DeanCJ

Unfortunately where I live, Pontefract, with a WF postcode, the RM service is absolutely junk and has been for quite a few years.
Last year my 82 year old father was suffering with bowel cancer and 90% of the letters from the hospital would arrive days after his appointments. It became so bad that most of the important correspondence was conducted via the telephone. 
I believe that RM was fined last year for its poor performance, says it all really. I must say though, our postie is fantastic, its the company, not the people who work for it.
 

2 hours ago, Coolhand1988 said:

 

I wonder if the 'old hand' observers still stick to these smaller FOV eyepieces?

Thanks

 

I have read many posts over the last few years, especially on SGL regarding orthoscopic eyepieces. These eyepieces have a small fov and limited eye relief but seem to provide, from what I have read, a very clear, pure, and sharp view. 
I must admit, I really am tempted to buy one or two just to try them out. 
There must be a market for this type of eyepiece as FLO have a selection for sale in the ‘made in Japan’ section, and they seem to command a good used price. 
As well as my collection of SLV’s I also have the older Vixen LV’s in 4,5,6, and 7mm focal lengths. All of these have a 45°fov and if memory serves me a 20mm eye relief, they work well in my f7 refractor and f10 sct. I bought these used quite a few years ago, and the prices today are somewhat higher.
I forgot to mention that I also wear glasses but I remove them when I am observing, which can be amusing, or annoying for my wife, especially when I can’t see to find them, or when I have managed to sit on them.

Although not a wide field eyepiece, have you considered the Vixen SLV range? Myself I quite like the 50° view,especially for lunar and planetary.
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-slv-eyepieces.html              
Each focal length has a quoted eye relief of 20mm. 
I have SLV’s from 9 to 25mm and although I have never viewed through a top tier eyepiece I do find that for the price, the SLV’s are very nice, and not too expensive. If you shop around they can be found second hand at a very reasonable price.

Hi HAsun. 
I do not have the az-eq6 but I do have the az-eq5. My first thought is the handset but I am no expert. Can you connect it to a computer via the Skywatcher supplied lead? perhaps it is firmware related? If you can confirm the handset is at fault a new one will be quite expensive, so I just wanted to suggest a Skywatcher wifi adapter FLO generally have these in stock and are probably half the price. I tend to use one with my az-eq5 and it performs faultlessly. Just an idea.

Cheers Dean.

Hi Bloodline and welcome to the forum. My wife and I have a couple of goto mounts, one being the Skymax 127, it’s a cracking little telescope, excellent for lunar and planetary and will show most of the Messier catalogue, not too shabby on double stars either. 
The main advantage of goto and tracking for us is that we share the eyepiece, if we take a while swapping, or have to nip inside to make a drink, the target will more often than not still be in the eyepiece. My son has a Dob and when we share we have to be quick as I am not very good at relocating the target and nudging to be honest, so if you are planning on sharing your telescope with others, this may be something for you to think about.

Cheers Dean.

Signed 645👍

Just like @RobertI has posted above, my wife and I also have an 8”sct and a 4” f7 ed refractor. The refractor with 2” eyepieces provides wonderful wide field views that the sct simply cannot provide. Fainter targets such as M13 are fantastic, in the refractor there is no mistaking what it is, then in the sct the stars are really starting to resolve. It is, for us really great to have two different views of the same target if that makes sense. 
Our mount is a Skywatcher az-eq5  and when dual mounting in az mode the telescopes are approximately 18”-24” apart when balanced correctly, so we can sit side by side and observe which is nice, although two mounts would provide more freedom, we really like our setup.

£180.00 does seem rather expensive. If you have a smartphone or tablet, have you considered a Synscan wifi adapter? FLO currently have them in stock at £75.00. Obviously you could also purchase a used one. I have both adapter and handset and like them both. The Synscan app is probably quicker to align the mount, and the only thing I personally find awkward is when my fingers are cold there are no chunky buttons on my tablet.
The other benefit with the adapter is the ability to use Sky Safari which I find fantastic.

