russ

The OIII is the only filter I have, for me its the only filter that makes a night and day difference. Obviously its a one trick pony, so only limited use but for the best views of the right object its essential. Once you see the Veil, especially under a dark sky, you'll know its money well spent. I just couldn't justify spending more. Perhaps if i looked through a premium one i would go straight out and buy one.

I had the Orion Ultrablock UHC 2". It was okay and definitely improved the view as well. But i looked through someone else's Baader OIII and put the Orion UHC up for sale the next day.  

22 hours ago, callisto said:

Hmm the same eh, Thanks for that 

If your budget won't run to one of the premium models don't discount the cheaper filters. I had the Skywatcher OIII (another cheapy version) years back and in the 12" dob it was epic. Great views of the Veil from a nearby dark site. Without the filter the Veil was only just visible with averted vision. With the filter, couldn't miss it. So with your 10" dob it should be good on the right object. 

I read that the Optolong OIII and SVBony OIII visual filters are the same filter. They have a wider bandwidth than the high end filters, more like a UHC filter but work well. I have the Orion OIII which also has the wider bandwidth but I have found it works extremely well on the Veil, Dumbbell and Owl. Never owned a premium OIII like the Lumicon, so can't compare.

13 minutes ago, djdurance said:

Brilliant. I'm going to pickup a Nirvana 7mm... Looks like they are out of stock everywhere!!

Only the 16mm Nirvana is showing stock anywhere. Trying to get the 4mm or 7mm is a nightmare. Same with most of the Explore Scientific ranges. The secondhand market is the best bet at the moment. Perhaps a wanted ad here or on UK Astro Buy'n'sell.

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

The 3.2mm would give x203 vs x185 for the barlowed 7mm. I suspect the 3.2mm would get less use, and of course x92 is also useful for the 7mm alone.

That was part of my reasoning for losing the 3.2mm. I used it so rarely, just better off barlowing the 7mm when the sky will take it.

7 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Wise course of action. My 16mm Nirvana came with over 30 days of nocturnal cloud  in the box, so it wasn't until I was outside the FLO return window that I was able to give it a proper go against my BSTs, but I really needn't have worried, it's an obvious step up. When funds (and stocks) allow I suspect I'll be looking for a 7mm Nirvana too 🙂

I think you will be equally pleased with the 7mm   I just need to stop myself buying the Helios Myriad 20mm whenever it comes back into stock.

18 minutes ago, djdurance said:

Thanks! This does raise the question in my mind about the performance of a 7mm with my Barlow lens (seems to be decent) compared to a 3.2 mm without a Barlow...

I ditched my 3.2mm and 4mm eyepieces as I thought my 7mm and 8mm eyepieces performed just as well in the barlow. My barlow is only a lowly Celestron Omni 2x. Money saved bought an ES 24mm.

21 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I only have the Nirvana 16mm ,  but if the 7mm is anything like as good it would be well worth considering .

For roughly the same money you could get a BST 3.2mm and a BST 8mm though ...

7mm is superb, miles better than the Hyperion 8mm. Holds up really well in my F5 scope. Only got the 7mm in the last week and been fortunate to use it on 3 nights already. Wanted to make sure it was good before selling the Hyperion and TMB Planetary.

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Rule 2 of telescope owning: There is always something slightly better for more money  (rule 1 is 'Clouds accompany each and every purchase' , obviously) .

We need those slightly better things to give us something to research and read about on the 350 cloudy nights of the year.  

Just replied to the other "what planetary eyepiece" thread. Hyperion is nice as an allrounder in a slow scope. About on a par with the BST Starguider. For best planetary detail and excellent eye relief, the Vixen SLV gets my vote. I have the 10mm Hyperion and 10mm SLV, the Vixen is simply sharper. I always pull more detail with the Vixen. I keep the Hyperion for deepsky as the 50deg field of view of the Vixen is claustrophobic. 

I was very pleased with my BST (I had the original Astro Tech Paradigm) but since discovered there are slightly better eyepieces for slightly more. Another nod to the Altair Lightwave 9mm (and all the clones). The Vixen SLV 9mm beats them all in my opinion. Razor sharp and so comfortable. Just ortho field of view as the draw back.

13 hours ago, IB20 said:

Only just managing to see the shadow, more of a diffuse grey disc than the pin sharp black dot I saw two weeks ago for the same moon transit. Some of the worst seeing I’ve experienced tonight. 🚮

That was about the same for me. No inky black razor sharp shadow, just a dull grey, less defined disk. It just didn't want to play ball last night. But it was good to be out though.

7 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

I’ve been observing from Southampton to. But like others seeing is horrible, although I can make out the GRS. Signs of high cloud increasing too. Fingers crossed.

Yes cloud starting to increase in Eastleigh. Seeing is pretty dire but getting some very short good moments.

It's technically clear according to BBC and Metoffice but only because they don't count high cloud as proper cloud. Transparency really poor and seeing, as others have said, wobbly. But looking forward to the transit nonetheless. Going to be using the Startravel 150, not the ED100 or C6.....madness but i love it. 

