Meade Infinity 102

[Mak the Night]

18 minutes ago, Stu said:

Well if you are very careless then yes, accidents happen so it's always worth being cautious and checking you've done it right. But done properly the rewards are there to be reaped.

That's what worries me, I'm often very careless lol.

[Ray of LIght]

Between spectroscopes and solar viewing, there is a lot to think about (and money to spend!).

[Mak the Night]

There's always new stuff to buy. I've just checked some of my old Celestron kit filters to see if they threaded OK. The green ones and the orange don't, so I guess I'll be replacing them with the TS Optics ones. I knew there was a reason I didn't use some of them. Bloody cheapo Celestron kit filters! lol

[Ray of LIght]

5 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

There's always new stuff to buy. I've just checked some of my old Celestron kit filters to see if they threaded OK. The green ones and the orange don't, so I guess I'll be replacing them with the TS Optics ones. I knew there was a reason I didn't use some of them. Bloody cheapo Celestron kit filters! lol

Lol, we'll never be done ?!

5 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

 

[Mak the Night]

3 hours ago, Ray of LIght said:

Lol, we'll never be done ?!

 

I have never understood the filter thread problem. I honestly don't know whether this is shoddy workmanship, bad tooling or mismatched threads. Or something completely different. It's an enigma. Still, those GSO filter cases are useful lol!

[Ray of LIght]

48 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

I have never understood the filter thread problem. I honestly don't know whether this is shoddy workmanship, bad tooling or mismatched threads. Or something completely different. It's an enigma. Still, those GSO filter cases are useful lol!

Yep, ? Love those cases! I can use a few more, I guess I will have to get more filters, lol!

[Mak the Night]

1 hour ago, Ray of LIght said:

Yep, ? Love those cases! I can use a few more, I guess I will have to get more filters, lol!

Yeah, you've gotta fill those cases with something.

[Ray of LIght]

Hey Mak, what do you think of polarizing filter sets? Agena has one (transmission from 2-40%) that even includes an eyepiece holder so you dont have to keep screwing the filters to different eyepieces. Its called Starguider, like my eyepiece, and is only 29 US. I got a $25 gift card for Father's Day burning a hole in my pocket ?! What do you think of this instead of a ND filter?

[Ray of LIght]

Oh, it is labeled as BST Starguider. Looks interesting. 

[Mak the Night]

To be honest, I've not used one. They're probably quite useful though. ND filters are useful on very bright objects with larger apertures as they reduce the intensity of the light at all wavelengths (colours) without adding any added false colours. This can help on bright near Full Moons when irradiated light can be problematical causing types of glaring or white-out phenomena which obfuscates detail. The most commonly used in astronomy are No. 0.6 and No. 0.9 (25% & 13%). They are also used a lot in photography and cinema.

If the variable polariser looks like this one above from the Barsta homepage it could explain why it's marketed as BST. It looks pretty good. I'll probably have to get one now lol!

[Ray of LIght]

13 minutes ago, Mak the Night said:

To be honest, I've not used one. They're probably quite useful though. ND filters are useful on very bright objects with larger apertures as they reduce the intensity of the light at all wavelengths (colours) without adding any added false colours. This can help on bright near Full Moons when irradiated light can be problematical causing types of glaring or white-out phenomena which obfuscates detail. The most commonly used in astronomy are No. 0.6 and No. 0.9 (25% & 13%). They are also used a lot in photography and cinema.

If the variable polariser looks like this one above from the Barsta homepage it could explain why it's marketed as BST. It looks pretty good. I'll probably have to get one now lol!

Then I am ordering it now! It does look useful. Wanted to get your take on it, before it goes out of stock! Thanks Mak!

[Mak the Night]

Sky-Watcher have something similar: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/all-filters/variable-polarizing-moon-filter.html

The one on Agena: http://agenaastro.com/bst-1-25-telescope-polarizing-filter-set-eyepiece-holder.html

claims to have M28.5 x 0.6 sized threads, which would make it like the GSO/TS Optics and Baader filters. So you should have no compatibility problems.

[Ray of LIght]

I ordered it do we will see. 

1 hour ago, Mak the Night said:

Sky-Watcher have something similar: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/all-filters/variable-polarizing-moon-filter.html

The one on Agena: http://agenaastro.com/bst-1-25-telescope-polarizing-filter-set-eyepiece-holder.html

claims to have M28.5 x 0.6 sized threads, which would make it like the GSO/TS Optics and Baader filters. So you should have no compatibility problems.

You may like it. BST is good stuff hopefully.

[Mak the Night]

21 minutes ago, Ray of LIght said:

I ordered it do we will see. 

You may like it. BST is good stuff hopefully.