Hi Seoras 

looking at your first two videos there seems to be a lot of sideways play on the geared shaft. I would suspect that a bearing has perhaps failed, or there is possibly excessive wear to the shaft. If you have a small inspection mirror, such as what a Dentist uses, I would try and look behind the plate with the three cap head Allen screws, you may get a better idea of what is happening. Small bearings are widely available online. Perhaps it would be worth searching YouTube.

Hi Coxy

My wife and I have the Altair Starwave version of your scope albeit with fpl 51 glass. We also have a Skywatcher az-eq5 mount. We often use this in alt-az dual saddle configuration, this is rated I believe at 15 kg per side, and pair the refractor with a Celestron 8”sct, the mount handles this size/weight combination easily. We find that 8” really starts to show dso’s well and compliments the refractor very well. 
we also have a 127 Mak but tend not to use this much as the views are quite similar, on really good nights the Mak will be better on lunar and planetary, but not by much, and on most nights the refractor is better, the Ring Nebula for example, in the Mak l use averted vision more but with the refractor it kind of just pops out without. I think this is where the central obstruction and contrast comes into play. 
So, if you are thinking about a Mak or sct I would be thinking about 150mm or bigger, bearing in mind, an 8”sct weighs more or less the same as a 150 Mak, but has greater aperture, this was for us a better mounting option.

Hope this is helpful.

Try here, I have purchased a few for my Vixen lv’s and they are pretty good. 

https://nipon-scope.com/product-category/lens-caps/

I have one and use it with my 8” SCT, it is the best diagonal I have used with this telescope. I totally agree with what has already been said above. 
Occasionally an undercut may snag, and some deep undercuts may not be gripped tightly. I trimmed a few thou off the clamping ring to fix this. 
I cannot check at the moment, but I believe the nose-piece is not threaded for filters. 
For the price it really has to be a bargain.👍

Just in case anyone needs any replacement eyepiece end caps, Nipon seem to have restocked. 
They have various sizes in plastic and rubber. During the 2020 lockdown I purchased two 37x12mm rubber caps to fit my Vixen lv’s and they are perfect, now they are finally back in stock I have just ordered two more.

https://nipon-scope.com/product/lens-cap-lens-cover-for-telescopes-binoculars-monocular-eyepieces-barlow-lenses-and-accessories/

I know this is a bit of an old thread now, but the 13mm and 10mm nirvanas are now available in the UK, they are listed on OVL UK website and showing in stock at Harrisons. Prices are in line with the rest of the range. I assume @FLO and other retailers will have them in stock or will have them soon. 
My wife and I have the 16mm and we use it with a 8” f10 SCT and a 4” f7 ed frac. We find it works very well with these scopes, and will be waiting patiently for reviews of the 13mm as I am considering this focal length for the SCT with M13 in mind. 

I have an Altair Astro 102 f7 refractor and have gone down the 2” route. I only have two budget Opticstar eyepieces, a 32mm and 26mm. For some strange reason, I like to observe certain targets, especially open clusters, framed’ in space if that makes sense. The above 2” eyepieces give me wonderful ‘framed’ views of the larger clusters such as the Pleiades, Beehive, and the Double Cluster etc. I guess it’s a personal thing, also as has already been mentioned, when clamped the 2” diagonal does feel really, really solid.

If you are going to weld galvanised tube you should really remove the galvanising from the relevant areas, as the fumes are toxic. Just Google Galvi flu  and to be honest if you don’t, whichever process you use, mig, tig, mma, etc the quality of the weld will most likely be poor. Once welded, ideally you should paint the areas with a ‘galvafroid’ type of paint, I have used this at work and it is very good, but could be expensive to buy. 

