Meade Infinity 102

[Mak the Night]

Helical focusers should work fine in diagonals. The thing with the Bazooka is that it's a Newtonian, and the focuser is basically a rack and pinion hole on the side of the OTA lol. To facilitate the use of the Baader helical I have to insert the T-adaptor into it with the helical threaded into it. This changes the focusing dynamics that wouldn't affect a diagonal. Because it alters the physical distance I can focus to, and I may not be able to find focus as I might not be able to get near enough to the secondary. Initial daylight tests with a 32mm Plossl and the T-adaptor were not encouraging as I found I did not have enough back focus to clearly see a television aerial on a house near to me. However, with a shorter f/l EP combined with a Barlow it might just work. Anyway, Jupiter is a bit further away than that TV aerial!

I don't intend staying out long, so I probably won't overdo it, it's just that I get carried away by the moment. lol

[Ray of LIght]

I think I get it. Just take it easy. All will be well with us soon. I have a Hummingbird feeder on my deck. I love Humminhbirds. I have one tatooed on my arm (among others, not too many). I guess the point is that nature is a beautiful thing, big or small, and  all are a universe by themselves. Anyway, I know that, weather aside, I am very happy I re-discovereed this great hobby/vocation and learned so much from mentors like you. So, the Luminos is due on June 2, I hope it will be as nice as I think! Back in a while. 

 

[Ray of LIght]

Mak, what's a Dob mob? I read some stuff and I still dont get it. They don't like goto ot astrophotography? Do they like refractors, lol! You mentioned it before and I thought it was a joke!

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, Ray1103 said:

Mak, what's a Dob mob? I read some stuff and I still dont get it. They don't like goto ot astrophotography? Do they like refractors, lol! You mentioned it before and I thought it was a joke!

The Dob Mob just love refractors. They love them so much, they build huge scopes with shaving mirrors in the bottom as ballast in order to be able to mount very small refractors as high as possible, closer to the stars for a better view........

 

....I jest of course ?. Dob Mob as in Dobsonian. I believe a 14" or larger scope is needed for proper membership of the mob. They hunt galaxies in packs at very dark sites and eat refractors for breakfast ??

[Ray of LIght]

Hey Mak, obviously these guys are pulling my leg. They thought I didn't know what a dob was ?! I will protect my refractor with my life so no one is eating mine for any meal, lol!

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, Ray1103 said:

Hey Mak, obviously these guys are pulling my leg. They thought I didn't know what a dob was ?! I will protect my refractor with my life so no one is eating mine for any meal, lol!

This is a contingent of the Dob mob, at the SGL star party March 2015. Scopes ranging from 14" to 20" in these pictures...

[Mak the Night]

2 hours ago, Ray1103 said:

I think I get it. Just take it easy. All will be well with us soon. I have a Hummingbird feeder on my deck. I love Humminhbirds. I have one tatooed on my arm (among others, not too many). I guess the point is that nature is a beautiful thing, big or small, and  all are a universe by themselves. Anyway, I know that, weather aside, I am very happy I re-discovereed this great hobby/vocation and learned so much from mentors like you. So, the Luminos is due on June 2, I hope it will be as nice as I think! Back in a while. 

 

Well, apart from a couple of tantalising glimpses of Jupiter in the RACI between the cloud, tonight I didn't see anything really. I saw some twilight swifts and a robin landed right by me and dragged a worm out of my lawn, before disappearing into the twilight. Stilll, it was a pleasant enough night and I got some fresh air and got to practice rolling the OTA in the rings and playing with a slightly stiff RA clutch. I did also get to wear my new cargo trousers with their useful military style knee pockets and I wore my Swiss Army Watch, so at least I looked the part. Now for a mug of hot chocolate and a giant pikelet with Marmite ...

[Dave In Vermont]

'Aperture-Fever' is gruesome in some cases.....And nowhere is it as often seen than with members of dreaded 'Dob-Mob.'

I would suggest this is a terminal case.

Tsk, tsk -

Dave

 

[Mak the Night]

53 minutes ago, Ray1103 said:

Hey Mak, obviously these guys are pulling my leg. They thought I didn't know what a dob was ?! I will protect my refractor with my life so no one is eating mine for any meal, lol!

