Gonariu

I saw that these days even in the United Kingdom the temperatures have risen to 12º - 15 ° even if the cloud cover has remained, at least you have a milder weather.

Not only in the North ..... Here it rained from the end of October to the beginning of December, then at least a week of sun during which I resumed the observations of our star, then since yesterday it rains again ........

Terrible, if it's + 3° C outside I don't dare take the telescope out or I make a very hasty observation.

I saw this topic only this morning and I willingly and joyfully join in too: Merry Christmas and happy 2022, may the new year be joyful for all of us, WITHOUT COVID, with clear skies (and I hope here in Sardinia that the next summer without sand of the Sahara that in July and August of this year created many problems for astronomical observation even if neither a cloud nor a drop of water was seen ... ....). A word of encouragement for all of us: do not be discouraged because it is certain that this situation will end, we do not know when but it will end. I also think of the terrible sufferings of the last war, far worse, that there was nothing to eat; my grandmother used to say in Sardinian: “sa gana de su barantaduos” (= “the hunger of '42”). So take courage and “sursum corda” (= “raise your hearts”)!

P.S. for FLO: I read in an Italian astronomy forum that you have excellent products and are well supplied; a very dear wish to you too for a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022.

On 16/12/2021 at 22:44, John said:

Il capolavoro di Tim Wetherell è uno dei miei telescopi preferiti in assoluto!

Questo è ancora più poco pratico e improbabile per me, ma lo ammiro ancora - uno degli acromatici di John Pon, questo è uno Zeiss 10 pollici F/15:

 

Seeing the photograph of this achromatic refractor I was amazed, beautiful is an understatement !!! I read some time ago about the fantastic view of the moon with a 150/2250 achromat, with this 10 ”f / 15 refractor I don't dare think about what you can see with excellent seeing!

Beautiful binoculars!

Post canceled.

Nice battery of telescopes! We have already met in the “Astronomia.com” forum.

16 hours ago, AdeKing said:

Grazie @Stu, sono molto contento della mia collezione anche se ho la sensazione di averne troppe ma non riesco a portarmi avanti.

Mi assicuro di alternarli in modo da sentirmi meno in colpa per averli.

 

I also begin to have a little too many optics and consequently I'm thinking of giving myself a tune, but the temptation is powerful. As refractors I only have achromats, being a visualist I feel less need to buy an ED apochromat or semi-apochromat. I find myself these refractors:
Konusuper 120 (lately I have been using it at 90 mm diaphragm due to a side chipping of the doublet);
Ziel Gem 60;
Konus Vista - 80;
Celestron Travelscope 70;
Vixen 102 - M vintage bought used;
Stein Optik 60/800 vintage bought used (real rubbish, money wasted).

Except the last one, I am satisfied with these optics. Used on an online market (Astrosell) I saw an achromatic 70/700 that has some defects (the left knob of the focuser that turns idle, the lack of the lens cap, the locking screw replaced with any one, having broken) that it is sold for € 60 complete with tripod, mount and accessories supplied (new costs € 249), I'm evaluating what to do with it, maybe at school to show my pupils something; for the knob I believe the spare part is found. I now believe that I am ill with instrumentitis.

In the last two days it has had two consecutive beautiful days of good weather while the rest of this month has done nothing but rain! Before going to the gym I made a hit and run observation of Venus with the Konus Vista - 80 (achromatic 80/400 orange). At 23X you could perceive the phase, at 100X with a Vixen 4 mm lanthanum eyepiece you had a good vision of it even if with the inevitable chromatic aberration that disappeared with an orange W21a filter. Yesterday I tried to see Venus with the Nexstar 8, I left it an hour to reach thermal equilibrium but I ended up observing the planet when it was too low and at 200X the vision was a bit ruined by the differential chromatism of the atmosphere . Moral: if you don't make hit and run observations with a small tool, you need to organize yourself in time. Tonight nothing: it has started to rain again, I'm understanding what amateurs in the United Kingdom feel with the frequent rains that are in Great Britain!

