Franklin

Thanks Geoff, I was kind of thinking the same, too much magnification and too much light path used. I will probably just get the 2x nosepiece for the binos and leave it at that. With the zoom 8mm setting I get x98 so the 2x nose will take me as high as I can go with the 100ed refractor. It is for lunar/solar/planetary use, for wide field sweeping I just use the 20mm wide angle pair that came with the binos. 👍 BHZ=Baader Hyperion Zoom.

That's very much like what I was seeing at around 11.30pm with a 100ed at x187. Though my view was a lot smaller scale and with less detail. The seeing was all over the place last night over Sheffield. Saturn was quite steady earlier on, could just make out the CD.

I have a question for anyone with experience of binoviewing. I've picked up a used WO bino set and am really pleased with it, the 20mm 66deg eyepieces that come with them work very well, the views are amazing almost 3D. So I was thinking of what other eyepieces to get for some different magnifications. I already have a BHZ MkIV and have just managed to get a second one used so I think these will do well in the WO binos. My question is, if I want to barlow the pair of zooms, is it best to use the 1.6x in the nosepiece of the binos or use two identical barlows attached to each of the zooms? I already have a 2.25x zoom barlow which works really well with the BHZ. Would it be worth while getting a second one? My concern is that the BHZ in 1.25" mode with 2.25x barlow attached is quite long and top heavy. Would two of these in the binos be too much weight hanging off the end of my scope? Thanks.

I had the same dilemma. 12mm & 8mm BST's, both great eyepieces. I got the 10mm BCO to fill the gap and it's now one of my mostly used eyepieces giving x112 in my scope. Don't find the smaller AFOV and tighter eye-relief a problem with the 10mm BCO but the 6mm BCO can scratch your eye if your not careful.

According to Company 7 these were made to mark the end of the Zeiss astronomical equipment lines in the mid 90's and were a limited edition for the US market retailing back then at around $1300.

What a find. Someones going to get a right bargain!

BST X2 Barlow is very good. It has a compression ring. Should work fine with your eyepieces but the 32mm will vignette. That would happen with any barlow though.

My only Berlebach item. Much more usefull than the holes in the metal spreader plate.

Good luck Alex. Eternal clouds blowing over from the peaks and when it is clear the sky is a definate shade of orange over Sheffield! Bortle 6 at Norton where I am. Planning on moving down to the south coast next year hopefully. As they say "It's grim up North". 🙂

Don't know much about all the new modern goto alt-taz mounts but the Ioptron AZ Pro with 15kg payload looks the business. Still wouldn't put more than 7/8kg on it. The saddle plate looks better than the standard EQ5. ADM two bolt vice types make a big difference with longer tubes. My 4" is at f11 and even though it only weighs around 5kg the sheer length of it causes instability with the stock saddle on the GP2 especially if there's a breeze. I've now got it on a 400mm bar and have upgraded to an ADM puck and saddle. The difference is VERY noticable. Before I would have to give it a sec or two to settle down after focusing but now it's solid. I also adjusted the lateral tension on the Ra and Dec worms which helped as well.

This is a very confusing situation which I had myself. EQ5 =9kg, EXOS2=12kg, CG5=10kg and yet all these mounts and I'm sure there's more out there, are essentially the same. All clones of the Vixen GP which has a 7kg payload. In the end I just gave up believing what any of the retailers say about their products. They sell 6" refractors on these mounts??? I know from trying it that it just won't work. Sure at low powers it might but at higher powers you might as well mount your scope on a jelly. 10kg will not break an EQ5 grade mount but the scope won't be able to be used to it's full potential. I have had an EQ5, a CG5 (kept the 2" tripod from that) and now have a GP2 on the 2" steel tubed tripod and 16" extension. I have had 6", 5" and now 4" refractors. That is the size refractor I would put on this grade of mount, 4" weighing around 5-6kg with all the kit on. At that level the scope can be used to it's true potential, the mount handles it fine, there is no stress. If you're going to keep the 127mm achro and you should because they are great scopes, I would suggest either a Skytee II or shell out for the HEQ5. My advice is to halve whatever the specs say and I mean for visual only. Imaging is another story, I've seen guys with tiny ED fracs on EQ6 mounts and I think they are correct to do that.

