StuartT

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

I'm at this point in my wifes life that I'm perfectly happy to go with cheaper eyepieces....😀

haha! I am divorced and single so I can now spend what I like. But (believe it or not) I bought the LX-90 when I was married (this was 12 years ago) and I actually pretended I'd won it in a competition rather than admit to buying it! 🤦‍♂️

The only thing more ridiculous than that is that I was believed... 🤣

1 minute ago, HollyHound said:

Never ever... ever... look at Tele Vue Ethos... just don't 😬🤣

now you knew I was going to, right?

100º !!! 😃😃

10 minutes ago, jetstream said:

😀

You know the 10mm Delos would be a great addition, extremely low scatter, very sharp and high transmission. Its a goto eyepiece.

Crikey! £336 !

I think I had better learn the ropes before going crazy with my shopping (an urge I am very poor at controlling at the best of times!)

I have an old Meade 390 (thanks for the ID guys!) which I was given years ago. The lens cap (assuming it had one originally) has long since gone. 

Is it possible to buy replacement lens caps? The dew hood diameter is 10cm

Can't seem to see any online.

4 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Both high quality and very expensive.

It's a bit like Pringles - once you pop, you cannot stop sort of thing - and being expensive - fair warning is in order - "Your wallet may suffer"

I would just like to point out that you have two slow scopes and you really don't need expensive eyepieces to get very good performance. Notice those posted diagrams and difference in spot sizes between F/10 and F/5 scopes. Most eyepieces work rather well in slow scopes.

useful to know. thanks.

Of course, it's always possible I may buy a new telescope at some stage (a faster one) and then I'll benefit from fancy eyepieces 🤣

3 minutes ago, John said:

Wicked man

I think I may be missing something here... are televue eyepieces very fancy then? Is that why @faulksy was warning against them?

14 minutes ago, faulksy said:

the green and black root

what's that?

14 hours ago, Louis D said:

Besides MA, there are Ramsden, Huygens, and Kellners which are typically lower than Plossls in the pecking order of eyepieces.  They're the designs typically packaged with "department store" scopes for $20 to $40 for an entire telescope package.  Here's an image showing various simple eyepiece designs and their spot diagrams which show how well they display a star at various points within the field and with different f-ratio scopes.

@Louis D would you be able to point me to where these diagrams came from? I need the legends to explain them (e.g. what F e and C mean and how the colours mean). Thanks

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

An SCT has uncorrected field curvature and coma in its standard commercial form.  That's why there are various correctors for them for photography that are placed near the rear port.

I must admit you've lost me a bit there... 😔

11 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Well done. I see your forecast is no better than mine!

ok, so now I have it properly embedded, I need to try and figure out what it's telling me! 🤣

BINGO!

Thanks! 👍

49 minutes ago, Pixies said:

try by inserting either the 'link' or 'code' items:

Hmmm.. I tried both, but it's not working for me. Which was it you inserted? The BBcode or the HTML?

50 minutes ago, Pixies said:

No idea - it's been a while since I set it up. I can;t remember how I did it, now!

If I edit it by double-clicking on it in my signature settings, I get the following: 

how are you getting to that Image dialog? My signature box doesn't appear to give me that option

Just now, vlaiv said:

You are probably confused by magnifying secondary mirror. It is not flat like in newtonian - it has curve and that curve does similar thing to a barlow lens - it diverges light rays coming in from primary mirror and amplifies primary mirror focal length.

you are correct. I was assuming the secondary mirror was flat. Thanks

Aha! Thanks my wise friends 👍

19 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Are you sure it's not a 90mm objective lens? There's a Meade 390 f/11 AltAz that looks very similar

btw - why won't my Clear Outside widget embed properly? I am using the BBcode from the Clear Outside website. You seem to have managed it!

Actually, you could be right. I can't actually get inside the hood to measure the actual diameter of the lens. The hood diameter is 10cm, but the lens is a little smaller than that.

Thank you! 

My LX-90 tube (plus focuser) is 46cm long. Given the optics of the SCT design, I struggle to see how it can have a focal length of 2m (as it claims). Is the focal length not just the distance between the primary mirror and the focus? 

I was given this Meade refractor by an uncle years ago. The aperture is 10cm and I think the focal length is 1m.

Anyone know what model it is? 

Smashing! Thanks everyone. I have bought a filter for my 20cm SCT and am now much happier 😀 

On 21/07/2014 at 11:29, FLO said:

We have added two more embeddable forecasts so you can now choose small, medium or large options

To embed a Clear Outside cloud forecast in your forum signature, website or blog please go to your local forecast then click on the 'Embed forecast' button (top-left). 

 

Hi

Can't get that to embed in my signature. I tried both the HTML and BBcode versions. What am I doing wrong?

First of all apologies for yet another newbie post asking about solar observing (I am sure all you experts find it a bit tedious). I just want to be 100% sure that I won't fry my eyeballs!

Can I check with you the following;

1. Solar filters should be covering the aperture of the scope, not the eyepiece (in order to protect all the optics)

2. they should be the metallized kind (like Baader planetarium film). For example this

3. once securely in place, you can observe using regular eypieces with no further filters needed at the bottom end

Thanks. I just have anxieties about this!

1 hour ago, Ricochet said:

The equivalent to the "kit lens" is probably the MA eyepieces supplied with some scopes so Plossls are a step up from that, perhaps a "good kit lens". once you get the Morpheus the most obvious differences you will see will be the wider field and the greater comfort due to the eye relief, especially compared to the 6.7mm Plossl. You might also notice the coatings are a bit better and it seems more transparent and that the stars near the edge of the field hold their shape better, although at f10 this last one might not be very obvious as f10 is kind on eyepieces. If you had an f5 scope (or get one in future) it would be very obvious.

Thanks. The Plössls were supplied with my telescope I think. 

I only heard about the concept of 'eye relief' the other day. Something to do with how close your eye has to be to the eyepiece to see everything. I'm surprised that's an issue as I have not been aware of that. But obviously you guys know far more than I!

Does low eye relief end up being uncomfortable then? What's the practical disadvantage?

4 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Your Plossls could well be in danger though.

So are Plössl eyepieces basically entry level, economical eyepieces? A bit like the 'kit lens' on a camera?

uh oh... surely you're not suggesting this is an endless process of buying newer and better toys... ?

🤣