Franklin

For once a bargain. That's definitely a keeper then.

The Vixen Lanthanum 8-24 zoom works very well in my grab n go F6 refractor, especially for solar with the Lunt wedge. Giving mags of x20 - x60 in the F6 scope. Double them up with a 2x Barlow for higher power if seeing permits. Not sure if they still make them but they come up used from time to time. I think I paid around £65 for mine. Very good quality optics but a small field of view. 40 degrees at x20 up to 60 degrees at x60. At first I did not like the smaller AFOV, being spoilt with super wide angle eyepieces, but through use I have realised that at these low powers it doesn't really matter. I don't even bother with a finder scope. An 80mm F6 scope refractor IS a finder scope so I just sight along the tube with the zoom set at 24mm. I've read in various reviews that the generic 8-24 zooms are of a better quality than the 7-21 ones.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, mine seems to cope ok without the weight but it seems it would be better with, just like you say. I'm going to get the EQ6 extension bar which has the M12 fitting and I can use it with the weights I already have.

I've got an 80mm f6 refractor which weighs just over 3kg with all the kit on. I got it for a grab n go set up. Mounting it has been a nightmare. I've settled on a TS Optics AZT6 portable alt-az mount on a beefy photo tripod. Will I need the counterweight and bar kit to use this set up? The specs say 4kg without and 6kg with. If anyone has already tried using this or similar set up, advice appreciated.

Hi, I'm posting to see if anyone out there has any experience or advice on stripping down, cleaning and re-greasing a Vixen Mini porta alt-az mount. I picked one up 2nd hand and although it comes supplied with a toy tripod it will be fine to use with my PST. The slo-mo's are nice and smooth but there is an unacceptable amount of wobble on both axis and the azimuth makes a grinding sound as well. I fear a previous owner has attempted to improve the mount and has not re-assembled it correctly. There are a number of clear nylon washers/shims that have become worn and distorted and also the nyloc locking nuts have been re-used and so keep coming loose hence the wobble. I have some new lock nuts on order which I hope will sort out the wobble problem. I just need to confirm in what order/place the nylon washer/shims are meant to be in. I've looked online to no avail. I did strip down and re-grease an EQ5 in the past and there was masses of info online for that which really helped. Both of the gear/clutch/axis units are the same but one has an extra washer/shim which leads me to think that there is one missing from the other, which could be causing the stiffness and grinding? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi, I have a Vixen GP2 which had no polar scope or setting circles and the upgrade kits are unavailable. I salvaged the setting circles of an old EQ5 and the polar scope came from a Vixen SP mount I owned decades ago. They all fit and work correctly, not that I use the setting circles! The Skywatcher EQ5 polar scope should fit straight in.

Ditto John. I too went mad on filters but found I was spending more time swapping filters than actually observing. I now have just 5. ND, UHC, OIII, Contrast Booster for the EVO150 f8 and a Solar Continuum for the Herschel. I had a polariser too but found I didn't really need it as well as the SC. Maybe because my Lunt wedge is just the 1.25" version?

Wow, that's a filter collection and half!

Totally, I like them so much I bought a couple of empty cases for my non-Baader filters!

I like the Baader cases that all clip together, great idea and keeps the filters safe, secure and all to hand.

Firstscope70 is a great ultra portable scope. I picked mine up used for £10. Tripod, diagonal, finder and eyepieces straight in the bin. Now has a Celestron prism 1.25" diagonal I had lying around and a 19mm 70 degree Antares eyepiece with a Moon & Skyglow filter in it. I have it mounted on a Manfrotto monopod with tilthead. When I take the dog for a walk in the park last thing at night I can sit on the bench and leisurely sweep the milkyway while fido has a sniff around. Great views at X21.

Large sunspot right now. Umbra and penumbra clearly visible. First I've seen in ages! Lunt solar wedge, SC filter and Evo150 stopped down to 100mm.

Omni Plossls are ok in the longer focal lengths, wouldn't go below 12mm. I had an omni 4mm once and it was terrible, I wouldn't even sell it on so it got binned. If you need a reasonable 6mm the SW planetary is good. Longish eye relief and a 58 degree AFOV, not bad for around £35-£40. I prefer to use a 2x barlow with my 12mm BST for the same mag as a 6mm.

I have an Omni XLT120 which I recently upgraded with a Skywatcher dual-speed crayford focuser (Wow, what an improvement!). So I thought I would check the focuser alignment and the collimation of the objective lens. Using a laser collimator without the diagonal in the focuser and an aperture mask with a centre mark I was happy and relieved to see the laser beam pass directly through the centre of the objective, even when the new focuser is rotated. All good there. I then replaced the lens cap and put a small cheshire eyepiece in, again without the diagonal. Pointing the cheshire window at a light source the primary and secondary reflections revealed a figure of eight pattern through the peephole. Out of collimation. After a little experimentation tweaking the three sets of collimation screws on the lens cell I managed to get the cheshire reflections to be perfectly concentric through the peephole. Great, my focuser is square on and my objective is collimated. All is good in the world. Then I put in the diagonal. Now the laser is about an inch higher than the centre. My 2" mirror dagonal has no collimation screws so I placed a 0.2mm thick teflon shim along the lower edge of the diagonal mirror to tilt the mirror very slightly. Success, the laser is now central. But when I put the cheshire in the diagonal the figure of eight reflection is back. Now, my question is this. Do I re-collimate the objective with the newly tilted mirror in the diagonal or do I leave the collimated objective as it is? When using the cheshire without the diagonal the light source just bounces off the back of the lens but when in the diagonal the cheshire light source is reflected off the diagonal mirror then the back of the lens and then the diagonal mirror for a second time. As I have tilted the mirror slightly with a shim to centralize it, is it this misalignment that is causing the cheshire reflection to appear wrong, even though the objective is collimated? I'm starting to confuse myself now. Help!