On 14/09/2021 at 20:50, CCD-Freak said:

It was a calm night with pretty good seeing and PHD was playing quite well.  Ignore the header at the top of the PHD screen.....I fired up the system with the ASI-290 / UO 80mm / AP900 configuration and it guided beautifully with the 50mm guide scope so I had not saved a new configuration when I did the screen shot.  Seeing is typically the main reason for poor guiding from my experience.  Whenever I get a night like that I save a screenshot to remind me that it is probably not my kit.    The old CI-700 still surprises me with how well it still works even though it is almost 25 years old.  (^8

That's a stunning look scope and setup. 

Nice report. I use the 10mm SLV and its my best planetary eyepiece (and by some margin). Also been through a bunch of eyepieces (Pentax XF, TMB Planetary, Meade 5000 UWA 8.8, Orion Edge On) and some were okay, better than others but just like yourself i felt the C6 and ED100 were capable of nicer views. So replaced the Skywatcher Dielectric diagonal with a Baader T2 prism and bought the SLV 10mm (really wanted a TV Radian). What a difference. Tried the Meade 5000 8.8mm with the Baader prism and it was better than before but for fine detail on Jupiter the Meade just cannot compete with the Vixen. Surprised just how much of difference there was. I did see some blue fringing too on one night but not there the next. Put it down to the low altitude of Jupiter and poor atmosphere.

I need to buy a second now as i'm having to barlow the 10mm to get the desired power in the ED100. So really need the 5mm.

16 minutes ago, Stu said:

I found the Neodymium good on Jupiter and Mars, less so on Saturn but haven’t tried it for a while.

When viewing Mars last opposition, it seemed to help at moderate magnification but with my 8” f8 at x360 it was better without the filter. Probably exit pupil related ie better with exit pupils above around 1mm perhaps?

Yes i found the Neodymium helped out with Jupiter last night and night before. Took away some of the glare and made seeing the finer detail a little easier. But seeing last night was pretty dismal. So just struggled to get anything like the previous couple of nights. 

I was using the Orion OIII last night with the Startravel 150 under Bortle 5 skies. Transparency was poor. Without the OIII not even a hint of the Veil. With the OIII all parts of the Veil were not a problem. Not tried with the ED100 as I bought the 150 for this very reason. The OIII also worked incredibly well on the Owl, the downside is I lost the companion galaxy from the view. The OIII is an essential part of my observing setup. One of the first things I re-bought this year.

2 hours ago, skyhog said:

That more or less sums up my observation last night. I went out around 9.30 and saw the little disk of Io on the planet along with the GRS. Ganymede and europa were an impressive 'double star'. Seeing was initially very poor but improved over the next few hours as Io eventually cleared the disk along with the GRS. Saturn was nice, very low but the seeing improved and the cassini well defined.... Tonight looks promising too. 

That was about the same for me too. Seeing was pretty poor to start. Could see GRS and Io shadow but little else in the way of detail. But by 10:30 things had really settled down and able to pick out fine detail on Jupiter. Also cranked the magnification right up to silly levels for the seeing but able to a distinct disk to Ganymede. All be it a fuzzy one.

That does look good. Why is everything always so far away. lol

That's a really nice image

On 19/08/2021 at 13:08, Rob said:

Second hand. New to me.. although it is pristine condition 5mm Vixen LVW5... super pleased.

 

I was watching one of those on Ebay for £99 but forgot to go back and bid...lol. Very nice Rob

4 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

IIs this just me being picky, or does it rub anyone else up the wrong way?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/58256430

It really gets on my nerves. It was worse last year with Mars. Not just the Beeb but all the daily rags too. 

1 hour ago, pete_l said:

I reckon that nobody sells kit that works well. Not unless they absolutely have to.

What does get sold on is stuff that folk are dissatisfied with, things they want to get rid of to buy something better, or pieces that have a problem (which hopefully the seller is honest enough to declare).

Yes i think you are right. Although sometimes you get an itch for something different even when you are totally satisfied with the scope you have and it meets all your expectations. Mine was for more aperture with the C8. Plus getting spare parts for the Intes, even from the UK main dealer, was not easy. I sold my M603 for a low price because of the course focuser and let the new owner know the trouble i had trying to get the part needed. And failing to do so.

9 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

I have an Intes M603, a 6" Mak. I acquired it from a fellow SGLer, who I think slightly regrets having sold it, and I absolutely love it, coarse focuser and all. I hanker after a bigger one though, in addition. But they almost never come up. They have/had quite a large range, Maks and Mak-Newts, and they must have sold a good few scopes over the last 25 years, but you rarely see them on the used market. Why is this? Are they so valued that owners will be buried with them? I can sort of understand that, if so.

Cheers, Magnus

I used to own an M603 with a course focuser. I immediately regretted selling it. The optics were sublime. It really was a step up from an SCT. I could just never tease the same planetary detail from my C8 that I could from the M603.