Dippy

I wonder why John was not sent a set of this new mount to test. He is my favourite reviewer and I know he only uses Alt Azimuth mounts. John is also a pleasant reviewer whom I trust on his healthy, balanced judgement. I have based my eyepiece and mount purchases based on what he uses for his own observations. I have read many times his suggestion to manufacturers to come up with a mid range altazimuth mount to sit between Skytee 2 and more expensive ones. I think Rowan brothers have missed an opportunity here to communicate properly with potential customers of their new product. That is just my opinion and I hope their new mount sells well.

Because the Dobsonian is non tracking, you need an eyepiece which keeps the target longest in the field of view. That means going for the widest possible field of view, ie 100 degrees. Ruling out the expensive Televue Ethos, your next best choices are APM HDC or Skywatcher/OVL Myriads. I have all three kinds. For widest possible field of view you can get the APM HDC 20 and 13mm which has provided me with incredible 3D Spacewalk experiences. Unfortunately the Skywatcher 20 and 9mm are out of stock since 2018. So your best luck for planetary (short focal length) eyepieces are Pentax XW 3.5, 5mm or 7mm, TeleVue Delos And Baader Morpheus 6.5mm. I use the Skywatcher/ OVL Myriad 3.5mm successfully on Mars these days on a refractor, but I have not used it on my Dobsonian. You can also use TeleVue Nagler 31mm type 5 for your wide angle views, but the price is twice of the APM, even second hand ones.

I originally bought one bottle of Baader solution and have yet kept the bottle, then I found these pack of 4 spray bottles on eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184364921926 I fill them with Isopropyl alcohol, one spray bottle for myself in the pocket to use as disinfectant when outside during Covid-19, one for my wife in her bag for the same purpose, and two in my lens cleaning kit sets, for use on eyepieces if they get dirty by oils from eyelashes or accidental fingerprints. I use the Baader bottle filled with Isopropyl alcohol too. I bought one bottle of 1 litre Isopropyl alcohol one year ago for £5 and it was a great help during the pandemic. It is now one third of its original volume, and probably the best purchase I ever made. My TeleVue, Pentax eyepieces (which I purchased on the example of John Huntley, from Cloudynights forum) and other optical surfaces are pristine as new, despite that these eyepieces are always on use.

Baader optical wonder solution is practically Isopropyl alcohol. Instead of £12 for a 70mL of it, buy a 1000 mL of Isopropyl alcohol for £22 (before pandemic it was only £5). They have also smaller bottles which will be cheaper of course. The Baader solution and Isopropyl alcohol don’t remove the toughest of fungi on optics, only a few of the less deep set ones can be treated with them. I have used both for cleaning eyepieces and on certain stage of cleaning several 8 to 12 inch mirrors. They both worked identical. When applied through an optical cleaning fabric, they remove ( dissolve) fatty oils and fingerprints on optical surfaces. I had cleaned a 12 inch mirror once which for some unknown reason had ice cream stain on it (cleaning followed standard operation procedure for cleaning coated aluminised mirrors).

Baader optical wonder solution is practically Isopropyl alcohol. Instead of £12 for a 70mL of it, buy a 1000 mL of Isopropyl alcohol for £22 (before pandemic it was only £5). They have also smaller bottles which will be cheaper of course. The Baader solution and Isopropyl alcohol don’t remove the toughest of fungi on optics, only a few of the less deep set ones can be treated with them.

I tried my Skywatcher Myriad 3.5mm 110 degrees eyepiece on the Mars early morning with a thin layer of cloud and Moon nearby. It was sharp to the edge and I could hold my head at an angle and yet see the Mars gibbous phase without nudging the telescope tube. Mars was showing clear steady sharp image. Two parallel green-grey areas of Tyrrhena and Hesperia along one polar cap were visible, and also Syrtis Major at the limb. The giant Hellas crater was brightly in contrast with the rest. This eyepiece combination with Skywatcher DS Pro ED120 works very fine. As the sky became brighter ahead of the rising Sun, the details on Mars were more clear and contrasty. It was really stunning experience. I wonder why Mars is said to be difficult object to observe as it is quite large and shows more detail than the Saturn. The details I was seeing in Myriad 3.5 were missing in Vixen SLV and it makes me think, it is the eyepiece which cause the problem for some.