It's an old joke that the most repeated answer to any question on an astronomy forum is: 'A sixteen inch Dob'. All of the people I've spoken to who were critical of the Luminos' performance had giant Dob's or large fast reflectors. I'm not sure on the f/l of some of the bigger Dob's but I'm guessing they're fast. Although many Dob's around 200mm only have a f/l of around 1000 - 1300mm which wouldn't make them that fast I should imagine. Fast scopes are very discerning with eyepieces as a whole though, and the EP has to be very high quality optically. I think the 15mm Luminos was considered the best performer, although I don't know if the 10mm was considered the turkey.

As I said before, if used in anything f/6 and above, and using it for high magnification, the Luminos can and will deliver. Plus, it Barlows well.

As for huge Dob's and the Dob Mob as a whole, I think any telescope that requires a step ladder or fork lift to get to the focuser is serious overkill. Which, with my disability, made the Big Cat the preferred choice. I've got a tabletop Dob mounted Mak if that counts? lol

 

[Mak the Night]

20 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

'Aperture-Fever' is gruesome in some cases.....And nowhere is it as often seen than with members of dreaded 'Dob-Mob.'

I would suggest this is a terminal case.

Tsk, tsk -

Dave

 

That's a big scope! Looks like a Dob mounted Ritchey–Chrétien to me.

[Ray of LIght]

???? lol!!!

[Mak the Night]

You might find this interesting Ray:

 

[Ray of LIght]

Great, thanks Mak! I will check them all out!

[Pig]

6 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

'Aperture-Fever' is gruesome in some cases.....And nowhere is it as often seen than with members of dreaded 'Dob-Mob.'

I would suggest this is a terminal case.

Tsk, tsk -

Dave

 

I think I can just see a 1.25" 32mm plossl in the diagonal

[Mak the Night]

7 hours ago, Pig said:

I think I can just see a 1.25" 32mm plossl in the diagonal

You must have been using a big scope to see the detail on a 32mm Plossl. ROTFLMAO!

[Mak the Night]

12 hours ago, Ray1103 said:

Great, thanks Mak! I will check them all out!

I've been looking at conversations people have been having about the Luminos series on one or two astro forums. Mainly, it boils down to three opinions:

1/ Those who see EOFB with their respective Luminos and can't live with it.

2/ Those who see EOFB with their respective Luminos and can live with it.

3/ Those who can't see EOFB with their respective Luminos.

I guess I fall into the last category, although the susceptibility to possible EOFB could explain some of the glaring I thought I saw occasionally. As I bought the Luminos predominantly for keeping planetary targets in frame on an undriven mount it doesn't really affect me.

[Ray of LIght]

Hopefully I will fall into your category. I read some really good reviews on that eyepiece, comparing it to much more expensive eyepieces. Not like the Luminos is all that cheap. I stuck the 32mm Omni on my diagonal figuring I can use it as an initial finder. Looks nice, like you said, not a bad eyepiece at all. I finally put a picture associated with my entries but I have a question: can my name ray1103 be changed or is it carved in stone? And yes, telescopes.com has much slower delivery than Agena Astro. But their price was better than Agena and Amazon. Forgot about the holiday too. Back in a bit.

[Mak the Night]

45 minutes ago, Ray1103 said:

Hopefully I will fall into your category. I read some really good reviews on that eyepiece, comparing it to much more expensive eyepieces. Not like the Luminos is all that cheap. I stuck the 32mm Omni on my diagonal figuring I can use it as an initial finder. Looks nice, like you said, not a bad eyepiece at all. I finally put a picture associated with my entries but I have a question: can my name ray1103 be changed or is it carved in stone? And yes, telescopes.com has much slower delivery than Agena Astro. But their price was better than Agena and Amazon. Forgot about the holiday too. Back in a bit.

Yes, it's not a 'cheap' EP at all, the build quality is very impressive. I think the EOFB would only really be noticeable when looking at bright star fields/asterisms. For DSO's and highly magnified planetary targets moving quickly in frame it isn't really a problem as you will tend to use the slo mo's to nudge the scope as it tracks to keep it in frame.

Here's a trick with the 10mm Luminos; unthread the Barlow element off a Celestron/Sky-Watcher T-Adaptor Barlow combination and thread it directly into the 10mm Luminos.

