Stu

1 hour ago, John said:

Gives me time to fettle my new project though 😉 

Very mysterious John, when is the grand reveal?

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

The joystick removes the need to keep the web front end running to control the AZ100 via a wireless gamepad.

The remote however does not have a screen. 

I would of liked the option to select a target and perform two star alignment via the  controller. A bit like the Pegasus controller:

At the moment the other option is a Nexus, that has the advantage of less screen light as the red led can be made very faint.

 

Hopefully not having a screen will keep costs down. I use SkySafari anyway so not too much of an issue. I have it (yet to be used in anger) on a Boox e ink tablet which can be completely unlit, or very dim so works well for dark adaptation.

3 hours ago, RT65CB-SWL said:

I have not tried my SV215 3-8mm zoom or Nagler 3-6mm Zoom with my Lunt solar wedge. I tend use my Plossls or 6mm UWA 'goldline' or 'redline'.

Perhaps I should give it a go and see what I am missing! 

I’ve tried it in my wedge with good results, worth a try I would say.

On 24/03/2024 at 11:15, Mr Spock said:

Round 1, solar: FAIL! With my 120mm achro and Baader Coolwedge there isn't enough in focus for the Svbony. My other eyepieces are fine.

Here it is with the Nirvana. Works well with the LVW too.

Is yours the Mark II CoolWedge Michael? If so, there is a very expensive adaptor you can buy which reduces the path length. It effectively gives you a T2 thread so you can attach binoviewers or your Baader 1.25” fitting directly to it, that should work.

EDIT Page 13 of the manual…

3 hours ago, paulastro said:

Stu  strong auroral possibilities as darkness falls this evening reported - check out spaceweather and other sites inc SGL.  

Cloudy here currently unfortunately ☹️

I managed a slightly longer look today, but the seeing was, again, fairly rough though a little better than last time. It’s an amazing AR, very complex 👍

May aswell post these here, although there was actually some clear sky tonight. Moon looked great behind the thin clouds, it actually made the craters easier to see with the naked eye.

I managed about 2 minutes on it today, in very poor seeing but still it’s a great one to observe. Hoping for some clearer skies tomorrow, thanks for the heads up Paul.

6 minutes ago, Ags said:

Ugly? Ugly? I think they are beautiful and well made, particularly in comparison to the earlier LVs and NLVs.

Morpheus - now that's what I call ugly (except for the eye lens which is gorgeous).

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess 😊

Let’s not start a thread on ‘Best looking eyepieces’ now, please 🤪🤣

When will these clouds go away? 🤬

Fab reports Bob. I missed these at the time but thanks for posting the link in the dark sky thread, a very good read 👍

2 minutes ago, M40 said:

🤣 you beat me, I just posted a very similar picture in astro lounge, maybe the clever people can merge the two posts 👌

🤣🤣 Done 👍

….. join ‘em….. The clouds that is.

31 minutes ago, John said:

The Svbony 8-3mm zoom is turning out to be a bit of a revelation 🙂

It is indeed John. It’s actually great that something with performance that good is now within reach for most people even on a fairly tight budget. Given the current weather, we will likely see a lot of expensive fixed focal length eyepieces up for sale!

Talking of SGL star parties, at SGL10, I had a 16” dob and we had four clear nights including a couple with good transparency. I must have seen fifty or sixty galaxies that weekend. I had a push to system which really helped keep track of where I was and in identifying what I was looking at. Trawling around the Virgo cluster and getting ten plus galaxies of Markarian’s Chain in the field of view at once was fab.

A few reports below which may be of interest.
 

If you are not familiar with the concept of surface brightness, it is worth reading up on to understand object visibility better. Apologies if you know all this already but hopefully it will help others if not you.

Objects have a magnitude, but they also have an area. In the case of a star this is effectively the size of the airy disk, so the light is highly concentrated, but planetary nebulae, globular clusters, galaxies and supernova remnants all have a size and area; the light in them is spread out over that area. Think of it like a torch with a variable beam. At its narrowest setting, the light is bright and concentrated, on its widest, it is spread out and much fainter. The same applies to deep sky objects.

The other thing to note is that the sky itself has a surface brightness, which varies depending on light pollution and the Moon phase etc. If there is sufficient difference (contrast) between the object and the sky background then you see the object, if not then you don’t. It is a complex area though so this is a simplistic summary of it. Sky transparency also plays a large role in faint object visibility.

So, the easiest objects to see are often the planetary nebulae and globular clusters which are smaller and brighter. The trickier are faint small galaxies with low surface brightness. The Veil and North America Nebula are examples of large faint objects which need a dark sky to see.

M31 is a bit of a mix in that its core has high surface brightness and the spiral arms very low surface brightness. The core can be seen even from quite heavily light polluted skies so it seems quite small, but under very dark skies with binoculars or a widefield scope, you really start to see how huge it is.

Contrast for some objects like planetary nebulae and supernova remnants which are formed from ionised gas and emit light in certain frequencies can be improved by using narrowband filters such as UHC or OIII. Galaxies however emit light across the spectrum so the only real way to improve the views is to go to dark sites.