Barsta do make some very good optics. You'll have to tell me how you get on with it.

[Ray of LIght]

I think the eyepiece holder is a nice touch. I will let u know ASAP when it arrives, if I know Agena it will be soon. 

[Mak the Night]

I think Dave uses a variable polariser. I got at least 15 mins dodgy seeing on Mars tonight, then the clouds came. I tried a No.12 (Deep Yellow) and a No.11 Yellow Green for comparison. The No.12 is one of only two of my old Celestron filters that threads into the X-Cel properly. The other is the 80A, I'll probably replace them with the TS Optics versions anyway now. The No.12 fared well in twilight on the Bazooka turning the surrounding sky black and I could distinctly see the phase (phase is depicted below in top picture). The No.11 revealed the maria better though.

I could see that there was much more desert region than last time and the maria in the jpeg above correspond to what I could make out. I couldn't see the northern polar cap. The picture is a screenshot from Virtual Planet Atlas. If you're wondering why all the writing is at an angle it's because I've rotated and slightly enhanced the image with image manipulation software (GIMP) to more accurately resemble the rotation angle I viewed Mars at. Also, the image is inverted by VPA to mimic a Newtonian reflector. Earlier in the day I checked the RA clutch on the mount and discovered it was a couple of degrees off my latitude, thus explaining the weird tracking earlier. I must have accidentally changed it during some routine maintenance. I saw Jupiter tantalisingly through cloud momentarily which also verified the RA tracking is back on course. I saw a hazy Solstice Moon briefly, which almost makes up for not actually being able to go to Stonehenge lol.  I suppose viewing a twilight Mars for a quarter of an hour and testing a couple of filters is an adequate way of celebrating the Solstice.

Mars at approx 22:15 BST, phase isn't shown.

[Ray of LIght]

Great stuff Mak, I got to see squat because my shingles were going ballistic and the weather was pants. I suppose I need to stop torturing myself until I feel a little better. Hopefully in another week or so. Good news is my arm is getting somewhat better, bad news is I lost about 25% use of my left bicep. Oh well, things will get better and then I will spend the rest of the summer testing stuff! Can't wait to see Mars and Saturn. Maybe when I get the polarization filters/eyepiece holder you can give me a couple of pointers on its proper use, if you have time. I'm also waiting for the #82A. The #8 came today. I think I may have a fairly good selection at this point. Thanks again for the Mars info and the filter tips. Talk in a bit.

[Mak the Night]

I have a lot of muscle atrophy as well in my right arm and leg, so I know what that's like. Plus, then there's the compensatory muscle pain which is when healthy muscles have to work much harder to compensate for the atrophied and/or paralysed ones. At 3am for about forty minutes I got to see the Solstice Moon in a bright clear sky. So I had a butcher's with the MightyMak as it's quick to set up. I got a good 66.6x at one stage, although, as usual I used the 19mm Panoptic mostly (52.6x). I forgot to take any filters out with me lol. The Moon's in Sagittarius, although I don't know if that's relevant or not to the Solstice. Where's Mystic Meg when you need her? lol

The plane polariser acts more or less the same way as when you hold two pairs of polarised sunglasses at 90° to each other. The glass has been plane polarised, possibly by stretching it out when it's in a molten state, thus pulling the glass molecules into a straight line. This then reflects most of the light that isn't vibrating in that plane. Having a polariser means you can customise the amount of light coming through into your eyepiece to your conditions. If both filters are polarised at 180° there will be no filtering effect allowing 99.9% of the light to filter through, turning one of them to 90° will effectively block 99.9% of the light. So there are graduations between the two extremes as you turn them with 45° being about halfway.

[Mak the Night]

OK, weirdly, I just discovered that my old Celestron 21 Orange, 56 Light Green, 80A Blue and 0.9 ND kit filters all fit my Luminos! They don't fit my X-Cel, but the TS Optics (GSO) fit both so I guess they have M28.5x0.6 threads, unlike the old Celestrons. If I get a chance at Mars in a couple of hours I may try the Luminos for 225x with the Orange and Light Green filters.

The #56 is good for observing the ice caps and the #21 gives better contrast than the #12 apparently.

[Mak the Night]

Well, that plan ended with clouds ...

[Ray of LIght]

3 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

OK, weirdly, I just discovered that my old Celestron 21 Orange, 56 Light Green, 80A Blue and 0.9 ND kit filters all fit my Luminos! They don't fit my X-Cel, but the TS Optics (GSO) fit both so I guess they have M28.5x0.6 threads, unlike the old Celestrons. If I get a chance at Mars in a couple of hours I may try the Luminos for 225x with the Orange and Light Green filters.

The #56 is good for observing the ice caps and the #21 gives better contrast than the #12 apparently.

