MalcolmM

Reminds me of a Richard Prior sketch where he was describing visiting Africa for the first time. He said even the rabbits were scary in Africa 🙂I reckon you had a lucky escape 🙂 Malcolm

What a brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing. I've been struggling how to visually show what doubles are within reach of 60mm/100mm scopes. Malcolm

That's my experience too. Also observing early morning or late afternoon when the sun is low helps Ha surface detail. Evening is particularly good when bizarrely, I'm observing over the smog of Belfast! Malcolm

Thanks @JeremyS and @Alan White. It's not too bad a break and rather than big Naglers, I got a tiny Tak Abbe 4mm today 🙂. Amazing the difference 1mm makes! That's what I keep telling my partner 🙂 now I've got the proof 🙂 And thanks to an extremely light G&G setup I can still observe one handed, so all's good! Malcolm

Brilliant. I was going to say it's extremely difficult to capture surface detail and proms in the same pic (I certainly find it so) and then I saw @Stu already said it! Malcolm

Wow! Spectacular sketch of one of my favourite Lunar targets. Malcolm

Fabulous! No more glowing reports though please @Stu. Jealousy is such an undignified emotion in me 🙂 Joking! I've just broken my wrist so I'll Tak huge vicarious pleasure from reading observing reports, especially with such a lovely scope! Congratulations! Malcolm

This Takitis is very contagious! Malcolm

For me, this is really important and you can still get lots of fun and great views with a 60/70mm scope. My grab 'n' go is 60mm and not only can I lift the whole scope/mount/tripod with 2 fingers, I can pack it all into a small rucksack and take it on a plane as hand luggage. Malcolm

I didn't think of that. You could be right. Go for a 210, it's a crime to have mount crying out for a bigger scope 😀 I would be very envious, as I already am of @JeremyS's Malcolm

Just to add a differing experience to @The60mmKid. What he says is true, the Mewlon is known as a Lunar/planetary scope; coma and long focal length! However, with my Masuyama 32mm (which itself is reputed to be bad at the edges), I can just about fit the Pleiades into the FOV and I don't notice the aberrations. This may be because I'm not looking for it, or my eyes are not sensitive enough, or I am just looking at the overall view/context but whatever, I really enjoy the views. I actually have enjoyed the Mewlon with the 32mm very much by pairing it with an FS60CB plus 28mm Erfle on a Giro Ercole (manual AltAz). I use the CB as a finder and observe open clusters and galaxies. The light gathering of the Mewlon is significantly more than the 4" Tak. @PatientObserver, two different experiences from two different users 🙂 I think the Mewlon compliments the 100DC and/or FOA-60Q brilliantly. My only caveat; I'm a self confessed Takophile 😀 Malcolm

I remember reading a book on the Moon in the school library, dated I think around the turn of the last century (my school library was bang up to date 🙂). It was talking about the serious possibility of there being Elephant like animals on the moon! I have seen a couple of Elephant proms however! Malcolm

Very very pleased! Cool down - no problems, I keep it outside in a plastic box for a couple of hours before observing. Caveat is my climate is possibly less severe than yours. Some on this forum use a battery powered fan I believe to help cool down. Collimation - no problems yet! Collimation was perfect out of the box, I have not needed to touch it. Though it might be a bit tricky, I'm sure it's doable with a bit of patience and so far in my experience, it would seem to keep Collimation very well. The finder was also spot on out of the box. I have had no dew problems either which is a big benefit of the open tube. Potential future purchases for you 🙂: a 2" Masuyama 32mm eyepiece gives great widefield (for a 2m focal length scope!) views. Other wide field eyepieces are available 🙂 Also I use a pair of Maxbright binoviewers with the Mewlon and they genuinely give an almost 3D view! Highly recommended. FOA-60Q ... Great choice. It's a truly beautiful scope to look at. The views through it aren't bad either 😀 Malcolm