In 2011 I bought a Ziel 120/600 achromatic refractor, the Gem 60 which I love. I had taken it as a second telescope when I went down to my parents in Cagliari so as not to "fast" from astronomical observations. On the Sun for projection it was fine, the Moon at 150X is very beautiful even if it has a nice blue halo, on Mars in the autumn of last year for the opposition of October I put from 200X to 300X making some beautiful observations, i drawings I made I put them in a forum in Italian of which I post the link: https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78404004
(unfortunately I wrote the annotations in Italian, being Italian-speaking). I think both the Skywatcher 120/600 and my 120/600 from Ziel are always made by Synta as they are both made in China. On the deep sky I tried it a little, I can say that I don't mind.

Here in Orotelli (central Sardinia) I observe from my terrace where I have moderate light pollution living on the far outskirts of the town (less than 2000 inhabitants), I intuitively believe that the sky is Bortle 4 or, badly, 5. A a year and a half ago I bought used a small achromatic 80/400 that I love (the Konus Vista - 80, now out of production) that I mount on a photographic tripod, the classic travel setup. For some time I have been thinking of going about 5 km from the village in the countryside to a place that is certainly very dark but I hesitate. The reason is that here is inhabited by "bored" people who if they realize that I go out to go who knows where (according to them), they would make a joke on me in the dark more complete and alone moreover that I would remember for a long time (in the best case ) ... .... But someday I have to risk! When I go down to my mother in Cagliari, I only have slices of sky from the balcony, you don't see much and there is more light pollution than that. The only advantage of Cagliari is that the climate is warmer than that of Orotelli, 5 degrees more (to give you an idea in Cagliari it snows every 30 years, in Orotelli a sprinkle of snow almost every year ago, I think that in winter it is a little warmer than London).

I saw it a few weeks ago with the Vixen 102/1000, not very high in the sky but they were windy days when the air was agitated. However, the phase stood out well, practically a half moon.

Beautiful image, much more beautiful than the one made with a Takahashi 100/900 that I saw today in an astronomy forum in Italian. Also interesting is the raw frame for comparison.

Very nice and interesting review. The beauty of these small telescopes, unjustly snubbed, is that they are ready to use, easy to use and ultra-portable. Surely this Newton 76/300 would have caused furore in a place where I went to dinner a few years ago in the countryside of Dorgali (Sardinia): there was a sky so dark that you could see a sea of stars and that I no longer recognized the constellations, just fantastic! What is the mistake that many make regarding these telescopes? It is the expectation that they reach certain results in fields that are not theirs, certainly on the Moon & planets a Maksutov 90/1250 is much better, but the latter to see vast star fields and deep sky objects trudges in front of this Newton 76 / 300 or in front of an achromatic 80/400.

@assassincz. When did you buy it and where? 24 pounds is about 28 euros which is an exceptional price, seeing quickly on the internet a Dobson 76/300 costs at least 80 euros!

Welcome to SGL!

Quote

As I wrote before, I too started with a 60/700 refractor that didn't mind the Sun and the Moon and allowed you to browse the most notable DSOs. Living 11 months in Cagliari and only the month of August in Orotelli when my father took vacation, I was fine. He was also a small instrument that easily found its place in the trunk of my father's car along with all the family's luggage when we went to Orotelli. These days I will definitely buy a vintage 60/800 that I found at an affordable price. Surely the small achromatic refractors should be re-evaluated because:
1) they are not very expensive;
2) they are easily transportable on vacation.
What about the apochromats, apart from their still expensive price even after the "Chinese revolution" of the 90s which lowered the price of telescopes? For me they are excellent photographic tools for DSOs that do not weigh much, such as 80/400 pure apochromats or ED, which therefore do not require too expensive mounts; or they are beautiful travel telescopes if one cannot bear the short achromatic defects (chromatism, too much spherical aberration, unglued optics, etc.)

Il 27/9/2021 alle 17:36, Barry Fitz-Gerald ha detto:

Una sono i filtri solari Astrozap Baader venduti da FLO - vengono montati in una cella e realizzati per possibilità di trovare una varietà di telescopi fino a SCT da 14 -

 

Are these filters made of glass?

