What did the postman bring?

[AlexK]

2 hours ago, Mr Thingy said:

Well, I'm pretty sure any of our purchasing decisions can be scrutinized in this way, and cheaper/better value/etc solutions found.

The important thing is that we are happy when our new toys arrive and can look forward to using them, and that we are not made to feel buyer's remorse. 

Which "way"? I'm just explaining to Alan how the high-tech market works. My initial point was that a high priced sophisticated looking (PCB with "microchips"? Wow!) piece of electronics does not necessarily means the best solution you can apply to a specific problem if at all. "Cheap" means "Very easy to manufacture all the way to having a bucket of these for just a buck" mostly because of the mass production scalability (these circuits are printed, including with the "resistors ink" in about 1 minute per PCB). Alan has missed the point obviously, so I felt a bit of explanation is in order. No offence.
Sorry for grounding this "Happy thread" a little bit  
I believe that hobby forums like this great forum are to "ask before buying or building" as our hobby is not cheap. While the underlying knowledge is rather scarce, which is leveraged by "marketing gurus" all the time.

Edited January 20, 2021 by AlexK

[Saganite]

Traded all of last  years FLO vouchers for a long coveted eyepiece.  It will be mostly used in my 12" Dob, but will grace each of my scopes !

Edited January 21, 2021 by Saganite

[DaveL59]

for me today another couple of camera lenses

The little Domiplan M42 for the princely sum of £1 - it'll need the aperture pin modified to be always pressed for manual aperture control but works fine otherwise.

The larger lens is a Russian Volna-3 red Pentacon-six mount with M42 adaptor. In fact it's a Kiev-60 fit so the locator screw is longer than my P6-MAF adaptor allows, but I should be able to modify the adaptor to handle that. This one came with a M42-Canon adaptor and end cap screwed on the end, which I'm happy to send on to any Canon users here that would find it useful.

[Sky-searcher]

Lightweight setup sorted. TS AZT6 Mount, SW extension, IOptron 1.3kg counterweight & M10-M12 adapter for my C/W bar.  Quick try out before the clouds and rain appeared. Impressed by the smooth movement’s with a 80mm f7 mounted.

[faulksy]

From the wide-screen centre. Brilliant service 

[MrFreeze]

Some M4 x 4 screws for my slow motions. I made a horrible discovery on Thursday - it was clear, so got the Maksutov out and discovered that the declination slow motion securing screw won't clear the new electric focuser bracket. After some choice expletives, measured it up and ordered these screws, which are shorter, and have a smaller head, so now I'm back in business - except it's now cloudy again ! 

David

[HollyHound]

On 21/01/2021 at 11:26, Saganite said:

Traded all of last  years FLO vouchers for a long coveted eyepiece.  It will be mostly used in my 12" Dob, but will grace each of my scopes !

You’ll love it in the dob... mine works brilliantly in my 10” Bresser 👍

[Saganite]

I cannot wait for the opportunity !

 

 

[HollyHound]

On 20/01/2021 at 20:11, AlexK said:

Which "way"? I'm just explaining to Alan how the high-tech market works. My initial point was that a high priced sophisticated looking (PCB with "microchips"? Wow!) piece of electronics does not necessarily means the best solution you can apply to a specific problem if at all. "Cheap" means "Very easy to manufacture all the way to having a bucket of these for just a buck" mostly because of the mass production scalability (these circuits are printed, including with the "resistors ink" in about 1 minute per PCB). Alan has missed the point obviously, so I felt a bit of explanation is in order. No offence.
Sorry for grounding this "Happy thread" a little bit  
I believe that hobby forums like this great forum are to "ask before buying or building" as our hobby is not cheap. While the underlying knowledge is rather scarce, which is leveraged by "marketing gurus" all the time.

It’s all fine... as I said, I have no doubt it could be done simpler, cheaper with some time and effort,  but I’m happy to just buy something now that works reasonably reliably.

It’s not even lack of technical expertise, I built my first computer from a kit in 1982... still have it in fact. Learnt to code on that, self published my first game at the age of 17 and have spent the last 37 years writing various software and apps for the simulation and navigation market (if you have a TomTom, you're now running some of my 3D code 👍). But for stargazing or any other hobby, whilst I will mess about a bit, but generally will just buy what gets the job done.

We all have different outlooks on how much time we can or want to invest in these things and we’re all different, so no worries and certainly no buyers remorse either 😀

Edited January 25, 2021 by HollyHound

[John]

On 21/01/2021 at 11:26, Saganite said:

Traded all of last  years FLO vouchers for a long coveted eyepiece.  It will be mostly used in my 12" Dob, but will grace each of my scopes !

I'd like to try one of those again. It's been a long time since FLO loaned me one to compare with the Nagler 31 and the UWAN / Nirvana 28mm - 11 years in fact

During the intervening period Pentax / Ricoh have dropped the 2 inch XW's, the used prices sky rocketed, and then recently they re-launched them again !

