What did the postman bring?

[badhex]

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

The performance provided by this EP is  a bit or a bargain.
I have two for BV usage, I prefer the eye relief over the TV alternative.

Fingers crossed! Yes, I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be more competition in the max field 1.25" class (if there is such a thing). 

[JeremyS]

3 minutes ago, badhex said:

Fingers crossed! Yes, I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be more competition in the max field 1.25" class (if there is such a thing). 

I’ve been circling around this max field 1.25 inch thing for a couple of years. In the end for me it was APM UFF 24 vs TV Pan 24 vs Tak Erfle 28. Each is a compromise. 

[mikeDnight]

22 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Thank god that 100DC in the classifieds was snapped up! Had me looking into my credit reports.

Whoever grabbed that one has got a jewel! 

[badhex]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I’ve been circling around this max field 1.25 inch thing for a couple of years. In the end for me it was APM UFF 24 vs TV Pan 24 vs Tak Erfle 28. Each is a compromise. 

Kind of glad someone with much more knowledge and experience than me has found the same quandary. Nothing really seems to be the killer EP. Part of my reasoning for the APM was the large eye lens, as well as possibly apparently enormous curvature on the 24mm Panoptic (rectilinear distortion IIRC but I'm not an expert at the specific terminology).

Hoping the APM was the right choice! 

Edited April 30, 2022 by badhex

[JeremyS]

28 minutes ago, badhex said:

Kind of glad someone with much more knowledge and experience than me has found the same quandary. Nothing really seems to be the killer EP. Part of my reasoning for the APM was the large eye lens, as well as possibly apparently enormous curvature on the 24mm Panoptic (rectilinear distortion IIRC but I'm not an expert at the specific terminology).

Hoping the APM was the right choice! 

My head told me the APM UFF 24 was the winner. 
The Pan 24 has horrendous rectilinear distortion. It makes the Moon turn a weird egg shape as it traverses the field. Fortunately I never observe the Moon, so in reality this was moot. The main reason for keeping is OCD - up against my collection of TV eyepieces.

The Erfle is very nice in my Tak FOA 60Q. It’s also great for travel as it’s so compact and light. But the eye relief is rather too long for me.

[MalcolmM]

6 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

The Erfle is very nice in my Tak FOA 60Q. It’s also great for travel as it’s so compact and light. But the eye relief is rather too long for me.

I love the Tak Erfle. It's very light. Nice wide field in Binoviewers. And great for star hopping in my refractors; I don't need a finder on the 60CB. Some say it's not great at the edge of the FOV, an effect of the design, but my eyes don't really notice it. My only complaint would be that eye position seems to be quite important. If my eye is not in exactly the right place I see nothing!

Malcolm

[JeremyS]

20 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

I love the Tak Erfle. It's very light. Nice wide field in Binoviewers. And great for star hopping in my refractors; I don't need a finder on the 60CB. Some say it's not great at the edge of the FOV, an effect of the design, but my eyes don't really notice it. My only complaint would be that eye position seems to be quite important. If my eye is not in exactly the right place I see nothing!

Malcolm

Glad I got mine when I did. It’s disappeared from some vendors sites, including FLO. 
Unfortunately it’s on the Tak “to be deleted” list

[JeremyS]

[cajen2]

Google Pixel 4a phone, second hand. Mint condition. I bought it because my usual phone (cheap Nokia) doesn't have a gyro and thus not much use with the likes of Stellarium. The Pixel also has a night/astronomy setting on the camera, which is 10x better than the Nokia too. I'll just use it for astronomy.

[maw lod qan]

My Canon SL1 is showing signs of old age.

So I picked this up at work yesterday. It was one of those "I don't know why we have it!!??"

They stock T100, but not the Rebel T7.

I couldn't convince them to let me pay the incorrect price it was listed as, but I did get my 10% off being an employee. 

The computer is a Xmas present daughter #1 gave me for the observatory. 

