cajen2

I find the SL to be an excellent EP: sharp and flat across the FOV. I honestly have nothing negative to say about it.

Two great images of my favourite galaxy! 👍

Hi Jerry and a warm welcome to the Lounge.

Nice voyage of discovery for you when you get your first scope. Have you decided what to buy yet?

20 minutes ago, Space Traveller said:

Sorry all, I've been very sick the last few months or so in hospital undergoing open heart surgery and forgot where I posted this question.

Yes, they are both moving away from earth but in which direction - is Star A moving to the left and Sta B to the right.

If that is correct, how do we know.

Because they're both red shifted - Doppler effect shows they're both moving away from us.

2 hours ago, John said:

Superb lunar views at the moment 😁

Lovely fine detail such as the Rima Hadley cutting across the plain beneath Mons Hadley. The area of the landing site of Apollo 15 clearly on view.

I'm working on the basis that the Svbony zoom at 3mm is really giving around 3.5mm so that's 257x in the ED120 and sharp, sharp, sharp 🙂

Likewise, great views with the Starfield and the Svbony zoom at 3mm. Sharp as a tack.

On 20/02/2024 at 16:57, Jim L said:

A 92mm f/6.65 is about as large as I’ve found comfortable with this mount; my 102mm f/7 was a bit too much. The mount arm can be reversed at the mid joint.

I've just been using my SF on the Moon, at a maximum mag of 239x. Vibrations were there when using the focuser or slo-mo controls, but with the Berlebach, they were only momentary, quickly dampened and were no hindrance at all.

Beautiful scope and so easy to set up. Jealous? Me? 😉

Well, it's the one I chose after extensive research....and I"ve never regretted it.

3 hours ago, Pixies said:

Oh no. I hope nothing too serious! Shame we missed each other - September hopefully

Hi. No, more preventative than reactive really. I hoped to be able to get back to Cwmdu but the timing made it fruitless.

I came for Friday but then had to hurry off home Saturday early for a family emergency. The brief time I had was good, despite the rain and 10/10ths cloud.

To scale and no doubt accurate too! 😂

+1 for the UFF 30mil - its quality matches that of your Morphs, making you more inclined to use it for widefield viewing as well as for finding stuff. It's an excellent EP.

I'd have to go for the Bresser too. I have the manual version of the Virtuoso and though it's excellent optically and very light to carry around, its helical focuser is a PITA for me.

Either way, you'll need something light and very stable to put it on. I use a wooden three-legged stool, which does the job perfectly.

In your place, I'd be considering the Starfield or the StellaMira. I have the SF and it's an excellent scope optically, with great build quality and a very good focuser.

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

Mine would be:

Skywatcher ST80
OO OMC-140
Skywatcher 10" Newt
Celestron C9.25

I tend to keep scopes a long time, so don't expect any sales anytime soon! Possibly the 8" f4 - I've had it six months and used it once... The Helios 120mm is well over 20 years old - a keeper as you would expect.

.....and a Starfield 102 ED.....😉

Easy question for me as I only have two scopes and use one of those 99% of the time! It's my Starfield 102ED.

Is the size of the FOV important to you? I ask because most zooms have a fairly narrow one, which gets worse at longer focal lengths. My Baader Hyperion IV is the best one I've tried.

I've always found anything with a FOV of less than 70° to be rather claustrophobic. My favourite range is the Baader Morpheus and in that range, the 9mm might be ideal for you: 250x mag for an 8mm is not very often achievable for a clear image because of poor seeing. The 9mm would give you 222x,  rather more useful imo. The only downside is price: a new one would be £229 from FLO but very much worth it if you can stretch to that - it's a great EP.

4 hours ago, Elp said:

At this sort of price range and for the crispest views you've got a choice of refractors in no particular order:

Askar 103/120/140 triplets,

Takahashi FC100 doublet,

Starfield 102 doublet (which I've got, it's excellent).

If you're willing to give up some FOV a Celestron Edge HD8. A C6 also works well but I find it's FOV restrictive for DSO, the 100mm refractor is far more comfortable to use.

 

 

I have the Starfield and it's truly great.....but in your position, I'd get the StellaMira 125. It doesn't weigh much more and you get a whole 23mm more aperture.

15 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

Only two;

Starfield 102 ED

Skywatcher Evostar 72ED

And I'll probably be selling the 72ED since it's just sat collecting dust. I seem to be one of a kind here 🤣

Likewise: only two.

Starfield 102ED F/7

SW Heritage 150p.

I did have a StellaLyra 8" dob - superb scope - but sold it in order to buy the Starfield, which is much kinder on my back!

The Heritage dob doesn't get much use these days as the focuser drives me insane after the smooth, two-speed one on the SF.

So basically one scope.... luckily it's a great all-rounder.

2 hours ago, Zermelo said:

This is why I bought the AZ-GTiX, which has a stated capacity of 6kg one side and 10kg total.

My previous mount was rated at 5kg, but when I uprated the finder, got a 2" diagonal, etc. it was pushing it.

Likewise. Mine carries a Starfield 102ED, weight about 5.3kg with all the trimmings, including a 2" diagonal, on a Berlebach Report tripod.

Well, a very pleasant weekend despite having zero chance to observe! Nice to see everyone again and thanks to Tony as usual for organising it.

Snap 2. I got mine as a prize in my primary school. I set myself the task of learning the Greek alphabet from it - can still recite it 60 years later....😂 There was something so enthralling about PM's enthusiasm.

42 minutes ago, reddoss said:

Will get there tomorrow.  

Justyn

 

Excellent. See you then.

Well, I'm here....😉

If anyone else comes early and wants to look me up, I'm on pitch 5.

25 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Totally unexpected session with varying cloud cover which, by 10.15pm was too much so after getting lovely splits of Rigel, Alnitak, Algieba, Almach as  well as Zeta Cancri, an early night, but great to be out with a scope for two consecutive nights.

Nothing earth-shattering for me: similar to Saganite with fewer targets. My whole view south is ruined by a street light a few yards from my garden, making Orion invisible at normal times until this time of year. Started with Jupiter but it had just started to be blocked by trees, so just used it to align the finder. So went over to M42, the Trap, etc. I can't get more than four stars in the Trap whatever the mag because of the verdammt street light but it's the first time I've been able to catch it properly since getting the Starfield 102. Then onto a couple of doubles: Mintaka and Alnitak. Easy split on both using my Morpheus 12.5mil for only 57x mag. I was gratified, as I'd got them many times before with my 8" dob and was worried that the drop in aperture would affect it. I needn't have concerned myself - didn't even need the big guns like the Svbony 3-8mm zoom. Had a glance at Sirius but it was doing its  usual disco ball impression. Bit of cloud started coming over so packed up and came into the warm!