We are the walking wounded for sure. You gave me a lot to digest so I have a couple of questions (what else is new!?). I have to check but I think I have the #56 and #21 filters, not sure though. Funny how they thread now; I would have given up, lol! Uh oh, just got your report that clouds moved in. That stinks. I'm no better off right now either Mak, for what it's worth. Be back in a bit. Trying to get my quieries in  order, lol! 

[Mak the Night]

The whole filter thing is just crackerjack crazy lol! Filter threads just aren't universally compatible. My theory is that there are possibly up to three different filter thread sizes and they're not all totally compatible with each other. Recently GSO have been advertising the fact they utilise M28.5x0.6 threads. Baader have claimed this for a long time as well. It appears that M28.5x0.6 is pretty much universally compatible with all of the other filter thread sizes.

I'm guessing that my Luminos has the same size threads as my old Celestron filters, the X-Cel probably has something else. My TS Optics (GSO) and Baader filters fit both the Luminos and the X-Cel and so the corollary I make from this is that M28.5x0.6 is the 'universal' size. Lumicon filters can be often incompatible, although they fit beautifully into my Omegon diagonals.

And don't get me started about TeleVue threads ...

[Ray of LIght]

11 hours ago, Mak the Night said:

The whole filter thing is just crackerjack crazy lol! Filter threads just aren't universally compatible. My theory is that there are possibly up to three different filter thread sizes and they're not all totally compatible with each other. Recently GSO have been advertising the fact they utilise M28.5x0.6 threads. Baader have claimed this for a long time as well. It appears that M28.5x0.6 is pretty much universally compatible with all of the other filter thread sizes.

I'm guessing that my Luminos has the same size threads as my old Celestron filters, the X-Cel probably has something else. My TS Optics (GSO) and Baader filters fit both the Luminos and the X-Cel and so the corollary I make from this is that M28.5x0.6 is the 'universal' size. Lumicon filters can be often incompatible, although they fit beautifully into my Omegon diagonals.

And don't get me started about TeleVue threads ...

Do they thread enough to stay on at all? I think you were ordering new filters? Oh, I do have a #56 and 21. You indicated they may also be useful. I just threaded my no name #56 onto my 9mm X-Cel and it fit perfectly. IDK what's going on but I'm not complaining! My #82A and polarizing set should arrive this week so they should be ready when I am. I will let you know when the polarizing set comes so I can have it in front of me before I bother you with any more questions! Back in a bit.

[Mak the Night]

3 hours ago, Ray of LIght said:

Do they thread enough to stay on at all? I think you were ordering new filters? Oh, I do have a #56 and 21. You indicated they may also be useful. I just threaded my no name #56 onto my 9mm X-Cel and it fit perfectly. IDK what's going on but I'm not complaining! My #82A and polarizing set should arrive this week so they should be ready when I am. I will let you know when the polarizing set comes so I can have it in front of me before I bother you with any more questions! Back in a bit.

The problem is that the non M28.5x0.6 filters fit some eyepieces but not others, there's no consistency. They usually thread on a bit then appear to stick. This could potentially damage the threads on either the filter or the eyepiece (some of my eyepieces cost around £300/$440 ) and in the dark, with limited manual dexterity, and a potentially cold environment this could be problematical. Furthermore, a loose or ill fitting filter could potentially fall off an eyepiece or Barlow dropping into the OTA itself potentially hitting the primary or secondary.

The box on the extreme left (above) contains four Celestron kit filters. The Blue 80A and No12 Deep Yellow thread into both eyepieces, but the No21 Orange and the No56 Light Green only thread into the Luminos and some other assorted eyepieces. The 80A was from the AstroMaster Kit and both filters from that kit fit virtually everything. The other two cases contain the TS Optics filters (Light Red, Light Yellow, Yellow Green and Light Blue). The case on the extreme right contains a TS Optics 0.6 ND filter. The filters in the two cases on the right are all TS Optics and fit every eyepiece I've tried them in, including TeleVue.

In a nutshell; The TS Optics filters fit both of these eyepieces and others perfectly, but the only filters I can use on both eyepieces in the filter case on the left are the No 80A and No12 . The other two filters (Light Green, Orange) only properly fit the Luminos and a few others. I plan to replace them with TS Optics filters.

[Dave In Vermont]

On 6/20/2016 at 14:45, Ray of LIght said:

Then I am ordering it now! It does look useful. Wanted to get your take on it, before it goes out of stock! Thanks Mak!

Just saw your post, Ray. Orion(USA) has these at $29.99 is why I was planning to toss it your way too! These usually cost around $40ish, so this appears to be a good time to make a move.

Glad to see you're on it!

Dave