joko

On 04/10/2022 at 09:57, tombardier said:

BTW, I have a metal lathe, mill, 3d printer, and I am just about capable of using them without injury.  Would buying something like and building an eyepiece around it be a worthy endeavour?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304399238976?hash=item46df9bc740:g:hgAAAOSw7OhiMQtw&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsMZYAl63au949ziAHjHGTF3cuGmqQ1YGRJzDbV5z9FxnZP1Y0YAMkdZSentdCePOzwMOwZEk%2FHduEYlCmJqEAcOGz1r0MrWK1emB9LoVyBcJ81v3HatZn8gT6zXiPpDd6QuFtqHzfau%2BQ1%2BVIll6bGumnTkhToR4fep6Em28Dpx9%2BHCqWqXcOzt69Ymrm5uKTUgMkSeiTTSvwC%2Fk8OM9LHAkfduMxfUTSJvYVV5ve%2FeI|tkp%3ABk9SR5KV8J_0YA

No, do not expect anything good from this tube. 

6 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Prime is with no EP, afocal with an EP.

Back to the subject great photos. I know @GavStar tells me the C11 is close to a 16” SkyVision Dob in use. I’ve used Gavins C11 and it is very good.

What is the focal ratio of the 15”?

In afocal with a compressor the C11 with run at an effective speed of f3.

I think it comes down to ease of use, the C11 is a little more portable then the dob and requires less collimation. For me I can reuse a AZ100 for all my scopes and don’t need to get a second set of digital circles.

Did you use any filters at all?

With your OVNI-M do you use a focal reducer or do you prefer afocal for wide FOV ? 

On 10/02/2022 at 12:57, Deadlake said:

If what Ed has reported works for the Baader and the Antlia is means @joko will need to redesign the OVNI adapter to allow filters can be placed between the EP and the NVD.

With OVNI afocal adapters it has always been possible to insert filters between the OVNI-M / OVNI-B and the eyepiece in afocal.

For example on the website if you look at the pics « Afocal By adding a filter wheel + afocal adapter » (column 2 line 3) :

https://www.ovni-nightvision.com/en/content/11--ovni-m-

The new OVNI-M afocal adapter will also allow this, as you can see below.

And here with OVNI-B 

Gary Myers (StellarCAT) is retiring and this is the end of the ServoCAT which equips most non industrial GOTO Dobsonian telescopes around the world.

Gary Kopff (Wildcard Innovations) manufacturer of the Argo Navis will take over and will propose the Wildcard GOTO controller. 

Having met Gary K. in Sydney in 2007 at a Star Party, the Argo Navis was already a great success and still is.

It is certain that this new system will be highly anticipated by many astronomers.

" Wildcard Innovations will be introducing a new advanced servo motor GOTO controller.

A release date is yet to be announced.

Recently Gary Myers at StellarCAT has announced that he will be retiring and that StellarCAT will soon cease production of the ServoCAT GOTO controller.

We wish Gary Myers all the best in his retirement.

Wildcard has had a close working relationship with StellarCAT over many, many years.
We co-developed the "ServoCAT" communications protocol and closely collaborated on the development of advanced features such as SmartTrack.
This feature allows Argo Navis and ServoCAT to track solar system objects, including man-made satellites, in real-time.

In discussions with Gary Myers, we have been aware of his pending retirement for some time and the plan had been for Widcard to make a new GOTO controller available seamlessly once the ServoCAT ended production.
However, the ongoing global semiconductor supply crises has resulted in a delay in those plans.

The Wildcard GOTO controller incorporates state-of-the-art electronics and advanced features.
It is compatible with existing servo motor installations.

Manufacturing of all our products is at a state-of-the-art facility in Sydney, Australia.

We hope this announcement will alleviate some concern as to the availability of servo motor GOTO controllers for telescope owners.

We will make further announcements in due course.

