badhex

Haha thanks, it definitely had me worrying for a minute or two but it was a real "ohhhhhhh I see!" kind of moment when I realised 🙂

Thanks Stardaze, I look forward to using the combo again soon 🙂

Thanks Spock. Your reports on the Starfield also helped me make the decision!

Thanks John - actually it was a comment you made on the Starfield thread which really got me thinking. I loved the idea of a scope which could get almost 4deg of sky at one end, and 200x the other yet still be reasonably lightweight.

Hello all, After reading all the great reports about the Starfield 102 F7 ED, I decided to treat myself with the equivalent version more readily available to me from TS-Optics. Aside from a decidedly less fun logo and the addition of a finder shoe, the scope itself has exactly the same components including the FPL53+Lanthanum objective and sturdy, rotolock style focuser. In a rare event, it was actually almost completely clear, but I was unable to access the shared roof terrace so had to make do with my NE facing balcony and fairly low altitude ceiling. This was also the first opportunity to use a brand new Pentax XW 10mm. I spent a while just checking the scope, build quality and parts which I have to say are all absolutely first-class. Focuser is super solid and has that classic 'snap' into focus that barely needs the fine focuser if at all. Image is super contrasty and sharp all round. I had picked a random star in Lynx to play around defocusing/refocusing and was immediately worried there was something wrong as I could not quite get a tight focus - something seemed off. It took me at least 15 mins of swapping EPs and fiddling with the focuser to realise that in fact I was looking at 38 Lyncis - a reasonably tight double which was unknown to me until that point! I split it at 159x with the Morpheus 4.5mm. As Orion was becoming visible over the rooftops, I switched over to M42 finding that the Pentax XW 10mm gave the best balance of magnification/contrast and was really quite blown away by how much detail I could pick out. Because expectations are always high with such a showpiece object, I find M42 can sometimes be a little disappointing with a smallish aperture scope under skies with heavy LP, but this was not the case here. I believe this is the best view of M42 I've had with any scope I own. Views were further enhanced by the addition of my Astronomik OIII filter, and I spent the next hour with that setup. A bright view, tons of detail and additional nebulosity visible with the filter - the Fish's Mouth dark nebulosity area seemed almost punched out from the rest of the view. Eventually, wispy intermittent cloud had started to roll in and worsen, but I persevered for a while longer. I kept being hugely surprised as the view would gradually darken from clouds, and then suddenly and vibrantly 'pop' back - almost feeling brighter each time. A wonderful, if limited, first light with two new additions to my arsenal. I imagine these two alone will keep be entertained for a long while!

Thanks! Product code for the bag is TSBAGEQM. For now the bag is laying flat, and in order to feel comfortable standing it up I'd like to add more foam underneath at the very least. When I make the inserts, I will share my progress as well of course.

A few goodies today! TS-Optics mount bag for my skytee. I'll need to purchase some additional foam to make some custom inserts from but a big improvement on the polystyrene box it came in, especially now I've added two PrimaLuce saddles. I've also given in to the demons of temptation and picked up the the TS-Optics version of the Starfield F7. Actually, this is the second attempt - first one was slightly damaged by the delivery service but TS sent a replacement immediately - along with more packing chips than I've ever seen!

You might want to rethink that, the "Pentax Fever" 20% off sale at @FLO ends Monday! 🙂

Spoken like a true Bortle Eighter 😂 I feel your pain! 😭

Thankfully the EPs seat more deeply in the foam than it appears and then "pop up" a bit when the case is opened, but I have been thinking if I can perhaps push the foam down further so they are more snug in their spaces. To be honest I might get a whole new piece of pluck foam at some point and start again, as I feel like I'm approaching a good "final" setup. Famous last words!

+1 for this - the Bortle scale is obviously quite rough and ready but it's not a bad 'finger in the air' description, especially for newer members of the hobby. While looking at a sky is obviously the most helpful, the Bortle scale is helpful in reference to somewhere you've never been, say a holiday where you're perhaps planning to go with a small telescope. SQM is obviously a much more accurate and scientific measurement but perhaps not as easy to remember what constitutes a decent dark sky or not.

The sale came when I was away from home and I'll be honest I was not totally sure if it would fit!

Back at home so have access to my case to add the new Pentax XW 10mm. Not as much room between the Pentax and the Morpheus 4.5mm as I would like but it's a bigger gap than it looks, and once the lid is shut it's nicely held in place by the top foam.

Looking forward to this one as well!

First scope I purchased was a Skymax 102 maksutov, which I still have but has been inaccessible for some years (in storage in another country). I absolutely loved that scope, and would highly recommend it to anyone who would like reasonable power in a compact package. As mentioned, the narrow FOV as mentioned is really the main downside with Maks/SCTs but the cool down time is less of a problem with the smaller options like the 102. I have since bought a Celestron C5 but don't seem to enjoy it quite so much despite the larger aperture.

Hello Starfield fans! For those of you who already own the scope, what are you using for a case? I'm looking at the Oklop 120/600 which apparently which should be fine in length, but have a couple of cm either side in the diameter. Any better options out there? I'd also ideally like the overall package to be shorter than 800mm as that's the size of the shelf it will live on!

Hi @rnobleeddy, make sure you use a cable (either one of the widely available FTDI cables or the Skywatcher USB adaptor) when updating. According to Skywatcher product support it's not only the most stable way to update, but will also allow you to recover a bricked device from a prior firmware update failure 🙂

Has had a bit of a rejig since this (mostly the eyepieces) but here's my travel kit in an Airport Essentials backpack. The AZ-GTi, diagonal and a couple of misc bits are wrapped in microfibre cloth bags which came in a set of three sizes.

Brilliant case setup here, very professional. I'll post my (not so professional) travel setup too!

Great set of pictures! Love the Berlebach combo.

Great lists - thanks all!

One thing worth noting about the svbony version - there are a few cost-saving differences between that and the Starfield/TS version. The objective lens assembly is FPL51 as opposed to FPL53, and does not specifically mention lanthanum for the other element so I imagine it does not contain that either, if that kind of thing is important to you. I'm pretty sure your ZS66 is FPL53 (the most recent models definitely are) so you might notice some difference in the image. It also has a three-thumbscrew compression ring as opposed to a twist-lock mechanism. Everything else externally at least seems to be the same. Might be worth looking into the other stuff like internal baffles etc.

Fluorine and Phosphorous which seem like odd elements to go into glass but I am not a glass chemist!

Haha whoops, @Johnbeat me to it!

Found this on the Ohara site: For each glass type, we have selected on or two chemical elements contained which are considered the most important and have used the atomic symbols of these for the first two letters of the glass type designation. The third letter of the glass type designation refers to the refractive index of each glass type within its glass group: H, M, or L for high, middle, or low. Lastly we assign a one or two digit number to each glass type within a given glass family. Thus each glass type is represented by the above-mentioned three letters plus a one or two digit number. We are also adding the prefix “S-“ to indicate which of the glass types are ECO optical glasses and environmentally “Safe”. These glass types do not contain any lead or arsenic. Full page here: https://www.oharacorp.com/o1.html