IB20

Love that granulation. Superb.

Right now, it’s the Pentax XWs 10, 7 & 5. They are fantastic eyepieces and work brilliantly for WL solar in the 3” frac - I’m doing much more daytime viewing than night observing currently. I’m finding I can really hit the seeing conditions with these 3, giving 57x, 81x and 114x respectively. Can’t recommend them enough.

Why is there no drool reaction? 🤤

That extender looks ace on the 60. I thought about getting it for the 76 but by some reports it doesn’t change a lot. It would also make a lot of my eyepieces redundant and add 40cm on the FL which makes the scope a lot more unwieldy. Happy to keep the Starbase for the longer F ratio.

Thank god that 100DC in the classifieds was snapped up! Had me looking into my credit reports.

Didn’t fancy the 8” dob then? Have never used a Mak, should be belting on planets, lunar and doubles. Look forward to your reports.

I was a bit put out the third inner box of the 76DC didn’t come in lovely big blue box. 😔

Certainly won’t be the last!

There was also a Russian Angara rocket deorbit burn too,

Correction it was the Russian Angara rocket not the Falcon 9. Gutted I missed it!

I can’t afford one for a few months anyway 🤗

Think it was a de orbit burn on the Falcon 9 rocket. I’d come in at this point so missed it! 🙄

Needed to give the Tak TOE 4mm its first light in the 76DC, so have just had a short session of easy targets. First up M13, in the 10 & 7 XW just a very faint fuzzy, with the 5XW single stars resolving around the edges with averted vision. More of this with the TOE, - so easy to look through, the eye relief felt huge and eye placement a cinch. The background was jet black despite the sky’s ambient brightness. It would look wonderful in a dark sky. Next target was Algieba, two perfectly golden orbs. The control in light scatter was the best I’ve ever seen, besting even the XWs, in less than perfect conditions too. The final target was Izar. My oh my what a stunning sight. I’ve never seen the secondary so clearly and colourful. It was an icy cold grey-blue companion. I normally see this as a diamond ring, attached to the primary, not tonight, a tank could fit between that gap. Such a clean split, with breathtaking colouration. Had a quick shoot-out with a volcano top Telescope House 4mm Ortho. The TOE was cleaner, better controlled for scatter, sharper, showing slightly better colouration and a million times more comfortable to use. All in all a fantastic little teaser in what this eyepiece will show me in the months and years to come. This is going to end up costing me a fortune! 😅

Nice little 4mm 🦶arrived today, hopefully get to try over the bank holiday. It feels like a very nice eyepiece. The planetary season can’t come soon enough!

Tak 76DCU on the Starbase mount. Weighs hardly anything and I can be observing in fewer than 3 minutes. The optics provide sensational day and night views.

Right I’m getting both. 😅 Just in what order?

See, it would be predominantly for planetary use. That’s my main Interest. I’m now thinking TOE again… Do you think TOE 3.3 or 4 for this season’s Mars and Jupiter viewing for a 570mm scope?

In the 76DCU, the 4mm TOE would give me 143x and 0.53mm exit pupil, whereas the Pentax XW would give me 163x and 0.47mm. The TOE 3.3mm resulting in 173x & 0.44mm. I wonder if the 4mm TOE is actually better for higher mags? My 8” dob would reach 300x which is probably a bit too much! The Starbase 80 would be 200x but I don’t think it’d handle that mag very well. The jump from 5mm to 4mm EP is 114x v 143x, which is 25% and the 5mm to 3.5mm is closer to the magic 40% difference but when seeing will no doubt play a part, perhaps having smaller increments is better? I had a look at the Sun with the 3.2mm BST and was actually surprised with what I saw, floaters didn’t seem to have too much impact and although a bit softer, I could still see plenty of detail. (If anyone wants a more budget option, I can’t recommend the 5 & 3.2mm BSTs enough, theyre really capable EPs). I must also say I absolutely adore the Pentax XWs 5, 7 & 10 and I’m really gravitating towards the 3.5XW because they are so comfortable and easy to use.

Super write up, really helpful especially as I’m currently practising with binoviewers and my Tak. I think I need some sessions with the moon or planets in the sky so I can play around with the BV settings and focusing. I think I will upgrade to a Baader prism & clamp system eventually, it’s just not a priority at the minute. I need more premium eyepieces first 😅

Mine came today.

Bit wild out there today but sungazing still just taking it all on the chin; I rarely go out when it’s windy in the evenings. Orville the duck sunspot still going strong! Also I can no longer take ARs seriously any longer thanks to @JeremyS

It works!!! Thats with the end of the Celestron barlow on the nose of the BV. I could do with a brighter target I.e. the moon though. I seem to have trouble merging one star image. Hmmm, not sure how I solve the wedge issue then, perhaps a solar filter would get around that.

On the Celestron Omni barlow the end piece does screw onto the BV nosepiece, I tried this but it was still out of focus. Don’t really know if the visual back is how it’s supposed to be but it’s how I interpreted the Japanese schematics though and it does focus. I’ll try it with the Tak prism now.

These are really good! The WL image is bang on and the last image shows both proms and spots, what’s not to love. I guess Taks make it easy though, eh? 😅

Oh I would certainly buy from Don were I in the US, just like I do from FLO in the UK. I massively value expertise. But my own experience with equipment in UK seeing has also given me the confidence to recommend eyepieces and instruments, which I try to do as fairly and impartial as possible. That applies to BSTs -> Pentaxes and Achros -> fluorite “APOs”.