Franklin

I agree as well, finding perfect focus, especially under demanding conditions is made much simpler with a dual-speed but in years gone by before fine focusers were available, were amateur astronomers unable to achieve focus? No of course not, it was just a more frustrating experience! Back in those days folk came up with their own solutions like screwing a jam jar lid to the focus knob😁, the Robinsons fine-focuser!

A backpack portable scope for $300 is a challenge. A used ST80 (Orion/Celestron/Skywatcher, they're all the same) mounted on a photographic travel tripod with a pan and tilt head and an 8-24mm zoom eyepiece might just fit the bill. It won't be able to give high magnification, close-up views of the planets but would be excellent for low-power views of the starry night-sky when out on camping trips.

That's exactly what tempted me. I never used the TV zoom but I think @John has and he speaks favorably of the Svbony which was another reason I went for it. I've only used it in the daytime so far but it is much better than my LV zoom with a X2 barlow.

Not sure, I just ordered from AliExpress about a week ago.

Received my Svbony 3-8mm zoom today and am very impressed with it (only daytime testing so far). Constant field over the range and good correction at the field edges. I'll pair this up with my LV 8-24mm zoom for use in the little travel scope and for solar. The clicks are a touch stiff but at under £75 from AliExpress I'm not complaining.

How long ago was that book published? Dubhe looks like it's moved😁.

That was from a Vixen focuser adjustment instruction on the web, it stated to NOT touch the middle grubscrew but without giving a reason. I shouldn't worry, these old school R&P focusers are a very basic design and there's nothing that can really go wrong, they just need setting up properly but unfortunately they don't always arrive from the factory that way. Once you know how they work it's quite easy to set them up. They actually work really well and it's only because of the popularity of imaging in recent times that dual-speed-focusing has become all the rage, people expect to get a dual-speed these days but for visual they're a luxury not a necessity.

All looks a bit bananas to me😁.

Is the blocking filter the same as what comes with the current Lunt40?

The adjustment grubscrews are on the top of the focuser on both Vixen and Takahashi scopes. Older Vixen scopes in the hammered green livery had side adjusted focusers back in the early 90's. The DZ has two adjustment grubscrews either side of the lock-knob.

Well I don't know for sure because I haven't succumbed to that but I would guess that the outer grubscrews are flat-headed for applying pressure to the Teflon strip and the central grubscrew is pointed and actually screws into the Teflon strip to prevent it from slipping out of place.

Have you figured out why it says NOT to touch the middle grubscrew?

Lens spanner.

This is pretty much the same advice that I've seen on adjusting the Vixen R&P which is a similar design to the Takahashi. The idea is to allow the drawtube to run freely on the two lower rails, just being held there by the upper grubscrews and Teflon strip, rather than the pinion gear pressing up against the rack.

One thing that I've noticed with regard to these "add-on" fine focusers that attach to the original pinion shaft, is that they are fitted to the scope via a plate which in turn is fixed using the screws that adjust tension on the original R&P mechanism. This can cause problems and make the action "lumpy" and "gritty", for example if the pinion shaft is not perfectly true, which can happen if it's taken a knock, then this slight bend would be unnoticeable with the original focuser knobs which would just turn but with the "add-on" the fine focuser side is now fixed to the plate and any bend in the shaft will cause undue pressure and drag, again causing issues. Not the best design imo really.

Amazing what phones can do these days.

It's because of the shape of the ice crystals, the light is refracted or bent at an angle, usually around 22deg and this causes the circular halo.

It's called a halo and is caused by Moonlight reflecting off ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

If they are meteors then they must be associated with a shower as they appear to be coming from the same direction. Don't know the orientation of your star-trails image but the Leonids are active at the moment, though they're past their peak.

Just back in from a little HA solar and the seeing is very bad, difficult to focus even at lower powers, 🤞 for tonight.

Yes that is correct but not everyone has the luxury and convenience of their own private dome Steve!😁

Due to all the other things in life going on a lot of people can only, realistically, observe in the evening but the post-midnight to pre-dawn skies are definitely the best.

Absolutely, I observe from the zenith SE/S/SW out over fields and get a reasonably still sky, yet anything in the North starts to get mushy as I'm over houses in that direction.

The Winter season has begun! This cold snap seems to have created an astro-fest for me as I was out in the day for several hours, WL and HA solar and managed three mini-sessions last night starting around dusk on Saturn and later the Moon and Jupiter. Out again around midnight to catch the beginning of the Ganymede transit by which time Orion was getting high and I explored some doubles in this area, the multiple star sigma orionis is always a favorite. Star clusters in and around Auriga, Perseus and Taurus, the usual suspects and M42 of course but the Moon was washing out the sky a lot. Up with the larks and Venus high in the dawn sky, clear blue skies again so looking promising over the weekend for getting even more eyepiece time. To think it wasn't that long ago that everyone was moaning about the constant wet weather and some were even contemplating throwing in the towel! Oh ye of little faith😁.

I get a little colour at times on the limb of the Moon, sometimes yellow but more usually red or blue. It must be created by the diagonal/ eyepiece (more apparent when using a prism rather than a mirror) combination because when the limb is moved to the centre of the fov, the colour disappears and also it is red on one side and blue on the other. I've seen this effect even when using a fluorite objective.