PeterW

First time probably pristine object going pretty fast... sit back and get the popcorn, we got little idea how it will behave... boom or bust! Great to comets detected by people and great to see another hyperbolic object too... there’s so much we still don’t know. peter

I have seen pictures of online of people who I would consider “have a problem” when it comes to binocular number... 50 is still safe! I am around a dozen, though some are specials, some are now superseded with better models and some were bought to keep family members off the good stuff! The larger angled Astro bins are very nice... APM, Oberwerk. Make very nice two eyed daytime spotting scopes. With wide astro eyepieces you can get very wide and pretty much sharp to the edge performance. Not handheld of course (>4kg) and somewhat more costly that the normal straight thru models. Peter

... awesome kit.... Peter

Thanks r lie on the ground with something under your head and rest the bins in your eyeballs.. pretty steady. The monopod option works well too. Sometimes it is easier to hold heavier bins more stable than light ones, so you might not improve things with a monocular. Also the two eye advantage is very handy, bins are to be preferred. peter

Should do well as you at only using a small sensor.’stability and collimation could be issues. Will really brighten up the nebulae!

To avoid double posting I am adding a link to the main report and some binocular specific notes here. Peter

With the flurry of posts from people I thought it rude not to add my own from the end of My holiday in wales last week. Spent a week in far Pembrokeshire in a barn conversion, the moon rose soon after full darkness and I had a couple of very short sessions truncated by cloud or the moon. Skies were mag 21.4, but with local house lights that were tricky to totally avoid. The only kit I had bought was a recently acquired set of APM 70mm 45degree binoculars, mainly bought for daytime use as a more potent spotting scope. Let me spot seals a mile or more away and rafts of Manx shearwaters way out to sea at 30x with a lovely sharp 80degree field of view. Used on a manfrotto 190 tripod with a nice fluid head, by tightening the tension it was able to still provide a steady view up to close to the zenith. Although I had brought the green laser with me and part of the mounting for it, I had left the important bit behind!! Luckily the laser itself is able to rest in little groove along the binocular handle, so I could use it as a finder as intended. I mostly used the supplied 18mm (22x) flat field eyepieces The Lagoon was very low with little detail. The omega (swan shaped) and eagle further up were much clearer, as was the rich open cluster ngc6604 and the various star clouds up through M11. The two eyes view having much better tiny faint stars and using averted vision seemed much easier on nebulae that one eyed. I am going to get some 24mm ep for the richest view from dark sites and maybe also get some dew bands so I don’t get my sessions cutoff in the future. Next opportunity was from some relations with a south facing garden, in Llanbedr in the Brecon Beacons National Park. Although the streetlights were new full cut off LED types they partially illuminated the garden and faintly lit up a house wall nearby too. I have reported it as a nuisance so hopefully will improve soon for them. After a long, warm afternoon with a BBQ, gave an impromptu view of Saturn and Jupiter to several people who’d asked what the bright stars were. Good deed done and with darkness falling I set out to seeing what I could find. The Milky Way was clearly visible with the Cygnus rift, though a little less contrasts as before. The Sagittarius starcloud was great with so many little stars spread across the field of view. The eagle and omega nebulae nearby were clearly visible too. Using skysafari (and red colour scheme hack on my phone), I was able to look for things to observe (as I don’t get to see this bit of sky from home well), still got to mag 21.2. M22 nearby was large, though at this magnification the globs didn’t quite resolve (need a bigger set of bins?!) Went looking in ophiuchus (a constellation I don’t really know), surprised to find M10 and M12 so easily and only a field of view or so apart. Upto M13 which is easy to find and then I tried for M51, which I was surprised to see as a distinct double fuzz. All up Cygnus the fields of view were just filled with stars, lots of unknown little asterisms. The eastern veil was quite easy, with its curved end, the other part less clear. I probably ought to get some UHC filters to help the views. I tried for the North America, but I am not so familiar with its location, there was definitely some nebulosity about, but I wouldn’t be confident over the shape. Moving across the sky I picked up ngc457 (ET cluster) and the double cluster which was really good. M31 pretty much filled the field of view, one side definitely sharper defined than the other an M110 large and diffuse nearby. I would have had a go at M33, but it was too low. Finally headed over to M2, another glob that I have enjoyed before. People were starting to head to bed and as we were leaving the next day I thought it best to not get too late a night. I used to not think much of binoculars, but with a good, well mounted pair under good skies they certainly deliver a lot. Peter

