PARTY MARTY

Hi Jan!! I'm Martin, And I live in Detmold, not far from you. I not a German citzen, My occupation is I work within the MOD! But if interested to meet-up, just private message me Jan!!!

Yes it is Olly!! I got a strong reddish colour on M42 when using my TS CLS filter, it's alright, but I've quickly opted for the Hutech IDAS LPS-P2 filter instead as the red colour can be quite annoying!! This Hutech is around £200 very expensive but it doesn't add any colour at all, so worth the money definitely!!

Another option, Which the Synscan firmware could be better, I would like to see a comets database on there, Some Goto handsets have this option, But not Synscan why is that?? I know Comet Ison is nearby at the moment, It's annoying trying to manual put co-ordinates from Stellarium!!

Thanks r3i! Finally someone had seen the light!! I totally agree with you the QHY ccds have improved a great deal!! And that's proof that someone as experinced it!! Good luck on the New QHY8L it's an awesome CCD!! So enjoy mate!!

I've got this FF/FR it fits the 80mm as well!! It's a very good FF/FR indeed for the price, Infact they are that good I bought another for my TS 115 Triplet F7 Refractor!! You should looking at a much faster focal ratio of F5.5, which is big upgrade in making your scope much faster for collecting faint DSO's, brilliant for imaging, as this FR also helps to widen the FOV of the scope and flattens the FOV as well!! You can't grumble at the price ethier!!

Thanks Gina!! Still F5 is still better hard to beat!! F5 in a APO is pretty good to be honest Gina?? My Lunt 80mm ED APO F7 once fitted with a 0.8x FF/FR only comes close to F5.5!! I wonder if Skywatcher makes a FR for it, I'm sure that will be next plan from SW??? Love to see what the actually the Focal Ratio would be on the Esprit 80mm after a FR is fitted???

I struggle with just one imaging rig as it is!!! But 2 or more imaging rigs running at the same time that's just hardcore to be honest!! Gina I noticed that you got a FF/FR for the Skywatcher 80mm Esprit, how much is the Focal ratio been speeded up Gina you haven't explained the FR/RR in detail what's the reduction on it ??? I noticed that the Esprit is F5, so I guessing you might be getting around F3.5 or F3 for the scope, that's incredibly fast, infact compared that my 8" Quattro Newtonian, my Newt is slower!! That must have superb FOV, I guess no need for a large CCD chip I guess???

Great review!!! I own the 26mm, 32mm and the 38mm Panaviews, all excellent eyepieces though the 38mm being quite huge I need to the counterweights on my 12" Dob tube, as it makes the Dob very top heavy and unsteady!! I totally agree that the 70 degree FOV is unbelieveable, 32mm is a very good buy and 26mm is not bad ethier, I would skip the 38mm is far to big and bulky!!! For £79 you can't grumble at the price, infact it's quite cheap!! As some eyepieces can cost several hundreds of pounds, which for me being an owner of a ES 100 degree 14mm Explorer 2" eyepiece, I hardly use it and too be fair I prefer to use these Skywatcher Panaviews, I think the FOV is perfect for DSO observing, I feel that 100 degree is for too much and I often get eye strain from it, which shows that overly priced eyepieces aren't usually the better choice!! The Panaviews are superb!! And would seriously suggest anyone to purchase one any day!!

That would be an excellent imaging rig set-up for all scopes and CCDs altogether never need to disassemble equipment again Gina!! I guess this going to be your permenant set-up for an Obsy Gina?? The EQ-8 isn't exactly light???

Thanks Gina!! How does it cope with the OAG, filter wheel and CCD! I noticed that on my LUNT 80mm with all the weight of my imaging rig, the 2.5 focuser slips, quite annoying really especially when you capture light frames and you need to re-focus the image again between filters. The lock bolt doesn't even does any justice ethier??

6.9Kg that's still OK for imaging even on a EQ-5 mount Gina!! Even if it's a 5 element super APO (which I can imagine the sheer robust weight of the scope having alot of glass!) with a filter wheel and CCD that's pretty good actually!! I've managed to successfully image my Lunt 80 ED APO with a QHY 2" filter wheel and QHY9 mono CCD on a EQ-5 without any dramas of tracking and guiding problems, but I had to stick to the finder guider method. But still 7 Kg is maximum for the EQ-5 for imaging!! It's great to hear that the Skywatcher 80mm Espirt is not too heavy, so even low budgeted EQ mounts can also be fitted!! What is the focuser like on the Skywatcher 80mm Gina???

Looks brilliant Gina!! I'm glad that you replaced the original dovetail to Losmandy style, looks more sturdier now!! I wasn't keen on the stepped up dovetail one!! It didn't look right!! Tell us how you get on!! I love to see the images!! I bet they will be awesome!!

I also have a 115mm Triplet, Ok it's a TS one but the scope is virtually the same as Altair!! But I must admit yes the 102 as better glass and optics, but the 115mm FPL-51 is not far off the quality!! And I've been getting good images from it as well. But the price difference is huge, so I adopted for the 115mm never owned a triplet and far the money issues is quite good value, However I wish I could afford a TAK or a Borg, but their are literally the cost of car, which I don't have the budget to stretch that far especially I saving to buy property!! So the 115mm triplet will last me for a long time, infact I'm so happy with it's performance I feel that there is no need to buy a telescope anymore, as I have got all my imaging rig set-up, maybe in 10 years time I might buy another CCD, but the triplet I'm definitely keeping her!!