heliumstar

2 hours ago, FLO said:

 

They look, feel and perform better than their price suggests. They are also noticeably better and more comfortable than the eyepieces supplied with most telescopes. 

Steve 

Are these new design? If not can you please share the equivalent eyepieces on the market?

All these scopes I think are  the same. Altair, TS, Starfield, Tecnosky, WO, etc. I had 3 Altair scopes and all were excellent both mechanically and optically. One of the best out there. I still miss Altair 80ED-R I sold. It was on par with Takahashi 76. And I mean completely on par - no difference whatsoever. Amazing star test in both and you could see less purple in Altair actually. Tak 76 has nothing on it apart from being slightly lighter but Altair has shorter tube and is 4mm wider. 

I am sure you would be very happy with any 115mm you get - no matter if Altair, TS, Tecnosky or whichever brand you buy. Go with the cheapest imo...

10 hours ago, BinocularSky said:

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll see if I can figure out what's going on there. (Gave up on FF for Linux - and Windows - ages ago 🙂 )

Edit: That should be fixed now; let me know if you have any more issues with the page, & thanks again for letting me know.

Looks all ok now 👍

Thanks for a wonderful newsletter!

binocularsky.com redirects to parked.need-less.org.uk for me in Firefox on Linux for some reason. Other browsers are fine. 

ZWO Seestar S50 - the price is right and the package looks well thought of overall. Ordering....

Just saw this.

https://twitter.com/dfuji1/status/1629259622619176961

On 15/11/2022 at 23:50, L8-Nite said:

I'm a minimalist when it comes to grab & go. A small wheeled flite case handles scope & accessories, with tripod and stool strapped on top.

 

 

This person has style 👍 Huge thumbs up!

19 hours ago, John said:

This is a genuine question that I have been asking myself for the past 5 years or so but I'm still unsure what the answer is.

We have access to some excellent scopes these days for great prices and yet there seems to be unabated enthusiasm still for similar specified scopes from the really expensive marques.

My personal experience seems to indicate that the actual performance differences between moderately expensive scope and one of the really expensive versions amount to perhaps 5% or so (depends on how you quantify performance I suppose) but the price differential is often very much more than that - sometime 2x or 3x as expensive.

So what is it that motivates quite a number of us (including myself) to want to own these expensive instruments ?.

My best guess is that, once you have been in the hobby for some time, you develop a burning curiosity to see "what the fuss is all about" with these highly reputed brands. With widespread reporting, through forums such as SGL, I think expectations on what they deliver are, broadly well managed so there is no expectation that whole new target areas will become attainable but it is more about an enthusiasts desire to be using something that is, or is close to, as "good as it gets" within it's niche.

I'd be very interested in others views on this though, both those who have "taken the plunge" and those who have not

I've avoided the terms "premium" and "top end" deliberately because I'm not sure that they are helpful.

I wanted to try and test everything so I bought pretty much everything that can fit on my balcony. My eyes are not perfect so take this with a grain of salt. What I am left here with is a simple 127 Maksutov that puts to shame all premium, mid and low range refractors in ~80mm for planetary and Moon (this is what I can see from my polluted sky). Yes, even Takahashi 76. On to refractors. I thoroughly tested Tak 76 and Altair 80ED-R. I really liked the Tak but Altair is just as sharp and a little brighter as well. Focuser is much much better on Altair. The weight is the same. Guess which one I am left with? Unfortunately Tak is not worth it in my opinion when the view is the same and everything else is better on Altair. I suspect that at the end I will be left with Maksutov for quick planetary and Moon and sell Altair as I am looking for smaller refractor to fully automate EAA sessions.

Thanks @John for reminding me of this article! Nice eyecandy to rest my eyes at end of work day

Morpheus is now in the price territory of Pentax XW. It would be interesting to know if sales drop. I would go for XW every time. There is just no comparison in build quality between the two. I also find XW more comfortable. Viewing through them is similar experience with a slight edge to XW again in my experience.

