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Supernova74

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Everything posted by Supernova74

  1. Come on guys keep it clean now or shall I post a topic who,s got the bigger scope it’s what you do with it that counts!?😉
  2. Hi guys another one of my projects an sct cassagrain counter weight system
  3. Not for the dedicated imagers!? And just updated post for slighty better moon shots this was taken with an skywatcher 150 maksutov and iPad mini (5 megapixel) camera over skywatcher panorama eyepeice very hard to keep steady.
  4. Thank you guys for some positive feed back from my post.if the god father of Televue al nagler who most probably makes the best eyepieces of this world today who am I to argue in viewing Jupiter like I stated in my last reply viewing Jupiter through an 3” Televue at 400x best views he ever had I’m an old school visual observer with an modern twist and going by the general rule of roughly 40x,50x per inch is a rough guide only and generally a rule of thumb and lets face it we never know it all that’s the beauty and passion of the hobby and lets face it some folk in this day and age can be stuck in there ways and that’s why thay will not catch the biggest fish!??exsample ronseal paint products states it does what its suppost to do on the tin however that’s not the complete truth in our Astro gear we use. For instance I’m not comparing a department store telescope as we all most probably purchased at some point when we’re younger and had a fancy picture on the side of box with a lovely blown up pictures of the planets and galaxies,nebula etc and left often feeling very disappointed ☹️ (sorry John mainly tasco) and had ridiculous claims of 500x 600x magnification that was just a fabrication of the truth and let’s face it if the true magnification limit In general terms in the uk was around 200-300x sorry that’s just a myth in my eyes as let’s face it why are we spending ridiculous sums of money and buying the best optics money can buy if we just heard information ie on the internet or some other source.as for we thought that way mankind would never push the envelope of the true Potential of the quality telescopes of today
  5. Thank you guys mixed opinions I can see from my experience to an certain degree it can be a bit of tricky subject what monkey do what monkey does so to speak without coming across rude of course as that not my intentions here I’m no means an expert in Controversy of the maximum usefull magnification as every one on this topic has a different opinions and yet mainly we all know that good seeing conditions is key here for any scope and is not set rules only guide lines we have learnt from one another I’ve seen some lovely views of Saturn and the moon at 400x no distorted image and still very observable it’s kind of the terminology again for exsample no harm in trying and that Angler will never catch that large carp as he didn’t think outside the box and try a new bait!? Al nagler once said he had the best views of Jupiter once at 400x and was through an 3” Televue and if your observing a planet it’s just a question of waiting for the atmospheric turbulence to die down and think you will be plesently surprised is a waiting game but not impossible
  6. Hi all hope you are all keeping safe and are well at moment and not killing each other in the lock down. the topic of choice this evening is lowest and highest use full magnification and obviously this goes down to a number of factors mainly seeing conditions firstly as we all know is king in a good nights observing session and make and break nights on occasion and I’m mainly talking about for visual observing.from personal experience some scopes do seem to handle more powerful magnification then other telescope designs ie a good APO refractor and another good performer is a maksutov cassagrain as offer very high quality optics with nice sharp images and seems more forgiving on higher power per inch of aperture and general rule of thumb is roughly 40-50x per inch of your scope so anything with a lens in theory should perform better anyway wouldn’t it be nice to have an 10-12” APO APM springs to mind yes sell the house a kidney and an arm and a leg.when I initially brought my Meade 12” ACF from a certain well known dealer lol not flo and maybe a few others at that point in time when I decided to purchase and when I was nearer the time in deciding my eyepiece collection which consisted of an ES 40mm 68 degrees,ES 24mm 82degree ES 16mm 68 degree followed by an ES 2” Barlow lens above average eyepieces regarding price and quality!? I was told not over power the scopes usefull power which was in between 200-300x so I was told as the lower focal length eyepiece will hardly be used due to seeing conditions which in most part I do agree with.however in similar terminology it’s kind of having a Ferrari and only able to 60mph in if you got it why not try and use it yes to a certain degree in seeing conditions like I said is key to use the lower focal length eyepieces to there advantage and in some cases in what I’ve been told anyway can be a bit of a myth really as for exsample last year I was viewing Jupiter and Saturn and even low In the meridian at moment decided to put in my diagonal an Televue 10mm Delos with focal length of my scope 3045mm which gave me a shade over 300x so was that the limit I believe not as when a scope is well collomated and high quality eyepieces I could definitely gone further to 400x and still of managed a half decent observable image with out sacrificing light gathering power also then again just recently last month I was observing the moon 🌓 close to full phase and decided to go up a notch or two was a half decent night regarding sky conditions and moon reasonably high very little atmospheric turbulence initially around 70x gradually worked my way up untill I went for it and said to myself not expect to much and then decided to put the 10mm Delos in diagonal and ES 2” Barlow this was at over 600x to my amazement the image was very observable even tho turbulence was evident at this power it was like I could touch that mountain ridges and craters on the moon just shows really what potential of thease scopes can bring and if I never decided to ignore the advice given to me just may not of tried and doubled the viewing experience even tho image quality was,nt tack sharp it was well worth it
