Stu1smartcookie

12 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

The reducer does turn many of the outer stars into kidney beans but the view of M31 (and M110 and M32) was the best I've ever seen it ..

Hi Peter , really nice image ... i didnt even look or notice the outer stars before i read the line above . The image looks really natural and not over processed , nice one . 

Last night was as weird as it was unexpected as the skies over cambridgeshire cleared , but the wind was still quite strong . i decided to "give it a go" . The moon looked fantastic and i was able to test the SVBony 9-27 on our near neighbour . All very crisp and clear although the moon is a little low at present . Jupiter was ok although a little "in and out" due to the conditions . Saturn was a little better as it was higher earlier in the evening . 

As for DSO's , the usual suspects in the EP , M82 and M81 are easy targets that are quite bright , M31 M57 ,M27 . Orion for me is too late but i am able to catch it at 5.30 am , so possibly a nice weekend target , skies permitting .  

I think we all assume that using equipment such as an EQ mount is somehow prohibitive and devilishly hard to do for a newcomer to Astronomy  . It may look a complicated set up but in reality when it IS set up its a breeze to use . BUT , i for one favour the alt az design of mount for even more simplicity . The Newt on an AZ mount with the EP staying at a good angle is by far the best reason , as suggested by @Ratlet. 

I know the "Dob Brigade " get a " oh here they go again" reputation , but that design has stood the test of time and its simplicity is its forte , and lets face it , the more people that enter the Astronomy realm ,where the main talking points are what they see rather than how difficult the equipment was to use , the better . 

If we had our first purchase all over again , what would you or i choose ? 

For the record , i probably would choose an 8" Dob . 

Just packed up for the night , begrudgingly due to work tomorrow, but a good evening . Jupiter at its best for me tonight with more detail than that I’ve seen recently , Saturn was fine but the Cassini was barely visible and only in rare moments .M57 , 31 , 81 and 82 . Onto a few doubles which didn’t disappoint . I used the Celestron 8-24 zoom throughout the evening . To be honest the best magnification I could use for the planets  was the 12mm setting which gave me around 170 x , in the 8SE . Anyway , a good evening of visual . 

28 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

A nice bright and shiny Vixen style clamp and an RVO x2 2 inch barlow. I already had the nice case to put them in ... Just need some clear skies now to try the barlow on Jupiter or the Moon.

For the price the RVO Barlow is superb

Hi @Bettyboop just a thought , if the device you are using to connect via wifi has other wifi connections that are constantly trying to connect it will play havoc with the wifi connection to your mount ... thats what i had an issue with . Now i use an ipad specifically for the mount and it stays connected . I suppose this supports Dave's theory above . 

Having bought both these zoom EPs this week i though i would give a quick comparison as to where they sit in the EP food chain . 

So , firstly its more or less like for like , both EPs covering the same (ish) focal lengths . 

BUILD QUALITY 

Both are constructed well and give a pleasing weight , not too heavy but substantial enough , contructed from metal . The SVBony feels a bit more premium , almost baader like with its twist up eye cup and nice rubber grip around the centre . That rubber grip is needed though because out of the two the Celestron has by far the easier to operate zoom mechanism . Sometimes one ends up twisting the whole EP in the case of the SVB which is a bit unerving . The celestron is much smoother , but i did find the lack of a twist up eye cup a bit of a disapointment . One  good feature of the celestron though is that it has a thread on the top of the EP below the rubber Eye guard that can connect to a T-ring , enabling direct camera use . 

So i will give the SVB the edge when it comes to build quality 

CONTRAST ,SHARPNESS AND BRIGHTNESS 

Well we are not going to get the brightest views whilst using a zoom EP but i did find both EPs gave bright enough views , sharpness was ok but of course its not only down to the EP but to other conditions as well . When looking at Jupiter i found the best views were actually near the lower powers of the eye pieces , with very clear views . I changed the mirror diagonal for a prism and views of the planet were better in both EPs . I think this area produces a tie ... i couldnt distinguish a difference between the two . 

EYE RELIEF AND VIEWING ANGLE 

Eye relief was good on both EPs but we are talking 40 - 60 degrees here of viewing angle . But thats ok, as you wont be buying zoom EPs to cover really low powered wide angle views of the likes of the Plaides etc . 

Once again equal results from both 

THE ALBIREO  TEST 

I used Albireo and its companion to see if one eyepiece gave better colour correction . in the event both EPs gave really nice views with the colours of the stars being  well pronounced . Nice 

Equal 

AS GOOD AS THE BAADER ZOOM?

