Second Time Around

I've replied on the new thread about my Versascope. Go to

I've got the 10x60 Antares RACI Versascope from Rother Valley Optics that takes standard 1 1/4 inch eyepieces. It comes supplied with a 23mm/50 deg crosshair eyepiece giving a 5.0 deg field and an exit pupil of 6mm. It has a long built-in dewcap plus a T thread for guiding. Back focus is approx 93mm. Cost is only £145 including rings plus a Synta base! I've fitted mine with a 20mm SWA 70 deg double cross hair eyepiece from Agena. This gives 11.35x and a 6.16 deg field with an exit pupil of 5.3mm. The 60mm Versascope including the rings and Synta base weighs 833gms/29.4ozs with the supplied eyepiece. With the 20mm/70 deg Agena crosshair eyepiece it weighs 935gms/33.0oz, again including the rings and Synta base. I've measured the clear aperture at 57mm. I tried to post a link to the Versascope but it didn't work. Instead here's a link to the Rother Valley Optics home page: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/ . If you type 'Versascope' into the search box it takes you to the correct page. In case of a problem here's what it says: "The Antares Versascope is a very versatile accessory. This is a 10 x 60 crosshair finderscope that doubles up as a small guide scope. A very inexpensive way to either upgrade your current finder or get a guidescope attached easily onto your system. The scope features a 6 point adjusting rings for easy alignment to either your object or a guide star. It also has a synta style base for easy attachment onto a wide range of scopes. It also features a front focuser for easy focusing and a wide field 25mm crosshair eyepiece for easy alignment. The 90 degree prism will correct the view for the right way up images. The rear of the finder has a 1.25" twist lock adaptor for the best hold possible. If you unscrew the adaptor, this will give you a T thread so you can attach guide cameras and other accessories while still being able to focus using the front focuser. The scope also has a built on dew shield to battle dew forming on the front of the lens. This really is a brilliant scope and there is nothing on the market that can touch this. Very versatile and very easy to use. Focal length 227mm." I've had mine almost 2 years and can thoroughly recommend it.

I'd recommend the 60mm Versascope from Rother Valley Optics. I'm tied up at the moment but will post more later.

My OOUK Dob bases are superb, and the best thing about their Dobs. They're super smooth, the rings make balancing easy, they're very light and also have a smaller footprint so are easier to carry, and as said rotproof. OOUK may have a small stock, but I know they also make bases to order so can accommodate any tube size. They're not cheap, but they're worth every penny. Do make sure you opt for the friction brake though. Did I say they're good? Oh yes, I did!

Excellent advice, Mark.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your wife. I'm in a similar boat to you and did a lot of Googling. This invaluable site lab tests a lot of camera tripods for stability and portability: https://thecentercolumn.com/ As a result I've just ordered a tripod from the Leofoto Ranger range. These have no centre column and so fold to a very compact size. They're now imported into Europe with 16 in the range in various weights and sizes, all but 3 having ball and socket heads in a package. This page on the new European Leofoto website has a chart giving the full specs: https://www.leofoto.com/products_detail.php?id=362 I don't need a ball and socket head but do need a heavy duty tripod so went for the Leofoto LS-364C. Not all the Leofoto range are available in the UK, including this model. However London Camera Exchange and Wex Photographic stock many of them.I was happy to buy from an EU country and pay on PayPal so I've ordered it from Dext in Sweden. Go to https://www.dext.se/sv/stativ/ranger-tripod/https://www.dext.se/sv/stativ/ranger-tripod/https://www.dext.se/sv/stativ/leofoto-ls-364c-trebenstativ-i-kolfiber.html for a wide selection of Leofoto Rangers.