And the altitude, the gas giants aren't favourably placed at the moment. Tried last night and it was just mush from bortle 6 skies. May be better in a month or so when they are on the meridian at an earlier hour. Seen Cassini Division many times with 4" refractor but only in good seeing and at more favourable apparitions. Saturn seems to take magnification better than Jupiter, upto 200x when seeing allows. I also have found that a yellow filter such as the wratten #15 helps bring out the Cassini Division as well. Never seen banding on Saturn like I do on Jupiter in the 4".🙁

I thought it only went up to 9?

Hey Ralph, I see you are in Brussels and just remembered that ASTROBOOT have on their Euro site the William Optics 2x Barlow bino-nosepiece @ 24euro. Would give you an extra power and it's the dedicated one for the WO bino's. I really wanted to get one for mine from them but they have stopped trading to the UK because of all the Brexit nonsense. 😪

Yes, Svbony are a good budget option and the 20mm 65deg would be optimum in the WO bino's. Your 250px is 1200mmFL so you would be getting 96x with the 1.6x barlow and at 65deg AFOV that would give a 0.67deg FOV. Big enough to show the whole disk of the Moon in 3D!

Yes definately they would work well. But if you use eyepieces with a focal length longer than about 20mm, they will vignette in the WO bino's. Still work but you won't get the full field of view. This is because the WO bino's have an inside clear aperture of around 21mm.

PPS. The WO 20mm 66deg pair work really well and I also use a couple of Baader 10mm BCO's for higher power.

PS. The WO bino's will vignette with eyepieces over about 20mm.

You'll need to use the x1.6 WO barlow to get focus. There won't be enough in-focus to use without it. It will give x1.6 when used on the bino nosepiece to your eyepieces. Your x2 Ultima on the bino nosepiece will give more than x2, more like x3, a bit like putting a barlow before a diagonal rather than on the eyepiece. You may need to get an extension if your focuser travel is not enough. I got a WO bino viewer but I use it on a refractor which has a split tube so I can reduce the length of the tube and use the bino's without any barlow or GPC. It's a bit of a faff but definately worth it for the 3-dimensional effect of bino-veiwing. 👍

Thanks Gus, that's kind of what I was thinking. As it's new I don't want to mess with it. I've collimated a few achro's in the past but they had the 3 sets of push-pull screws on the front and it's pretty easy to adjust the tilt with those. But this one has 4 sets of 2 screws on the side and I haven't a clue what they do or how they work! The views of Saturn and Jupiter were good the other night upto 160x when the seeing allowed and they're very low down as well. I'll wait till the darker nights get here to try a star test. 🙂

How much of a deviation from spot on/perfect can the objective tilt be before it will noticably affect performance? I've read online that there is a certain amount of leeway in long focus instruments. I have a 102mm f11 which has been giving good performance IMO but when I checked the collimation the other day it seems to be slightly off. The laser in the focuser is spot on central on the objective so that's fine but the reflections from the short Cheshire are not entirely concentric. It's not way off like a figure of eight or anything, the secondary reflection lies within the primary reflection but it is slightly off centre. I do not intend messing with it as the scope is quite new but I was just wondering if it is something I shoud be concerned about. It must have passed factory QC because it has a sticker on it saying so. Hopefully I'm just splitting hairs and I should just forget about it and enjoy the scope.🙂

What an amazing blog/post! Thanks Qualia. I'm gonna get me an astrometric and give it a go.

Sunlounger, planisphere, binoculars, great way to get to know the sky. Once you're familiar with the sky, finding all the good stuff with a telescope becomes so much easier.

I had a Vixen Lanthanum 8-24 Zoom which I think is probably (optically) the same as the Stellalyra and it was brill. However, I did move on to the BHZ MkIV because of the wider AFOV.

Baader Hyperion Zoom and Barlow are a great buy. Just add a long focal length eyepiece for low power widefield and you may never need to purchase any more eyepieces. I've tried a few zooms and they are ok but the Baader MkIV is in a different league. Since getting the Baader MkIV Zoom, x2.25 Zoom Barlow and a Baader 36mm Aspheric the rest of my eyepieces have become somewhat redundant. Although I still use my Orthoscopics for Planetary/Lunar viewing.