Ags

I was watching the transit on my laptop screen. Some really great seeing last night. I didn't see Io approaching Jupiter, so I was quite surprised to see a shadow appear!

I imaged the shadow transit on Jupiter last night, shooting 8 six-minute sequences - I wanted to see if I could get away with stacking longer sequences. I also shot Mars afterwards - but it was still too low and my corrector plate was slightly fogged.

Nice and very clear picture of Hellas - the only place on Mars where liquid water is stable on the surface.

Still waiting for the scope... In the mean time, I am plotting the next steps of my setup. I want to replace my Berlebach Report 112 with a taller 312, and likewise upgrade the AZT6 mount head with a Mount Zero. Also thinking about getting a Baader T2 prism and bolting it to a TSFLAT2 flattener, but of course I need to see if the curvature of the LP90 bothers me first. I can't do without a finderscope, but 50mm can be a bit of an overkill. Now I am thinking the Askar FMA135 might do the job - its a 30mm aperture lightweight and would do double duty as an imaging scope on those dark sky trips. I said my scope buying days were over... But I wonder if it has the backfocus for an amici prism. Assuming it is good, I am thinking the Svbony 3-8 56° zoom could just live in the focuser - it would get wide enough for most DSOs and zoom in close enough for doubles and planets. But that eyepiece is not released until the end of the year... maybe. The other eyepieces that seem ideal for the new scope are my ES82 6.7 mm and ES68 20 mm.

I will resolutely leave the coin unflipped 😀

I wouldn't mind sending my grab and go setup to Galileo, assuming DHL deliver to the Renaissance. 😀 I wonder what the shipping costs would be? All I ask in return is that he sends me a few small, entirely inconsequential sketches of what he sees...

Well, the charts cannot distinguish between bortle 9 and, as is my case, being as hard of seeing as a bat 🤣

There is a cure, it is called a vitreoectomy, but my commitment to stargazing has limits!

To keep my solar telescope company as it hibernates through the winter.

I only use it in AZ mode with the SCT.

Yes it looks similar to the AT72 or indeed my ZS66. Compared to the AT72, the 90 seems to add lanthanum glass, so maybe it won't be too far behind in CA terms. Besides, i have a magic diagonal 😀

He'll need a focal reducer for imaging.

Apparently the cheap Celestron prism is the best. It works in my ZS66: with a mirror diagonal, there is red and blue fuzz either side of focus, and with the prism the fuzz stays white. Trying straight through won't help. You need the prism to introduce mild CA opposite to the scope CA. Edit: the reason the Celestron prism is preferred is it (reportedly) uses cheaper glass that causes a stronger CA shift.

Are you using a prism diagonal with the scope - they seem to help with red correction.

I suspect Mars will be the toughest test as I understand these scopes are less well corrected in the red spectrum. I am certainly hoping for some monster Jupiter views! I'm not expecting or tolerating obvious color fringing, let's hope the false color is subtle.

I'll post my thoughts over the next few months on this thread. It's hard to judge the first few nights...

It does look a bit "Disney" in that photo 😀 All my scopes are cute: ZS66, C6, now the LP90. Busy rethinking my eyepiece case... Hopefully this arrives in time for my trip to rural Wales at the end of the month.

I've said it a lot of times, so I know what I am talking about 😀

To avoid confusion, I should add that the OTA comes in two flavors - an ED/RFT version with regular glass and lanthanum, and an APO version with FPL51 and Lanthanum. @ONIKKINEN has the RFT version. There are one or two threads about these scopes on CN, but they seem to mix up the two versions.

I am hoping this ends my scope-buying ways. The ZS66 for photography, the LP90 for visual, and the C6 for solar system imaging.

You don't hear much about these scopes but I have been hovering over the buy button for a while, and finally committed today. It's a 90 mm f5.6 FPL51 doublet. I hope the chromatic aberation is reasonably controlled as the FLP51 is paired with a Lanthanum element. In a former life, this scope was the very fashionable Megrez 88. I'm not expecting Takahashi levels of correction but if it's not good enough... the delivery van goes two ways. I have bought a Celestron prism that reportedly cleans up the CA in the Megrez 88 at least. What I like about the scope is the reasonable weight (3.3 kgs), 41 cm transport length, and wide 500 mm focal length. I can see it being used multiple ways: - air travel to dark skies - doubles, I prefer views in a refractor to my SCT, but my ZS66 is a bit aperture limited, and fainter components just can't crawl out of the light pollution - solar with a herschel wedge or Quark (I should be able to get a full disk with a combo Quark and 3x telecentric extender). - as an RFT 'sweeper' - I love planetary views through a 66mm APO so I am hoping an extra inch of aperture will be even better (CA worries aside...) If the LP90 doesn't work out, I'll be getting an Evolux 82.

This means you are out of focus, and are bringing the secondary mirror into focus. To get the planet in focus, try firstly to make the yellow circle in your diagram as small as possible. In a Heritage 130 with a 10 mm eyepiece, a planet will be very small 😀 Welcome to the forum!

I would like to own one of those... seems the perfect 2" eyepiece for an SCT.

I have fond recollections of a 9 and 6 mm TS Planetary HR - same eyepiece, different branding. I thought they were both rather good, particularly the relaxed viewing experience.

I've never used the AstroFI mount, but I have also heard it is at its limit with the C6.