badhex

Thanks! Yes, fully agree safety is paramount! A more permanent setup will be constructed. I'm not sure if you've seen the Baader pre-made filters but they have rather sturdy metal pegs with rubber outers, which are bolted in place to fit your dewshield and are a pretty tight fit. This is then supplemented by the velcro straps. In my case, the elastic band (very thick and which I thoroughly tested beforehand) was only replacing the velcro strap part, and there was no wind that morning, so both the pegs and the rubber band would have to fail at the same time, which I believe was very low risk for the brief time I was testing the setup. I also check the filter between every eyepiece swap etc. Perhaps if I need to use rubber bands again though I will adopt your triple band technique - never hurts to be extra careful.

This setup is amazing!

My new Zenithstar 73 out for a bit of solar in preparation for later this week (and in lieu of a proper first light, thanks to evening clouds). For the safety conscious, btw, yes that is a very thick elastic band - but as an addition to the pegs on the Baader pre-made filter. Normally it would use velcro, but didn't want to put it on a brand new scope one day after receiving it!

Congrats! A rite of passage there. I'm really glad you're having fun with the TS - there is something very special about finding objects for the first time 😊 One thing about the comets - depending how fast the objects are moving, you may also be seeing satellites! There are some sites etc. as well as apps like Stellarium which will show you the orbits, so it's maybe worth taking a note of the time and where you are in the sky and looking them up later.

I think the kit is now complete! TS Optics 70ED order was cancelled in the end and replaced with a WO Zenithstar 73 III. Picked up some bolt cases to finish the job, and here we are! Comes in at just about 10kg with with tech in the bag (tablet etc) but there's also a AZT6 (middle, top) as well as the AZ-GTi so I will probably not take both which saves at least 1kg.

A quick update: Retired my GSO 30mm and replaced with a 35mm TMB / Aero ED clone in the 2" case, and added 5mm and 3.2mm BST Starguiders to the 1.25“ case. Just a shame I can't put them in FL order. Plus there's no space for more EPs... Oh no 😱

Okay final purchase (for a while anyway!): Air duster, silica packets and storage bottles for retired EPs as well as for the travel kit!

Got everything set up for a bit of daytime testing yesterday. Not much to look at apart from some closeups of leaves and TV aerials for fringing tests, but all I can say is WOW. Build quality is first rate. Everything feels premium, fit and finish all flawless, down to the small details like PTFE bushings on the tube ring fasteners, and the screw-on cover for the fine focuser. Focuser itself is super solid and held a 2" diagonal plus my 41mm Panoptic without even the slightest slop. Onto the main event - the optical elements. Again, this is only daytime viewing on limited targets but I tried a 41mm Panoptic, 35mm Aero ED, 30mm GSO superview, and at the other end of the scale, 5mm and 3.2mm Starguiders. The Panoptic was obviously flawless, representing perhaps the largest FOV a 2" EP can muster in this scope. Views wonderfully crisp, and focus snapping in easily. The 35mm was bought as a travel friendly alternative to the Panoptic and performed admirably. The 30mm was essentially replaced by the 35mm, as I knew It would not stand up well in a fast scope, and it showed lots of false colour and aberration in the outer 30% of the view as expected. With the 5mm and 3.2mm at the top end of sensible mags for this scope, I was very pleased to find excellent focus, good eye relief and no obvious aberrations. Overall, hugely impressed! Next stop, the night sky!

Great. I've rarely read about a WO scope owner who isn't happy. Really looking forward to using it.

Thanks Stu. I'm looking forward to using it. I'm sure the TS one would have been fine, but the WO stuff is pretty much universally rated as excellent, so I see it as an investment. As mentioned before, I've been sort of re-finding my path back to stargazing over the last 9 months and the key lesson so far has been that portability and easy setup are crucial. I strongly suspect this will be the scope I use the most. I don't do AP either, but perhaps in the future!

I gave up on the unpredictable delivery of the TS Optics 70ED and cancelled my order - not their fault of course but I have a trip to Bortle 4/5 skies coming up, so needs must. Instead, I plumped for a WO Zenithstar 73 which arrived today. Pictures of it set up later!

After some rumination, I decided to cancel the order for my TS-Optics 70mm F6 due to the unavoidable but unpredictable delivery date. In for a penny: I upgraded to a WO Zentihstar 73 🙂 Would have preferred blue, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. Thanks @FLO for the speedy delivery as always - just in time for a weekend full of clouds 😂

That is quite something! I was thinking how my Panoptic 41mm would look with a Powermate attached... There are smaller setups including the scope in the "Small can be beautiful" thread! 😂

I guess it depends if you want to future proof yourself for use in a faster scope. I have the 30mm GSO version of the superview, and it's okay ish at F7.5, but I have very recently acquired the 35mm Aero ED (TS-Optics UFL 69° version, oddly named "Paracor" on the barrel) as it's pretty much universally pointed out that the Aero ED will perform much better in my F6 (when it arrives).

Robustness of the optical train does seem to be a good reason, provided the Barlow/extender itself is sturdy of course!

Oh no, what I have done?! 😂

I guess if one were feeling so inclined, the Barlow end could be screwed direct into the scope end of a diagonal, yielding perhaps 3.5x ish and allowing one to use both 2" and 1.25" EPs at leisure. Would be a bit tricky to know the exact change to FL of the scope but it could be worked out.

I believe the GSO one does the same although I have never tried it.

I have the same if it's the ED one. I had thought it was quite well built for the price, although only rarely used, and only then with a reasonably lightweight GSO Superview. I would tend to agree, and add that there's probably no point using a really high quality eyepiece in a cheap barlow for the same reason. I recently invested in a Panoptic 41mm, and though the GSO barlow pretty good for the cost, it will never stand up to the optics of the TeleVue, so would probably not use them together.

This is a very good point that I had not thought of. I have been lucky enough so far not to experience this with any of my kit but I know it's not uncommon.

Very interesting - thanks Louis! I was thinking of you as I wrote it John, from a post some years ago 🙂 Agreed - the six or seven+ element EPs at the top end of the range of course are optimal, but many don't have those options so it's perhaps more of a problem with stuff at the mid or lower ranges. All of that said though, I guess some people (esp. Planet fans) prefer the purity of fewer overall glass elements. Good to know. If it ain't broke...!

Yes, this too. I know that many people say they don't register the presence of the various TeleVue barlows in the optical train, but that comes at a cost of course

I actually wasn't aware of these, thanks - I hadn't really put two and two together that for the very wide 100˚ etc EPs you'd need the 2" barrel. Slightly off topic, but not sure exactly how the crossover scales e.g. I believe it's about 24mm / 68˚, for max TFOV without vignetting in a 1.25", but what happens to the AFOV when you increase FL by say 2mm? Presumably theres a calculation one can do.

Haha it's funny you say this - I actually wrote a draft reply earlier wondering almost exactly the same thing, but not being into AP I wasn't sure if such large sensors exist. Also, might be useful to the DIY astronomer for converted cameras/webcams that may not fit inside a 1.25" barlow?

I would guess as you suggest that unless you're talking about TeleVue kit you'd just introduce aberrations or other issues. I actually bought the 2" years ago when I got my first 2" EP and was less experienced, thinking I'd need it. I had a very small 1.25" EP collection at the time, and so was regularly using the 1.25" barlow to expand the range of my EPs; it seemed logical at the time that with only one 2" EP, I'd also need a Barlow for the same reason. In general now, I rarely use either any barlow as I can cover most useful FLs with my main EPs.