Did anyone else see the huge changing prom this afternoon? I was ducking in and out while cooking and it seemed to change shape before my eyes. This may be slightly wishful thinking as with an unguided mount the sun is moving in and out of the Lunt 50 sweetspot and I'm nudging it to try and keep the feature in the sweetshop as best as possible. I was using a Lunt 50 plus Stella Lyra Linear Binoviewers plus BCO 10mm eyepieces. At its largest I estimated it to be approximately 1/8 the diameter of the sun in height. At one point it resembled a 4 legged deer (as opposed to a deer with any other number of legs 🙂 ) Malcolm

I'm a great believer in ease of use and portability. If I were in your position I would have gone for the 6". I think you've made a very good choice. Malcolm

Totally agree! Now all we need is for someone to come along with a better way of doing it! So I set it up a certain way and then change eyepieces to change magnification. I think @Stu does something slightly different for example. He uses the same eyepieces, but changes Barlows and/or adds extension tubes ... I think! Malcolm

And just for completeness (I'm enjoying this 🙂and it's good to record it all), here's the native setup, no GPC. Note the Tak coupling has had to be removed to shorten the light path enough! I don't really like doing all this screwing and unscrewing in the dark, so I try to set it up before observing, depending on what I'm observing! Malcolm

@ukskies, to come to focus with the 1.7 GPC, I put a 15mm extension between the prism and the nosepiece. Now the focuser is racked out about 11mm. Here's the 1.25 setup: And here's the 1.7 GPC setup. Note the T2 extension attached between the prism and it's nosepiece. Hope this all makes sense! It's a bit of a black art! I don't have the 2.6 GPC but it would probably require a longer extension. You could work it out from the respective light path gains the 2.6 gives you w.r.t. the 1.7 and 1.25 Malcolm

With the Tak 28mm Erfles in, the focuser is racked out about 14mm. Total range is about 30mm Malcolm

I'm trying to resist! But once the itch starts it's hard to ignore! I've enough trouble as it is choosing which telescope, which eyepiece, binoview or not, which binoviewer, which GPC, and back to which eyepiece pair 🙂 Thankfully I don't use filters! And they say choice is a good thing 🙂 First world problems I know! Malcolm

No, the GPC screws into the Binoviewer side of the diagonal in this configuration. The Maxbright manual (which can be downloaded from their website I think) shows all the different configurations. In some configurations the GPC screws into the Binoviewer itself. If you can download it, it would give you a very good idea of which accessories you might need. I have no experience with the 1.6x extender but it looks like a very tempting addition; a good way to push the FC100 to it's limits 🙂 Malcolm

Great tip @ScouseSpaceCadet thanks. Observing when the sky is brighter showed definite albedo markings. Great image @Mr Spock, it's much more detailed than anything I have managed so far. Malcolm

The pic in my previous post shows my default set-up. Note the tube section in front of the focus assembly is removed. 2" click-lock attached to the Tak coupling. Then a 2" to 1.25" click-lock. Then the Baader prism diagonal with a 1.25 GPC inserted. Then the Maxbrights. I can easily use and merge images with 7.5 LE eyepieces (which I find very difficult with Williams Optics Binoviewers), and for widefield I use 28mm Erfles. Native usage requires attaching the 2" click-lock directly to the focus draw tube. The use of the 1.7x GPC requires a small extension to be added, approximately 2.5cm Malcolm

Big thumbs-up from me for the Maxbrights too. They are fantastic optically and mechanically. I use light eyepieces as the binoviewers are quite heavy and it seems counter intuitive to heavily weigh up the eyepiece end of a very light scope. I mostly use the 1.25 GPC and it, the 1.25 Baader prism diagonal and the Maxbrights all work and fit together seamlessly. The short focus travel of the FC100 will mean extending and shortening the light path with extension tubes probably if changing between using the Maxbrights natively and with the various GPCs. Removing the tube section of the scope just ahead of the focuser will give you more options. It took me quite a bit of experimenting and various Baader parts to get it all working well. I find Binoviewers so relaxing to use, I use them for everything except the biggest DSOs and clusters. I don't use them all the time as they are slightly more awkward than mono but every time I get them out after mono sessions I say "Woh! why don't I use these every time!" Malcolm

When I started I thought all you needed was one scope and three eyepieces. Now I'm a few years in I realise you need one scope and three eyepieces for each day of the week! I must pay homage to my partner here who has actively encouraged me in this insanity 🙂 Malcolm