Deadlake

12 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

You mean this? Couldn't resist a couple of accessories from SV while they were at it, and this Losmandy/Vixen handle-to-end-all-handles had my name all over it. I now need a suitable Vixen bar to put on top of the rings to allow it to work.

 

Knowing the dimensions of the bag and the LZOS I have is 130 mm will your 140 mm scope plus handle with rail fit in the bag??? Mine just sneaks in the bag with a low profile handle attached, no rail is attached to the 130 mm I have.

28 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

HOWEVER. The LZOS has a FT focuser, and I would ideally have wanted the SV to have a FT…

Well if you could buy one this year.

That aside I'd like to know how they compare, the StellarVue and FT focuser's.

 

1 hour ago, Captain Scarlet said:

You mean this? Couldn't resist a couple of accessories from SV while they were at it, and this Losmandy/Vixen handle-to-end-all-handles had my name all over it. I now need a suitable Vixen bar to put on top of the rings to allow it to work.

Yes indeed, as you say a very good bag. It came as part of the price of the scope, together with the rings.

You can see it here, sitting in front of my 12" Newt, which is itself in front of my 16" Newt hot water tank .

Yes works very well

Very popular in the states.

Did you get a Stellarvue bag, very good for transporting around?

10 hours ago, badhex said:

Hello @jetstream and welcome back!

@Littleguy80 as Gerry says above, will be interested to hear what you go for in the end. FWIW I never take my TS102 (Starfield equiv.) on a plane, it's too large for hand luggage even with the dewshield retracted. When I travel with a scope I take my WO ZS73 which is a great little RFT and I can fit everything in a backpack, but obviously this is not comparable to the TS102.

 

Yes, needs something more compact like this:

19 hours ago, jetstream said:

Actually I have, intermittently, in between snowstorms and frigid weather. I just concentrated on some bright favourites like Pickerings Wisp and the Veil etc. I'm excited to say that the 15" now shows that bulge feature in the Wisp much better now, with some fine detail. No doubt this comes from observing it with the 24" so often- quite an interesting effect.

Eagerly waiting your reports!

And your scope choice!

 

 

 

Good to hear from you again Gerry. M

34 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

I agree with josefk that it depends on the use case and it depends on the scopes used and whether they happen to match up or not. For lower power views it’s not likely to be a problem. For me, I often use two solar scopes side by side (WL and Ha) at high powers and any misalignment shows up quite obviously and can make it hard to compare features.

I’ve actually just acquired an ADM Maxguider adjustment plate to allow easy, tool free adjustments to be made and I’m very pleased with it.

Not a cheap bit of kit so I do agree that waiting to see whether you actually find it’s a problem or not is the best option.

What is the difference between this and the Rowan altitude adjuster?

With an LZOS 130 and Baader BV’s I find the 10 mm UFF very sharp especially when used with a BARVDV.

What would it be like using the AZ100 with the motors fitted, no need to wait for any wobble to settle compared with the slow mo’s?

12 hours ago, Space Hopper said:

@PeterW

A date for your diary ?

March 11 2023.

Free entry, free talks. Lots to see. 

https://practicalastroshow.com

Indeed lots to see:

https://practicalastroshow.com/exhibitors/

What mount are you going to use?

I'm surprised the TEC140 has not been bought up....

LZOS are no longer available, even if the war was to stop tomorrow the cost of the lens cells is just too high Marcus has not proceeded. 

The main unique selling point of the AP130GTX apart from the figuring is the weight, which is why I would prefer an AP over the TOA130 that is a battleship. 

Facebook is a  necessary evil, here is the manual

https://pegasusastro.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NYX101-manual.pdf
 

of note is the mount will support 9 star alignment, great for visual use.

Why don't you look at the TS ONTC range, they have different mounting positions for the secondary if you want to use a GPU or corrector/converter.

I believe the range below also supports this adjustment as well.

Short focal length refractor can equal long focal ratio scopes for optical performance.

However the main issue (ignoring cost) is weight.

