What did the postman bring?

[F15Rules]

On 31/03/2022 at 12:46, IB20 said:

Have just had a bumper delivery today. Apologies for the snow!

 

Probably the two best in the XW range, IMHO👍😊.

Enjoy!

Dave

[badhex]

1 hour ago, HollyHound said:

Baader have all the technical specs on their website, but yes for other manufacturers, this information can be hard to track down 🤔

Certainly from pictures it does look like the Baader has no such sleeves/baffles (I know it's not really a baffle but unsure how else to describe it) and as we know the measurements for the Baader, I guess we can infer that the ones with an internal sleeve like the Revelation will be narrower. I do not have any calipers to measure internal diameters and get real data - maybe I'll pick up a cheapo one and measure it 🙂

Edited April 4, 2022 by badhex

[Sky-J]

16 hours ago, markse68 said:

Got me a new scope  It fits in the car. It’s a bit tatty looking- it’s 17yrs old, but it’ll clean up fine. Super excited to get back behind the eyepiece again

Mark

Hey Mark - I think it was you I was chatting to at the Flamsteed observing night the other week - you mentioned not being able to fit the drainpipe dob in the your car, are you planning to bring this one along on Friday (Weather depending)? Either way a good looking scope!

Jeremy

 

[markse68]

17 minutes ago, Sky-J said:

 

Hi Jeremy, yes it was me  If it’s still on on Friday i most definitely will- weather isn’t looking too promising though. I haven’t looked through the new scope yet so no idea how the collimation is and it’s meant to be fiddly to get it right but 🤞 Hope to see you Friday!

Mark

[Ratlet]

Red dot finder.  Seemed a reasonable expenditure to get me going.  Adjustable brightness, different targets can be cast. Seems reasonably solidly built.

Managed to find one with clearish glass on the reticule so it shouldn't dim the stars too much.

[chrispj]

These arrived a couple of days ago,  along with a baader sky surfer 3 and a dew shield for the Dob:

 

 

Given the lack of clear skies I resorted to testing them out through the skylight in my loft office on houses maybe a mile or so away. Through the 2" diagonal it seems I'm at minimum"in" focus about 2/3 of the distance so I would think I will also be looking for a 1.25" diagonal to shorten the light path. Kind of annoying as I sold a nice Televue one back in January in a post new year clear out...

 

[HollyHound]

1 hour ago, chrispj said:

Given the lack of clear skies I resorted to testing them out through the skylight in my loft office on houses maybe a mile or so away. 

My, what a mighty fine looking scope that is 😁 Hope she's giving you some awesome views and that binoviewer should really make a difference on the moon 👍

[markse68]

Final missing parts for my new mount arrived- exciting 😀

[PeterC65]

My third scope, a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS from FLO.

I know I'm pushing my luck putting this on a SynScan AZ GOTO mount but I keep craving more aperture and it's the biggest aperture I can plausibly use with this mount. The mount seems to cope with the weight just fine but the longer scope means it takes six seconds to stop wobbling! I've yet to see how it performs at night.

This is my first Newtonian. Previously I'd been put off by the eyepiece positioning so this is also a test of how I get on with that. The focuser is a very different proposition from both the Mak and the Apo. I'm carrying out some tests this afternoon to determine what will and will not achieve focus and what extension tubes are needed.

The scope comes with a 28mm 2" eyepiece which is my first and only 2" eyepiece. It doesn't seem very impressive, not as good as my favourite ES 68° 24mm eyepiece.

I have a laser collimator on order from RVO!

 

[Knighty2112]

55 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

My third scope, a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS from FLO.

Your getting there. One more scope to go to be a fully fledged astronomer! Then you need at least 4 mounts to chose from and you’re there!   

[Alan White]

2 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

My third scope, a Sky-Watcher Explorer 150PDS from FLO.

I know I'm pushing my luck putting this on a SynScan AZ GOTO mount but I keep craving more aperture and it's the biggest aperture I can plausibly use with this mount. The mount seems to cope with the weight just fine but the longer scope means it takes six seconds to stop wobbling! I've yet to see how it performs at night.

This is my first Newtonian. Previously I'd been put off by the eyepiece positioning so this is also a test of how I get on with that. The focuser is a very different proposition from both the Mak and the Apo. I'm carrying out some tests this afternoon to determine what will and will not achieve focus and what extension tubes are needed.

The scope comes with a 28mm 2" eyepiece which is my first and only 2" eyepiece. It doesn't seem very impressive, not as good as my favourite ES 68° 24mm eyepiece.

I have a laser collimator on order from RVO!

 

150 f5 is a nice scope, always enjoyed the ones I have owned, 3 so far and hankering for another.

[chrispj]

FLO excelled themselves and the postie dropped off a 1.25" diagonal, along with a couple of Starguiders (12mm & 15mm). Testing out on the same targets,  first thing to note is the binoviewer with its Barlow doesn't seat all the way in the diagonal (see photo), which I hadn't anticipated 😲 but, huge relief it does come to focus with 7mm inwards travel to spare. I tried the Barlow in front of the diagonal, which I've seen suggested, but then I couldn't find focus at all...

 

 

The Starguiders on first acquaintance I have mixed feelings on. Lovely solid build,  but with the heavily recessed lens, I am not seeing anywhere close to the full field without really pushing my glasses against the eyepiece, so I think these will be going back. The 12mm is slightly better than the 15mm but still not ideal. 

