Deadlake

1 hour ago, Stu said:

This little beauty arrived today courtesy of Johnhandleby, aka @johninderby 😉

Most bizarre thing was that I had literally just started searching for one when John’s ad popped up, he must have been telepathic.

Very nicely packed and in great condition, looking forward to giving this a go soon. I’ve had one before but had to sell it, hopefully can hang on to this one.

I did check with RotherValley about the 2.0mm after @Highburymark suggested they may have stock but they don’t. Will perhaps keep an eye out for a 2.4mm used. The 3.4 will give x217 in the Tak and x265 in the Vixen. Should be fun.

If you want more power TOE 2.5 mm will give you an excellent EP. Some nights I can tease out a little more using a HR 2.4 mm on a tracking mount, 2.0 mm might be a little further then you would want to go unless looking at the moon. 

21 minutes ago, Stu said:

The beauty of push to is also that it is also very quick to pan across to a different part of the sky.

That was my thoughts, I'm holding off until the winter nights. when you have no use for the tracking, push to is all you need.

Also anyone know if the AZ50 is close to being ready?

Ps: I mentioned the SXP2 due to not all EQ mounts being noisy, of course that comes at some cost. The cheap Vixens mounts are quieter than their counter parts. 

10 minutes ago, Alan White said:

• The load capacity.

My SXP2 can take 22.5 kg, thats enough for a 4" and 5" APO.

11 minutes ago, Alan White said:

• Tracking, who needs it? If your used to Alt Az that is.

Well if you used tracking on planets it's hard to go back, all other targets  I would agree.

12 minutes ago, Alan White said:

• Its quiet in use, so you can enjoy nature around you.

SXP2 is belt driven, so whisper quiet...

If I was not packing up to move house I would of probably of purchased one my now... I don't have a gold pass... 

Looking at the above discussion if you didn't have setup time for an EQ mount to budget for, what are the pro's the AZ100 brings? 

The AZ100 lacks goto which is a dis-advantage for the the planets season, the main plus I can see are: 

• Side-by-side telescope mounting.
• Good for bino-viewers (no rotating around for the EP's to fall out). 
• Easier to move. 

Any others?

More gas action. Jupiter would off been bright but for the Devils **** being up.... 😀

On 19/07/2021 at 20:09, Stu said:

This very lovely Celestron Omni XLT  120 arrived today, beautifully packaged and in wonderful condition! Looks like a proper refractor and I love the blue finish.

I was going to ask for DSO usage but I can see you are pointing at the sun. Very nice.

4 hours ago, John said:

When I was testing eyepieces for the forum I used to try and cover a number of sessions, using different scopes, before reporting back and also have something suitable to compare with. Not necessarily a zoom but fixed focal length eyepieces within the range that the zoom covers.

The fastest scope you have will provide the sternest test of correction across the field of view.

A range of targets and target types provide a sound basis for assessing the peformance so bright things to test for light scatter, ghosting etc and faint things for light transmission, contrast etc.

I was very lucky that FLO would loan me eyepieces for comparison / review purposes so I didn't have a personal stake in them, as it were. I'd like to think that APM do the same with a few examples of the zoom but I've not seen any mention of this as yet.

 

 

 

APM will send out to their dealers first for feed back, like @Don Pensack and Rupert @ Astrograph.  
The waiting list of this item is so long I suspect APM will ship first. 
Rupert still needs to ship some items to me, I'll ask next time I'm in contact.
 

Agree viewing was not the best last night. I held out for an extra ten minutes (school night) and then Jupiter snapped into focus, with the different belts being visible. 
Amazing the affect of the atmosphere…

4 hours ago, Zermelo said:

It would be interesting to know the age profile of the people who took up astronomy in the last year, versus the longer term picture. Lockdown seems to have generated more interest overall, but it's possible that the demographic proportions have been skewed by both available cash and access to a garden.

For the younger recruits in particular, there would seem to be two competing forces (admittedly generalities, and not true for all) :
(a) a higher degree of interest in, and comfort with using, technology hardware and software, and capacity for assimilating innovation with these
(b) an increased preference for immediacy and immersive experiences

It would seem that (a) might lead more along the imaging route, while (b) might favour visual observing more.

I would of started astronomy maybe 20 years ago after I left university. I read first year astronomy as part of my physics degree, which is mostly data analysis.

I moved to London, and unless you have a car for trips to darker skies or the budget of a small science department and can purchase NV then I think the connection to the night sky is lost. Well for me it was until I moved out of London.

As far as observing the visual experience of watching the night sky is amazing, the only stopper for me is having to set up and pull down every night. If I was to choose between imaging and visual, visual every time. However the only way I can see the same objects as imagers is going down the NV route.

With a) I’d suggest time as well, imaging needs a fair amount of setup.

8 hours ago, johninderby said:

If it weren’t for the cost this would be a great choice. Dream scope category. 😁

https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/telescopes/baader-planetarium/baader-apo-95-580-caf2-travel-companion.html

Not reportedly as good as a stowaway 92….

I've seen the EP measurement's on CN, marketing over actual dimensions? 😀 

The ~3.5 mm XWA seems a specialist EP then, very happy with the XWA 5 mm. 

@Don Pensack The Ethos versus the APM 3.5 mm.  
   On CN some observers have complained that the lack  of baffling on the APM lets in too much stray light, is that the case with the Ethos as well? 