Hi ScouseSpaceCadet, I purchased (from one of our members) an az-eq5 in November last year. Due to me working away from home I have only managed to use it a few times. I have used it in az mode with my 8se on the primary saddle, and my Altair ed102 on the secondary saddle. The mount handles this combination very easily, and I suspect it could handle plenty more. I am using a Nevada 6-8 amp power supply with a Lynx Astro power cable, for alignment I use the 8se with a 10mm slv de-focused slightly to help with centralisation. I have found the go-to’s to be very accurate. The mount, being belt driven, even on a fast slew, is exceptionally quiet. 
Despite some reports  of play in the ra axis, it is absolutely rock solid when focusing, no decreeable wobble’s etc. 
I have no experience with an az-grill but I do have a 127 Mak with a Synscan az mount and  the alignment procedure is exactly the same, ie as you say pointing North and level. 
As far as weight goes it is surprisingly, heavy, more than I expected to be honest   when attached to the tripod. 
Unfortunately I cannot leave the mount assembled so the set up time is probably at least 30 minutes, as I bought a Geoptik mount bag , the mount has to be stored in eq mode, so when setting up the secondary saddle is fixed to the counter weight bar via a 5mm cap head, and the mount manually cranked through to az mode. I am sure I will be quicker with experience. 
If you could store it assembled that would be great. 
I personally think it is a great mount and suits my needs perfectly.

I use one of FLO’s Lynx Astro cables with a built in male cigarette lighter adapter, this plugs directly into the power supply’s female socket to power my mount, and for the dew heater I bought some male banana connectors and fixed them to a 5.5 X 2.1 cable, these simply push into the ring terminals on the power supply. 
I put the power supply in a plastic box with the lid partly closed (2/3rds) maybe, this allows air to circulate but the unit seems to stay warm, and fingers crossed no dew yet.

I use one of these,

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/nevada-ps-08-6a-8a-regulated-linear-power-supply.html 

It is rated at 6a continues with an 8a max surge. Usefully, the  ring connectors are also  female banana connectors, so that is three different connection types including the cigarette socket. My az eq5 on maximum slew plus an 8se dew heater turned on pulls approximately 3 1/4 amps according to the built in ammeter, so still quite a bit spare.

On 18/11/2021 at 13:06, IB20 said:

Looking on the used market for some SLVs and occasionally I have come across the LV range, LVWs a bit rarer. Do members have any experience with the older Vixen ranges and how do these compare to the current SLV range? 

My wife and I have SLVs from 25 to 9mm and also the older 7,6,5, and 4mm LVs. We recently purchased an Altair Starwave 102ed ( fpl51 ) and were very fortunate to observe the 28th August Io transit. The views of Jupiter and Io’s shadow with the 7, 6, and 5mm eyepieces were stunning, good colour, contrast, and very sharp (we bought the 4mm afterwards) We also use the 7 and 6mm in our 8se, when the seeing permits, for high power lunar, again very sharp across the entire, albeit nowadays small 45° fov with excellent contrast between inky black shadows and a slightly warm tone lunar surface. Perhaps this is down to the coatings as they are a different colour, and age to the SLVs.

We have no modern eyepieces of the same focal lengths, so unfortunately cannot compare them directly. As for price? we paid between £45 and £65 second hand including postage, although as with everything recently, prices are rising. I would say, if you could find one in good condition around this price, try it! they were, after all, in their day, well regarded, made in Japan optics.

My wife and I have enjoyed observing many carbon stars, some of the reds are so vivid, absolutely stunning.

check this out.

https://www.astroleague.org/files/obsclubs/CarbonStar/CarbonStar-List.pdf

Hi Peter,  

We have never had a zoom eyepiece, but from everything I have read, you have bought one of the best available without spending a fortune., so as you say hopefully someone can advise with regards to a 32mm plossl.  One thing to remember is that the longer the focal length, the larger the exit pupil is, and the brighter the image is. This is great for the faint fuzzies, but can also brighten the background light pollution. For Jupiter and Saturn somewhere around 15 to 10mm maybe a bit more if the seeing is really good, and for the moon sometimes 8mm, again if the seeing is really good, so I would say your new Baader zoom is a great match for your scope.
We have never used a dew heater on the Mak, and only on a few occasions has the dew beat the shield, so I would recommend you see how you go. If you do need to buy one, don’t worry too much about power consumption as long as your power tank is well charged. We have a dew heater on our 8”sct and power the mount and heater from a 7ah lead acid battery and it has done five hours easily, with no signs of discharge.
If you need to buy any more bits and pieces (I always seem to need to buy something) check out the for sale section, or perhaps place a wanted ad. I have bought items from here and I would say that 99.9% of people are honest and their prices are very fair.
 