  7. I’ve started to get impression that eyepieces can be a little bit like the music industry!!? For exsample an well known artist will bring a song out and another will try to copy it give it a bit of a revamp mix a track a little etc and call it there own this seems to be a similar case in eyepiece branding also and what I can gather seen two other exsamples of cloning especially in Exsplore scientific range as opticstar do a range which is called XL 82 degrees ultra wide Angle and now maxvision.another exsample is the televue naglers which apparently Exsplore scientific based there 82 degree range don,t get me wrong thay could be very similar or even the same however for my money I just wouldn’t take the risk for the sake of waiting a month or so and saving a Extra £20-30 from a China from a company you can never get in touch with over the telephone and wait at times weeks for a supplier to get in touch with you.so I apologise in advance for I come a cross harshly in this topic as I got pretty much stung on Allexpress with a very different product which was a make shift Lego launch tower to accompany my official Lego Saturn v rocket which now I’ve shown on another topic on Astro lounge even tho quite cheap the quality was very little bit to be desired for exsample loads of pieces missing inaccurate instructions and I had to source official Lego bricks to complete the model and use gorilla superglue I complained to the supplier had one message thay will sort things out for me in part refund after the Chinese New Year never never got back to me so I just say to my fello Astro lounge friends here that the eyepieces could be made in the same factory even however for a sake of saving a few pound I rather go through a strong brand name and official dealer support if things go tits up.
  8. The advantage of being Argon purged apart from being waterproof yes basically thay don,t dew over is definitely an added bonus
  9. Yes around 1.2m tall only around 5500 pieces lol should of had in lock down!!
  10. I also believe that Ed Harrison used to be a part of the team at telescope house now he runs solo with his own dealership
  11. Telescope house definitely made telescopes to last British engineering At its best
  12. Not bad idea also however this folds away more and less flat all metal contruction light enough to move around your scope only draw back with plastic caster wheels from experience thay can break easily and not to great on grass can imagine
  13. Hi all on Astro lounge I’ve just recently purchased an observing chair well it’s called an ironing pirch chair to be exsact an it’s solid and has an adjustable seat also I’m not a light weight ever as I’m around 6.4ft and weigh around 18 stone (no rude comments please 😆) As I did,nt really fancy spending around £130-200 on an specific Astronomy observing chair if you put ironing pirch chair in search engine this should come up and retails for around £70
  14. I was thinking of purchasing a scope cover for my Meade 12”ACF I pretty much set it up a few hrs before an observing session for cool down etc and everything is set up properly anyway the useall process after an observing session i strip down the scope and put it back in the brick built shed and is well protected in bespoke made trunk.However after a lengthy observing session fatigue kicks in and tiredness and even tho the scope is managble for myself a little reluctant as it’s better to be safe than sorry as a simple slip good bye scope so I’m considering a scope cover this will be just for one night untill I’m a little more fresh the next day and in daylight are thease scope covers just glorified tarupaulin covers that manufacturers have picked up on as I don,t mind spending the money when needed on my kit however being uv proof etc is it really necessary For a scope that’s only be left out untill the following morning
  15. Hi guys I’ve believed I’ve come up with a little trick without useing an illuminated cross hair eyepiece this is for visual purposes however don,t know how accurate it would be for any imaging and astrophotography etc that would be for someone else to try and test.for starters I always use true north on my Meade 12” ACF and has proven a lot more accurate in initial alignment procedure I found this the difference of actually seeing the alignment star in the field of veiw of the finder scope or being miles out in magnetic north.anyway I’ve never really got on with illuminated cross hair eyepieces found em a little twitchy to use so had a little of a brain wave and it’s this what I’ve come up with!!.?so give it a go and be interested in any feed back and see if it works for you.some people believe it or not do find it hard to just eyeball the alignment star in eyepiece in dead centre and for exsample if you doing aligning with a wide field eyepiece more margin for error all those degrees field of view add up when in goto mode so all you need to do is firstly use your useall eyepiece then on the dust cap drill a hole around 3-5mm dead centre then place the cap back on eyepiece just find the focus as you would do you will see the star in the hole in dust cap this narrows the field of veiw and less margin for error and just centralise the star as per useall as in my scope have noticed some improvements.
