Baader/Zeiss prism first light

[jetstream]

Tonight under below average seeing the 90mm Stellarvue is being tried with the 2" Baader/Zeiss diagonal and what a difference.I can now up the magnification greatly,compared to using my mirror diagonal.Mars will take 210x,with about 180 being optimum.The colour is outstanding,the richest,deepest colour of Mars yet,a big difference.The little ice cap and the "frosting" on the other pole are excellent,very contrasted as are the dark patches about the surface.Jupiter is much better as well with the 90mm able to use 150x-170x easily and the 126x(5mm KK) showing its best.Big white oval seen in the band and splits and separations crisply showing.The polar caps shading is excellent.There is some slight color showing on the defocused planets(blue) but none in focus.

This telescope has never been able to take magnification well, and with quality eyepieces.Early on I posted about a glare issue,which turns out to be scatter induced by my mirror diagonal.When the views with the Baader wedge turned out to be so good,I started to wonder and after reading BillP's thread on diagonals I figured I would try a good prism- and last week had the good fortune to find a Baader to purchase.Thanks to Bob @ Alpine Astro for the great service.

This Baader/Zeiss diagonal is excellent,but we knew that-in my case it made a very nice difference on the planets,but I think my mirror diagonal is poor.The thing is I am now wondering how good the views could be though a TEC 140 with one of these

[Stu]

Nice one Gerry, very pleased it has lived up to expectations in the same way it did for me.

I think they probably suit longer focal lengths best as there is some slight colour to them which I understand is worse in faster scopes.

Whilst by no means a TEC140, I am certainly looking forward to first light for the prism in my Vixen :-).

Thanks again for the great report.

Cheers,

Stu

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[John]

Great report Gerry 

Out of interest, what brand was your mirror diagonal ? 

[alan potts]

Gerry,

Nice report and I am pleased the diagonal is good for you, I am guessing this is a prism diagonal. I wonder how they compare to the diagonals John and I use, the Televue everbright mirror, I thought these were meant to be class leading and as good as you could get.

Yes it is a prism, helps if you read things correctly, sorry!

Alan

[jetstream]

Great report Gerry 

Out of interest, what brand was your mirror diagonal ? 

Hi John,the mirror diagonal I have is a 2" Stellarvue which I paid good money for.#D1029ED http://www.stellarvue.com/diagonals.html.I don't like brand bashing,and my 90mm Stellarvue is a really good scope.I also have not contacted Vic @ Stellarvue about this,no doubt he would have helped me out if I could have identified the issue earlier on- my lack of experience was a big factor in identifying the glare situation.

[Stu]

Gerry,

Nice report and I am pleased the diagonal is good for you, I am guessing this is a prism diagonal. I wonder how they compare to the diagonals John and I use, the Televue everbright mirror, I thought these were meant to be class leading and as good as you could get.

Yes it is a prism, helps if you read things correctly, sorry!

Alan

Have a read of BillP's review Alan and you will get it. Put simply (which suits me!), the reflective surface in a prism is obviously internal, and this means it is always clean and clear. The Zeiss prism is very high quality and there is a noticeable reduction in light scatter, particularly when observing planets.

I have only had a chance to use mine with my TV76 and similarly to Gerry's experience the scatter was reduced and I was able to use higher magnification before the image degraded.

There is a small amount of CA produced but this is minimised in longer F/l scopes so in theory it should be an ideal match for my Vixen.

Stu

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[alan potts]

I have never tried a prism but then I don't see that I have a great deal wrong with what I am using. That said one can never have enough diagonals but I am not going to buy one at the moment. I bought a 12mm Delos on about 9th of April and I haven't seen the stars since so I am not going to risk another buy as the forecst is looking a little better next week.

TYhanks anyway Stu.

Alan.

[YKSE]

Hi John,the mirror diagonal I have is a 2" Stellarvue which I paid good money for.#D1029ED http://www.stellarvue.com/diagonals.html.I don't like brand bashing,and my 90mm Stellarvue is a really good scope.I also have not contacted Vic @ Stellarvue about this,no doubt he would have helped me out if I could have identified the issue earlier on- my lack of experience was a big factor in identifying the glare situation.

looks like it's a very good dielectric diagonal with 99% reflectivity, and high specification (1/10 wave). That new prism diagonal seems to enhance all your EPs for planetary viewing

[jetstream]

Alan a good way to check the difference the diagonal makes is to view "straight through",with no diagonal.I did this and there was a big difference in the views,multiple EP's,multiple nights of varied sky conditions.A friend with a SCT also tried this with his scope and noticed the difference straight through.If your clouds ever clear maybe this is something you want to try.Now the question for me is-save for a big used Obsession or a bigger good refractor......

[John]

I have used prism diagonals in the past but not of the quality of the Baader / Zeiss. My diagonals at the moment are a TV Everbright and an Istar Dielectric. Both seem to perform excellently but I may try viewing without them to get an indication of anything negative that they might be adding to the image.