Fixed focal length eyepieces may be slightly better corrected when compared with a zoom at the same magnification. But that's not always a fair comparison as that magnification may not be the optimum for a given object. This is because one of the many advantages of a zoom is to be able to dial in precisely the best focal length. For instance, this may be 13mm or even 13.1mm, which may actually show more detail than shorter or longer fixed focal length eyepieces. I'm a great fan of zooms and the 8-24mm Baader zoom is easily my most used eyepiece. I use it with the matching 2.25x Barlow. That plus a wide field eyepiece as a finder does me for most of my sessions. I particularly like the ability to increase the magnification to make use of brief moments of good seeing. It takes more time to swap out an eyepiece, and the opportunity may then be missed. You can't see anything if you haven't got an eyepiece in the focusser! Zooms also enable the field of view to be varied to frame an object to get the prettiest view. For this reason I particularly like them for clusters. Many of those who post here and advocate fixed focal lengths are experienced observers. It's so easy to forget what it was like as a beginner! A zoom eyepiece enables beginners to easily learn what difference a change of magnification makes on all the various classes of object. It also shows them what focal lengths would be most useful to their eyes, their telescope, and their observing conditions. They then have the option of buying/not buying the most appropriate fixed focal length eyepieces for them. For these reasons I'd always recommend that beginners buy a zoom as their first eyepiece.

Just goes to show why they're so hard to find!

I'd also recommend a 10 inch for its extra light gathering. However a 10 inch is heavier and bulkier than a 8 inch. I have both 8 and 10 inch, but they're OOUK Dobsonians that are lighter than mass market scopes. Like the Bresser they have large altitude rings so are very smooth, plus it makes them easy to pick up and carry. This is made even easier by the base having a smaller footprint so it can be carried close to one's body. The base is made of aluminium so won't swell if it gets wet. Even though I'm somewhat disabled, I can carry the 10 inch out in 2 trips. An able-bodied person should easily be able to carry the tube in one hand and the mount in the other. As you can see from their website (https://www.orionoptics.co.uk/VX/vx10-10l.html) they're much more expensive than mass market Dobsonians. Unfortunately the 10 inch models rarely come up on the used market - I had to wait over a year for mine. However there was an ad posted here by long time member Alan White, who had a 10 inch OOUK Dob for sale. A lot of us commented that we were surprised it hadn't sold, but Covid was in full swing then. It might be worth asking Alan if it's still available.

I've just bought a used Revelation 1.5/2x off UK Astro Buy and Sell. The 1.5x plus my 8-24 zoom will give me a very handy 67x-200x on my 8-inch Dob, and slightly more on my 10-inch with a coma corrector.

I'd recommend avoiding the 12 by 60. Not only are they likely to be too heavy for travelling, but they'll be much more difficult to hold steady, and you'll probably actually see less than with 10x binoculars. In fact my choice would be 8x binoculars, that are justifiably popular for these reasons. They're also likely to have a wider field of view.

Harry Siebert estimates the cost at $200-300. That's tempting having just spent over £6000 this week! Luckily with the OVNI-M I can use it at prime focus as well as afocally.

My copy of Bracken has just arrived. It's brilliant! Many thanks to all who recommended it.

Many thanks, Mark. I like your idea of taking the battery out. I hadn't thought of that.

It might do. It's just not mentioned in the blurb. Has anyone got it and can try? Cheers.

Unfortunately, the Celestron Omni doesn't seem to offer the option of 1.5x as well as 2x. That's what I was after myself. TS Optics in Germany has their own version of the dual power Barlow, but the postage cost is high. In the UK this is sold under the Revelation label. I was looking myself a week or so ago and nobody actually had it in stock even if their website said they did.

In the UK this is sold under the Revelation label. I was looking myself a week or so ago and nobody actually had it in stock even if their website said they did.

I spoke to Harry Siebert yesterday and asked whether he could make a 67mm 40 deg eyepiece at a reasonable cost. His answer was yes. He could also make even longer focal length eyepieces for 2.5" and 3" drawtubes. As a newcomer to night vision I don't want to miss anything. Aside from having a screw thread on the eyecup is there anything else that would need to be considered? Eye relief perhaps?

