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My Motley Crew


furrysocks

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I started back in December with a 3" Aldi dobson, and immediately bought 30mm and 8mm Vixen NPLs. Wow, I thought!

Having tried these in my new DIY dob (8.5", f/7.6) I knew I needed a few more EPs. I know I'm meant to be saving up and buying a few good ones, but I didn't - not really.

A cheap £15 40mm plossl - in the 3", I can't get rid of the shadow of the focuser in the middle. In the big dob, the eye relief is so large and the eyecup so small that I struggle to look through it. I will try wrapping a small length of camping mat foam or something and zip tie it round the barrel, just to give my eye something to rest/register on. Giving me a nice low mag view at 41x, 5.3mm exit pupil but not much over 1deg TFOV, alright for the money, perhaps.

A £38 80 deg 11mm - 149x, ~0.5deg TFOV. Not bad - currently my preferred EP. Good Jovian and Lunar views. Had to let the primary out a few mm as I couldn't focus first time even with the focuser wound all the way in. It's a good 1/2" in from any of the other EPs which is a little annoying.

2nd hand £35 TMB Planetary II 58deg 6mm - 272x, 0.21deg TFOV - what a little cracker. I'm really happy with this EP, lunar at least. Dob az bearing is very stiff and cause me problems using this EP but the lunar views, even over the rooftops - 0.8mm exit pupil, eye floaters starting to appear, atmospherics evident, but nice watching the moon drift across the fov.

I thought that the 6mm would be for "exceptional nights, only" but being so pleased with the performance on the moon tonight, I think I'm now after a 4.5mm TMB PII to give 363x with 0.6mm exit pupil, and about 43x/inch. That is perhaps as far as I'll push this scope. We'll see... ;)

Don't know if I want/need anything between the 30mm and 11mm - a mate might have an old 17mm but I don't think I'm going to go and buy one.

I have no Barlow, not sure I'm going to get one.

These are getting me going, though - around £170 spent.

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In my opinion you are wasting your money buying an eyepiece that gives that amount of magnifcation, X363 is just too much on more than 90% of the clear nights you will get, some would say it is too much period.

Of the eyepieces you were looking at I have no experience with either, but have had may Meade eyepiece but not this range, generally they are good but expensive and have no real secondhand sales value compaired to say Telvue Plossl. The highest I would go for the time being in your scope is 6-7mm focal length and I would say nearer the latter would give you better views.

Alan..

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Thanks, Alan.

I accept that 6mm and lower is pushing it. I've only been in this for a few months, but have read of a general mag limit for UK skies, mag limits per inch of aperture, min/max exit pupil sizes, massive mags for resolving doubles, etc... There seems to be a balance to be struck and criteria/limits to 'what makes for a good view'.

The lunar views in the 6mm were great!!! - the Jovian views through the 6mm on a patchy night otherwise dark skies were some of the best I've had. Going purely on my experiences looking through what I've got, I want to (and I think I can) push the scope a little more. Again, nothing to compare my experience to, really, but on feel alone I'm still tempted to push one more notch - 5mm or 4.5mm.

It's a long F/L - 1635mm, 216mm mirror - I've been assuming that that affords me a little more mag and less of a need to go with some of the more expensive EPs. I may have got that wrong.

So if it's mainly a scope for planets, lunar, solar and splitting doubles, does that change the advice re: max mag at all, or am I kidding myself?

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All joking aside, I was pushing X360 last night with my 115mm APO on the Moon and I was , well, shocked at how good it was. The scope is one of the best you can buy though but it is normally seeing that is the limiting factor. You must have some very good skies up there in Bonny Scotland, a long time since I was there. I remember one night on Nevis doing the 3 Peak challenge the sky was so dark I was almost frightened. shortly after the heavens poured on me.

Juptier I normally stick to below X200, Saturn I push to X260ish and Mars I have gone to X300, Venus I when to about the same but there is not much to see. I too have very dark sky and I own all the light swiches around me for about 150 yards.

Good luck,

Alan

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