PeterW

We used to use ceramic lined uniters for high power stuff as they were more precise than the metal lines ones... when you don’t want any light to “miss”... remembering you are lining up 8micron diameter “pipes”. Replacing “burnt” connectors is a pain, blowing fibres up “mission impossible style” is fun, but expensive! if the LED launch is working i’d stick with them, if you get fibre coupled lasers, be careful to ensure the power levels are kept down and don’t get them too close to your eye (or eye view with any optical instrument)... that way the light will spread out such that your eye shouldn’t be able to take in and focus a dangerous amount (be careful with LED as hey can damage retinas like laser can if powerful enough). Having bought some “5mW” pointers only to measure tham at 10x that I’d advise caution. peter

Multi mode gives more area to collect light into, brighter stars. I would guess the OM2 are the same. My experience was for FC where UPC and APC were different colours to stop you trying to grind an angled end into a flat end. peter

16mm 1” c/mount lens (thanks raspberry pi crew), ready for meteor shower season. Peter

The light will tend to spray out over a reasonable angle, check the numerical aperture of the fibre, so critical perpendicular alignment t shouldn’t be needed. £2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We used to pay about 10x that (OK about 20yrs ago!). For light launching a fixed array of SC connector seems good, maybe you could find a higher intensity collimated light to illuminate. (A crazy long distance LED torch for instance). Your idea of poking FC-UPC through drilled holes should work well, much more robust than bare fibre. Peter

Nice.... here come the clouds... 😉 Peter

You’ll know it when you find a sharp... hurt a lot more than you expect it to. you might want to protect the star end by adding one epoxy round the stripped bits (leaving the extreme ends sticking clear), extra strength and will tend to spread out any cladding light you may have. My colleagues and I never worked out a guaranteed way to get Thorlabs Lab Snacks.. it’s only the box you want... some of the snacks aren’t much good 😉 Peter

Nice SC patchcord, single mode would be better, but getting light in will be a royal pain due to the tiny area. The core and cladding are drawn out together in one go, single mode will be operating multi mode in the visible (unless you find visible single mode fibre which has an even smaller core!). There is a plastic jacket around the glass fibre for protection and then the Kevlar and outer plastic tube. I used to get through loads of them, used to lop then in half so I could add connectors to custom fibre devices. (Need a proper cutter and auto splicing machine). I wouldn’t worry about APC, you are not working single mode, at high power or with a coherent light source. Neither 9 or 50micron fibres are any different mechanically, depends what you are trying to use them for. The laser glass processor will cost you a big pile, but heating the glass fibre in a suitably hot flame and pulling to neck it down and then score and snap it could give you a very thin result, but you’d have to be very careful with little glass sharps! There are smaller core fibres available. I used to use these at work with a focused halogen bulb and a micro positioner and amount of light launched was not a lot of nothing! Having been stabbed by bits of fibre I would advise leaving the patch cords intact, no hazard and the ferrule end is easier to use than bare fibre, you could build a jig to hold one ferrule in contact with a high power LED. If you are set on cutting then decent scissors will be needed for the Kevlar, a special coating stripper (bit like a wire stripper) to get the polymer off and then a specialist cleaver to cut the exposed fibre, as mentioned be very careful with any offcuts, you will need a sharps bin at a minimum. MFD measurement, one for Rob! 😉 (No one has mentioned numerical aperture yet, but I doubt Anyrhing we’ve mentioned will be affected) You can buy precision apertures which have laser drilled holes in this size range, just pop them over a light source. The drawback is that the hole is in a thin (fragile) metal foil. There is always This https://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/hubble-optics-5-star-artificial-star.html though larger than some things discussed here. Peter PS if you do buy a pile of stuff from Thorlabs they might throw in some “Lab snacks”!