The len's cell is very heavy and on a small scope can make balancing harder. 

At the same time having a fast scopes, allows for rich field views and adding a Barlow allows for high contrast views on planets. 

It does give you two scopes in one.

Look at AP it scopes are around F6.3 in speed and are great for AP or visual use and very portable which a f7.7 scope for Takahashi will not give you.

 

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

Mark Ackermann here in the US designed the 30mm APM UFF as he describes in this CN post.  It's not clear that Markus Ludes of APM commissioned him and paid for the design.  KUO built it, did they pay Mark?  It's not clear that APM ever had an exclusive right to sell the eyepiece based on the design.  Perhaps APM had a limited time exclusive right to sell it, maybe a few years.  It seems like that time period has expired, and now KUO can sell it to anyone wishing to market it.

APM has a limited time of exclusivity until copied:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/562562-apm-new-ultra-flat-eyepieces-30-mm-70-degree/?p=7635881

Separate question, the 30 mm UFF was designed by APM. How does KUO get away with white boxing it to other companies. I thought KUA was only able to white box non ED/APO lenses/EP's etc.

There is a 5% duty on astro gear imported into UK, well there is from US and EU.

 

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Yes, I found them very good last night. What diagonal do you use? I tried the Zeiss T2 prism and thought it was an improvement over a BBHS mirror in this scope.

I use a Baader BBHS T2 or 2”. Looking at a white star I do not see any red on the star using a mirror diagonal, according to Baader mirror is the correct option in this case and I do get better reds on Jupiters belts when using the mirror over prism.

Having said that, maybe it’s the GPC which is leading to your result of better performance with a prism, when Baader’s guidelines state the opposite. I’ll try again, also with the BARADV in place as this will change the result, a prism might world better in that case as well as the scope is working at f20.

I get the same result with the 130f6 or 105f6.2.

22 hours ago, Stu said:

ot the big boy out tonight after having a look at Jupiter through the Tak. Conditions aren’t the best, but still getting some nice detail showing up. Baader Maxbrights first light too 👍

Just for the record….

APM LZOS 130mm f6

AZ100 on Rowan pillar and Planet tripod

Baader Zeiss T2 prism

Baader Maxbrights

Zeiss 25mm orthos plus various Barlow/GPC combos

Dew straps!!!

 

The Baader Maxbrights are great with the 130 F6.



I've been experimenting with a Baradv and 10 mm UFF which I find gives excellent contrast on the planets, even if it makes the scope super long and balance a little more complicated.
This setup need add a 3.5 " TeleVue extension tube to gain focus.

 

Does the HEM27 support two star alignment at all?

For instance the AM5 will only store one alignment star, each time Sky Safari sends an alignment star it will over write the last alignment star sent.

Thanks

5 hours ago, Alan White said:

My Vixen optics after being dropped on concrete and left me with it written off by the insurer,
they said keep it, play with it, try and repair if you like, its yours, so I did and this is the result.

If you don't mind who did you insure your scope thru?

Thanks

2 hours ago, Stephenstargazer said:

One thing about the 75/100 control boxes that would be nice is switched 12v outlets, less problem to certify??  

As there are no motors could this 75 version be made to work on a USB supply, which are plentiful and small, or even a PP9 battery?

GX12 switched outlet for the AZ100 could make sense.

32 minutes ago, Stu said:

Yes I guess so, replacement for a Nexus and a much neater design and fit.

One thing missing is that I'd imagine the power requirements are low, but there is a 12 v power supply required.

Why not have a built in battery, that way no cords to get tangled and a lot less fiddly.

Does the Nexus II have a rechargeable battery built in?

Push to without the Nexus DSC, correct?

A lot less space taken up than the Nexus DSC, however looks very similar to a Nexus II.

Mounting it inside would be the next step?

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

I agree they are fiddly. You can set up the tilt to slew which works reasonably well.

Here is a demo video:
 

One item I'd like is on the analogue pad fast slow and then finer slew on the digital pad, or you can switch vice-a-verssa as a user option.