Unscrew the polarscope eyepiece and the reticule should come into focus. I have the same one and I need to make about 3 or 4 full turns anticlockwise to get focus on the reticule. From your photo the eyepiece seems to be fully in.

I like the Neodymium as an all rounder, not tried the Contrast Booster yet but I sometimes stack a Minus violet (VR-1) with the moon & skyglow for nice views of the Moon through my achro.

Nice! The hand controller looks a bit undermounted though!

The Vixen SP102M is a classic scope. Keep it for what it was intended for, portable visual astronomy. The Super Polaris is an excellent bit of kit, light years ahead of any synta EQ3/2 mount. You can fit the synta R.A. & Dec motors to it but there is no cover for the R.A. motor and if your mount is an early one (1980's) it may not have the declination motor fixing bracket. I used to have an SP102M, what a fool I was to sell it on. Derr!

I have an Antares ND13 filter (thanks Thunderstruck) and from what I've read it has a 13% transmission, hence the name. I also have an Explore Scientific ND0.9 filter and this also has a 13% transmission. The puzzle is, why is the ND13 much darker than the ND0.9 if they have the same 13% transmission? Are they labelled up wrong? Do the suppliers not know what they are talking about? I don't really mind because it will be useful to have two different densities, it just seems quite odd. Has anyone else noticed this advertising blunder?

Same in Sheffield. Clear all day, clouds rolling in after sunset! I've been finding Jupiter at around 6.30-7.00 in twilight just to get half hour but the seeing has been terrible really. Last week was brill, best I've seen in ages.

Sounds like your polarscope needs focusing to me. Firstly, take out the polarscope and in the day point at the sky and rotate eyepiece till reticule is in sharp focus. Then at the objective lens end, there is a locking ring, loosen the ring and then turn the whole tube whilst looking at a distant object till in focus. You should now see through the polarscope an in focus reticule and an in focus view of a distant object. Tighten up the locking ring. Next you need to calibrate the polar scope with the ra axis. To do this you must lower the altitude scale to around zero so you can view a distant object through the polarscope. Using altitude and azimuth centre the crosshair on some distant object then rotate the ra axis through 180 degrees. If the crosshair stays on target you are calibrated. If not you need to adjust the reticule. This is done by adjusting the three grubscrews that hold the reticule. To calibrate you need to put the crosshair halfway between the original position and the displacement. Move ra axis back through 180 degrees and check again. Repeat this process till the polarscope crosshair remains on target as ra axis is turned through 360 degrees. This may all sound confusing but once done it is quite a simple procedure. There are videos on u tube explaining this. Once the polarscope is properly focused and calibrated set the altitude scale to your latitude and point the mount North. Looking through the polarscope rotate ra axis till reticule corresponds to position of polaris and then fine adjust altitude and azimuth till polaris is in the little circle. If you do all that you will be polar aligned. For visual astronomy none of the above is needed, just set your latitude and point North. As I do not do imaging I can't comment on the desired accuracy needed. Hope this helps.

Get a SCT or a Frac which will both use a 90* diagonal, a right-angled finder and an alt-az mount. That way you won't be having to look up very much. Get a seat positioned just right so there will be no chance of falling over if you have a dizzy spell.

So that's what I was seeing. I took a look at Mars around midnight with a 120mm frac at x200 and a #58 filter. I could see the gibbous phase, a tiny southern polar cap and a few dusky markings that coincided with your excellent image. Nice one!

Using an Omni120 f8.3 refractor and a BST 5mm for x200 I could clearly see the GRS just past the central meridian on Jupiter last night. The time would have been around 8.15pm as I could hear the theme tune of Coronation Street coming from a neighbours house. An #80A blue filter enhanced the view slightly. North and south equatorial belts where visible along with a third more northerly belt. All four moons where visible. Turning to Saturn a little later Titan was visible and the Cassini Division was seen quite well. Using a #15 yellow filter definitely increased the definition of the view, making the Cassini Division and the planets shadow on the rings stand out quite vividly. In times of steady seeing I also glanced an equatorial belt around the globe of Saturn. By midnight the gas giants had sunk into the south-west and I turned the scope to Mars which had risen quite high in the south-east. I'd found Mars a bit of a disappointment earlier in the month due to bad seeing but last night was much improved. The first thing noticed was the gibbous phase and the increase in size of the disc. Mars is very bright as it approaches opposition and the orange glare was getting in the way of seeing much detail. The #58 green filter worked an absolute treat. Being quite dark the filter acted like an ND filter and turned the fiery disc into a light salmon colour with several dusky marking apparent and a very tiny white blob at the bottom, the South polar cap has shrunk. There was no way I could identify what markings I was seeing, the view was just too small really. I think Mars requires greater magnification than the gas giants but at the moment x200 is my max. Barlow in the post!!!!!! The last couple of nights in Sheffield I have been treated to not only clear skies but the best seeing of the season. Long may it continue.