I have just made it brighter for you and you can already see a lot of nebulosity. The telescope has given you some nice round stars at trapezium. May be by further processing you can bring out more stars in the trapezium.

I have the Lyra 102 f/11 which is this one: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1958_TS-Optics-102-mm-f-11-Fraunhofer-Refractor---Optical-Tube-Assembly.html Since have bought it, I have stopped using my 8 inch Meade LX200 . The Lyra is such a quality equipment, optically and mechanically. It is a Fraunhofer achromatic which means practically it has not much chromatic aberration. The focuser and tube rings are superb, the best I have seen.

I like comfort more than anything else because it helps to concentrate and actually see more. I place my observing equipment on a table near the window, the telescope tube sticking out towards the south with me sitting comfy on a chair inside the room. Everything I need is easy to reach and I can take breaks as I wish during observation without leaving my equipment exposed to outside environment. I sometimes put my feet up on a small stool, pulling the giant tube of the Skywatcher 150 refractor coupled with a binoviewer towards my eye , resting my head on a headrest and observe the Moon or Jupiter. I feel probably I am the most relaxed observer of the night sky (until I see someone more comfortable). Sometimes I even don’t bother to open the window and observe through the double glaze, mostly during winter months. I also use different equipment for different moods. For quick look during breaks in clouds even a ready to use Skywatcher Infinity 76 blue penguins telescope is a joy to use.

Unfortunately not. I bought the Skywatcher Flextube 130 second hand from Ebay and I use its mount for my observing sessions indoors. I wish they would sell it separately and have written to OVL in UK about it (OVL is the distributor of the Skywatcher telescopes). For my smaller refractors I use the similar but smaller mount of a second hand Skywatcher Heritage 100. I use my Skywatcher Maksutov 150 on the same mount, but I don’t recommend them because refractors are more versatile for both wide angle and planetary observation. Maksutov telescopes have narrow field of view and are excellent for planetary observation but finding the target and keeping it on track is a challenge if you don’t have a tracking mount. I also use cheap but optically excellent and very light weight SVBONY Aspheric eyepieces on a Skywatcher binoviewer with these, although I have more upmarket eyepieces, but they are heavy for binoviewing.

I observe in a similar situation ( but through a window). I find using a Newtonian telescope, even an Astroscan is difficult in that way. I prefer my refractors , Skywatchers up to 150mm, on the Dobsonian mount of a Skywatcher Flextube 130, on a table near the window, the tube sticking out towards the south and me sitting comfy on a chair inside the room. Everything I need is easy to reach and I can take breaks as I wish during observation without leaving my equipment exposed to outside environment. I sometimes put my feet up on a small stool, pulling the giant tube of the Skywatcher 150 refractor coupled with a binoviewer towards my eye , resting my head on a headrest and observe the Moon or Jupiter. I feel probably I am the most relaxed observer of the night sky (until I see someone more comfortable). Sometimes I even don’t bother to open the window and observe through the double glaze, mostly during winter months.

It is much better priced than my second hand skywatcher chair and looks more attractive. I feel the need for a kind of “double deck” arm rest with holes to place the eyepieces too! I always find it more comfy to have eyepieces out of the way of my hand and safely secured. It is especially a problem with my Delos and Pentax eyepieces which have quite narrow bases and wide tops, ready to fall on slightest movement of my arm.

That is cheaper than the Skywatcher one I bought used! It is also more elegant and probably not as out of place when in a corner of living room.

John, That observer chair has a design new to me. How do you change the height?

I have several expensive planetary (high power) eyepieces, but value for my money I have not seen anything better than TMB Planetary II eyepieces from China. They cost about £23 and have focal lengths from 9mm to 2.5mm. I have the Vixen HR 2.4mm and Pentax XW 3.5mm and my TMB 2.5mm (to my eye ) looks equal to them in sharpness and image quality. I kind of regret buying Vixen HR 2.4mm because it cost me ten times more than the TMB 2.5mm. I think a 6mm or 7mm will be enough for your needs, and you can always Barlow them for higher magnification.