In the past the perceived wisdom was that upgrading diagonals gave smaller gains than other optical upgrade possibilities but maybe times have changed.

[estwing]

must shift my backside and get a decent one for my zeiss....my back is killing me!

[BillP]

The colour is outstanding,the richest,deepest colour of Mars yet,a big difference.The little ice cap and the "frosting" on the other pole are excellent,very contrasted as are the dark patches about the surface.Jupiter is much better ... showing its best. Big white oval seen in the band and splits and separations crisply showing.The polar caps shading is excellent.

Excellent observations!!  If you decide to use it with a binoviewer, make sure you place the GPC on the diagonal instead of the binoviewer as the prisms from the diagonal and the the binoviewer together shift the spectrum too much.  Of course you would need the 1.25" nosepiece option on the T2. 

[jetstream]

Thanks Bill.The Baader diagonal has really helped my views and the info on the binoviewer set up is great,i have been pondering getting one for quite a while.

[alan potts]

Gerry,

If I ever get any clear sky I will try it, Mars allows me to view this way with ease and later on so to Jupiter. Gone are the days of laying down on concrete or the fields, could get a sun bed out though.

Alan.

[Greg77]

Nice report. I just sold my WO diagonal (mirror) to try something new on the market. WO carbon diagonals look nice, but reading BillPs article, I plan to go for Baader/Zeiss T2 prism diagonal for my Meade 127mm/f7.5 triplet APO. Im not 100% jet....any comments? My main interest are planets with my two Monocentric and some XWs...

Regards,

Greg77

[jetstream]

Gerry,

If I ever get any clear sky I will try it, Mars allows me to view this way with ease and later on so to Jupiter. Gone are the days of laying down on concrete or the fields, could get a sun bed out though.

Alan.

Hi Alan,the way I look at it, the straight through test is great,it will show any difference and is free-when do we ever have a free way to see if something works! LOL!In my case the difference was very noticeable ,immediately.Good luck with the test,another of your reports will be great

[Stu]

Nice report. I just sold my WO diagonal (mirror) to try something new on the market. WO carbon diagonals look nice, but reading BillPs article, I plan to go for Baader/Zeiss T2 prism diagonal for my Meade 127mm/f7.5 triplet APO. Im not 100% jet....any comments? My main interest are planets with my two Monocentric and some XWs...

Regards,

Greg77

I would recommend it Greg. I think for DSO's there is probably not alot in it, but for planetary it definitely reduces scatter and seems to allow crisp images at higher mags.

I had a T2 Zeiss on order for about four months but gave up in the end and got a 2" Zeiss which was in stock. I guess for binoviewing the T2 is a requirement but the 2" works fine for me.

Stu

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[jetstream]

I think the 2" has more free aperture than the t2,but for planetary only this may not be an issue.The 2" has SCT threads-it can be screwed directly to the back of one reducing the big increase in FL that accys can induce in these scopes.Baader must make an adapter for SCT threads to 1.25" nosepiece,they make a pile of stuff.Thinking about it,the smaller t2 prism may give slightly less scatter than the bigger prism-if scatter is related to prism size?I like my 2" for what I want-ability to use very wide fields down to planetary type fields

[jetstream]

Nice report. I just sold my WO diagonal (mirror) to try something new on the market. WO carbon diagonals look nice, but reading BillPs article, I plan to go for Baader/Zeiss T2 prism diagonal for my Meade 127mm/f7.5 triplet APO. Im not 100% jet....any comments? My main interest are planets with my two Monocentric and some XWs...

Regards,

Greg77

Greg,if you do get a Baader  prism I am very interested to hear how it works in your 127mm.

[Stu]

Hoping to give mine a go on Mars with the Vixen tonight :-)

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[YKSE]

Hoping to give mine a go on Mars with the Vixen tonight :-)

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I'm very interested in your findings

[jetstream]

Me too,can't wait to hear your report Stu!

[Stu]

Unfortunately it's not looking great here at the moment :-(. There is a fair amount of high haze and the seeing is pretty average too. Will give it a little while and see if it improves, neither Jupiter nor Mars looking much good currently.

Stu

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[John]

Bad luck Stu - hope it improves. We have thin hazy cloud but Mars is looking quite nice. Not it's most interesting face towards us at the moment but there seems to be a quite well defined dark rift in the N pole cap on it's western side.

[Stu]

Bad luck Stu - hope it improves. We have thin hazy cloud but Mars is looking quite nice. Not it's most interesting face towards us at the moment but there seems to be a quite well defined dark rift in the N pole cap on it's western side.

The somewhat featureless face it is presenting isn't helping, but it is wobbling around making it difficult to pick features out. The cap is clear enough, and I can see the dark feature running under it. Is there a white cloud at 3 o'clock ish, if the cap is 12?

All rather frustrating, one of those nights where you question the scope but I know it is the skies.

Stu

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