Hi Peter,

my wife and I have the same scope and mount, and it is a great little set-up. I can totally agree with the reply from @Zermelo so although you may feel a little underwhelmed, don’t, you will see lots more. There are many bright dso’s and Messier targets within this scopes capabilities, smaller star clusters are gorgeous, but a few larger ones such as the Pleiades just won’t fit in the field of view, so we eventually bought a Star Travel 102 for wider field views which is perfect on this mount and if you are careful you can swop and change scopes without altering the alignment. Double stars are great, especially colourful ones, nebulae too, and  of course the moon is stunning. Planetary views are fantastic, we have even observed  Uranus and Neptune many times and can see faint colour on both, although they are very small so your alignment needs to be good. Venus is very bright and we have struggled with this but you will be able to see the phases easily, just make sure the sun is in a safe place !!! 
If you haven’t got one I would recommend you buy a low power eyepiece such as a 32mm plossl. This will give you a nice bright wide’ish field of view. We bought a Skywatcher 32mm and this will give you about as wide a field you can see with a 1.25 eyepiece. Eye placement can be a little difficult as the eye relief is quite long and eventually we replaced it with a Vixen 30mm npl, this we find easier to use as it has a twist up eye cup. 
Also have you got a dew shield yet? We soon learned just how quickly this scope can dew up. 
I am sure you will enjoy your telescope as we have, especially now you have read the what-can-I-expect-to-see article. 

A warm welcome to SGL and clear skies.

Hi Mark,

Trying  the Tak prism was a bit of an experiment, and to be honest, probably not suited to an f7 focal ratio. From what I have read, prism diagonals are better suited to longer focal ratio telescopes, and to be honest, we bought the Tak prism to use with our f10 8” sct . In this telescope it is, especially when observing Jupiter and Saturn, definitely better than the Skywatcher dielectric diagonal, not by a lot, and the differences are subtle, but for example Jupiter’s cloud bands show a little more colour and quite often it will show more, north and south of the equator. I never really understood what light scatter is but in the Skywatcher diagonal it presents itself as a very, very faint type of glow around very bright objects (if that makes sense) but with the Tak there is none.
For what the Tak prism diagonal cost we think it is very good.

Check this article out it is very interesting  https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/mirror-vs-dielectric-vs-prism-diagonal-comparison-r2877

Great review  @ScouseSpaceCadet . Having read your review, I have bought one. To be honest I have also read many reviews such as Tecnosky, TS, Astro-tech etc. 
Just like @ScouseSpaceCadet our only refractor is a Skywatcher Startravel, albeit a 102 as opposed to a 120, so this is our only comparison. 
Our first light was a very quick grab and go between clouds and showers. I 100% agree with @ScouseSpaceCadet review, and I honestly think I can’t add very much more to it, although I can say that it cools down very quickly, within 15 minutes we were looking at Jupiter and Saturn with our highest power eyepiece, a Vixen 5mm lv and the views were, to be honest, far better than expected, fantastic to be honest.
The only false colour I could see was on the lunar limb when I used our Tak prism diagonal, then, with a Skywatcher 1.25 dialectric diagonal it totally disappeared, both my wife and I searched for it and agreed there was none. 
Because of the weather it really was a bit of a mad rush to gauge performance on a variety of targets, everything was simply fantastic, I don’t know what else to say. 
A quick star test on Altair (simply because we used it for the goto alignment) proved perfect concentric rings both inside and outside of focus. 
The biggest surprise I have to say was the Ring nebula. We have observed it many times from the same location, same time of year etc, and compared to our Skywatcher 127 Mak  using approximately the same magnification, approx 70x, the view was amazing. Neither of us had to use averted vision, it was just, there to be seen. I assume this is what people say with regards to central obstructions and contrast, as the Mak has the aperture advantage even at a true 119/120 mm. 
We have never looked through a fpl 53 apo but if fpl 51 is this good, they must be really fantastic.
Given the recent Syntra price increases, I wouldn’t be surprised if more people don’t look more closely at these telescopes in their various guises and apertures. 
One last big thank you to @ScouseSpaceCadet for your review, and everyone who takes the time to review their equipment, no matter how big or small, as it it allows newcomers like us to make the best informed decisions we can.