Ags

Out of curiosity, is the glass path corrector required in an SCT?

Retirement is over a decade away for me, which I can hardly complain about. But working from home full time has given me a little more flexibility in the mornings and I can can do a bit of astronomy midweek.

Well I could double up my 20 and 30 plossls, and get SLVs matching my 9 and 12 NLVs, so its not impossible. As I struggle a lot with floaters, BV is something I have toyed with...

I have been trying unsuccesfully for two years to fill an eyepiece case... don't make me do it in duplicate!

This year has been a bit of a write off due to building work at my house, but I have had a few sessions squeezed in between the disruptions. I have had some nice views of Jupiter lately but not had a good session with Saturn yet. Every year there seem to be more clouds, which is of course in line with the dreary climate models. But, I'll observe when I can.

Still thinking about this... I feel it might be time to pick up an equatorial mount, just something basic like an EQ5 with an RA drive. Goto is not needed for the Moon and planets, and for my photographic experiments y 4-10 second DSO subs do not require much from the mount either. As for the telescope I currently fancy the 8" Classical Cassegraine - apparently a real perfomer for visual use at least. A downside is the aperture is apparently only around 187 mm, so not that much more than my C6 and thus not much more resolution from an imaging perspective.

Sounds like my kind of party. You're both invited!

I can't complain, I just take snapshots in alt-az mode and the 485 is perfect for me. Here is my NAN from earlier this year.

I only have an ASI485MC and use it to image all types of targets - Sun, Moon, Planets and DSOs. My bad luck is barely a couple of months later the ASI585MC came out with NO AMP GLOW. I think the 485 had the shortest production run in camera history...

Do the ES telextenders change the focus point much?

Good to hear. All my 50-degree eyepieces are reasonable eye relief - the lowest is 15mm eye relief on my NPL 20, so the eyepieces would suffer from having eye relief extended by barlow. As for the NPL 20, I might replace it with an SLV 20 down the line, if one comes up second-hand at the right time.

I have had a Revelation 2x barlow for a few years and have found this cheap and chearful unit has provided more superb service. I am thinking of an upgrade for imaging and visual fun. So I am looking at the Explore Scientific 2x and 3x units. I have heard they are good, but I am not sure what they are: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows/explore-scientific-2x-3x-5x-barlow-focal-extender-125.html FLO confusingly titles them as "Barlow / Focal Extender", so which are they? I think they are telextenders, so they don't alter eye relief or eyepiece field of view. Am I right? I am looking at getting the 2x unit first, which would give me finely graduated effective focal lengths of 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5 and 10mm, which would be perfect for my F5-F6 scopes. This would be from a mix of Vixen NPL, NLV and SLV eyepieces. The 3xis strictly on the 'maybe'list as it would be for occasional photographic use.

I am always reluctant to post my negative reports of Nirvanas. Most people seem to get good ones, or my eyeballs are incompatible with the optical design, or I make unreasonable demands on the eyepieces. It seems the advice to give these a try works well for most people, and this advice has won me over to try twice. But having had two undeniable failures, I will not be trying a third time.

The default IR filter in a DSLR cuts about 75% of the Ha light.

I started out the evening with a plan of some visual observing of DSOs, but a quick look at Jupiter changed my mid and I decided to spend the evening oggling Jupiter instead. I have never seen such good seeing in my locale before. A little after that I decided I needed a permanent record of the evening so I tried to quickly unpack all my imaging bits, which were in dust proof storage during some renovation work. No, i could not find the IR Cut filter! No I could not find the fast USB cable! The is the result from 7.5 ms subs at 67 fps (where is that fast USB cable???).

The seeing over Amsterdam was phenomenal last night, Jupiter was richly detailed, not just in good moments but almost all the time. I cancelled a DSO evening to make good use of the planetary views.

Agreed.

Earlier on this thread others mentioned the Nirvana 4 was soft on planets but sharp on the moon (for them and their copy of the eyepiece). I put this theory to the test tonight and found the Nirvana 4 was acceptable on the moon, but still somewhat soft. I preferred the view in an SLV 6.

I remember those toys, but not their name! Tonight I was observing the half moon very low down (must remember that, in Autumn the first half moon is low, and likewise will be high in Spring). The wiebelkruk had to go to a nearly standing position to get a good eyepiece position. It can go higher too, in case I want to observe a moonrise on the coast.

Wiebelkruk is a fun dutch word meaning "wobble stool". I bought one for my home office ond have found it has astronomical applications. https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/zola-wiebelkruk-zwart-hoogte-54-80cm-balanskruk-zit-sta-kruk-ergonomische-bureaustoel-zadelkruk/9300000095219838/?s2a= The height adjustment is perfect for seated observing and although the seat is by design not stable it steadies me perfectly well for observing. The wobbling is even useful as i can wiebel a little forward or back to get the ideal eyepiece angle. It's also very easy to carry around, compared to some other seating contraptions I've tried. It's also silent - no scraping of metal or wood legs on the paving slabs at 2am. And cheap!

Welcome to the forum!

Nothing in the world of astronomy is more dangerous than a gap in an eyepiece case!

Worst purchase? I think it might be the big dob I am saving for!

Which famous wordsmith wrote "Dull is the man who can spell a word but one way"? The concept of correct spelling only originates with the arrival of the dictionary. Fight the power!

It's a pretty wee thing. I prefer the less flashy stylings of the Svbony version.