Franklin

Sad news.

Mr Lukehurst, as you all know, was famous for supplying hand-made dobsonian telescopes but I had to laugh when I met him a few years ago. He hand delivered a 6" refractor to me, which turned out to be his own private telescope. When I quizzed him in regard to his choice of a 6" F8 achromatic refractor over one of his own larger, dobsonian mounted reflectors he replied "They're just so sharp".

I reckon the current lull in used equipment purchase is due to the aftermath of the "covid lockdown period spending spree" phenomenon. Everyone has come to their senses now and have realized they have too much kit and are basically skint!

Roll the scope in a camping/yoga mat before putting it centrally in a rucksack. I only use refractors and like to keep them "objective up" to avoid the risk of dust/foreign bodies falling onto the rear lens element from the eyepiece end. 

Opening the curtains this morning well before sunrise and I was greeted with a clear South-Western horizon, for a change. Venus was bright in SSE and a very slender crescent waning Moon below it and to the East. I couldn't see illusive Mercury with the naked eye, probably my aging eyes! But scanning with the binoculars revealed this tiny world, still further East and slightly higher than the Moon. The Romans called this little world Mercury, the Greeks Hermes and the Egyptians Thoth, I call it a faint dot of light on the threshold of visibility. Still, it's nice to see the Suns closest neighbour.

49 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I'm just going to enjoy the hobby how I first started, behind the eyepiece. 

Best place to be IMO, visual observing can be magical. Even with just a deckchair and a pair 7x50's, the night-sky will never cease to amaze and impress.

Astro-spares, is that new? not seen that before. The ED103S F7.7 came out in 2005 and later changed its name to the current SD103S. Not a bad price provided it's all in order.

1 hour ago, John said:

The Svbony 3-8mm zoom does need to be held slightly more firmly than some zooms though because the zoom action click stops are quite "hard".

I had a similar problem when using a pair of zooms in the binoviewers, changing the power on them would also turn the eyepiece diopter focuser. 

Just now, Mr Spock said:

I find them just fine - as long as you're not ham-fisted they work as they should 

Agree- Don't overtighten your clicklocks!

21 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

It can help if you have an indoor hobby to spend time on until the clouds move out.

Eyepiece collecting, now that's a great indoor hobby😁.

49 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Are you still loving your beautiful SD115S Tim?

I am indeed and it's now mounted on an SXP2 which is out of this world!

Just need this deluge to stop so I can get set up and give it all a spin.

Just now, bosun21 said:

I couldn't take it anymore. I cracked 🥴

It's a fabulous telescope and I'm confident you will be very impressed with it. The reason for the sale was I have the Vixen SD115 and am hopefully moving in the New Year so need to lighten my load.

Boo hoo, it's gone now.

Thanks for starting this thread Dave, how much commission do I owe you?😁

21 at the moment I think which is way more than I need but I have two setups and I use all 1.25" with one and 2" with the other. A set of SSW's, a set of HR's, a set of LVW's and a few SLV's. I could move on the set of LVW's and just stick to 1.25" really but it's more of a collectors thing I think. The HR1.6 and HR2.0 don't get much use but again, there's 4 in the set! It may be cheaper if I started collecting stamps or dead moths or something😁.

1 minute ago, Saganite said:

So, I am not the only one utterly astonished that this superb scope has not been snapped up.

Wrong time of the year to be selling, everyone's skint from Xmas😁.

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

This scope looks like new, yet it will be c 20 years old! When you think that a new F7.7 SD version of this scope is now around £1800 new, this beauty at just £500 is an absolute steal.

Spot on Dave, this actual scope is from 2003/4 and there are not many of them around. The ED102S F9 and its shorter sibling the ED102SS F6.5 were supplied by Vixen in the 90's but they came with the vintage Vixen hammered green livery. 2003 saw a revamp of Vixen products, to keep them in line with the then new Sphinx range of mounts and so Vixen scopes became white and blue, known as the "wt" range. In 2005 the ED103S F7.7 was introduced which was the precursor of the current SD103S F7.7 and so this 20 year old ED102Swt F9 was only produced for a couple of years which makes it rather scarce. Putting the history aside, judged on it's performance it can hold it's own against any of the higher tier 4" refractors I've had the pleasure of observing through.

ps. Thanks for the plug👍.

Try loosening the RA motor bracket just a very small amount, not so it's loose, just so it's held rather than tightened right up. Small differences in the gears can cause this binding as the tolerances on these kind of mounts is not great. I doubt it's the grease but if you do want to strip, clean and regrease, use lithium grease.

25 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Video of a Takahashi TOA 150 that I saw on another chat site:

Wow, some nice kit on there!

Keep putting the lotto on😁.

27 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

I've also got the Nadira although I've been keeping mine out the shed and I think the humidity has gotten to it and the seat bit no longer fits in the holes!  Not a criticism of the chair (easily fixed, just need to not keep it in a damp shed). 

Snap! I did exactly the same thing and the damp must have caused the wood to swell up. Brought it indoors to dry out and shrink and gave it a light rub down with some sandpaper and all is back to how it should be.

I have a Lynx Astro strap for 5" scopes, it works great on my 4.5", 4" and 3" refractors. Best to get the next size up rather than having a tight fit, as you can always overlap them.

Of the 88 constellations we know today some are quite modern, especially in the Southern skies but the majority go back to ancient times and are of Arabic and Greek origin. However, looking at the extent of the ancient Egyptian pantheon it wouldn't be a surprise if these peoples had different names and recognized other patterns in the skies to mark their Gods in the heavens. I suppose if the great library at Alexandria had never been destroyed by fire we would know a lot more about it.

The Hippo is "Taweret" the Egyptian Goddess of birth and fertility and in the image appears to be making an offering of a bull to "Horus" the hawk headed God, presumably to gain protection and wellbeing for the child at her feet. I've read that the Egyptians saw "Taweret" in the Northern sky where we see Ursa Major. Orion, as we know it, is one of the most prominent constellations in the sky and it would have been the same for the ancient Egyptians, their name for Orion the Hunter was "Sah" and was associated with the God "Osiris".

The stars you have made an arrow out of are Capella, the stars of Perseus and the Pleiades.

7 hours ago, Sunshine said:

 around the lunar limb I could see the thinnest sliver of what seemed like a yellow tinge but, it was only when the limb approached the outer edge of the field stop, as I moved the moon closer to center, the tinge would slowly disappear until there was no more color.

I've noticed this off-axis colour in my ED doublets and I think it's from the eyepiece/diagonal. 

SLV 12mm

On 16/12/2023 at 17:47, dweller25 said:

B&Q handles

On a Takahashi. Don't let @JeremyS see this!

4 hours ago, Alan White said:

I now have a second Vixen HAL tripod, really nice bit of kit and has a favoured name on it too

Excellent tripods!

ps. if you need a 1/2 pillar for it, pm me.