[badhex]

On 30/04/2022 at 22:25, JeremyS said:

My head told me the APM UFF 24 was the winner. 
The Pan 24 has horrendous rectilinear distortion. It makes the Moon turn a weird egg shape as it traverses the field. Fortunately I never observe the Moon, so in reality this was moot. The main reason for keeping is OCD - up against my collection of TV eyepieces.

The Erfle is very nice in my Tak FOA 60Q. It’s also great for travel as it’s so compact and light. But the eye relief is rather too long for me.

Perhaps it's not a bad thing I'd plumped for the APM already otherwise I might now be trying to chase down a Tak Erfle! 

[Zermelo]

Not from the postie, but speedily via Evri (which I just learned is the new name for Hermes; got a PR problem? Change your name ...)

Courtesy of @rockystar:- my first venture into glow-in-the-dark excellence. If the night skies are as cloudy as I fear, I can just sit in the lounge with the lights off and admire the phosphorescence.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by Zermelo

[Stu]

37 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Not from the postie, but speedily via Evri (which I just learned is the new name for Hermes; got a PR problem? Change your name ...)

Courtesy of @rockystar:- my first venture into glow-in-the-dark excellence. If the night skies are as cloudy as I fear, I can just sit in the lounge with the lights off and admire the phosphorescence.

 

 

Makes you wonder why Yodel haven’t changed their name!

Nice eyepiece, sure you will enjoy it once these wretched clouds clear!

[rockystar]

7 hours ago, Zermelo said:

Not from the postie, but speedily via Evri (which I just learned is the new name for Hermes; got a PR problem? Change your name ...)

Courtesy of @rockystar:- my first venture into glow-in-the-dark excellence. If the night skies are as cloudy as I fear, I can just sit in the lounge with the lights off and admire the phosphorescence.

 

 

Free clouds with every purchase 😀

[Guest]

Not the postman, but good old UPS counts.  The wife and I have taken the plunge.

[JeremyS]

8 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Not the postman, but good old UPS counts.  The wife and I have taken the plunge.

A smart speaker?
 

🤣

[PeterC65]

25 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

A smart speaker?

Meet STELLINA, our observation station | Vaonis

Whatever next!!!!

 

[bosun21]

On 30/04/2022 at 13:42, Paul_Sussex said:

Another new (replacement) toy arrived from FLO! A SkyMax 127 SynScan -

Good choice Paul 👍 When I use mine I don’t extend the tripod legs and use a chair or stool for comfort and ease of use. It’s also far more steady this way. It’s completely your choice of course. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have with mine.

[Paul_Sussex]

15 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Good choice Paul 👍 When I use mine I don’t extend the tripod legs and use a chair or stool for comfort and ease of use. It’s also far more steady this way. It’s completely your choice of course. I hope you enjoy using it as much as I have with mine.

Thanks for the tip - must give that a try!

[DrMike]

12 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Not the postman, but good old UPS counts.  The wife and I have taken the plunge.

Enjoy!

[Zermelo]

23 hours ago, rockystar said:

Free clouds with every purchase 😀

Looks like I might have escaped the jinx:

 

 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, DrMike said:

Enjoy!

Once the clouds clear we will.  

[F15Rules]

On 30/04/2022 at 20:34, JeremyS said:

I find it a bit disappointing that Tak scopes don’t come in giant versions of those blue boxes. If they did I might be tempted to order some more.

So you mean there are Tak scopes you don't already own, Jeremy???😱😱😂

Dave

[F15Rules]

On 03/05/2022 at 13:19, Zermelo said:

Not from the postie, but speedily via Evri (which I just learned is the new name for Hermes; got a PR problem? Change your name ...)

Courtesy of @rockystar:- my first venture into glow-in-the-dark excellence. If the night skies are as cloudy as I fear, I can just sit in the lounge with the lights off and admire the phosphorescence.

 

 

The 9 and 17.5mm are for me the pick of the range 👍😊.

Dave

[F15Rules]

On 30/04/2022 at 23:03, JeremyS said:

Oh dear...I've heard that these EPs suffer from erfle abberrations, Jeremy..🤭🤦‍♀️😎

Dave