So, after much rambling….. objects not seen under home skies but seen under dark skies…. When I lived near London (Walton-on-Thames), I could never see M101, M33 or M51, all relatively low surface brightness galaxies or M1 which is SN remnant. Now I am in Somerset, although my skies are not amazing they are still a lot darker and I can see these objects, although 101 and 33 need good transparency.

As for small scopes performing better under dark skies…. The best example was taking a 66mm refractor to Tanzania on Safari where I saw objects I could not see from home in an 8”. Those were Bortle 1 skies though. The worst thing was it was an open camp so I was too worried about being eaten to get the best out of the skies! I’ve had many good times with small scopes from 60mm to 100mm under dark skies in the UK and abroad and it is always worth making the effort.

Spotted tonight, low down between the houses.

27 minutes ago, John said:

The cloud gods were vigilant tonight. They spotted my little scope and the clear holes have been small to say the least. The moon through clouds has been my staple diet so far tonight. Maybe it will get better later ? - probably not, looking at the forecast 🙄

Same here John. I put the 60mm out and managed a 5 minute look at the Moon before it clouded over!

I did catch Mercury low down between the houses though which I wasn’t expecting.

24 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

From my inexpert calculations, Paul, the XWA 20mm will vignette slightly with the Baader T2 amici prism, but not by much. The prism has an aperture of 32/33mm and the APM 20mm has a field stop of 34.8mm (according to Don Pensack) despite an advertised 37mm, which should mean you’ll barely notice the difference. I stand to be corrected on this - but it’s amazing how few eyepieces vignette with the Baader T2 diagonals (I also have the standard Zeiss prism and BBHS mirror). However, it does mean you’ll need a 2”/T2 clicklock ep holder for 2” eyepieces to attach to the prism.
 

I agree, you actually don’t notice even quite significant vignetting so the T2 diagonals and prisms work surprisingly well even with longer focal length 2” eyepieces.

I have the 2” WO 45 deg erecting prism which I use occasionally for spotting purposes. I do find it is softer at higher power than a normal diagonal. I would suggest a Baader prism if you want to go down that that route.

Some years back @iPeace had a bit of a journey with these prisms, discovering that in one instance he obtained one that showed no spike at all if I recall correctly, probably due to perfect alignment. I can’t remember if he managed to get a second one as good, and he hasn’t been in the forum for some months now.

The Duplex Moon Atlas is a great resource for matching orientation to your scope if you are will to stick with left right reversed images.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/duplex-moon-atlas-the-next-generation-lunar-atlas-by-ronald-stoyan.html

8 hours ago, Wanderers said:

I meant corrector!

Some pictures may help explain what you are asking.

22 minutes ago, johnturley said:

This would indicate that the Esprit 150 is significantly superior to the ED 150, I would be interested to hear from someone who has compared them.

When I compared the view of Jupiter (and not under particularly good viewing conditions) through my Tak 100 DZ, with that through my Esprit 150, the 100 DZ (with a Strehl ratio measured by Rother Valley Optics of 0.987) did not even come close, the Esprit 150 was streets ahead. Note also that the 100 DZ is also technically superior to the 100 DC (which seems to be the benchmark 100mm Tak), although several observers have stated that there is no discernable difference between them.

John 

That doesn’t surprise me John. The Esprit 150 has a great reputation and I would expect it to be a decent amount better than a 150ED. Neither am I surprised by its superiority to a DZ. I think (hope!) I’ve made clear that it’s the whole package of the DC that makes it so useable; excellent optically in a lightweight package that can travel. They are never going to win against an excellent 150mm triplet except under very poor seeing conditions.

As I understand it, the OP is looking to do planetary imaging and visual. The AZEQ6 is a robust mount, and in AltAz mode will keep the eyepiece orientated in the same position eg if positioned horizontal and pointing away from the mount it will stay like this and just vary in height, so should not be too much of a problem. With the tripod set low, or on a low pillar the height should be manageable, perhaps needing a small step.

For planetary imaging, although the 12” f5.3 would be preferable, with a Paracorr the f4 should be fine and may not be needed for on axis planetary imaging. It would be needed for observing other larger objects and starfields/clusters etc.

The OO 10” and 12” scopes are the same focal lengths, either 1200 or 1600mm focal length so it’s about the weight and resolution benefits really. The VX10L is a lovely scope, quite lightweight but very capable on planets. Magnus has shown though that the 12 will also work on an AZEQ6 although I think his carbon fibre tube helps with stiffness and likely reduce vibrations from tube flex.

I do tend to think OO scopes are best bought used. Normally any issues have been sorted out by their owners then and depreciation on OO scopes is normally pretty steep so you save quite a lot.

I bought a new OMC200 (8” Mak) from then and had problems collimating it. I took it back to them but was pretty much fobbed off with a tweak of the secondary. I only worked out what the problem was just before I sold it, and that was that a grub screw had dropped out so the primary was loose and tilted as a result. Once fixed it could then be collimated properly but I had to find that out myself.

Excellent news Paul. Images look good! 👍 

14 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

For anyone who's still waiting - I've got mine, and it's brilliant! 🤣

And its clear here with a first quarter Moon overhead!!!🤣

I wonder if anyone has noticed that you never see Mike, Noddy or Benny from Crossroads in the same picture? I wonder why? 😉