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Managing Director
Wildcard Innovations Pty. Ltd.
sales@wildcard-innovations.com.au "

7 hours ago, Trentend said:

However, I've only ever viewed targets using both eyes (binoviewers and the B ) so although the image was arguably clearer/brighter I personally didn't find it as comfortable.

For sure NV binoviewer (with 2 eyes) is more comfortable than NV monocular. Also for sure FOM2600 have better specs than FOM2100.

With 2 eyes every target look bigger, with a kind of 3d effect and with more brightness and details (when equivalent FOM are compared).

6 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

What an excellent report!

My own brain has frostbite and I may not be reading it correctly.  Does your OVNI-B not have gain control?

Trentend has one of the 2 "prototypes" i made, only this 1st unit was without manual gain control. Of course this was discussed before he ordered.

Trentend got his OVNI-B in August 2020 while OVNI-B has been official 4 months later, in November 2020.

So yes he has a collector's eyepiece 🙂

On 24/11/2021 at 20:24, TBRHussaR said:

Hey Dixie, I just imported an ovni night vision bino , it was insanely expensive. I paid about 25% of the cost in the end.

That's right, but we always remove the French VAT of 20% when we ship outside European Union.

In the UK VAT is also 20%. If it was a product that you bought in the UK you would also have 20% VAT included in the price. So the insanely expensive is about the extra 5% for customs fees.

Meaning the final price was 5% higher than what buyers in the EU pay.

On 20/11/2021 at 19:46, Dixie said:

Out of interest what's the current situation in terms of UK duty etc for importing scopes from the EU?  

You have to ask the seller to remove the VAT when you import.

On 18/10/2021 at 16:52, vineyard said:

Its dangerously addictive b/c now I'm imagining what a headset with binocular NV in a proper dark sky zone would be like!😂 

An other solution much less expensive is simply to use an astronomy NV binoviewer.  As it is made for astronomy, it works in any telescope in prime (without backfocus issue), afocal and handheld with any camera/SLR lens. Only 500 grams in just one part, so no need to use a headset and not restricted to just afocal like terrestrial NV device you are using.

Most NV users prefers to use a NV binoviewer for visual observation and a NV monocular for visual and astrophotgraphy. 

There are much more NV binoviewers users in France and in the USA than in the UK, but here is a review on this forum. For information the user observe from the city centre of Edimburgh in Scotland and also wrote a quick comparison between his NV binoviewer and his traditional Binotron binoviewer.

On 07/11/2021 at 17:22, Deadlake said:

Actually they no longer sell NV equipment, OVNI only sells direct. However you main point of availability is correct. The only difficulty is sourcing a good tube, which OVNI has the contracts to cherry pick the good ones.  

A quick clarification here. All our "astronomy grade" intensifier tubes are built to order, we do not choose them among a batch of production.

And all our tubes in the OVNI-M / OVNI-B are specifically designed with the best specs for astronomy use, no black spots and autogated + manual gain features.

On 07/11/2021 at 20:58, Highburymark said:

Didn’t realise Astrograph had stopped selling NV. So no UK retailers?

We have stopped partnerships with all our resellers worldwide in may this year. So yes, we stopped dealing with "Astrograph" in the UK.

We only sell direct and we are used to ship on the 5 continents.

I would like to clarify one very important point that was not explained in the review. The PVS-14 is just the "housing". The intensifier tube in the PVS-14 is an OVNI Night Vision "Astronomy grade" tube specially designed for astronomy. 

Around 80% of the price of a Night Vision Device is dependant of the tube.

10 hours ago, GavStar said:

Only about half an f stop difference between the Fujinon and the Cosmicar so wouldn’t be much of an impact. The 3x afocal lens is f1.5 and the difference I observed visually on emission nebulae with ha filter between the fujinon and afocal lens was more like 3-4 f stops rather than half, something else is making a bigger difference…

What do you mean by "something else is making a bigger difference…" Because there is something else you do not explain, the PVS-14 is just the housing, you have an OVNI Night Vision Astronomy grade tube designed for astronomy in your PVS-14.