17 minutes ago, oscar_camilleri said:

Yeah i know, Same applies to Taks, My GF is Japanese and she was explaining to me that altough we consider them as prime scopes, back in Japan Takahashi was considered an average scope manufacturer, same as we consider celestron or meade over here.  Meaning they are not held in Awe or worshiped like most of us seem to do. Same with prices, for example if you were to buy an FC-100dz it would be around £1850 in japan, whilst in the UK the same scope retails around £2500. 

That's interesting. I am aware that Japanese might not be as 'excited' about Taks as we can sometimes be but what else is out there that is held in awe by people from Japan?

Amazing! Hopefully we'll see smaller ones as well

Have one question. Is weight spec accurate? Other brands are lighter. Any changes on Starfield?

Same experience here as well with 127 and 102 Maksutov. The best views I get in the UK are ~120x with both. ~130x+ is already 'mushy'. The same with 80mm and below refractors. The seeing just doesn't allow for more magnification most of the time. I have Baader Zoom and Vixen SLVs and no real difference apart from SLVs being just slightly more comfortable.

These work as risers for me

https://www.gwr-fasteners.co.uk/spacers---standoff-collars-606-c.asp

Thanks for posting this! I presume you use az gti mount in eq mode? What tripod do you have? The scope is quite heavy so I presume not the standard tripod that comes with the mount?

I am poor at judging the quality of astro photos but this looks very good to me!

What mount are you using with your RASA 8?

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

Not my Sky at night magazine. Should have been here on Tuesday if my sky at night calender is to be believed. Has anyone else received their October issue yet???

Nothing here yet.

I had similar experience with FS-60Q one night at ~270x. Yes, the image was dark(er) to the eye but I was actually flying over Luna. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me since I am not sure if I remember correctly (keep notes right!) but I had similar experience with Vixen A81M as well.

My birthday is coming up and I am browsing all the usual UK suspects (astro shops) to see what I can give to myself Last year my lady paid for the Tak and I tried this year again but it looks like I need some socks so that's in the works now. I am thinking to get some decent accessory (or maybe -ies??) so need some suggestions.

For me, Rigel finder is that single most useful accessory. I have Synta/Vixen style shoe for it so it goes from scope to scope.

Suggest away Let's say £500 price limit.....but if you find some thing is really useful the budget can be stretched.

Getting exciting

Patiently waiting for these to come

36 minutes ago, AlexK said:

Roscosmos? Don't make me cry through laughing. Russians had no single screw changed in their general space hardware since 90es. They afraid new screws bought in China may not fit old threads  As the education, science, and high-end engineering and industry of the inherited USSR legacy, which you are referring to from the memory I guess, have been raged, scavenged, and profanized by hundreds of high-ranked former-KGB-backed theeves (many now retired in UK mansions and castles) for almost 26 years in a row. All that legacy tech has been sold to China for a single man fortune money a piece. China would rival Musk on Mars not Rusia. Russian space tech is over 30 years old, their scientific data is nearly non-existent due to the lack of funding of anything not bringing immediate wealth to the ruling "party" club ("space taxi" is all they've been investing into lately, and Mask took that over in just 10 years). It's a atypical, but still banana kleptocracy now. All the best Russian minds are working in the US and EU/UK now, including for Musk, and not looking back for prob another 20 years waiting for the mafia state to eat itself out, thanks to sanctions.

Not sure how any of this is relevant to giving credit where it's due?

If particles are between lenses return it. Otherwise clean it Q-tip and alcohol will do the job.

I love this mount but when out yesterday for conjunction I felt alt getting a little stiffer.

You ask if there is anyone that used SLVs with SCT. I used it with C5 and refractors. I had 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 9mm and 12mm. I saw that spacer in the eyepiece but never saw reflections when observing the Moon. In the fl range you're looking for I settled for BCO 10mm and am yet to find the eyepiece that shows more stars than BCOs with my eyes. If you can handle the size and weight I would look into Pentax XWs as well as there is nothing better for overall experience (transmission, comfort, eye relief, quality, fov) out there as far as I am concerned.