Jump to content

Banner.jpg.b89429c566825f6ab32bcafbada449c9.jpg

Bodkin

Members
  • Posts

    176
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Bodkin

  1. Not sure whether these count - a pair of Vixen telescopes perhaps. I have owned these 30x125s for about five years. They are lovely for summer views of the Milky Way from my fairly dark mid Wales skies, though I tend to use them more often in the spring to catch galaxies in Coma, Virgo, Leo and U Major. I don't really use them as much as they deserve (normally use dobsonians), but I like having them around for the occassional relaxed tour.
  2. Out with the Mak Newtonian on solar system duty tonight. Some lovely views of the moon though there is a fair amount of turbulence at the moment. Fine shadows on the floor of Ptolomaeus and nearby Arzachel is showing a lot of intricate terracing on its crater walls. The Valles Alpes is clear and detailed. Also there is a lovely near-horseshoe shaped shadow just above Autolycus I haven’t seen before.
  3. I had an unexpected session under the springtime stars from about 4:30 this morning until dawn - a happy product of a little insomnia. A very good sky here in mid Wales gave me the opportunity to give my venerable 6 inch intes newt a run on its GM8 mount. I have owned these for 25 years this year. As is usual for me I went on a haphazard trip around the sky, covering as many old favourites as possible and probably not giving each object the time it deserves. Also I do not keep a log, so here are the ones I remember. M65, M66 and NGC3628 - a great start, though the scope was still warm. A lovely trio well framed in my old 26mm Vixen plossl. strong elongation on 3628 and hints of shape on the other two. M53 - bright and mottling of stars at higher magnitude. No sign of NGC5053 M64 - large and bright core with a hint of the eye NGC4565 - clear needle, very elongated. A hint of the dust lane perhaps, but probably wishful thinking in the six inch despite the lovely skies M3 - big and beautiful. Lots of resolved stars M94 - Very bright core with a faint narrow halo M51 - Easy to see both components. Nice mottling of the brighter galaxy component. M101 - Wow, so large. It always surprises me quite how large this is in the eyepiece. Pretty featureless, unlike in the 12 inch Stellalyra though M106 - a favourite as it is easy to find. Two bright extensions and with a clear fuzzy nucleus M108 and M97 - a lovely pairing at low magnification. One eye visible with higher magnifications (14mm pentax) M109 - another easy to find galaxy despite its low surface brightness. A slight elongation, but no other features M104 - Closing out with the Sombrero. Easily visible despite the low altitude. The dust lane was nicely visible with averted vision. A good place to finish. The Intes really is a fine scope under a dark sky. A bit on the heavy side, but well-engineering for a quarter century of use.
  4. Here is mine on the old Mark IV Fullerscopes mount. These days I have it on a dobsonian, but I loved the look of the old Mark IV.
  5. I bought (and still own) a pair of 30x125 Vixen binoculars thinking that I would probably sell the scopes afterwards. That didn't happen of course. The different capabilities and styles of observing mean that I can't see myself moving to either one or the other.
  6. I am mainly sentimental in my telescope desires these days. I would really like to re-own my old, orange Comet Catcher that I bought in the mid eighties. I would also love a couple of other scopes from my formative years - a Cave 12 inch newt/cassegrain with the chromed equatorial mount and a Celestron-badged Fluorite from Vixen (Vixen badged at a push). Other than that all my telescopic wishes would be fully met by a working JWST for us all by next summer. I am so excited and scared at the same time!
  7. The key observing revolution for me was the Dobsonian. I started telescopic observing in 1982 with a secondhand Fullerscopes on a MkIII. It wasn't a bad set up, but I always seemed to be struggling with eyepiece position and the weight of the mounting. Then I started to see dobsonians in American magazines, especially the Coulter optical models made from sonotube and plywood. These eventually grew in size to an 29 inch monster model, but something smaller was what I was after. Nobody was selling dobsonians in the UK as far as I could tell, but the nice people at Coulter Optical sent me some instructions to build my own. A carpenter friend of my father's did the actual woodworking. I sourced a David Hinds 12 inch mirror and was ready to go. It was a revelation in observing simplicity and efficiency for me as well as being really cost-effective. I subsequently made a six inch rich field that I could transport in the car or on the train and later a six inch f8 for planetary work. Jonathan.
  8. Hi, I have the 12 inch StellaLyra and can give some early impressions of it. Overall it is a sound scope and excellent value for money. Under my dark mid-Wales skies it performs very well on deep sky objects and is a step up from my much loved 10 inch. Not a huge step though and if I was starting from scratch I would be very happy with just a ten inch dobsonian and a few higher quality eyepieces, plus a filter or two. Under dark skies a smaller dobsonian can show wonders; my 8.5 inch F7.5 Fullerscopes on an Orion dob mount gave me one of the best views I have ever had of the Flame nebula about a week ago. The 12 inch is a bit tricky for me to move around. The base is easy enough, but the tube is a little too wide to make carrying it by the altitude bearings a simple matter. I am six foot and still relatively strong, though no spring chicken. This scope is towards the top end of my limits unless I can find a way to add a handle to the tube to aid carrying. It doesn't have to move far, which is lucky because I can't see myself lugging it up and down many stairs in safety. The choice is a difficult one of course. I would say that I first owned a 12 inch in the eighties, but under pretty poor urban skies. In retrospect it was a waste of effort and I would have had more fun and time under the skies with a compact refractor; not that they were really available back then. If you can get the 12 inch under dark skies occasionally the equation may start to swing, but I wouldn't rule out getting the 8 or 10 inch StellaLyra instead. Having said all that, I am contemplating the purchase of the Starfield too. Jonathan.