A few days ago I saw it too with my achromatic 80/400 and a glass solar filter. Yesterday and today I was unable to see the Sun both for an afternoon meeting for school (yesterday) and today between cloudy skies and a 170 km descent to Cagliari in the afternoon. We hope for good weather in the next few days ... ..

I had put my drawings on Mars in an astronomy forum in Italian to which I am posting the links:

Drawings of Mars with achromatic 80/400 and 120/1000 diaphragm at 90 mm:
https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78477104#

Drawings of Mars with achromatic 120/600:
https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78404004

If you want and time to see them, give me an opinion, consider that drawing I have never been much.

I initially started with a Russian-made 10X30 monocle, given to me at the age of 14 by my uncles at Christmas 1981, then at 16 in 1983 I bought a 60/700 achromatic refractor from my savings, the Konus Hydra with which I made of the beautiful observations of the Sun, of which I still keep most of the drawings, of the Moon and of some deep-sky objects when in summer we went to my father's town, Orotelli, in central Sardinia, in Cagliari where I lived (almost in the extreme south of Sardinia) between light pollution and having to be content with looking out of the windows there was not much to see. The 60/700 I made the mistake of giving it away because in 2010 I got the CPC 8 for 1750 euros in promotion (which I no longer have as it was stolen from me by thieves in the summer of 2012). I also bought some other achromatic refractors such as the Konusuper 120 (which, due to a chip in the edge of the doublet, recently used a 90 mm diaphragm, becoming a 90/1000 refractor with which I made some beautiful observations of Mars and also on the Moon do not mind at 250X and 333X) or the Konus Vista - 80, bought used a year and a half ago that I use to see the Sun with a full aperture glass filter that I already had and also the panoramas. This refractor surprised me by the fact that it defends itself well even on the Moon and planets surprising me a lot, in an Italian forum I read the reason: it was still produced by the Japanese in the orange version, the blue one was all made in China and on a review in Italian it is spoken very badly. In 2011 I bought for when I go down to Cagliari and not do astronomical fasting an achromaticone of the Ziel 120/600 (the Gem 60) which, despite its chromatism, very evident on the Moon and Venus, at 150X on our satellite is beautiful and also on Mars at 200X I did not mind last autumn, on the deep - sky I used it very little. I got used this summer the Vixen 102/1000 vintage achromatic refractor, the 102 - M which I don't mind on Jupiter, but I used it little. contemplative observations; we see. The fact that this summer here in Sardinia the night sky was painful because of the Sahara sand carried by the sirocco; I was hoping for a slightly dry autumn but the rainy season is starting or, if it doesn't rain, the sky is always a bit cloudy, there is too much wind and the temperature has dropped (today I also put my sweater on inside the house here in Orotelli: it's a pity, I was hoping for a de facto extension of the Mediterranean summer! The still high price of apochromatics doesn't make me want to buy one: for the same price you can buy a nice computerized reflector and see more , then I do not want to say "I do not drink this water" ... .... It is very true that my achromatics / achromats in front of a beautiful Takahashi apochromat disappear but of course they bleed the wallet! Of course, pure apochromats or ED 80 mm and 500 mm focal lengths make beautiful photographs of deep sky objects and are light, so they don't need a sturdy mount, but I don't feel the need to photograph DSOs, I continue to remain an (almost) pure visualist .
@mikeDnight: I really liked your drawings, some of them look like black and white photographs from how well they are done: really congratulations !!!

I have read with pleasure the whole interesting discussion and I must say that I did not believe that an achromatic refractor 80/800 could be used practically as you take it out or just short of it. About twenty years ago I bought the Konusuper 120 (achromatic 120/1000) which I use diaphragm at 90 mm for a chipping of the achromatic doublet on the edge that I don't know how it was done (the instrument has never dropped, I'm thinking of a defect of how they sold it to me and which I never noticed). I must say that using it like this is magnificent, it is not uncommon that on the Moon it puts 333X (Plossl eyepiece from Celestron 6 mm plus barlow 2X also from Celestron, I think achromatic) and our satellite is fabulous, I had a splendid view of the three craters Theophilus , Cyrillus and Catharina; in the past autumn on Mars it defended itself quite well with magnifications of 250X (orthoscopic 6 mm from Unitron) and 333X (as before). I brought the Konusuper to my mother in Cagliari and in the meantime, at the end of July, I bought a vintage lens, the Vixen 102 - M (refractor 102/1000). I know a lot that for the hit and run observations I'll keep the Vixen mounted on an EQ5 that I bought used for a long time; after I have dinner, I fall asleep and I give up using the Nexstar 8 SE (C8) that you have to take out on the terrace an hour before to acclimatize.