 

 

[Davesellars]

Just now, chrispj said:

FLO excelled themselves and the postie dropped off a 1.25" diagonal, along with a couple of Starguiders (12mm & 15mm). Testing out on the same targets,  first thing to note is the binoviewer with its Barlow doesn't seat all the way in the diagonal (see photo), which I hadn't anticipated 😲 but, huge relief it does come to focus with 7mm inwards travel to spare. I tried the Barlow in front of the diagonal, which I've seen suggested, but then I couldn't find focus at all...

 

 

 

 

 

Chris,  I've just bought one of these binoviewers arrived yesterday (unmarked make however it's identical to yours by the looks of it) from Ebay and had the same issue to insert the bins nosepiece into an Altair Lightware 1.25" mirror diagonal (looks to be identical construction of the eyepiece holder).   It seems that the lip of the bins nosepiece is very slightly more in diameter than the remainder of the nosepiece...  sufficient not to fit in with the compression fitting being rather more snug than a simple set screw fitting.  Rather frustrating.  For now, I have a Skywatcher 45 degree prism erecting diagonal which is far from ideal but with the 1.25" mirror diagonal it won't come to focus as I can't insert the entire nose piece.   the 45 degree prism and 90 degree mirror otherwise have pretty much the same light path requirement.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Davesellars

[chrispj]

Hi Dave, I had a slightly different issue - the length of the nosepiece with Barlow is actually long enough it might hit the mirror if fully inserted,  the Stella Mira 1.25" diagonal has a lip that prevents this (or maybe is a baffle, anyway being black it doesn't show up well in the photo...), therefore ~1/3 of the nosepiece is left sticking out. The silver nosepiece fits ok into the diagonal otherwise.

 

I can see the silver barrel is fractionally wider than the Barlow section,  if it didn't fit in the diagonal at all I wouldn't be able to get to focus either but fortunately it does fit the SM diagonal. 

 

 

[Alan White]

Evri Steve has been, Postie Pete awol today, thank goodness

Used, recent (lightly unused as in a couple of times) purchase to replace the seat I sold @garryblueboy some time ago, missed it ever since. a;ways wanted another but not been top of the list.

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Alan White
edit text, it didnt make sense!

[garryblueboy]

On 06/04/2022 at 17:40, Alan White said:

Evri Steve has been, Postie Pete

Used recent new unused purchase to replace the seat I sold @garryblueboy some time ago, missed it ever since

 

And a great Seat  it’s been Alan 

Edited April 8, 2022 by garryblueboy

[JeremyS]

Seat Ibiza?  🤔

[Franklin]

Postie brought me some more Vixen loveliness today.

 

 

[JeremyS]

[Ratlet]

Tripod arrived.  Ordered from Aliexpress, delivered by Amazon (Prime no less).  No idea how that worked, but hey ho.  Innorel NT364C.  I also didn't order the quick levelling bowl, but one turned up so bonus on that!

Now have got sufficient equipment to do some untracked astrophotography which is a big moment.  Just need to wait until I finish my remaining week of night shift and some clear skies!  It's got a nice 

Carbon fibre tripod, 25kg weight limit and at full height is 160cm high (no extension pole, all legs).  Basically the popular Artcise HS80C but slightly different specs and £150 for this versus £260 for the Artcise.

Plan ultimately to pair it with an azgti or the upcoming Star Adventurer GTI.  The bowls diameter is the same as the Skywatcher extension pier so it should be a good geometric fit and at a theoretical max weight of mount and scope of 7kg it should be delightfully within the weight limit.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

A fine focus knob! (Winner's lollipop please)

[JeremyS]

2 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

A fine focus knob! (Winner's lollipop please)

Thanks. I was wondering what it was. 👍🏻
Ordered last Dec

[Victor Boesen]

1 hour ago, Ratlet said:

Tripod arrived.  Ordered from Aliexpress, delivered by Amazon (Prime no less).  No idea how that worked, but hey ho.  Innorel NT364C.  I also didn't order the quick levelling bowl, but one turned up so bonus on that!

Now have got sufficient equipment to do some untracked astrophotography which is a big moment.  Just need to wait until I finish my remaining week of night shift and some clear skies!  It's got a nice 

Carbon fibre tripod, 25kg weight limit and at full height is 160cm high (no extension pole, all legs).  Basically the popular Artcise HS80C but slightly different specs and £150 for this versus £260 for the Artcise.

Plan ultimately to pair it with an azgti or the upcoming Star Adventurer GTI.  The bowls diameter is the same as the Skywatcher extension pier so it should be a good geometric fit and at a theoretical max weight of mount and scope of 7kg it should be delightfully within the weight limit.

I am really interested to hear more about how you get along with this. And so is @badhexmaybe?

[Ratlet]

7 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

I am really interested to hear more about how you get along with this. And so is @badhexmaybe?

It might be some time till I can provide any specific information on how it performs as an astrophotography mount (I'm going to wait till we get some information on the Star Adventurer GTI, if that looks good then I'll be getting it, so potentially waiting till June).  Potentially the information even then will be limited as I'm going to (attempt to) resist going for anything beyond my 200mm focal length Takumar 200 and DSLR for astrophotography as long as I can.  If you've got any specific questions I could answer or check without an mount on board I'll be happy to check in the mean time.  I do intend on some untracked stuff in the mean time.

I've added the proviso of 'for astrophotography' as I got lost and wandered into the visual section of the forum and have condemned myself to probably getting the/a mount with a 127 Mak if it releases with one.  That subforum has made me intensely nostalgic for the first time I looked through a scope at Saturn and I could feel the distance in my bones.

[Dave scutt]

Not the postman, wife got me this for my 50th birthday today.