DaveL59

There's one listed on the bay from Ukraine at the mo too and only a tenner plus shipping - tho that's just the mountings no TC included Nikon TC-E2 binocular mount | eBay

they do look nicely put together from the pics. I'm not looking for such a pair but if anyone here is then it seemed a good deal. I recall @markse68 was making a pair and might have been one side short but I could be wrong there.

I so know that feeling! I was browsing around to see what M42 lenses are around that might interest me, tho I'll likely rarely use them. Must randomly change all by online purchasing passwords I think and let the cards have a breather 😉

Came across these, not sure if anyone might be interested so posting just in case Nikon Teleconverter TC-E2 2x with leather case | Oxfam GB | Oxfam’s Online Shop

doh! and of course spell-check won't have picked that up lol

As Girders has said, it's going to be quite limited. You might be able to hand hold it at the eyepiece for snaps and perhaps short video of planets but the extending lens you'd need to be careful of not catching it, so power up and let settle before attempting it. I have the bigger S100FS and that can't be used easily at the eyepiece, too long and bulky. You might be able to try on a tripod if you can manually focus to infinity, or use the trick method (lens cap on, get it to attempt focus, then switch back to manual focus), at full zoom you could then shoot the moon in video perhaps. For much else you'll need longer exposure or focal length. I gave the S100FS a try briefly as that can do 30s but no longer. It'll mainly only pick out the brighter stars, combination of exposure time and the lens being quite slow zoomed out to 400mm.

So I found a smaller spring that is weaker but a lot shorter and narrower, too short in fact. So with a bolt inserted in the end of it I have it set for the length where the plunger reaches the stop end (bolt end inserted in the plunger to distribute load better). Reassembled it all and the trigger now needs a bit less effort. No change to the tension on the ball as that is set by the lower spring with the red pointer and the allen screw. Think I'll leave it set up this way rather than mess about trying to get that big spring back in place 🙂 edit - thinking about it you would have to have a spring with enough stiffness as the trigger is a fulcrum that pushes downward on the yoke that brakes against the ball head. So while you might use a shorter or weaker spring it'd need to be able to apply enough outward pressure on the trigger to force the fulcrum bearing down against the yoke. Perhaps this one I've used while shorter and weaker is enough to succeed.

wow lucky find then, mine's quite a few years older. Been a while since I had mine apart to overhaul but opened it to have a look. I can't see how the trigger spring would affect the grip on the ball as that is an isolated section. That is a very long spring in the trigger so will have a play and see if I can alter it with a different length one. Will let you know 🙂

ah yeah, true, forgot you're not in the UK

The trigger grip on mine needs a firm pull, not sure you can adjust that. Was yours new new or new to you/used? You may find that turning the wheel toward + while it stiffens the movement on the ball does loosen the trigger a little. Just tried that on mine and it seems to, or perhaps just the shorter travel is deceiving me.

don't know either, the Manfrotto 222 is very solid and I think these are essentially copies as they aren't made any more. Upside is the 222 uses the 200PL QR plate of which there are many clones, but the clone of the holders I found so far are not quite the same tolerances. Some fit, others need a little bit of grinding the edges. Guess its down to convenience tho, some like me will have a few QR plates to make switching things around easier, others will just fit the QR plate onto the thing they want to use and then refit it to the next... For sure 60 was a good price new, I expect the Manfrotto were a lot more back when they were around on the market 🙂

I was more flagging up that there are other and possibly cheaper options in case folks weren't aware

I picked up a pukka Manfrotto one for around £18 a couple years back, easy to overhaul and touch up the paint and works a treat. Defo worth checking if one is available before shelling out for a new one of other brand I think 🙂

I didn't pay that high as I spotted one listed at a more sensible price so curiosity got the better of me. It works but how much I'd actually use it is another matter, esp now I bought a DSLR and the T2 adaptor arrived for that today. I'm not serious about imaging but nice to have the option of giving it a go should the mood take me.

If you fancy trying it out you can find drivers linked on here for it, think it was HappyKat who posted them. I bought one recently and it works ok on Win10x64 tho it doesn't show as a webcam, Sharpcap still picks it up fine. Not really had much of a chance to test mine given the weather but it's low-res VGA at best. They seem to sell for £40-60 on the bay, yours looks to be missing the wee lens that sits inside the silver shroud/focus ring and isn't modified for long exposure but should be fine for planetary. At least it has the 1.25 adaptor and IRcut filter and the ND filter is likely useful on the moon.

the EQ5 my synscan came on (used) is also quite stiff, more so on the RA axis. Thankfully I had another EQ5 so swapped the rig across as that one ran freely so now drives smoothly. The original mount I found I was getting grating of the gears at the sticky points on the axis. I've yet to get around to stripping mine down, I just use it manually for the moment but it is annoying that I sometimes have to give the counterweight a shove to get RA movement. I'll sort it one day...

or is he thinking regular vs square eggs 😉

Well on the one hand you don't need to gear up for a couple 80Kg bags of fluid that need to consume oxygen, food and water and be maintained within a finite temp/pressure window which in some ways makes the build of the ship that bit simpler. But then also consider we now have way more advanced tech to enable navigation to a small distant target and robotics to allow remote or programmed manipulation which didn't exist back in the 60's in a form that could be launched into space. Both were great achievements of their time I'd say 🙂

today received finder scope holder that fits the big TAL-2 finder - will need one of the rings moving on the finder as well as a smidge shaved off one edge of the dovetail to fit into the TAL100RS foot. Also a couple chipped adaptors for the A77II, one T2 and a M42 in case I decide to get a few vintage lenses to play with 🙂 Update - so I filed the dovetail foot to get it to slip into the in-built finder shoe on the TAL100RS focuser and then a slight notch in the edge to assist the single lock screw to retain this huge finder, mounted up and aligned on a chimney 120ft or so away: That is one huge finder, at 50mm it's half the diameter of the scope's 100 😄

fingers crossed you finally end up with a good and usable pair 🙂

Not sure that it does need grounding as I've run mine with the box sat in the accessory tray before now and had no issues. Others may have more experience with the requirement and be able to advise better but I'm not convinced that the metal tag is really to ground the unit but simply a sprung tab to retain it.

Part of you kinda hopes for something like happened in the film "Evolution" just to mix things up a bit 😉

From the Japanese mission out to Ryugu Asteroid capsule landing point detected - BBC News Pretty amazing stuff to get all that way, collect samples and return them back to earth, hopefully it all remained intact.

Sometimes a little extra weight helps, so long as balance in the hand is good. I have a pair of Minolta 10x50 and they are light and nicely balanced for me, tho on a cold night getting a steady view handheld isn't so easy so I use them on a monopod. My Swift Audobon's are heavier but I find the balance is good and at x8.5 are easier handheld. Higher mag will accentuate any movement so while you may still shiver etc an x8 or x7 will seem more stable as the image moves about a little less. As you said tho, YMMV, some can hold 10x and above more easily than others hence the general guidance is 7/8x up to 10x. Above 10-12x things get a whole lot harder.

cool, lucky guess as I don't have the WiFi module but I vaguely recall a pop-up or a permission request 🙂 Yep on the clear nights, Mars is a vaguely fuzzy dot in the complete cloud cover tonight.