I use 6 different web sites/apps. They all have their advantages. Met Office - updated frequently, shows wind gusts, surface pressure charts BBC - well-explained monthly long range forecast Meteoblue - Astro forecast 3 days ahead on free version, Multimodel gives alternative forecasts, lots of maps Wunderground - love the graphical option, especially hourly cloud cover and dewpoint! Meteoradar - past and forecast radar rainfall, past and forecast satellite clouds and sunshine (unfortunately not nighttime cloud) Clear Outside - Astro forecast 7 days ahead

I'd certainly recommend that you check the size of your dark-adapted pupils - they vary hugely from person to person and also tend to get smaller with age. Each eye is likely to be different too. So the oft-repeated 7mm is likely to be incorrect for most of us. It's easy to do so. Just stay in darkness for a couple of minutes for your pupils to dilate; you don't need to get fully dark-adapted as that's a chemical process that occurs after your pupils have fully dilated. Then just put a ruler above your eyes and take a flash photo - the flash is so fast your pupils won't react. But do make sure that you have red-eye and pre-flash turned off if your camera has these settings. As your pupil size will vary depending on the observing site it's better to measure them there. Why is it important? Well, if the exit pupil of your scope is greater than your pupil size you'll be wasting some of the aperture (although the field of view is likely to be bigger). So it's a good idea to have an eyepiece that matches exit pupil and pupil size. You also need to take into account that the magnification and therefore the exit pupil will change if you use a coma corrector. For instance, a Paracorr reduces the exit pupil by 15%, an Explore Scientific coma corrector by 6%. To give an example I measured my dark-adapted pupil at 4.5mm. I have a 10inch f/4.8 Dob fitted with an Explore Scientific coma corrector. So the calculation for this scope is 4.5 x 4.8 x 1.06 = 22.9mm eyepiece. As there are few 23mm eyepieces available, plus my pupil size will almost certainly get even smaller with age I rounded this down to 22mm.

I've just taken the plunge and bought an OVNI-M. I'd like to start by thanking all on Stargazers Lounge for the useful information they've posted on night vision; this has helped no end in deciding what to buy. Plus a special thanks to Gavin (Gavster) for his PMs. Further thanks goes to Johnathan (Joko) for setting up ONVI so that those of us outside the US can get NV gear specially chosen for astronomy, and his UK agent Rupert at Astrograph who was most helpful. Because Astrograph had what I wanted in stock (a white tube with a 2100+ FOM) I ordered from them. Their package deal comes with a case and a filter holder. Rupert is going to drop it off tomorrow to my son who lives near him, and then I'll meet up with the family as soon as possible. I'm just about to order a smartphone adaptor, an afocal adaptor plus a 7nm H-alpha filter from OVNI to get me started. What other filters and other items would you guys recommend? I'm in a Bortle 4 green zone and will be using the OVNI with 10 inch f/4.8 and 8 inch f/6 Dobs, a 60mm f/3.8 Versascope and various camera lenses. I'll possibly add a fast 72mm FPL53 ED refractor before long. Obviously I'd like to get filters for nebulae, plus I'm also interested in open/globular clusters. Many thanks.

Many thanks, Pixies. That looks just the job!

The cheese plate solution looks great! Any chance of a link to the one you bought. Thanks.

For similar reasons to you I also chose the 12x36 iii and am very pleased indeed with them. I'm very happy with the 5 deg FOV. The only downside is the poor close focusing, but I've other binoculars for that. I've handled the 10x30 and 15x50, and found I wanted more magnification than the 10x and less weight than the 15x. I haven't tried the 10x42 but they weigh about the same as the 15x50.

I remember them well. I think their address was on Rayleigh Road, Hutton, Brentwood, Essex. I regularly got their paper catalogues they advertised in Exchange and Mart. Amongst other things I recall buying a 5/8 inch Erfle from them late 60s/early 70s. Anyone know what happened to them?