Zeta Reticulan

Objective evaluations from Cloudy Nights? That's optimistic!

I have The Sky at Night beamed to my electronic reading tablet device, if that's relevant.

A 1.25" angler is just a tiddler.

Why not have both?

Yeah, they stop the V-plate from detaching. They're 2mm with an Allen head. There is some grease on the flange. TBH it's basically an inelegant design. I just keep an eye on the grubs now. You can tell from the amount of free play whether they need tightening a little.

They're not a good catch!

I’ve been trying to retire my two ST80’s for several years now. I have better quality short tube refractors. The first to be modified with an aftermarket GSO focuser (as TS Optics) was the Orion ST80. This not only improved the focusing abilities it also enabled 2” accessories to be used. Moreover, the focuser could additionally be rotated although I didn’t normally utilise this option. Apparently Guan Sheng Optical are not particularly enthusiastic about the feature either: These focusers are rotatable, i.e., you can turn the entire focuser body/diagonal/eyepiece combination into a better observing position by loosening or tightening a large silver thumbscrew on the top of the focuser. However, please note that this is a relatively weak feature of this otherwise excellent product. We inspect every single focuser and tweak/lube it as much as we can, but the rotation is often not smooth over the entire 360-degrees and may bind in a few spots, requiring additional effort to rotate it. This is probably a minor annoyance since most people will not use this feature very often. ~ Guan Sheng Optical Which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Admittedly I had some problems with the similar aftermarket GSO focuser on my ST102. This eventually led to its replacement with a different make of focuser. When the conditions are not optimal, and there is no Moon, the ST80 is good for occasional rich field observing sessions. It is robust, uncomplicated, and comparatively light to carry. To further simplify things I usually only take a couple of eyepieces out with it at most. The predominant eyepiece being a 30mm GSO SuperView. Which is agreeably lightweight in the diagonal and gives about five and a quarter arc minutes of true field. One cold January night I decided to take the Sky-Watcher ST80 out for a quick grab and go session. Due to a physical disability I often remain seated while orienting the OTA to view a specific target. There are usually no problems with rotating the focusers on my other scopes. As I was rotating the GSO focuser it stuck. When these focusers rotate a single thumbscrew loosens the entire focuser assembly. Allowing it to detach slightly from the V-ring/flange plate which is secured into the OTA itself by three grub screws. As a consequence, the more the single screw is loosened, the focuser becomes slightly more detached from the plate. The OTA was pointed up at an altitude not far from the zenith. The focuser rotation was quite stubborn and I increasingly loosened the screw. So much so that to my astonishment the entire focuser, diagonal, reflex sight and 30mm SuperView came off in my hand! I wasn’t totally sure what had happened. I did have an idea that nothing had broken or sheared off though. I took the now bisected parts of the SW ST80 back to the house and replaced it with the Orion ST80. I set the Orion scope up the same way and attempted the same procedure as before. Sure enough the focuser separated from that too! Undeterred I took that inside as well and finished the session with my 72ED DS Pro. Later I got to analyse what went wrong. Well, apart from having a screw (too) loose, something that seems to happen to me a lot. The entire focuser is basically attached to the OTA base plate V-ring with three equidistant grub screws. Over a period of time these screws can loosen. If they loosen enough the entire focuser can separate! Although instead of rectifying this at the time I resorted to pushing the focuser more square before attempting to rotate. I gradually loosened the thumbscrew. Luckily nothing dropped onto the ground or was damaged. I feel more confident now I understand the ins and outs of the focuser mechanism, so to speak. The ST80’s might not get retired quite yet after all.

In my continuing (and almost Arthurian) quest to find a 3x Barlow that meets my particular requirements I may have found the grail, or at least struck gold. Well, black and gold. The ‘BST StarGuider 4-Element 3x Deluxe Apochromatic Barlow’ often retails around £70. Although I got mine twenty quid cheaper, which is slightly ironic. A few years ago I bought the 2x (3-element) version for over £80 from Astroshop. It has ‘Omegon’ written on it, but although I didn’t know it at the time, it was made or distributed by BST. These can now be purchased as a ‘BST StarGuider’ in the UK for nearly half of what I paid. I believe the 2x, 3x and 5x versions of these Barlows are sold under a variety of brand names. The 2x version is surprisingly good and was perfect for use in a diagonal. In fact I’ve always rated it very highly. I make the 3x version an acceptable 149 grams in weight and 99mm tall. Which is a whole 19mm taller than the 2x. However the 3x barrel is a few millimetres shorter at about 30mm. By my reckoning there is 22mm of clear aperture. It has a compression ring with a decent tightening screw and a standard M28.5 filter thread at the field lens. The unit itself has a quadruplet optical structure as opposed to the triplet 2x BST Barlow. Unlike the 2x there is a barrel undercut. I was initially concerned about four elements as I would have preferred less, although producing a short 3x Barlow with three elements or less seems to be problematic to original equipment manufacturers. I’m guessing that you just can’t change the laws of physics! I assume the StarGuider is more of a conventional Barlow than a four element amplifier. The unit is aesthetically attractive, mostly painted black with a gold stripe. I experienced no snagging with the undercut when it was placed into an adapter with a compression ring. It held the Celestron zoom easily and securely. On the night I first tested it there were no clouds but the overall seeing wasn’t very good. With my modified ST80 I started off viewing as many double stars as I could between 50x and 150x. As far as I could tell the 3x StarGuider revealed little or no chromatic aberration and ε Boo B was easily perceived this time. The binary companion to ε Boo A (Izar) is a hydrogen-fusing dwarf about twice the size of the Sun and separated from Izar by under three arc seconds. I had difficulty splitting these with the GSO 3x ED Barlow due to a kaleidoscopic rainbow of CA. The StarGuider had no such difficulties. The BST 3x StarGuider may not quite be the Holy Grail of Barlows, but it has a little magic all of its own.

