Mr niall

2 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

5, 8 and 12mm BSTs. They are the best three Starguiders, the longer ones are not going to perform well in an f5 scope and you should look at the ES68 range instead. 

Thanks, but I think spending more than my entire budget on a single eyepiece is perhaps not the way to go...

Hello there

I've got enough money for 3 (more or less) BST starguider eyepieces to replace the stock affair I've been using. I've chosen these as they seem a reasonable mix of quality and value.

Although I can't decide which three to go for. Obviously relying on just three eyepieces means I will need to extract maximum benefit from each one, so the 25mm is in. But then I'm struggling to decide on the other two. I'm a typical observer, bit of DSO, Bit of planetary. Although LP around here kind of kills the DSO hunting, fine on globs and clusters generally but Galaxies are harder work eg M51 is a smudge, Leo triplet is "suspected" even in the big dob.

I was thinking either the 12 or the 15mm for one of them. The fov on the 15mm appeals more; but the exit pupil of the 12mm seems more suited for DSO hunting. However again - the 100x of the 15 seems like it may be a bit more forgiving for planetary work in poor conditions than the 125x of the 12.

And then this choice obviously has a concomitant impact on the "high power" choice... the 3mm is out as it seems a bit overkill. Which leaves the 5 and 8mm. The 5mm with a 1.0mm exit pupil and 300x seems like the ideal planetary beast. But I'm wondering... how often am I likely to really use 300x in UK skies? Especially with the positioning of the planets over the next few years. The 8mm 188x seems a better allrounder. But then I'm worried I'll have nowhere to go on those really good nights when the planets deserve more. Additionally getting the 8mm kind of makes getting the 12mm too a bit daft as they're so close together (not daft in general, daft because I'm only getting three eyepieces in total; hopefully you know what I mean!); and I really haven't decided whether that's the right one.

So I guess the choice is 25, 15, and 8mm or 25, 12 and 5mm.

I do own an ok-ish quality 3x barlow, but I don't really like using a barlow for some reason (not sure why, just never seem to enjoy the view as much)

Alternatively I have considered getting a Hyperion zoom but that would push the budget to the absolute max (and beyond really), and never having used one I am concerned about the perceptions surrounding performance around the 24mm end of the spectrum. Remember this will be my only eyepiece... although the fov issues are concerning I'm not sure how much of a concern they would be in reality, tempered by the fact that at 1500mm, despite the fact its F5 its still not a fast scope.

Similarly I'm intrigued by the hyperflex 9-27mm which is interesting at £108 but this seems like a bit of an unknown entity.

Also, I'm not tied to the BST's per se. Just want to make a sensible investment and don't want to get into a "mix and match" scenario.

As always, many thanks all. (m45 below, hopefully everyone knows the relative size of that one!)

Sorry bit late to the party. Definitely the top one for me too. Just has that little more "punch", and that makes all the difference.

Both absolute crackers btw.

Generally they're good for terrestrial but not so much for astronomy for two reasons:

1. The zoom makes them difficult to handle had-held at higher magnifications so you'd need to mount them anyway.

2. The field of view shrinks quite a lot at higher mags (as above) but I've read you get a weird "tunnel vision" effect which can be a bit nauseating.

7 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

There is an official skywatcher firmware update you flash the azgti with. There is a YouTube video by a member that looks a good watch.

as above, here it is. 

Will be doing the same funnily enough with my 15x70's. I think I missed a trick though last year as I concentrated low in the south to try and bag M16-25 as I was in the south of France. Did spend a bit of time in Perseus and Cassiopeia which were nicely placed high to the North. 

Very cool don’t see Saturn often

Fab image - I managed about 20 mins on it last night in between gaps in the clouds last night; couldn't even pick out the bands. Total waste of time.

On ‎14‎/‎06‎/‎2019 at 11:12, Philip R said:

From my limited experience, my TeleVue Nagler zoom [@6mm] & 6mm Radian will out perform...

...these two cheap 6mm long eye relief/wide angle e/p's...

 

I am not saying that cheap e/p's are good or bad, but they do have pros & cons, i.e. quality of assembly/build, eye relief, coatings, etc.  

BTW - the images are not to scale.

I've got the one on the left of those two "cheap" EP's at the bottom. It is bad, trust me!

My mum asked me the same thing yesterday... that Brian Cox has a lot to answer for. But yeah, what they said! 

But that doesn't match my experience, M31 is, at best, suspected on an excellent night.

7 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Indeed.  They are huge, much bigger than many expect them to be.  Difference between the 200 and 300 is huge.

Yes but based on last nights experience I'll soon be sleeping in the living room with it every night anyway so will have lots more time to enjoy it.

Every cloud....

6 hours ago, kirkster501 said:

 But never forget, the best scope is the one you can easily use.  How many times have we heard that????  A cliche but it's so true.

Picked up my new (to me) 300p on Saturday - managed to have an hour on it last night. Its so big that we can't physically find somewhere in the living room to put it where its not in the way.

Additionally its so heavy, my wife had to help me lift it to take it outside, and then bring it back in later on. All things considered, she's not happy with me....

Great scope though, bagged M51 almost immediately, only taken me two years.

And in the wise words of Marge Simpson... "Well, I guess as long as you're happy, then nothing else matters!" ?

On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 13:44, niallk said:

 Congrats!! 

It's really not my fault - 300p flextube, with baader laser collimator and full astrozap shroud and all original accessories for £460. I'd have never forgiven myself if i didnt get it. And i've been trying to see M51 from my back garden for two years so if this doesn't work....