On 17/07/2021 at 20:06, JeremyS said:

Takahashi Extender ED 1.5x.

Turns the Tak TSA 120 into an f/11.3 scope

Good for the planet season, interested to hear how well it works!

Ok, so using a 4-6 “ APO allows you to see a lot,  what are you giving up for lack of aperture? An example would be observing Jupiter or Saturn, summer night, good seeing. Aperture in this case wins, but what more can you see? For instance Saturn’s rings of fine structure of Jupiter’s atmosphere?

13 minutes ago, John said:

Encke minima perhaps ?:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/674315-enckedivision/

 

I'll try with something a little bigger this week and see if I can narrow it down.

Looking through the various divisions in Saturns ring system not many are resolvable with smaller scopes (i.e. less than 11").

Interesting read on CN

18 minutes ago, John said:

What scope ?

Many report I've seen have folks needing 18 inches of aperture or more to get a definitely sighting of this tiny division.

What I did see was the Cassini division and then another gap in the rings towards the outer permitter, which I was presuming was the Encke division.
Maybe something else, as I can imagine a 4" APO with a 1.6 HR running at 506 x magnification is still not going to see the Encke gap.
What else could it of been? Saturn was framed in the EP with the edge of the rings at the edge of the EP view.

18 hours ago, Maxim Usatov said:

Yeah, through the filter this 6" is really an apo! I wish the field was flat, but I think I'm fine with that instrument. Honestly, I haven't tried 3 nm in the city. I've tried 7 nm on Rosette with the 90 mm refractor and it was disappointing, and M42 was OK'ish, but the whole experience still a far cry from Gavin's pictures. Rural sky was a completely different story. 

In London skies I'm told that a faster scope is better as it allows for turning up the gain in the NV device. All your refractor scopes needs to be around F6. 

Flat stars, getting those in a refractor is an expensive proposition, i.e. a Petzval design. Maybe adding TS flat would help you out there? Very much a hack. 

5 hours ago, John said:

That's interesting. Apart from the Cassini and the gap between the C ring and the planetary disk, I find other divisions really tough to see. I'm thinking of the Encke gap which is really hard to spot. Which ones did you see ?:

 

Managed to see Encke gap last Friday night. Didn't know what it was called, so thanks for that.

I did have to use a HR 1.6 mm and 2 mm EP on it to get enough resolution and a goto mount otherwise too  much wobbling going on.

Spent most of the time on Saturn that night as Jupiter was a little too low in the sky.

Since we are heading into the planetary season and I've recently been able to make use of a 4.7 mm XWA on Jupiter and Saturn to enjoy a wide field view of their respective systems I was wondering about using a APM 3.5 mm XWA as well.

Anyone made use of such an EP, and what other EP's are there which are similar? 

In the planetary EP types I have a full set of Vixen HR's and a TOE 4 mm.

Thanks

A really good combination, 6" Achromat and NV, no need to worry about colour correction when you have a black and white view of the sky. 😀

Must be very portable ( the scope is a little wide, however being fast not to long) which is great to visit those dark sites.

How do you find views of the Nebulae compare between London and  Wembury Point when using the 3 nm H filter? From Gavster photos the background is really dark outside of London, you can tell when he has been to the Isle of Wight.

I view scopes getting split into what is appropriate with regards to the quality of seeing available. 

Any APO (or other scope) up to 6" will not be affected by the atmosphere as much compared to a scope with a larger aperture. Usually an APO will be used for fast cool down times and high contrast on the objected being viewed and no waste of aperture due to no central obstruction. 

If seeing is great then the telescope is not so sensitive to the atmosphere, bring out a mirrored scope.

Going small/medium due to the atmosphere would mean using either a Vixen S103SD or LZOS 130 mm for me.

With both I can increase the magnification and keep good views in average seeing. 

For value some of the 120/125 mm ED's from the far east would give you the best view for price ( best value) in all seeing conditions...

On 16/07/2021 at 11:37, Merak said:

Postman Pat brought me this today:

For the current production run they are already sold out, I managed to get the last one in the current shipment. A miracle of an EP...

First chance to see Jupiter and Saturn this year. Saturn looked the better of the two, higher in the sky when I viewed around midnight.

First time I has a tracking mount that made following the planets easier and an APM 5mm XWA which framed the Jovian system perfectly.

Even managed to look a Jupiter with a HR 1.6 mm  which was pushing the limits of the scope.
 

On 13/07/2021 at 19:07, Stu said:

Yes, that was part of the 😱😱! 🤣

In many ways I would prefer a fluorite doublet 130mm to a triplet due to weight and cooling but not for that price gap!

I sometimes wonder if you’d notice the difference between a 130 mm from Tecnosky, e.g.

https://astrograph.net/epages/www_astrograph_net.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/www_astrograph_net/Products/AGTEC130-7

with a minimum Strehl of 0.95 and a more premium make with maybe a smoother lens, better PV…

Once you are at Strehl 0.95 you would need to move to get more out of the scope, better seeing…

On 15/04/2021 at 07:23, Deadlake said:

Yes Astrograph. Checked e-mail, Baader is end of April, APM is listed as late....

Have received all APM EP’s with the exception of the 20 mm XWA which is not obtainable unless someone else knows better.

Just been out and used a 24 mm UFF, a miricle of an EP. Managed to bag the last one in the shipment. No change there on availability.
 

Will have to wait for it to be proper dark before I can fully evaluate it.