Ags

No, the wooden case looked like this: The eyepiece case I am using now was my 2011 case, which has until recently been a junk box. In the old days it contained these:

My only prediction for the future is that this thread will get locked! 🤣

Eyepieces seem to spread like mushrooms!

I would have fallen for that line 😆 Good thing I am a programmer not a lathe operator. Although it is usually my type up in head office that buys the "three jaw lathe chucks" (what???) for the unfortunate lathe operators?

Temperatures are measured on Mars and there were media reports of "global warming on Mars" which was used to incorrectly claim Earth's warming was caused by the Sun, not greenhouse gasses. But actually Mars warms and then cools periodically caused by albedo changes as part of its Dust Cycle.

I built a pretty wooden eyepiece case with slots for 12 eyepieces, and ever since then I have been thrashing about like a fish on a hook trying to fill it. Last night I snapped and bought some foam for the old eyepiece case and filled it with the eyepieces I really use. There is no more room in the new case. I am DONE with buying eyepieces! (But see below). These eyepieces are for use with f6 telescopes - a Zenithstar 66, a C6 (with reducer), and possibly a Megrez 88 / Long Perng 90 down the line. I have severe light pollution to deal with, so my widefield is the Explore Scientific 20mm / 68° giving a moderate 3mm exit pupil. The Speers WALER 13.4 mm / 82° provides low-medium magnification and a 2mm exit pupil, and the Explore Scientific 6.7mm / 82° provides high-medium magnification. The Speers WALER 4.9mm / 82° provides high magnification (~0.8mm exit pupil) and also ultra-high magnification when I screw in its extension tube, turning it into a 3.1mm / 82° eyepiece (~0.5mm exit pupil). Two solar eyepieces are stored vertically - an NPL 30mm plossl and (when I find one) a SLV 25mm. For now an SLV 6mm is keeping the space warm. There is room under the filter box for another SLV... maybe the 20mm. No! No! I must resist! The Speers WALERS seem to give the best corrected and easiest views, but I love the ergonomics of the more compact ES eyepieces.

Setting up again tonight, I'll go after more circumpolar doubles.

I was only out for 20 minutes last night as I have a business call early this morning, but fortunately nights are getting longer and I could start observing just after 23:00 local time. Despites the rush I managed to quickly "book" Pi UMi, Pi Cep and STF 2883. I also passed by Alfirk on the way to STF 2883. Pi Cep has a separation of 1 1", I couldn't split it in the C6 at 190x, but the Airy disc was clearly elongated. I think collimation needs a little adjustment then I can have another go.

Hoping to have another go tonight on some Cepheus and UMi doubles. It's an area of the sky I find quite difficult - a bit dim generally and on the orange, city side of my skies, but the new format gives me hope I can inch my way to a few of the targets.

I don't think there is a strict mathematical rule. Every DSO is different and reacts to light pollution differently. Then there is the difference between (1) being dark adapted and the sky being bright from area light pollution sources and (2) not being fully dark adapted because of local light pollution. And everyone's eyes are different and we see differently. Also sky transparency is very important, when the sky is more transparent the DSO is brighter and the sky is darker...

I started past midnight and wrapped up at nearly 1:30. I wanted to go on, but not as young as I used to be... quite pleased to have picked up so many new targets in that time!

Well, it took a day of battling with Amazon's PDF validator, but I have managed to pass their quality checks. There are twently different ways to make text not render in the margins, but or course only the twentieth way I tried worked. The others failed with "text in margin/gutter" error even when there was no text anywhere near the borders of the page.

Wow! Those are big birds!

Houston, we have a problem... The charts are generated using vector graphics. It appears that print platforms recognize text in vector graphics as body text, so print jobs are rejected due to text in margins. Looking at various solutions, such as converting text to curves or even bitmapping the diagrams. I am trying a quick hack now which would mask text outside the margins.

Just to be clear the book hasn't been updated on Amazon yet. Amazon still has the original format. I expect it will be a month at least before it has worked through all the edits and final tweaks.

I was out testing the new layout tonight. I don't have the book yet, I just printed a few pages in black ink. It turns out one page was enough to keep me busy. I was using my C6 (with 6.3 reducer) and Speers WALER 13.4 mm, for a power of 70x. 35 Cas - a wide blue/orange pair. SHJ 355 AC - A wide pair, no obvious color, minor component is a 1.3" double, did not split it. H 3 23 AC - the name's a mouthful, turns out they're the eyes of the ET cluster. A nice surprise. Must rename to Phi Cas in the book and add a description. STF 70 AB - A close pair, the companion is very faint. STF 3050 AB - A tight, equal yellow pair, lovely. Had to change to a 4.9 mm to split it (190x). I also dropped in on some old faithfuls - Achird, Almach, Double Cluster. The new format was a joy to use. No page flipping, enough detail to find targets. With the whole region shown in mag. 7 detail, star hopping was always possible. Very productive and straightforward.

The 25 would also replace the Skywatcher Super 25 in my finder scope (at night of course). I have an idea an SLV 25 would beat the NPL 25 in an f4.1 finder scope, but i will try with the NPL 30 and NPL 20 tonight and see... If they work out for that, I think I will pick up an NPL 25 this weekend!

There's one obvious combo I forgot to include: -- Vixen NPL 25 and 30 This would satisfy my sense of order as both are from the same line. Also, it's the cheapest option.

I've tried my Explore Scientific 20/68°, and felt it was pushing the magnification. Also, I think an eyepiece with a deeply recessed eye lens works best for solar. That's partly the reason why I favor the SLV 25.

I have been planning on getting a Vixen SLV 25 mm for my birthday in a couple of months to go with my Vixen NPL 30 mm for Ha Solar viewing with my Solar Scout, which I usually use at a focal ratio anywhere from f18 to f30. But I am always looking for opportunities to confuse myself, and for opportunities to chat about eyepieices... so wondering about the options. Which of these pairs would you go for? Give your reasoning for 10 marks 😀 -- Vixen SLV 25 and Vixen NPL 30 -- Tak Abbe Ortho 25 and 32 -- Tak LE 24 and 30 -- Televue Plossl 25 and 32 -- Explore Scientific 52° 25 and 30 I have always fancied some orthos, just out of curiosity. But would the Tak ortho be much of an upgrade over my NPL?

Hi, yes I am a member of astroforum, but not that active. I am a frequent user of te-les-koop.nl for buying and selling.

Thanks!

There you go...

I have looked through an Ethos 21 a few times, but I forgot to be wowed 🤣 It was at a group viewing event so I just had a quick peek at things and moved aside. At most I can say it was easy to look through, which you can't always say about widefields. If I was in the UK, I would be very tempted! But I am just researching these eyepieces, not rushing to buy. I might get one around 2024!

Looking at the price of this zoom, and thinking how it's either not wide enough or not close enough, I wonder if my money might better go on this: With an SLV 25, 15, 9 and 6/4/2.5 in it, who wouldn't like it? Or a set of lightish 1.25 widefields? I tried this with a Baader turret but it was a bit rubbish.