Well having poo-poo'd the practicality of big scopes as recently as 48 hours ago, I've just gone and bought a 300p flextube... I hate this forum sometimes... ??

Just wondering why you think a 5 inch reflector is "measly", lots of people on here don't use anything bigger, they provide a fabulous middle ground between seeing and usability.

Generally speaking in UK skies a 10 inch is roundabout the point where atmospheric seeing begins to limit the true potential of a system and then you begin to get diminishing returns as the aperture increases (yes bigger is better but the opportunity to use it to its potential decreases and the setup time becomes such that real planning is required for sessions).

You can find massive systems for sale second hand all the time, often bought by people who considerably misunderestimated the amount of time and effort and money involved in setup and ownership. 

5 hours ago, groberts said:

I'm interested in replacing my Vixen Polarie with one of these - like the no batteries concept + just seems easier to use.  But has anybody got any feedback yet on actually using one please?

Graham

I had one, works fine the maximum exposures are about as advertised. Nice construction. In all honesty though didn't really feel it was any better than a star adventurer or equivalent. Spring tension er on back is a bit of a pain to get to grips with, polar alignment is surprisingly faffy. ultimately the setup times were exactly the same as any other small system, and no matter what setup you're always going to have other things that need batteries anyway! the ticking is a bit of a pain and it had a habit of stopping in the last 20 mins of the spring wind. 

But a quality product, def not a toy, but If you already have a Polarie I think you'd regret changing. 

1 hour ago, John said:

I think the comments on the NPL related to it's comfort not being the same as the BST's ie: the latter has more eye relief, a larger field of view and a larger eye lens making it easier to view with. The review does not comment on the optical performance of the 8mm NPL which from my experience is very similar to the BST.

The same comments could be applied to the Tele Vue 8mm plossl and indeed all other plossls and orthoscopics of that focal length - the smaller eye lens, tighter eye relief and narrower field of view (than the BST) are characteristics of the plossl and orthoscopic designs.

 

I see, that’s encouraging then thanks!

On ‎15‎/‎04‎/‎2013 at 21:55, KevUU said:

 

I hope this has been of interest or benefit to someone, as I say apologies for the somewhat abstract approach.

Hmmm, while I'd like to say yes I feel a little disappointed that my precious NPL seems to be a bit mediocre compared to the BST which is generally considered "a good quality budget eyepiece". And I had to save up for the NPL, so that is a kick in the pantaloons!

I need to stop reading reviews haha.

Caldwell, melotte or Collinder catalogues.

DSO featuring planets.

double stars or systems

10 Sec exposures 

B+W

mosaics 

evidence of trans lunar phenomenon (only kidding)

pure analog (eg film)

DIY based (scope, mount whatever)

No its 100 seconds at 100mm 

edit - yep ignore this its wrong its minutes so 1 minute at 100mm 30 secs at 200 and so on.

2 hours ago, petevasey said:

I see that the recommended exposure time is (100/focal length in mm) minutes.  So what focal length lens are you proposing to use for Wirtanen?  Looking at Skymap if you are hoping to capture it near the Pleiades on Sunday night, I reckon a fl around 150 -200 will frame them nicely but maybe pushing it a bit for no trailing.  100 mm of course not a problem, but everything getting smaller on the chip.   1 minute might just be ok at 200 mm.  The comet is reasonably fast moving, and will travel approximately 11 arc-secs in 1 minute.  At 100 mm fl, that's about 1.25 pixels on a DSLR chip with 4.3 um pixels.  So good definition. 

I'm hoping to capture it as well (on my main mount) using my Canon 70-200 L lens, so I can play around with framing.  But alas as usual when something really interesting is happening the weather forecast for me is not promising ?

Best of luck,

Peter

PS to help with similar calculations there's a free program on my web site which you might find useful.  Here , about half way down the page. 'Astrophotography Settings'

Hi Peter thanks for the link. My goal at the moment is 60 secs at 50mm, if I can get that to work then will think about 60 secs at 100 which I’m led to believe is plausible but perhaps pushing the envelope. Maybe 30 secs would be a more realistic target! I’m plagued with terrible LP to the south and west so 30 secs may be the max either way!

8 minutes ago, knobby said:

Is that 45 X 60 second subs or  1 X 45 minute sub ? hope your LP isn't too bad !

 

But seriously, mount looks good. 

No I reckon at least 45 minute exposures. May have to step the ISO down from 800 to 400 ?

Its arrived....

Came via UPS in a box easily big enough for a HEQ5 head... And it was nicely packaged in a slightly smaller box inside that. Comes with a drinking  straw (or polar finding sight tube, I cant decide) and a rather substantial piece of metal that serves only as an adaptor for swapping over the 1/4 or 3/8 head.

Its a little bit bigger than I expected and feels really substantial and heavy in the hand. All nice metal construction and certainly looks the business. But doesn't really come with any literature or instructions - had to download these from the omegon website (although in fairness there is an excellent suite of supporting literature that is generally very engaging and useful)

I still have absolutely no idea how the little tension spring thingies at the bottom work, despite the diagrams. Hopefully it'll be clearer in practise.

And yes, the little timer really does sound exactly like an egg timer and yes it really really does have a little egg timer buzzer thing when it runs out. Cracking! (pun intented).

Obviously with it being Britain, first light will no doubt be sometime around March.... But I am determined to catch 46p even if it means hiring a helicopter to get above the perma clouds.

More to follow 

Just pulled the trigger on one of these. Determined to get some shots of 46p, especially after the 21p debarcle... 

Details to follow. If my calculations are right should get at least 45mins unguided at 1200mm. Or something ??