markse68

Nice- will have a thorough read when i have time but I love how Siril keep adding new stuff to play with- I didn’t know they had star tools so looking forward to trying those features out- like desaturating stars

Mark

On 24/03/2023 at 08:52, paulastro said:

It's always irked me a little that most companies don't  tell you the clear aperture of their diagonals.

not any other useful details like optical path length, glass path length etc…

Mark

If the bearings are up to it you don’t really need to balance the alt axis although it  does help reduce the importance of levelling the az axis- if that isn’t perfectly level then an out of balance alt axis will make the head want to swing under gravity. This loads the motors on a driven mount and makes it a pain to use a manual mount. I don’t usually bother with the counterweight on my manual mount anymore but setting it level then becomes quite critical

Mark

Did they have one of these bonkers sets from the US?  Looks fun though haha

Mark

I see colour when I view it with 8x50 bins and through my scope with low power eps- pinks and green mottling and the greys and whites of course. It diminishes with magnification so I guess its the brightness like Roy says stimulating the cones. It kind of gels like the detail on Mars after prolonged viewing

Mark

18 minutes ago, Froeng said:

Looks amazing, but better be careful with those spiky feet on that roofing membrane. Some wooden underlays are highly recommended…

not a bad idea though they're not sharp points and the roofing is pretty hard in the cold- bigger issue in the summer though. The building leaks like a sieve and they won't do anything about it as they're hoping to redevelop the site at some point in the near future

Mark

Venus is looking pretty sharp this evening- hints of some texture there. @mikeDnight was right- it’s better while the sky is bright

Mark

Image borrowed from another thread but currently this is my most loved scope. I love that it cost me only £80 (well the OTA anyway  ) is portable whilst still a reasonable aperture, and is really quite excellent. My Tal-150p

Mark

I did use it for my 8” imaging scope but it tends to crease along the tubes. Cheap and cheerful though and very rigid against wind, and light weight. I ended up using a sheet of polypropylene flocked inside and with a self adhesive velcro seam- works great.  It’s what the shop bought ones are made from.

Mark

Welcome! where abouts in London will you be moving to?

stumbled upon this delightful old demonstration of the Stern Gerlach experiment from 1967 on youtube. It’s quite something to see the real apparatus rather than a graphic and I feel I understand its significance a lot better now. An essential tool for investigating “spooky action at a distance” and Bell’s theorem. 

Mark

37 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

might work Mark, will have to measure up. I'd sort of like to have the TAL tripod as-is and have the option to shift the EQ5's around if needed, hence thinking maybe that Ali one might be worth trying. Easy enough to drill and tap the base to be able to bolt it onto the tripod boss, then drill out for the EQ5 securing bolt for which I'd have to source a suitable one.

Hi Dave, I was thinking this would leave the Tal tripod top unmodified

A thick rubber washer would take up the curve on the tripod top and stop it slipping around. A long screw up through the base into the head would lock it all together

A 2.5” flange nut is 20mm high- not sure about 2.25” but it maybe and they’re common components at plumbers merchants for a few quid. Might be able to get rubber washers there too

https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/pipe-fittings-c433/threaded-brass-fittings-1-4-4-c312/jtm-threaded-brass-brass-flanged-backnut-p10596/s34703?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=jtm-threaded-brass-brass-flanged-backnut-2-1-4-quot-brass-2-1-4-quot-brass-2-1-4-937003rm&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gclid=CjwKCAjw5pShBhB_EiwAvmnNV8S0JHQYCHIPuV0AU-Hp7h_3Oas8JLvWeyzGC4YatOBcExoyY9dmshoCZqQQAvD_BwE

Mark

Could you use something like this Dave? 2.25” bsp is i think about 60mm id and it looks to be at least 20mm deep. Flange nuts are a lot cheaper but maybe not deep enough. Obvs wouldn’t have the azimuth pin if that’s an issue?

Mark

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111634635156

From what I understand they work with rollers and can have issues where the rollers twist out of parallel and can jam when there is an undercut or worse the tapered barrels on some eps. But I've never had a close look at one though might do soon although they are rather pricey!

Mark

Don’t know if these were the ones Mike was referring to as there are some hard plastic hinged types sold for rifle scopes, but these are nice if a bit pricey (3-4£ each) They are rubbery and come in lots of sizes- there’s an ebay seller with a large range. I use a larger one for my finder scope. You could cut the tether part off if it annoys and it makes a very nice ep cap and being rubbery tolerates some size mismatch

Mark

Another beautiful sketch Mike  

Mark

beautiful new old tripod- hopefully to mount my Tal-200k on a GM8 for “portable” tracking setup

Pretty stable for 4kg

Mark

I like your Cyrillus too Mike- very detailed. I had a go sketching for the first time in a long time last night and focussed on those 3 craters too but didn't get anything like your level of detail or subtlety- that's beautiful. Are you using a driven mount? It was quite a challenge jumping between ep and paper in dim red light and juggling trying to keep a manual scope on target at 200x with a plossl fov. A driven mount would have been much more user friendly. Doesn't help that I could really do with wearing reading glasses to sketch but that would have been one more thing to juggle!

Mark

I find different scopes need different tools- on my 8”f8 dob, after initial collimation, a cap was all that was needed- works really well when only adjusting primary after transportation- super quick and with a retro reflective primary donut and retro reflective ring around base of the cap, easy to use in the dark illuminated by my phone screen. For my 8”f4.5 imaging scope a laser/barlowed laser works best as i’m concerned with precision of both secondary and primary tweaking. For my Cape Newise, neither of these worked at all because of the intermediate optics and an Ocal collimation camera proved ideal/essential. For my 6”f5 newt a cheshire is great

Mark

18 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting review of TAL super and ultra wide eyepieces here from Bill Paolini:

The TAL Super & Ultra Wide Angle Eyepieces - User Reviews - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights

I've very rarely seen any of these for sale in the UK. A couple of the 24mm UWA's perhaps but that's all.

These are my 2” Tal eps- well the erfle is branded Siberia so not sure if it’s really a Tal but it has the Tal look.  The 25mm UWA i bought new old stock from Russia and it took a long wait to find the 24mm UWA

Mark

Nice collection Dave  I'll have to gather my eps for a family shot too- you should be able to tell if they are original Tal by the barrels which are distinctively heavy duty Russian

I use a Tal 2x barlow all the time- I compared it to a Celestron Shorty 2x and a TV 1.8x and whilst it's a bit warmer it was every bit as sharp- I really like it- it's really compact too.

Mark

13 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

The top of the tripod boss looks like this:

Wonder why they removed the steel cup for the Tal head? When I picked up my Tal 100R the seller had the tripod but wouldn't let me have it as he wanted to use it for a lamp but I managed to twist his arm into unscrewing the cup part which I attached to a surveyors tripod. Is the EQ5 m9ounted with a central screw? Maybe a stack of thick mudguard washers to spread the weight underneath would do it

Mark

Yes- thumbs up for the humble plossl from another re-convert here too. Well actually the 5 element modified plossls that Mike mentioned but am loving the small size and the views are really very very good- just not as wide as modern eps but I find I quickly get used to that and only really notice it when switching from a wider ep back- which is simple to avoid

Mark

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

A very nice TAL wood tripod

Nice find Dave- they seem to be getting scarce due to the scourge of "designer lamps"

Mark

That's a beauty!

Mark