Hmmm , there is the saying that you get what you pay for and i find this to be the case here , but these EPs do the job . The FOV is the big difference between them and the Baader . I can say that the Baader would be a zoom EP that you want to use everynight , and would come close to replacing set focal length EPs , whereas the SVB and Celestron would be definitely suplimentary EPs . Nothing wrong in that of course as they are 2.5 x cheaper and have their place in your collection 

RESULT 

This is difficult , i really wanted to find a definitive winner here but i cant ... Maybe the SVB takes it with its "premium " feel but in essence both EPs do the job and will give satisfactory viewing if the conditions allow . 

Lets just say , they are good reasonably priced alternatives . 

56 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

If you do get one then remove the sides to paint the internal sides matt black as they come silver!

Good advice 

This little Baader reducer arrived safely and very speedily today , many thanks @vernmid. 
Well packed and in “as new” condition.  

The Amazon man brought 2 EPs … today was the turn of the Celestron 8-24 … yesterday  the SVBony 9-27 arrived … tonight will be a comparison a duel to decide the king of budget (ish) zooms .. and it’s going to be mainly clear here tonight , which does help of course .

winner takes all ! 

58 minutes ago, Paul M said:

A birthday present to pimp my Mak.

The Celestron 127 stock rear fitting and diagonal leave a lot to be desired so these should make it a nicer visual experience. 

I was looking at one of these diagonals myself ... Looks nice 

Hi a Prism diagonal is better suited to longer focal length scopes , such as your Mak ... Have a look at a YouTube video by BD Observatory . He discusses this in detail 

A mirror diagonal is better suited to shorter focal lengths 

Stu

55 minutes ago, cloudsweeper said:

Yes Paul - I was impressed with this arrangement, in the astro-shed, ready to go.  The 8SE, Dob, and long frac are not grab 'n' go.  The short 102 frac is close, though a little bulky if handled while on the mount.  But the little ED80 Apo is easliy lifted when on the AZ4, so I was observing within a minute or two.  

I had thought about a mount with slow-mo cables, but the AZ4 with its lever arm is really smooth and easy.  The ED80 would only go on it with an L-bracket (to stop the finder going beneath the 'scope), which was very wobbly, so the breakthrough was when I recently found a way to relocate the finder to a better position above the tube.  See pic.....

Doug.

lovely , the AZ4 is a really nice sturdy mount , wish i never sold mine ... hmmm , better look on FLO , RVO etc etc.. i feel a purchase coming on ! 

Set up the scope at around 9pm after a passing shower and hoped to get a good view of Jupiter and Saturn . It looked really clear out there but in essence it was terrible . I was trying out a new zoom EP from SVBony ( 9-27) but the images were really soft . Saturn in particular was , as people have already commented, “mushy” .. it almost looked out of focus ! Jupiter gave a bit more but only the main bands were visible , I did get my first glimpse of the GRS however it was not the clearest and overall the seeing conditions spoilt the session . Managed a better view of M31 though . I think I need to invest in a quality prism diagonal rather than mirror diagonal I use . 
out early this morning and caught Orion and Mars and Antares … along with the plaides . These were all with the eye rather than the scope but somehow all the more pleasing for it . 

1 hour ago, Kon said:

Orion (M42) over the weekend (24/9/22). 8" Dob, manual, Pixel 4a (using Night Sight; iso 2000, exposure 1s), 32mm Celestron Plossl. Siril for stacking 20 frames and Gimp for editing.

So many times we see photos with the core overblown , its a difficult target , your image is really well managed  . Nice one 

Hi Peter , welcome to the forum .

10 hours ago, Zermelo said:

Some forecasts were reasonable for this evening, so I set up and managed to align, saw a few targets but most of the sky was cloudy and it was very slow to move. In the clear patches the seeing wasn't great either, so I've called it a night.

It was forecast clear all evening and night in Ely , but in the event is wasn’t clear until at least 11 and by that time , even though it’s the weekend I think I would have been shot at dawn after rummaging  around to get everything set up . Lol , so quite frustrating to miss so much clear sky over night