And knowing you have an OVNI Night Vision Astronomy grade intensifier tube in your best PVS-14 housing, tube that i supplied to you, it means you have the same tube performance in your OVNI-M. And there are absolutely no other parts between the tubes and the SLR/Camera lens. So the only difference is this SLR/camera lens. Nothing else can explain the difference you get.

As you explain, there are a lot of positive comments on CN, (i never read any negative) so there are obviously something that makes the difference. For sure, it is the lens.

I already tried a lens at f/2 and the view was really bad, close from your Fujinon f/1.8. And it was incomparably better with the Cosmicar f/1.4 (close to your f/1.5 lens). Like most OVNI users have.

So the difference is due to the lens and nothing else.

On 14/10/2021 at 16:47, Basementboy said:

Hi, as another newbie it took me a while to figure out what this post was about. I live in London (also south facing) and it can be a struggle to see much, so was intrigued. Just Googled PVS-14 and it seems it's a monocular night-vision lens costing £2k+, correct? How does it work? Do you strap it to your head and then look through the EP? Plus various filters? 

A NV eyepiece made for astonomy works like any eyepiece, it has a 1.25" barrel so you just plug it in the focuser.

But please note PVS-14 is made for terrestrial use, not for astronomy, so you can't use it in prime (in the focuser) and you can't add SLR/camera lens for handheld use.

Here is a review wrote by GavStar in Astronomy Now magazine this year, it may help you :

https://astronomynow.com/2021/07/29/reviewed-ovni-m-fom-2600-night-vision-eyepiece/

Please note the intensifier tube in the PVS-14 housing has been replaced before the test by an OVNI Night Vision Astronomy grade tube that i supplied. This is something i'm often asked by PVS-14 users. This is not explained but by PVS-14, this is only the housing, 80% of the price and the results obtained with a Night Vision Device is made by the intensifier tube.

On 18/10/2021 at 15:21, GavStar said:

3) Finally, (and probably least important), I’ve been able to try a camera lens and 75mm c mount lens in prime mode with my ovni-m. Both approaches disappointed me particularly on emission nebulae where with an ha filter both lens really struggle to show the nebulosity compared with my specialist 3x afocal nv lens. So I’ve stopped messing around with the camera lens as I’m happy with my afocal 3x lens setup. It perplexes me quite a bit about the positive comments made on cn re using camera lens/c mount lens with ha filters and nv as I just couldn’t get them to work at all well…

Fujinon is f1.8 while most OVNI-M users have Cosmicar 75mm f/1.4 and emission nebulae are amazing with h-alpha filter.

I never heard any negative feedback with the Cosmicar lens. All feedbacks are positive like those you read on CN.

On 18/10/2021 at 12:32, vineyard said:

Hello,

In the spirit of constant tinkering, I'm trying to see if I can use an old prime lens on the front of my PVS-14.  I've mounted the lens on the front of an old one of these ZWO adapters and have an adapter from RAFCamera that converts the PVS-14 objective into a T2 female.  The RAF adapter has about 6mm optical train, and roughly measuring the distance to the front of the NV lens suggests about 6-8mm there - so a total of about 12-14mm: ie, within the 12.5mm-17.5mm optical length that these ZWO adapters assume on the back end.

But I couldn't find focus (trying a bunch of different spacers) - couldn't even see out of focus stars.  I'm probably doing something very silly, but not sure what?

(The logic I'm trying to use is the one described in this diagram from TV but taking the EP out: ie, get the DSLR lens to form the image focal plane on the NV objective.  I'm sure folks will have tried this?)

Thank you!

Vin

A NV eyepiece made for astronomy will work with SLR/Camera lens.

But your PVS-14 is made for terrestrial use, so you can't use it in prime and you can't add SLR/camera lens for handheld use.

