM ultra flat field, a 14mm ES 82 degree, and a 9mm Morpheus, I think ill get one more high power Morpheus and a barlow for starters until I see what the scope can do. Also, lets say I bought the televue 2x barlow, when using it how does it affect the fOV of they eyepiece? does it reduce the FOV? if so by what percentage?.

Nice image, is that an H-alpha image or white light? you know the sun is bland when its hard to tell.