It turns it into a 6.25mm eyepiece!

The Omni's are nice eyepieces for the money, I'm fairly convinced they're GSO but it's difficult to tell with Celestron as they also distribute Synta-made products. I have the 12mm and 15mm Omni Plossls. I've compared them to other eyepieces and they don't do badly at all. I actually really like the 15mm as it has a nice eye lens size, a decent field stop and comparatively good eye relief. I've recently compared it to an Antares UPL and a TV 15mm Plossl in a daylight test comparison on a distant church steeple.

I think the Antares gave the most contrasted view, the TeleVue was as sharp and bright but with less contrast. I found that there was a difference in quality with the Omni, but it is very subtle, and accounted for itself very well. From a purely ergonomic point of view, I actually prefer the Omni 15mm to the others. They all Barlowed well. Your 32mm should give you 18.75x with your scope. A great low power to sweep star fields with.

Oh dear ... I'm getting all eyepiece anorak again ... lol.

[Ray of LIght]

S

6 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

Yes, it's not a 'cheap' EP at all, the build quality is very impressive. I think the EOFB would only really be noticeable when looking at bright star fields/asterisms. For DSO's and highly magnified planetary targets moving quickly in frame it isn't really a problem as you will tend to use the slo mo's to nudge the scope as it tracks to keep it in frame.

Here's a trick with the 10mm Luminos; unthread the Barlow element off a Celestron/Sky-Watcher T-Adaptor Barlow combination and thread it directly into the 10mm Luminos.

It turns it into a 6.25mm eyepiece!

The Omni's are nice eyepieces for the money, I'm fairly convinced they're GSO but it's difficult to tell with Celestron as they also distribute Synta-made products. I have the 12mm and 15mm Omni Plossls. I've compared them to other eyepieces and they don't do badly at all. I actually really like the 15mm as it has a nice eye lens size, a decent field stop and comparatively good eye relief. I've recently compared it to an Antares UPL and a TV 15mm Plossl in a daylight test comparison on a distant church steeple.

I think the Antares gave the most contrasted view, the TeleVue was as sharp and bright but with less contrast. I found that there was a difference in quality with the Omni, but it is very subtle, and accounted for itself very well. From a purely ergonomic point of view, I actually prefer the Omni 15mm to the others. They all Barlowed well. Your 32mm should give you 18.75x with your scope. A great low power to sweep star fields with.

Oh dear ... I'm getting all eyepiece anorak again ... lol.

Yes, I agree! I also have the 15mm Omni Plossl, another keeper, especially with the TV 3x. Do you know if I can change my name from ray1103 to something else? 

[Mak the Night]

Since the forum was gremlinised improved recently I'm not sure how you'd change your user name. I've looked in 'Account Settings' but I can't see any way to do it.

Just to show that I'm not averse to using GSO Plossls, I plan on using this pair of Celestron 13mm Plossls in my WO bino with the Big Cat when it's finally operational. I prefer them sometimes to the 12.5mm AH ortho' pair as they have better eye relief, bigger eye lenses and eye guards. Plus, one of the 13mm EP's actually came with the BC. As I already had an identical Celestron 13mm Plossl it kinda seemed logical.

I'd consider a bino for your 102mm Meade one day in the future. A bino should do really well in a refractor.

[Pig]

23 hours ago, Ray1103 said:

Mak, what's a Dob mob? I read some stuff and I still dont get it. They don't like goto ot astrophotography? Do they like refractors, lol! You mentioned it before and I thought it was a joke!

This is the most handsome and best dressed member of the Dob mob I have met.

I hear their diet consists mainly of live fish and their favourite drink is very good vodka

[Mak the Night]

5 minutes ago, Pig said:

This is the most handsome and best dressed member of the Dob mob I have met.

 

 

ROTFLMAO!

[Dave In Vermont]

That would make a truly stunning avatar!

<swipe!>

Dave

[Pig]

3 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

That would make a truly stunning avatar!

<swipe!>

Dave

Dave this really is one of them .... I think he was called Mike !!!!

[Dave In Vermont]

9 minutes ago, Pig said:

Dave this really is one of them .... I think he was called Mike !!!!

I think I saw him in a TV-ad for car insurance or some such pitch.

Egads!

Dave