Could be adjustable with lens tilt or screw rip tilt adjustment of the prisms. You want to adjust so the images merge with your highest power eyepiece. A star or small torch illuminated ball bearing to give a nice bright point will help. Look quite fun, pity they weren’t usable out the box. If you don’t fancy tweaking then http://binocular-repair.co.uk Could help you out. Peter

Could 3D print, but some creativity, contact adhesive and bike inner tube could fashion your something that does the job. I’ve added custom winged eyecups to all my binoculars to shield put straylight. thanka Peter

I ensure the “rubber cap with small hole” is always fitted unless I’m out at night. Useful to do quick daytime power ups... was a bit surprised yeast ready that I needed to change the batteries... can’t remember the last time I needed to do that. i use lithium AA in mine (and the stabilised bins), last forever and don’t leak. My battery door is also a bit crap and so constantly using it could break it. Have fun with what You’ve got, you can always tweak things and exchange experiences. I was out in urban conditions at 3x with the 685nm, milkyway was nice. Peter

with the Milky Way coming back there’ll be plenty of nice big galactic nebs to find. Bracken is our fave book as it shows how faint stuff will be, doesn’t show too much small stuff (which you won’t see with fast ip Ida) and identifies reflection nebulae which we ignore as we can’t see them. @Bill S are you debating joining the dark side?? Peter

Glow worms... almost as rare as naked eye comets... peter

Yes, if you spot one, look out for other ice effects and halos... not uncommon, just people don’t go looking. https://www.atoptics.co.uk Peter

If you want to have a poke with a screwdriver have a go. I “fixed” an old pair Sam one prism had moved and reseating seemed to fix. To properly collimate (so it’s colimated at all IPD settings) needs special kit, give http://binocular-repair.co.uk a call, it’s not costly to recolimate. petet

Looks like a sensible decision. I got a pair of 45degree 70mm APM binoscope last year, my decision being made by a desire to carry them about birding in the daytime. 4kg is not too heavy and the tripod is practical and does a reasonable job at night too, I can reach almost the zenith. I would suggest sitting on the ground to observe, you save a lot of (potentially wobbly) height. I have the 8115, the head casting broke, I added a manfrotto head to it and it’s still doing good service. Good quality optics give a much more enjoyable view! Peter

Was a Rob... I deleted the previous beta programme and they didn’t seem to get round to reinviting me.... I tried indoors for a few mins with my iPad. You neEd to ios connect to the mount wifi, then connecting from inside skysafari hurls you over to synscan to connect to the mount which then hurls you back to skysafari.... Where you can move, align etc... My iPad kept wanting to reconnect to my Router, so I didn’t dig deeper. One issue I have with using a phone app for moving the scope is knowing where the arrows are in the dark or not looking at them. If I had access to the 3D printers I’d make myself a screen mask with holes in it so I could feel my way round. peter

Note that e latest version of iOS SkySafari now has. Skywatcher synscanlink mount option, no announcement. Not had a chance to give it a try yet though. Peter

It appears the latest version of skysafari now has SkySafari synscanlink as a mount option! Not had a chance to test it though, only looked as someone complained they’d not been added to the beta programme. Peter

You LOOK before you light it up.... the sky is not always full of planes.... I only need it for a second or so to get on target. It’s been very quiet of late.... more moving it lights from Mr Musk than piloted ones! peter

Note the counterweight on the AZ3, enables successful use of heavier optics. I have found that resting a laser in the groove on the handle enables a quick pointing to be made. Also the friction locks on a manfrotto tripod head enable it to be used as well, even very close to the zenith (bit of neck bending needed). peter

Get a cheap monopod and trigger ball head so you the hand-holdi NV question goes away: http://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php I find wide 7x are easier to find stuff as it’s less of a jump from naked eye, then 10x and then bigger ones. I got some 10x50ED APM and they are wide and very sharp... but heavy so they need a mount for best stability. If you want to use them in the day as well then a roof might be easier. If you have big pupils and dark skies then an 8x56 or 7x50 might be better, though i prefer wide apparent fields of view and 7x50!tend to be narrow. peter

It’s very early stage, they tried it after they had some interesting animal results. They outline a number of questions for further study in the paper, wavelength, time of day.... lots to look into. This sort of sample never gets large samples as doing the faint flicker lights in the dark is not everyone’s idea of fun. Peter

Randomly came across this interesting new article showing the singing deep red light into the eyes can actually help reduce the decline that happens with a age, preserving your night vision in more than one way.... https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-declining-eyesight-deep-red.html Peter

Always happy to get another McNaught (I saw that one easily with a short tail just after sunset with binoculars before it headed off to the Southern Hemisphere (like all good comets seems to do!)) Fingers crossed to get something with a tail through binoculars. Peter

Big Rukl was well over £500 at one point... could have made a profit (if it wasn’t so useful). One would hope that print unavailability would become a thing of the past.... so last century! Glad to hear you found a copy! Peter