Have a look to these reviews about NV binoviewer with SLR/Camera lens :

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/789690-first-night-in-city-with-ovni-b-using-a-filter-wheel-in-all-modes/#entry11368888

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/791613-ovni-b-with-more-camera-lenses-in-the-city/#entry11396988

3 hours ago, saac said:

Hello OVNi , I've been following the journey of the EV scope since its conception, to say I am a big fan is an understatement   I know that it is not NV , that is more than understood.  What I am saying is that I believe that there is a market for such a setup and should EV scope or any other manufacturer pursue that as a future line of development then I would support it.  

Jim 

Thanks for clarification Jim, i thought you wanted a product mixing eVscope and NV, which would not be possible.

On 15/09/2021 at 22:29, saac said:

Do you think that NV may be a future line of development - would be interesting . 

On 16/09/2021 at 18:03, saac said:

NV would be an amazing offering.

Hi Saac,

eVscope is a totally different technology than NV, there is nothing in common so i don't understand what kind of development you are thinking about.

There are many NV users in the world, so what do you mean exactly ?

On 04/05/2020 at 18:34, PeterW said:

i note you haven’t added Sharpless nebulae of the Lynds (dark/bright) Or Barnards dark nebulae yet?

I agree with Peter, Sharpless and Barnard are 2 must have catalogues. Especially for us, NV astronomers 🙂 

Hope to see them in a futur edition of the CSOG. 

@PeterW here is where you can dowload Sharpless catalogue : http://www.reinervogel.net

On 08/04/2021 at 14:15, Clear Skies said:

In order to keep the bots at bay and to keep track of CSOG downloads, I have added a registration and login page to the website. All that is required to download CSOG content is a username and a password.

CSOG is amazing. Just come to download some guides. 

Hi @Trentend,

Next year, there will be the 1st OVNI Night Vision Star Party in France to gather NV users from all countries.

More info before end of 2021 but this will be in the South of France and around August 2022.

Hope you could come and meet other users.

On 25/05/2021 at 17:38, Deadlake said:

While the OVNI does have the cherry picked harder tubes and the prime feature, I think its up to OVNI to respond with a better lens

• Matches the PVS-14 Envis lens
• A little more adaptable on the filter front.

Jonathan @OVNI does know this limitation and has responded on CN he intends to offer an Envis type lens if/when he can source one.  

Thank you for your comment, i always listen to users and i appreciate all advices to help me to bring the best solutions to astronomy community.

1/ About the lens, please note you can also read comments of people who do not like the PVS-14 lens. And the truth is PVS-14 lens is not an ENVIS lens, this is an error to think they are the same, ENVIS is a full product including body and optics.  ENVIS lens are not made anymore. As explained on CN, there is only 1 user who prefers the PVS-14 lens vs the OVNI-M lens, it's Gavin (GavStar). No blame here, i totally respect his preference. But in no case it means the OVNI-M front lens is not good. If you don't like the PVS-14 lens there are no solutions but if you don't like the OVNI-M lens, it's easy to use an other, so there are many solutions. And this is only for afocal use, in prime there is no lens at all with the OVNI-M.

2/ Regarding the adaptable front lens, let's take the PVS-14, you need an adapter to thread to the front lens and it works only with 2" filters. While for the OVNI-M we developed the fastest and easiest adapter, it takes less than 1 second to use a filter, you just need to push the adapter (to attach it) then to pull (to remove it). It doesn't move and you can use 2"... and 1.25" filters (this is only for handheld use, in prime the barrel has thread so you don't need any adapter). So there is absolutely no need of threads. And for afocal, the OVNI-M has 1/4UNC holes on both side to attach securely and strongly the universal afocal adapter (not restricted, it works with all brands of traditional eyepieces). Here again, like for the lens, there are other options to adapt to preferences of all users.

Last but not least, for technical reasons, OVNI-B (binoviewer version) has exactly the same optical (not body) lens than ENVIS lens used to have and also has front thread.