Having purchased the above EP I am giving my thoughts after its first light. I have no bias towards Celestron or to its products and as it’s bought with my own money I feel justified in my views ( no pun intended) Firstly the EP comes well packaged and very well presented . It’s a good start  , secondly this EP is big .. no , it’s huge . My scope and in particular the Baader click lock held the diagonal and the EP very well although I can well imagine that smaller scopes will suffer with the weight . It puzzles me why there is so much difference in size of certain EPs . 
So let’s get in with the pluses and the minuses . The construction and build quality are first class , it really feels premium and has a very useful twist up eye cup , which we will get to soon . 
The Luminos was attached to my Celestron  8SE , giving me a magnification of around 60x.. I tried to use the EP without twisting up the eye cup as it felt natural but in effect it wasn’t great , in fact I found  it a bit of a faff to get the right viewing height , in the end , for me , twisting the eye cup until it was fully extended worked and didn’t produce any blackout . I viewed a number of DSOs and all showed fairly sharp views with decent contrast . However I have had similar views with much cheaper EPs in the past , so I would say it’s ok . I live under bottle 4 skies and last night it was quite dewey ( hello autumn) so this factor may have had an influence on the EP . 
Using the 8SE the stars were fairly sharp over most of the view but I can imagine a coma corrector would be necessary for faster Newtonian scopes . It was a strange experience looking through an EP with such a wide field of view , 82 degrees I believe . Maybe I have a sweet spot of around 70 degrees as previously I have used a Baader Aspheric 36mm which seemed to give a sharper view . Through the Luminos it seemed there was almost too much going on . That is probably  not  the fault of the EP of course . 
Onto the planets  , Jupiter and Saturn whilst quite low were pleasingly sharp although I would say the EP is quite low power for planetary . Even so , Jupiter gave  up its usual main banding which was very sharp , I was quite pleased. I could not see the Cassini division in Saturn’s rings . More power and maybe a bit better seeing needed as Saturn was just above a nearby roof .
Overall it’s a bit of a mixed bag , and some additional viewing tonight will be needed . If I’m honest I have had as good views from EPs from the likes of SVBony and better viewing experiences from using Baader EPs … the EP looks the part and feels premium but if the viewing cannot satisfy the user then everything else is wasted . I have since watched a YouTube review from BD Observatory and I concur with most of what he said . But I don’t think it’s fair to judge the EP over just one night … time will tell if it’s a keeper . 
To sum up 

Brilliant build quality 

premium feel 

good sharp views , but a coma corrector needed for newts 

Maybe a bit to wide angle  for my taste

and certainly very very heavy , so good balancing needed . 
Blackouts present when the eyecup was at its lowest ( annoyingly ) 
 

5 hours ago, Sunshine said:

The owl cluster, always a treat to see since no matter how many times I’ve seen it when I first put eyeball to eyepiece those owl eyes just pop! 

I’ve not seen the owl yet , on my list for tonight , hopefully 

So , lesson …. Never trust your weather app ! As the sky has remained very clear for me … a look at M81 & M82 , M31 , M13 , M57, M27, Neptune , Saturn,Jupiter , the  double double , barely split as I am using a 31mm EP but split nonetheless. Using the luminos 31mm EP , for which the jury is most definitely out . Tomorrow is looking good too . 

Hopefully it’s what I am going to see tonight as a very unexpected clear spell hits the Fens 

The 127Mak from Skywatcher (synta) comes in various forms but its the same telescope .The mirror is considered to be 119mm , not 127 , i am not sure why Skywatcher do not market it correctly  another  difference i know is that if you buy one with the AZ-Gti , the dovetail bar is in a different position than if you buy it seperately from the mount .  Grab and GO is just about right but please bear in mind the scope will need about 30mins to "cool" down ... oh , and you need to buy a Dew shield as both SCTs and Maksutovs are dew magnets 

Great images , Dave ... i think the Pixel phones have the best night mode . What  adapter do you use ?

I was an avid buyer of Sky at Night Mag for two years , but in the end the interest in the mag waned a bit ... as a mainly visual only astronomer i used to get a kick out of reading about celestial events etc but now i find the mags full of advertising and niche areas of astronomy that do not directly relate to " where i am " in the hobby . For instance , the afore mentioned Sky at Night Mag , where i tend to only  concentrate on the letters page and reviews section . Also with YouTube playing a much bigger part when it comes to reviews of scopes and EPs etc i find myself using that media more and more . Also , the astronomy apps on smartphones are brilliant and give info in real time of celestial events . I do still take an interest in the Sky at Night program and their monthly report of what to look out for in the coming month on YouTube , but , alas , not the magazine anymore . If i can mention this site , SGL, not to get any favour , but there is an awful lot of good information to be gleaned from a site such as this , and others . I still buy mags occassionally but certainly not for the glossy photos that adorn the covers, which basically say to me , "look at what you could see if you take a photo " , i am still happy to see the grey smudge in the EP .  

Agree with you , Paul that our time lines might not ever overlap but even the new telescope that is meant to be the be all and end all of technological achievement will one day seem like a primitive construction and there just maybe a chance that as humanity gets more Sophisticated ( before it destroys itself ) we may have contact with another life form , whether it be from our doing or not ! We have the brain power to invent anything as long as we are not constrained by  what we believe to be impossible. There’s Klingons on the starboard bow anyone ?