PeterW

Think of the exit pupil, sometimes you want to maximise for a brighter view, not just add aperture which just changes the scale. What sized stuff are you after? Would you also be better suited with a smaller set for larger objects? Peter

I have the 79mm 45degree as I wanted it for daytime backpack able use… lovely wide, high power views. My choice was made by the size of backpack I had and my desire for carrying heavy things long distances. for purely nighttime I would go 90 degree, though with a little contortion I can get pretty much to the zenith. I use a medium camera tripod and fluid head that I adjust the locking on to hold things in place. Likely under mounted, but it works fine for giving me nice views and avoids the need for a parallelogram the size and weight of a small battleship. there is a “centre mount” that APM sell and that can be popped onto a tripod and hold these types of binocular, seems interesting but I’ve not found too many reviews of it. makensure you have some budget for eyepieces…. You’ll be needing pairs of them which can get costly quickly. Peter

Good to hear things have settled down. I once disassembled a pair of wonky bins, reassembled (no collimation twiddling) and it magically was fixed…. Great when it happen. Enjoy the view! Peter

Secondhand kit is in the 2-3k range and continues to be. The prices for new high end stuff are nuts, but lower end stuff will still show plenty. Peter

It’s the dampness that helps suck the warmth right out… the heated insoles I tried and bits of camping mat foam all failed to halt the pain. Peter

Decent bins will have very little misalignment, both tubes will be cowlings and also aligned to the central IPD axis… so adjusting the IPD doesn’t affect the collimation. If you look at a bright star/planet and close one eye alternately or suddenly open both eyes if there are two images or the image jumps then the tubes aren’t properly aligned. you can poke about and adjust stuff, there are videos, but there may be other adjustment (some rotate the objective lenses) and without the right collimation kit you can’t get everything lined up properly. If you can get it acceptable then threat, but it’s not too expensive to get someone to do the job properly. Peter

US milsurplus extreme cold weather trousers are quite fun (no pockets though 😞). The muck arctic sport stop the increasing foot pain that observing on damp grass leads to. Mine are great to just slip on to go round the shops. there are boots that are even better (eg some Baffin models, but we don’t get -100C often in these parts!) The only bit of me that knows the outside temperature is my nose. If I walk about too much I run the risk of overheating…. Not that I’ve been out in anything too seriously cold yet (London isn’t known for ice storms). Peter

@GavStarbit harder to hide than the ones you’ve got and probably a bit heavy for tour trusty mount too! Peter

…. The helical focuser or the options for adding 1.25”. Peter

Can you post a link to this please Peter

Prices are lower in the US where supply is greater. As said they don’t make a lot and government is the main buyer so I wouldn’t expect any notice drop in prices. have to agree that existing my observers aren’t that excites as Gav noted, it’s the people with no prior expectations who respond the greatest. Peter

I see. I finally found good cold weather gloves, but dexterity isn’t their strong point. with your skies I’d be interested if the baffle makes much difference? Peter

I’ve wondered how to get more members of the public in cities to realise what they’ve lost using NV as it’s more than most clubs can afford. I am sure there were responses to at weren’t printable, a sky full of stars from suburbia does make it obvious what we have lost and could get back if we wanted. “simpler”? You press a button and the image appears, if you are lucky you have a gain knob to fiddle with. Some people complain about all the ways to connect to scopes and lenses…. But a little Googling and asking and that gets sorted… people are getting great results with a wide range of different stuff. Peter

Good to get out, at least dried spiders are easier to blow away than the snail and dog hair a friend of mine had on his 8”. You seem to need some better gloves! I always pop a bit of plastic between the batteries in things like illuminated cross hair units as they always fail when you need them… and have a small pile of the obscure batteries for when I forget! Peter

The further south you go the more activity is needed for you to see them… the Scot’s have an advantage over us. I’ve seen faint aurorae from Richmond Park in London, but that was a rare event. As the sun gets more active through the solar cycle keep an eye on spaceweather.com and other alert sites. Look for “kp”>8. Ideally an early evening impact will deliver a strong response around 10pm which is when the auroral oval is furthest south. In exceptional situations you would have to look south to see an Aurora….. once in several decades. Good luck Peter

Certainly ic1318, there is a lot of nebulosity around the area to tease out including the propellor. I am lucky that a cheap 0.5x reducer gives me a l it tle boost, but doesn’t mash the stars too badly. I bought a 2” version and it was ugh!! Peter

With the trigger ball head make sure you keep the ball cleaned of metal dust and occasionally adjust the tension as needed… otherwise the “grip” can loosen with time. I test it to see if it can hold my >kg bins put horizontally without slipping and adjust/clean if needed. Peter

I hope you have a good tripod or better still parallelogram mount. Straight through binoculars can get tricky to use near the zenith. How dark are your skies? The 25x would darken the sky background. Both will be limited in the scale they can offer. peter

I tried afocal on my 80mm rather than right way up prime focus…. Huge long thing with upside-backwards-down view…. Couldn’t find anything! Peter

I just pop a 2” filter out the front and lose a tiny bit of aperture/speed. I don’t use such narrow filters so it’s not such a costly option. The 2x can be hard to find and supposedly there are a few variants, one of which is better… Peter

The stacking software didn’t look to have many controls unlike others we are used to. i assume that the database is not limited to a small number of objects like the e scope seems to be. It would be good to automate to acquire larger areas of sky as these types of scope have small fl fields of view. Got me interested as I have many of the pieces and my previous imaging attempts failed due to tracking accuracy, which this avoids. Peter

…. Don’t see any comments in the code! For many simple things OpenSCAD is much quicker….. Peter

Sounds great Peter

I’d have designed it for a fixed angle to avoid flex and possible failure, but seems like yours is delivering the goods! good job! Peter

Looks more telescope solutions than camera concepts…. Looks like a great store, we’ve lost many physical astro shops in the U.K 😞 Peter