parallaxerr

This emotion I have already felt... This one, I look forward to!

Stop it now gents. At least let me ride the 82° wave before you drag me deeper!

First rule of Green & Black club - don't talk about Green & Black club 🤣

Same seller, different EP's! Just Naglers (he says) coming my way. Ethoi, well they're for another life!

I too had the ES68° 24mm previously and found it to be nice eyepiece. I sold it on because it wasn't a suitable FL for the scope I had at the time and didn't get used. I'll have to evaluate the effect of exit pupil on the Veil more using the Baader Zoom and will then select a 68° to suit, but I suspect it will be a TV given that I now have 2 Naglers on the way. Of course, I may find 32mm to be the best, in which case I'll stick with a plossl as I don't want to consider the even slipperier 2" route!

I recently found the winged eyecup from my baader zoom, which I don't even use hence never realised it was missing in the first place, in the flower bed whilst weeding. These things grow legs Ant, I'm sure of it!

Well that was short lived. 11mm & 16mm acquired, profuse sweating initiated! Thanks to @David Hardie Just a 24 pan to go, that's going to have to wait a few months now though!

Aah the tool I frequently use to paralyse myself with excessive FoV analysis 🤣

I may or may not have been in touch with a certain seller who recently posted in the for sale section. This thread may come to a close imminently!

After a few very satisfying sessions hunting DSO's recently, I've been questioning if I can improve my views with better eyepieces that may have better transmission. I am currently only using a MkIV Baader Zoom and Celestron Omni 32mm Plossl in my one and only 4" F7 refractor. The Baader zoom has really helped me identify what EP FL's work on what DSO's from my bortle 5 skies and the following are my observations on common/favourite targets. - 16mm is by far the most used setting and works very well on the Dumbell & Omega nebulae with UHC/OIII filters for example. 16mm also frames a lot of open clusters quite nicely. - For the Ring Nebula I find no filter and more power works, I often use between 10-12mm. This range also works well for the Double Cluster in Perseus. - For globs I frequently wind the zoom down to the 8mm setting. - I had my very first view of the Veil Nebula recently, for this I used the 32mm plossl to bump up the exit pupil combined with the OIII filter. I have read that the Veil may respond to a little more power by increasing contrast, so I plan to try out ~24mm with the OIII next time out. - When it comes to planetary, the maximum mag my skies have allowed on Jupiter reently has been around x134 which is the 12mm setting on the zoom combined with the x2.25 barlow. Effectively a 5.5mm EP. So, the following focal lengths are set in my sights - 11mm, 16mm, 24mm. I will keep the 32mm plossl and I have just acquired a "new in box" Orion Shorty Plus barlow (same as Celestron Ultima), which I read is a great performer and will give me the 5.5mm FL for planetary work when combined with an 11mm EP. There are two EP brands that offer these FL's - Explore Scientific and Televue with ES82° 11mm, ES68° 16mm, ES68° 24mm or Nagler 11mm T6, Nagler 16mmT5 and Panoptic 24mm respectively. Low level OCD (not really) dictates I MUST stick to one brand! Given that I am now starting to properly observe and not just look and I am attempting to tease out finer details, I can't help thinking TV is the way to go. I imagine TV EP's combined with my Tak prism will offer the peace of mind that the 4" cannot transmit many more photons to my eye! Also, I am far more aware of edge abberations and they're starting to bother me in the zoom! But, which EP first? The zoom, plossl and barlow combo cover all focal lengths so I'm struggling to rationalise which FL should come first. The Veil is high on my observing list and of all the DSO's I've viewed, it appears to need the most help to be seen, so I think the 24mm should come first. But the 24mm may be used infrequently and I use 16mm quite a lot, so should that come first? But, Jupiter and Saturn are still viewable and the 11mm barlowed would suit.........see what I mean! Final note, manual alt az tracking only, so I have pretty much discounted smaller FoV EPs. If you've got this far, apologies for the long post and thanks for persevering! Any and all rational or irrational guidance welcome!