On 19/9/2021 at 20:19, Honeybadger152 said:

Così di recente ho acquistato un telescopio di seconda mano poiché sono interessato ad entrare nell'astronomia. Sapevo che il cannocchiale non era eccezionale, ma a £ 45 ea meno di un miglio di distanza, ho visto un certo valore in esso.

Essendo nuovo non volevo assolutamente investire molti soldi.

Il mirino è un Celestron ps1000.

Come detto prima, sono consapevole che non è certamente qualcosa che un maturo esperto comprerebbe.

 

La mia domanda è...

Sarebbe possibile rimolare lo specchio per renderlo parabolico?

Saluti

Chris

I have seen the telescope on the internet, for sure it is one whose original focal length of the mirror is stretched with a Barlow. I think you should keep it that way and practice with it a little and then move on to a better tool. Certainly that the mirror can be transformed from spherical to parabolic but from what I have read from reviews in Italian it is quite expensive. I'll give you one, that of the Newton 114/500 of an amateur astronomer who yielded little with the original spherical mirror, parabolising it had become a superb instrument, but is it worth it considering the expense? The link is this: http://www.davidesigillo.eu/test_114.html.  I'm sorry not to be able to put something in English, I hope that Google translator makes a comprehensible translation of the text (from English to Italian Google translator does excellent translations, from Italian to English I doubt it, on the other hand English is the language international par excellence, few speak Italian in comparison so it is clear that the efforts to improve the program are above all from your language to the others). I don't know what to think about these "barlowed" instruments, today they speak very badly in the Italian forums but with one of them, 114/1000, for the opposition of Mars in 1986 and 1988 I saw some beautiful drawings in the magazine of astronomy "Orione" that once published in Italy.

@Gondalf. I also have the Celestron Travelscope 70/400 for a few years. It is the classic travel telescope that one can safely take wherever they want. As an optic it is beautiful for panoramas, on the Sun and on the Moon I do not mind, as long as you do not exceed 80X - 100 X, with a dark sky I think it is also good for deep - sky objects as long as you do not expect too much, it is only a 70 mm. On the planets I don't see it well, it barely shows the two main bands of Jupiter, on Saturn it shows the ring at 80X, it is an optic designed for something else, certainly an achromatic 70/700 or 70/900 surpasses it greatly on Moon, Sun and planets but they are much less transportable optics than 70/400. I must say that thanks to it I had observed the transit of Mercury from school, I had meetings in the afternoon and I had an hour free. I couldn't have made it at this hour to go home and go back to school and see the transit with a better telescope. I recommend that you keep it when you switch to a better tool.

@Connorbrad98. If you have recently bought it, it is still under warranty, if you find out that it has any defects, have it changed immediately or return it. If, on the other hand, to do this it is too late, try to diaphragm it with a diaphragm made of cardboard, I did so with the Konusuper 120 (achromatic 120/1000) bought in 1999 which gave me satisfaction in the 2003 Mars opposition but for others wait has never convinced me. It, looking at the planets, exhibits a lateral smear that I did not understand where it comes from, looking intrafocal and extrafocal in one of the two presents the "rugby ball" in the other the blurred image seems circular. Lately I found a chip on the edge of one of the lenses of the achromatic doublet that I never understood how it was produced (surely my mistake was to buy it from Mediaworld, who knows if they did not fall). I then diaphragm to 90 mm to exclude chipping making it an achromatic 90/1000 which on the Moon has become phenomenal, often easily holds 333X (Plossl eyepiece from Celestron 6 mm with a Barlow 2X achromatic also from Celestron), also on Mars has held up well this past fall. I enclose a photograph of the Moon taken this year with the Konusuper 120 diaphragm and with the mobile phone.