  16. Personally I use a foam inlayed camera case think you can buy something with a fancy brand name however as the manufacturers gather it’s for Astronomy purposes thay boost the price up a camera case is a camera case at end of the day brought mine for around £25-30 eBay,Amazon decent build quality cubed pick and pluck foam don’t rate that much as sometime it’s hard to profile an accessory to the right shape.so all I done was go to a company called efoam online thay cut the foam to size to your desired measurements of your camera case then just cut around accessory with sharp hobby knife or something similar push the foam down after cutting the profile (shape) this allows plenty more room for additional eyepieces,diagonal,cables etc etc
  17. Hi guys I was interested in this topic earlier which I created I’ve had mixed views about this ADC now I cannot help feel at moment it’s one of thease gizmos you would use once or twice and most probably get fed up with I’ve heard thay do work to an certain degree as thay use prisms I believe crossing each other and are a little bit fiddly to set up correctly for exsample even tho your improving contrast you do loose some light and also introduces Astigmatism apparently and as the planets will start to rise higher in the meridian atmospheric dispersion should be a little less and we all no seeing conditions is key here especially on the planets and I’ve asked myself if this device is so good all the top seasoned imagers and visual observers would have one in there accessory case however it may work for you only seem to be a few on the market ie ZWO however for such an complex little device for £130 or so cannot be that great after all as in this day and age get what you pay for me personally I’m just go to invest in a good quality Neutral density filter for now
  18. Supernova74

    Hello

    Hi by all means it’s worth at some point changing the eyepieces anyway as the stock ones are ok to get you started with and would be a very worthy upgrade and will notice an dramatic difference regarding quality.your 10mm gives you around 65x magnification and if you invested in a 6mm also will give you 108x there will be a worthwhile useing for the moon I would say however on the planets will not be a big enough jump from your 10mm eyepiece.as an alternative it maybe worth while investing in a 2x Barlow lens also as in long run will work out cheaper I’ve given exsample below of your existing eyepieces and the 6mm you mentioned please note tho 225x will most probably be at the upper limit of your scope is capable of in good seeing conditions. Focal length of scope is 650mm 20mm =32x with x2 Barlow =64x 10mm = 65x with x2 Barlow =130x 6mm = 108x with x2 Barlow = 216
  19. Firstly you can not compare an house hold mirror to a precision made telescope mirror and the purpose having a large mirror as possible is to collect much light as possible as a whole to reach your eye through the eyepiece however in theory you should be able to see more detail and yes the object your viewing should be brighter also but unfortunately you can have the largest telescope in the world it always goes down to seeing conditions
  20. Hi guys the topic of discussion of the day for me is the sky bortale rating scale and woundering how much differences it does make between the scales I understand some on Astro lounge live in better sky conditions than others and it would be nice to compare sky conditions in a little more detail.the reason why I ask is I’m currently thinking of relocating hopefully in the very near furture as I have no commitments in my neck of the woods which is stoneleigh just outside Epsom downs race course and this maybe a strange question to answer firstly I’ve definitely noticed on some nights. My sky’s seem to be clearer slighty less light pollution and carbon monoxide pollution also as people not useing there cars as much so is it possible that my sky conditions are closer to an 5 then a 6 which it truly is as kind of makes sense really.Anyway I’ve been doing a little research on locations and Sussex ie midhurst and Haselmare way seem not to bad and the bortale rating there is a 4 a little better sky’s i guess as classed as a suburban/rural sky conditions any input much appreciated
  21. Yes thay sold a few to the more wealthy clients definitely made to last and on a different note I remember the Meade 7” APO that was a beast.also as I recall Pentax had a go of making a few refractors also however in this day an age mainly thay concentrate on more high end eyepieces.personally I think the closest now in the classical look long focal length refractor is most probably moonraker telescopes which was interested in working for however in my opinion moonraker is a tad over top regarding looks that’s just me tho there was a series on short while back re make of war of the worlds laughed tho when thay showed the scientist looking through it mars so close up and a little unrealistic to say the least that looked like a Cooke refractor!?
  22. If any one like to know that 6” brass refractor was sold to the Saudi royal family
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