Make sure you have a good mount and then just sweep up and down the milkyway... lots of stars and interesting clusters. For the veil and north emetics you want the best skies you can, rather than a specific binocular. Peter

Any reason for 6 truss poles? Fast optics need stiffness to hold collimation. Do you have the blank? Some people make “dummy mirrors” out of concrete to help them in making the structure before the mirror is ready. GOOD LUCK!!!!! Peter

Don’t jinx it....

They should have given it a black and white checker colour scheme like the Saturn5. Anyone looking to test these in binoculars.... peter

Never plan for clear skies... take them as an added bonus. peter

The new Prusa slicer is worth a look, i use Cura (ultimaker user), it’s gained a lot of new features and “twiddle controls” and seems a lot more regularly updated than simplify. i agree with larger reels (j get 2.3kg nowwhere possible), I end up with a lot of “dogends” in reels and hate just throwing them away. peter

Most filaments will print with some minor retract, heat, speed tweaks. I use pretty generic PLA. Only come across a few that I’d nearly hurled out the window (one blue, one petg, one wood filled, one silver). My machines go though phases of working like troopers and then hurling random fits... one has started to fire out “printing outside bed” errors or making prints with step in..... ggrrr!! someone mentioned Formlabs, nice results, good resin options, Just not big build volume and costly resins. I’ve fancied dissolvable support, but have got too used to adding supports and fettling prints. I am also wedded to Clas Olson purple glue for bed adhesion.... though I am trying a flex plate kit soon. Dimafix is the way to go for ABS and other high temp materials. have fun Peter

Pembrokeshire soon, mostly taking optics for wildlife, may see how dark it is... a wide field pair of bins maybe too. Possibly some local light pollution. Peter

Interested in where you get bits from.... the exact focal length shouldn’t matter, you don't cut the poles till you have the mirror. Good luck peter

Not quite, they make an adapter to allow the common PVS14 night vision housing to their glass eyepieces. TNVC (or anyone else) can supply the NV system. Several U.K. NV users do this. We had a good chat with David Nagler at Astrofest about NV.... great chap! http://televue.com/notamnomen/2019/02/27/night-vision-in-the-uk-seize-the-night/#utm_source=cloudynights&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=cloudynightsNightVisionGO&utm_content=NightVisionGO PeterW

The old Porro binocular experts on CloudyNights can be a bad influence. I agree international shipping is usually a deal breaker for secondhand stuff, most of mine were “local”. good luck peter

With eBay you can always look for secondhand, I picked up some old wide field 7x bins that way, cheap and reasonable quality. I would definitely avoid zoom, a wider field helps you understand where you are pointing and makes starhopping easier. Peter

Viewing very high contrast objects day or night will show slight aspects of this with nearly all binoculars.... only the most costly ones can virtually eliminate it. If it is very noticeable then return them, if they do what you want most of the time then keep them. Peter

West wales, not much darkness and moon might be a little annoying, will bring some optical aid, not decided what yet, will be wanting to look for seals/porpoises too. Peter

Thanks for the heads up, have to catch up on the good stuff that’s accumulated in the past few weeks before it vanishes. peter

Several people sell spiders, or you can get creative with some bent metal or wire. To balance stuff just make the scope bottom heavy and use trim weights at the top end. You can have a low profile mirror box and use oversize rockers for compactness. Peter

Looks good, where did you find it? I think the plan starts at the top end, then the rocker and then the base, so you have the balance numbers. Keep us posted! peter

Wide angle definitely rocks, especially if it’s effectively sharp to the edge. I have several (fairly) wide bins and have Naglers in my larger bins. It’s a shame Nikon has stopped making several of their best bins.. WX and E2 series. Peter