If you have any questions, just send me a private message and I will be happy to help you 🙂

On 14/02/2021 at 21:51, PeterW said:

refer to the CN group, there might be some Canadians in there.

Yes there are, i confirm. 😀

3 hours ago, Deadlake said:

Does anyone own a Boren-Simon newton and use it with NV? 

On cloudynights there are Mazerski and Eddgie who use the Boren-Simon 6" with NV.

Like @PeterW i would recommend the Boren-Simon 6" . 

At F/2.9 it seems to be the perfect grab and go scope for Night Vision. Mainly for very wide nebulas.

I don't have it but i will probably order it soon, i should write this in my letter to Santa Claus 😀

15 hours ago, Deadlake said:

For the newbie here I was googling around and found this site:

https://www.falconclaw.eu/monocular-night-vision-buying-guide/

A lot cheaper than the ONVI products. What the difference in products for the same FOM level, ONVI is almost EU2500 more? The FOM is a lot lower than the harder digital, what a good starter one that I will not to upgrade immediately?  

Hi @Deadlake, you have very good questions.

Before speaking about the tube, let's speak about the body (monocular).

• In the link you posted, please note this monocular can only be used in afocal. Prime focus is not possible. So no way to use it like a glass eyepiece. 
• Also no way to use it handheld (like binoculars) with camera lens. It doesnt' have c-mount. Only 1x is possible with its front lens and no adapter to add h-alpha filter. To see Barnard Loop, all big nebulas (America, California, Rosette...) is breathtaking. There is no way to imagine how amazing it is without trying it. I use lenses up to 7 times magnification.
• Next, the product is « a non-manual gain version » as noted on the website. Please note manual gain control is a MUST-HAVE feature according most NV astronomers.

So with the monocular you talked about, only afocal (no prime and no camera lens), no manual gain control…

While OVNI-M is a 26mm eyepiece, very flexible as you can use it in prime, afocal, and handheld (it has c-mount). It also includes manual gain control.

Now let's speak about the tube.

• It's written on the website you mentionned "Please be aware that not all spots are visible on those pictures and in real life the spots appear to be bigger than on this picture." A GEN2 echot tube is a tube with dark and bright spots meaning you will have spots in your field of view. Not great at all for astronomy !
• About the performance, what can i say... GEN 2 ECHO tubes have much lower performance than GEN3 thin-film tubes (the best in the world). The difference is huge much more light and details for DSO with high sepcs tubes. Probably the most important aspects. 
• Also FOM is not the only important spec, there are much more specs that needs to be well balanced to get the best for astronomy. EBI is also very important, like gain, resolution…
• And i don’t even speak about warranty (only 1 year) and shop service is also imprtant (many questions before and after sales) …

Please note i have an agreement to use Photonis tubes, but ther is no way i sell a product with ECHO tube for astronomy.

Hope my message respect the rules of the forum. No advertisement here, only replying to questions. 🙂 

On 13/10/2020 at 17:00, Trentend said:

Any eyepiece recommendations to get more magnification (currently use the 55mm televue with 67mm conversion)?

Hi,

The 27mm integrated eyepieces in the OVNI-B will double the magnification of your TV55mm used in afocal.

You just have to use the 2" or 1.25" including adapters, it’s plug and play like any binoviewer.

OVNI-B is made to be use in prime, afocal and handheld, like the OVNI-M.

Kind regards,

Jonathan

On 20/09/2020 at 11:00, Trentend said:

Had the kit attached to my televue 55mm with the 67mm conversion lens. I found to get this in focus the eyepiece had to be pulled around 3/4” out of the base of the feathertouch focuser which didn’t feel particularly secure. Not sure if this is right and I need a riser?

Hi,

Yes TV recommends an extension tube with their 55mm plossl. 

Nice comparison between your OVNI-B and the Binotron.

And glad you enjoyed M13, so many stars unseenn with glass eyepiece.

Kind regards,

Joko