Thanks. Yep, that's the exact one I've ordered, it's out for delivery now 😁 For anyone else considering this, be aware that the Wixey Type 2 inclinometer has a permanent green backlight, so this, the type 1 which isn't backlit is more suitable imo. Other brands are available 😆 And, this is the phone holder I have, though I can't remember where I got it from now! It was a UK supplier, but there's loads of other options anyway.

I use the PC version too, it's very good. I'm using the free Andoid version, don't think it's pro in any way. Currently v1.29.8.

I'm pleased to say that last nights observing session went very well with the new system. I nailed every target in the FoV of my 32mm plossl, first time and it also allowed me to leave the UHC filter fitted as I didn't have to rely on star hopping. Only point to note was that leaving Stellarium running on the phone murdered the battery, despite running on a note9 which has a 4000+mAh battery! I will have to connect my usb power tank for longer sessions.

Actually, I already had the phone holder but it was attached to a synta style finder dovetail. I removed the dovetail and made the small black bracket that goes between the mount and the phone holder. It's a strip of 3mm aluminium, drilled to accept the bolts either end and slightly twisted to tilt the phone back to a better viewing angle. Gave it a lick of paint and job done. Yes, I have this on my bike which is very sturdy, I may make another bracket and experiment with it. They are available in all sorts of colours including a nice green similar to the new skywatcher trim. The benefit of the one I made yesterday though, is that it is very small when no phone is fitted, only sticks out about an inch and collapses down to about 2" high.

After an unsuccessful bid to find a larger frac (at the right price) on the used market for DSO hunting, I decided I should try harder with my current 4" ED. One of the problems I have though is star hopping to the faint fuzzies with my RDF. So I did some little mount mods to the AZ4 to help me along... OK, this is not a new idea by a long stretch - I added a digital inclinometer to the Alt axis (actually this one is borrowed from work, I have a Wixey coming tomorrow) and flipped the AZ setting circle for use in the Northern hemisphere and added a new pointer made from white electrical tape in a more convenient position than the original. Most people probably don't use the setting circles on their AZ4's so won't have noticed they're configured for the Southern hemisphere I also made a little bracket to mount my mobile phone in a position similar to where the nav computers are seen on some push-to mounts. This allows me to run Stellarium and read off target AltAz cords without rooting through my pockets for the phone every 2mins and the screen can be left on constantly in red mode to prevent having to unlock the phone, which temporarily throws up a bright white keypad - not good for night vision. Got it all set up and in broad daylight thought I'd take a punt at finding Jupiter, so I dialled in the specified 16 degrees alt on the inclinometer and scanned roughly whre I knew its Az location to be and... BANG, alt was right on target. Set the AZ circle to match the reading in Stellarium and that's me calibrated for the night. Soooooo easy and accurate (so far). I'm super chuffed with this as it should save a lot of random scanning in the general area of faint DSO's. I have also ordered an 8x50 RACI finder to replace the red dot which should further aid locating the fuzzies.

FYI for anyone else facing the same predicament and not having the offer of a freebee from a friendly fellow lounger, I find "wixroyd" to be the boys for this kind of thing. Far superior hardware to the stuff fitted to Chinese mounts imo... https://www.wixroyd.com/en/catalog/wixroyd/b Just so happens I'm in the process of upgrading my AZ4 legs clamps with these...

Haha, I know. FLO have price matched a new one at a very tempting price......but I must resist.

Yes, I must exercise more patience. It's just typical that there are normally several on the market but now I'm looking, it's slim pickings!

I've been trying my darndest for weeks to find a used one at a reasonable price, or one for sale at all for that matter. I think this price hike just put a nail in the coffin of the whole idea tbh as it will obviously bump the used prices up.

Well blow me. A significant Skywatcher price hike just landed and they're even more expensive now, £537 for an ST150 at FLO. Too rich for me 😥

I guess the ability to counterbalance helps in this example John, something that's not an option with the AZ4. A lack of counter weights is actually one of the reasons I like the AZ4, though it does limit the mount to a degree. I can cope with a little bit of under-mounting when observing low power but it's horrible when ramping up the mag.

Yeah, the F8's are proper "yard cannons".

Hi Alan, yes I came across your comments in my searches......and realised you went back to a frac 😂