  9. An hour with a 12 inch StellaLyra dobsonian I have had the scope for a few months now and am starting to learn its capabilities. Last night was the first time with a newly fitted Telrad - I have always found these much easier than right-angled finders, but that is just me. Mostly old favourites last night, with one exception NGC 1514 (Crystal ball nebula/Secret Deep 15) - the new object for me. This is an easily located planetary nebula in Taurus. The central star is very bright and is visible in almost any scope. The faint circular shell of nebulosity was just visible with a 34mm Maxvision eyepiece with an OIII filter. A move down to a 14mm Pentax revealed a lovely sight with brighter central shell and dimmer outer shell. NGC147 and NGC185 (C18 and C19) - These relatively extended and faint galaxies in Cassiopeia are a couple of favourites of mine. Both were pretty easy to spot and well framed in a rich field of stars. C17 is a little fainter, but once I had C18 it was easy to star hop across. NGC891 (C23) - A fine thin edge on galaxy. Maybe a hint of the central dust lane. The Veil - Western and Eastern veil were magnificent with the 34mm and OIII. Lots of delicate details in the Eastern veil in particular. Pickering's triangle visible with averted vision. NGC404 (Mirach's ghost) - one of my favourite test objects as it is so easy to locate. Easily visible at low magnification, which is a sign of a good sky for my location. M33 - Bright and good mottling, hinting at the arms. NGC604 was pretty easy, particularly when I upped the magnification with the 24mm Maxvision. Bright but small. M27 - Very bright with some nice detail. The OIII filter helped to bring out some variation in brightness a little, but I preferred the view without. After an hour or so the cloud came in, but it was a very enjoyable session. I had been unsure about the StellaLyra dobsonian at first (pinched my fingers setting it up first time in the dark + focusser on the wrong side of the tube for me), but I am learning to enjoy my time with it and it will probably be a keeper now that I am a little more careful and have a telrad. My eight inch dobsonian is likely to continue to get plenty of time under the sky as it is significantly lighter despite its long focal length.
  10. I wanted a dobsonian mount for an old 8.5 inch Fullerscopes tube. Orion optics provided me with a quote for a custom dob mount, with new rings. It arrived within the estimated time, well packed and with good instructions for putting it together. The mount fits perfectly and feels solid and moves well. I will give some impressions of the mount in use when I next post an observing report. In the meantime I am very happy with the service and quality.
  11. It was great to meet you. I am really happy that the mount is going to have a new life and get used as much as it deserves as well.
  12. Thanks John, It was the excellent reviews of the scope that kept me working on it to try to improve the image quality of my one. At first I thought that it was a collimation problem, but there was no way I could get it sorted despite many years of collimating newtonians. Next I thought that the focusser was to blame and wasn't orthogonal to the tube; a new focusser, but no joy. Finally after much gnashing of teeth I removed the meniscus and inspected the secondary. It is attached to a 45% secondary holder, but there are no lugs to ensure that it is attached centrally. Mine was offset down the tube by a few millimetres, plenty of distance to damage the image quality and make collimation impossible. A stanley knife blade, some silicone and some delicate manoeuvring have transformed the scope. Now I understand what you say about the performance.
  13. I have had my 30x125 Vixen binoculars for just over a year now and my Intes mak newt for over twenty years, but it seems like I am only just getting to grips with them both. The Intes had a major construction problem that I always put down to my poor collimation capabilities. I finally had the courage of my convictions and opened her up and reset the secondary correctly; it was about 3mm too far down the tube. The Vixens have required a patient learning curve to get the best out of them but I am getting there. Anyway I celebrated with a side-by-side shoot out last night to see which of the instruments I favoured, if either. The Vixens are on their alt-az mount and the Intes on a Losmandy GM8 strengthened with the heavy duty tripod from the GM11 (a major improvement in stability!). The sky in mid Wales was very good, though a touch less dark than the night before. I went on a whistlestop tour of brighter objects for the two hours or so of good darkness. NGC4565 - jumped straight into view with the Vixens. A beautiful needle with slight tapering visible at the ends. No definite central dark band, but possibly seen. A good view in the Intes, but preferred the Vixens. M53 - a more enjoyable sight in the Intes, not surprisingly given the potential for higher magnification, though the Vixen image was pleasing too. Failed to see