If the time ever comes when I decide that I want to settle on a single range of eyepieces for all my scopes / needs, I strongly suspect the XW series would be "it" 

 

[HollyHound]

1 minute ago, John said:

I'd like to try one of those again. It's been a long time since FLO loaned me one to compare with the Nagler 31 and the UWAN / Nirvana 28mm - 11 years in fact

During the intervening period Pentax / Ricoh have dropped the 2 inch XW's, the used prices sky rocketed, and then recently they re-launched them again !

If the time ever comes when I decide that I want to settle on a single range of eyepieces for all my scopes / needs, I strongly suspect the XW series would be "it" 

 

As I've said before, once this lockdown is over, we will find a way to see each other at one of these meets, as we're quite close and happy to let you try any of the eyepieces I have and hopefully vice-versa 👍

Likewise, with the exception of the Delos 14, my main set is XWs and I will be adding the 5mm and 3.5mm sometime very soon. I am even keeping the XW14 too, because (if you ignore the small amount of field curvature) it performs superbly for DSOs in the dob, and dare I say it... just a teensy bit more light gathering than the Delos 😬

[Saganite]

That report John , and recommendation was what finally made me decide.  In the past I have owned the 20mm, 10mm, and 7mm in this line, all wondferful, but alas my diversion to mainly binoviewing meant that they had to go.  I remember the great comfort that they afforded during long observations and I am sure that my 26 Nagler will be departing eventually, all other things being equal, the comfort will decide.

[Mr Thingy]

Rowan belt upgrade for my HEQ5. Hoping this doesn't result in my next post in this thread being "here's my new HEQ5 to replace the one I wrecked".

Usual no hassle, quick turnaround from FLO.

On this occasion I'm happy for it to be cloudy so I don't miss out on anything whilst my mount is out of action.

[Dean Hale]

Yesterday the AZ5 Mount arrived and a Astronomik UHC-E Filter. Lots of reports on SGL about the Morpheus range and one popped up in the classifieds. Thanks to @Richie092 hoping to try it soon.

[Richie092]

Well done Dean. Hope you get some clear skies soon.

[SheffieldAstronomer]

My pension overview 🤣

[geordie85]

A jtd dual rig saddle thanks to FLO. I already feel like it's alot more sturdy than the skywatcher guide scope mount I've been using, with limited success.

It's actually alot bigger than I thought.

[Alan White]

Postie arrived late and not our regular Postie Pete

My recent NexYZ from @Dean Hale in the classifieds

It indeed arrived with clouds and rain

[faulksy]

4 hours ago, Alan White said:

Postie arrived late and not our regular Postie Pete

My recent NexYZ from @Dean Hale in the classifieds

It indeed arrived with clouds and rain

missed that. looks great

[faulksy]

5 hours ago, geordie85 said:

A jtd dual rig saddle thanks to FLO. I already feel like it's alot more sturdy than the skywatcher guide scope mount I've been using, with limited success.

It's actually alot bigger than I thought.

wow. free knife 🤣

[geordie85]

24 minutes ago, faulksy said:

wow. free knife 🤣

That's just there for size comparison

[AstroNebulee]

Thanks to the advice from @ScouseSpaceCadetI've had delivered some woolen fingerless gripper gloves to save my hands being so cold as they were a few nights ago and whilst shopping for the gloves I inadvertently went to @FLO@ bought a hyperflex zoom 7.2-21.5mm (how on earth did that happen😉) which was also delivered today from auntie flo, perfectly packaged and quick as always, top supplier can't wait to get to use it now and save having to chop and change so many ep's in the sessions. Of course it's thick with fog and mizzle here now. Clear skies 

Edited January 26, 2021 by LeeHore7

[faulksy]

1 hour ago, geordie85 said:

That's just there for size comparison

 

1 hour ago, geordie85 said:

That's just there for size comparison

i know. it was a goof 🙂

[SheffieldAstronomer]

7 hours ago, Alan White said:

Postie arrived late and not our regular Postie Pete

My recent NexYZ from @Dean Hale in the classifieds

It indeed arrived with clouds and rain

Fantastic! I got one of these last year 

[Jason B]

16 hours ago, Alan White said:

Postie arrived late and not our regular Postie Pete

My recent NexYZ from @Dean Hale in the classifieds

It indeed arrived with clouds and rain

I have one of those. Not the Celestron one;  just a one from a Chinese website. A bit of a faff,  attaching it and lining it up in the dark (don't want to ruin my night vision using a torch). However,  your celestron one looks much better in design than mine,  but I've still  managed some rather good results!  The results persuaded me to buy a cheap old DSLR and the attachments to hook it up to my scope.  Unfortunately the camera is so old (over 15 years) , my more modern smartphone with the adapter is getting better images, so I'm still using that.  Going to have to dig into my bottomless astro money pit again and buy a newer,  higher spec camera 🤣!

Edited January 27, 2021 by Jason B