I think with mine something internal fell into the field. I had three in a row similarly afflicted. Almost certainly a bad batch. Pity really, apart from the weird twist problem it seemed a nicely made eyepiece.

Oh right, thanks.

I have some Naglers. Although my ES get more use. I really should get these out more. The 16mm was the first Nagler I ever owned. I've never understood why people worry about the 'ring of fire' thing with it. I don't think it was ever intended to be used to look at the Moon. It's basically a conveniently small wide-field EP IMO.

It's also worth pointing out that I can actually spell 'Everbrite'. ROTFLMAO!

I'm pretty sure the OP's zoom will be fine for astronomy. Wherever it is made. A couple or three years ago I got taken in by all the mythology about Japanese made Vixen LV's. Basically I had to return three in a row due to visible debris and the zoom mechanisms had problems. I put it down to a bad batch but I never bought another. I did briefly use one of them though. The debris was only really noticeable on the Moon. I don't know what was wrong with the mechanism, but it was far from smooth. Zooms naturally rattle a bit, but this was an odd unnatural grinding as the zoom mechanism was turned. Apart from the debris there was visually nothing really wrong with the LV. I just preferred the Celestron.

I think TV marketed the one with the clickstop.

Vixen are actually making zooms in Japan now, or were a couple of years ago. I had to return mine due to being faulty. I wasn't that impressed anyway. I thought the Chinese made 'Astromeadeatrons' were better. The zoom in the OP's picture isn't an Astromeadeatron (or whatever they're really called in Chinese). It certainly doesn't look like it anyway. FWIW I think the Vixen zooms were overrated. I thought the Chinese zoom had a larger field stop at maximum and better transmission.

Yes.

I'm right about Orion OTA colours though. Orion powder white versus Sky-Watcher sparkly pants dingbat spotty speckle black. It's obvious lol.

AFAIK 'Sky-Watcher' is Synta's house name. The reason I bought the Orion 90mm Synta Mak was because I prefer Orion colour schemes. Seriously, I bought it because the dovetail was in the correct position for use in an alt-az. Otherwise I'd have to invest in another Rigel QuickFinder. I think the Rigel is great, it's not too hot for twilight observing though. The LED isn't very bright. It pulses but it was designed for general astronomy rather than daylight use. I bought my Sky-Watcher 127mm Mak' bundled with an AZ5 mount deliberately, as I knew I could use it on this Porta II. The AZ5 is used for lighter scopes.

I read online somewhere that JOC bought Meade at one time, although I don't know the veracity of the claim. I think you're probably right and they were just a supplier. I knew Meade were owned by Ningbo Sunny at one time. I know ES are owned by JOC and I know there's a link with Bresser. After that it's all musical chairs to me. I've had two strokes. I just can't keep up these days lol.

I think I've read this somewhere, but to be honest I've kind of lost track. It's a possibility Orion are closing down European distribution because they are planning a new product line, with some of the manufacturing to be in Mexico. It will be interesting to see what happens. It all depends on how they can compete in the global market.

They're sold under a variety of names. I don't know who actually makes them. I think it's a good attempt at an ortho'. I'm not holding my breath for relatively good quality mass produced Chinese orthoscopics yet though. I think Abbe orthoscopics are too specialist for any Chinese manufacturing investment in a world of 'Plossls' and wide angle eyepieces.

The Everbrites have gone up a lot since last year. I have a 1.25" Everbrite and two 1.25" enhanced aluminium versions. Apart from the price I can't tell any difference between them. Plus, aluminium shouldn't scatter as much as a dielectric.

I'm guessing the 'Edscorp' is Ohi made? I used a 25mm Astro Hutech pair in a bino but in a slow scope. I might give one of them a spin at f/6 and see what they're like.

Not many of my eyepieces suffer kidney beaning, at least not for me. I just think for planetary observing it's difficult to beat something small like a Plossl or ortho'. Notwithstanding you can fit a fair few in a pocket.