nearby NGC5053 in either instrument M108 and M97 - a lovely view of both in the same field with the binoculars. The eyes of M97 were just seen in the binoculars but missed in the Intes. However, adding an OIII filter to the Intes eyepiece gave a wonderful view of M97 with clear eyes. The Vixen has fixed eyepieces unfortunately, so no filter change is possible. M101 - another galaxy that jumped right out in the Vixens with a good degree of mottling across a huge grey smudge. The Intes provided a clear view of the object, but without signs of mottling M51 - the Intes was the winner here with the ability to dial up the magnification slightly. I am always a bit unsure whether the hints of spiral structure come from my imagination when I use a smaller instrument on M51; the photographic image is always so clear in my mind Veil - lots of nebulosity seen in the Vixens and very nicely framed. Again the Intes had the advantage of the use of an OIII filter, which brought lots of subtle structure into view. It is worth buying an OIII for this object alone to my mind. M10, M12, M13, M56 - very well seen in the Intes where the tight stars and blacker background showed all four globular clusters very nicely. Good resolution of stars in all, though fewer seen in M56. M57 - seen easily in the Vixens but far better in the Intes with good visibility of the oval shape and a lovely rich background star field M27 - better in the Vixens where the large nebula seemed to hang in front of an incredibly rich field. Some clear structure seen. M81 and M82 - nice in both but the Vixens seemed to provide more information on the contrasting shapes the galaxies There were a few more sights in one of other of the instruments. As I expected it was a case of horses for courses. The Intes provides a very fine image with a dark background and great resolution for its size. The Vixens major on relaxed viewing and did particularly well on galaxies. The Vixens are achromatic and objectively have significantly poorer image quality than the Intes. However, I preferred using them over the Intes during the night. For someone like me who isn't particularly interested in solar system observing they make a grab and go solution that I can be happy with all night.
  14. My first telescope was the ten inch on a Mark III mount from around the same time. The mount wasn't really up to the job, but I learned the sky and saw most of what was possible from an urban environment. Now that I live under dark skies I can really see what those Fullerscopes were capable of delivering.
  15. The individual parts are often pretty good and the mirrors can be excellent if you get the 'A-class' versions made by David Hinds. My 10 inch and 8.5 inch are both 'A-class' and I am sure that getting replacement optics at the same quality would be very expensive.
  16. I managed to get half an hour of observing yesterday evening, just after sunset and just before yet another band of cloud and rain hit mid Wales. The scope is an early eighties 8.5 inch F7 (ish) newtonian that I purchased last year. It arrived in a near mint condition mechanically, which soon became understandable. In fairly typical Fullerscopes fashion the telescope had been put together incorrectly and I wasn't able to get anywhere near focussing my eighties vintage eyepieces, or indeed any other eyepiece, even with the longest extensions I could find. It is sad to think that a succession of owners have probably tried to use this scope and then given up without realising that the fault was fixable; I moved the primary mount as far down the tube as I could, re-drilled the focuser hole a bit further up and installed a focusser with a longer back-focus. The main mirror was pristine, with no signs of ever being washed or scratched in any way. However, they both needed re-coating (the secondary was semi-transparent) and I got the whole scope back in order for the new year, appropriately mounted on a Fullerscopes Mark IV and with my late-eighties 26mm Vixen plossl. So, only a short period of time for viewing before the clouds, but the skies were good, though not excellent. I have always liked the simplicity of longer-focus newtonians, with simply collimation, cheaper eyepieces, no coma correctors and edge to edge pinpoint stars. Having given away my 14 inch and 20 inch dobsonians I am also focussed on smaller scopes and everything they can yield for deep-sky observing. The initial results were excellent M33 - easily visible and showed good size and some shape. A hint of spiral arms possibly. Mirach's ghost - popped straight out with no difficulty at all. The tight stars really seemed to help here NGC891 - I hadn't intended to even attempt to go for this given the sky conditions and it was an addition after seeing how well Mirach's ghost looked. A relatively easy sight in averted vision, with a distinct needle shape against a pretty rich background of stars, lovely M37 - a favourite of mine and very well displayed in the eyepiece. Lovely tight stars right across the (relatively narrow) field of view and the single brighter star (apparently ) in the centre of the cluster shone like a jewel. That was all I could manage before the clouds, but I think I have bagged a good un. Smaller, long-focus newtonians really do have a place in deep-sky observing and while they are difficult to source new, they can still be found for little money on the second-hand market. I have had the Mark IV mount since the late eighties and while it is fun to have a period scope, I will possibly re-mount the reflector onto a dobsonian at some point, as I did for my 10 inch. Jonathan.
  17. Bodkin

    20 inch dobsonian

    From the album: Scopes

  18. Bodkin

    Scopes

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.