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What did the postman bring?


nightfisher

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This was delivered to a nearby post office and later picked up by me:thumbright: Firstly a 2" solar continuum filter to stack with my ND3.0 filter. This should remove all the filter unscrewing/screwing when changing eyepieces and reduce som glare issues I was experiencing. Then a Baader VIP barlow since I, call me picky (I admit it), was slightly annoyed with the long nosepiece of my TeleVue 2X barlow hitting my Baader T2 prism and ND filter in my Lacerta wedge. Another reason I went for it is the ability to change magnification, and oh, I've become a huge fan of Baader's T2 system and equipment in general😅 Lastly is a T2-2" nosepiece for my T2 Zeiss prism, to get rid of the 2"-1.25" adapter in the optical train and hopefully also result in a more solid connection from telescope to prism.

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And finally an image of the filter stack in my Lacerta wedge. I think I'll be very happy with this setup!

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Phew, now going to spend some time for my wallet to catch up again:thumbright:

Victor

Edited by Victor Boesen
Remove duplicate image:)
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Arrived today via 1st class postie from Radders on here is a Geoptik cover, which I am testing out as I type for later on for some lunar and doubles observations. A little breezy, so keeping an eye on it just in case. 😉

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I said I wouldn't do guiding till I got some time under my belt unguided.  Still not taken an image (58° north and kids), but now have a svbony mini guide scope.  I believe this sort of thing is normal though.  I've at least managed to resist buying a 130pds though astrobloke is piling on the pressure recently.

In my defence, the gem28 doesn't have a polar scope, only an ipolar so I'll be having a computer nearby lol.  At least that's my excuse.

The quality is pretty good.  The nylon tipped screws for holding the scope are a bit wonky and look to be made of colliers cheddar cheese but apart from that it is very nice.  The asi120mm I got ages ago (not planning to guide...) Screws right on the back.

This was £36 on AliExpress.  If looking on there for this I would suggest checking back frequently as the price yoyos quite a lot.  Currently £46.

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Edited by Ratlet
Added some price info
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14 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Arrived today via 1st class postie from Radders on here is a Geoptik cover, which I am testing out as I type for later on for some lunar and doubles observations. A little breezy, so keeping an eye on it just in case. 😉

46E1DF63-932C-4942-8C30-CE2BD30075BE.thumb.jpeg.928ee65eb54d2482047553302e8ba5a9.jpeg

Eeeeeek! It's a ghost!

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On 08/06/2022 at 19:27, F15Rules said:

I've had two completely different experiences with Pentax XWs..

I owned the XW14(and XW20) a few years ago I bought a Morpheus 14mm to compare them.. I found the Morph to be better than the XW14 in field of view (76deg Vs 70), contrast,  and less field curvature (although it still had some).

The XW20 I had was even worse for FC. All that said, the XW range at the shorter focal lengths are all superb (3.5, 5,7 and 10), especially when you consider they were originally designed for spotting scopes.

I bought an XW30 in last year's Christmas sale from FLO and was incredibly disappointed with it..I have a wonderful Celestron Axiom 31mm 82 Deg, but it is very heavy, and I had thought that perhaps the XW30 could be a lighter replacement for the Axiom. Unfortunately, I found it to be again beset with Field curvature in my Tak FS128, and stars near the edge were elongated. So it went back to FLO who of course refunded me without question. I have kept the Axiom and am very happy with it. Of course, it's possible I got a poor example..and others may draw different conclusions in other scopes.

But I would happily recommend the shorter FL XWs to anyone, just great eyepieces 👍.

Dave

A very good 30mm eyepiece which is affordable and weighs like the morpheus / delos / XWs ranges is the 30mm APM UFF. It gives me clean views even at F4 with PC2. It has a very comfortable eye relief too. Of course, the FOV is smaller than your 82 deg Axiom, but it is about half the weight and so it will balance better with your refractor. 

 

 

18 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

This was delivered to a nearby post office and later picked up by me:thumbright: Firstly a 2" solar continuum filter to stack with my ND3.0 filter. This should remove all the filter unscrewing/screwing when changing eyepieces and reduce som glare issues I was experiencing. Then a Baader VIP barlow since I, call me picky (I admit it), was slightly annoyed with the long nosepiece of my TeleVue 2X barlow hitting my Baader T2 prism and ND filter in my Lacerta wedge. Another reason I went for it is the ability to change magnification, and oh, I've become a huge fan of Baader's T2 system and equipment in general😅 Lastly is a T2-2" nosepiece for my T2 Zeiss prism, to get rid of the 2"-1.25" adapter in the optical train and hopefully also result in a more solid connection from telescope to prism.

And finally an image of the filter stack in my Lacerta wedge. I think I'll be very happy with this setup!

Phew, now going to spend some time for my wallet to catch up again:thumbright:

Victor

Congrats on the VIP barlow. It's an excellent piece of equipment, both optically and in terms of configuration.

If you have focus issues with it, here is how I modified mine: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CNhQQwLormMRftYi6 

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32 minutes ago, Piero said:

Congrats on the VIP barlow. It's an excellent piece of equipment, both optically and in terms of configuration.

If you have focus issues with it, here is how I modified mine: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CNhQQwLormMRftYi6

Excellent, thank you Piero!! Your posts on the VIP were very helpful for deciding to buy one:) Still have yet to try it, but I hope it won't disappoint. It has already surprised me mechanically and build-wise:thumbright:

Victor

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Bought an 8-inch StellaLyra Dobsonian from @FLO, for my school. Also a Baader solar filter. Arrived on Thursday, but brought clouds as usual, so I have just tested it this morning. So far so good, I saw the #3030 and #3031 sunspots with good detail using the 9 mm eyepiece. Looking forward to testing it at night, or at least with the moon in the evening!

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4 hours ago, Felias said:

Bought an 8-inch StellaLyra Dobsonian from @FLO, for my school.

Obviously a much better school than mine. If that had been my school, the tube would have been converted to a canon by now and footballs would be flying everywhere!!

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23 minutes ago, Clarkey said:

Obviously a much better school than mine. If that had been my school, the tube would have been converted to a canon by now and footballs would be flying everywhere!!

Projectile motion is also part of the Physics curriculum, so a football cannon would be fun! 😅 But yes, I can't complain about the behaviour, I know I can leave the telescope outside while I go back to my lab for more eyepieces, and no one will touch it. It's a nice feeling...

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Hello, I use to get astro catalogues, but now it is only really junk mail, also known as "direct mal" for the professionals.

Amazing the amount of paper wasted. The worst was my dear wife was managing  huge campaigns and I produced/designed those pieces for large corporations like  banks in particular--it is a huge industry in the U.S.

On average I get around 3 or 4 solicitations a day from simple letters to very  complex pieces, very expensive to print and of course endless amount of catalogues but none astronomical anymore! ;- (

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As a follow up, I have tested the StellaLyra this evening, looking at the moon. It seems good, the image was quite sharp once the moon was high enough, even though there were thin clouds covering it most of the time. I am not sure that I have the right balance, though; when pointing to Arcturus, which is almost 60 degrees high, it shifted to the vertical position and it was difficult to keep the star in the crosshairs. I may need to slide the tube with respect to the altitude axis... Anyway, a shot taken by a pupil with her phone, which was much better than my cheap Moto G -I just got a big white blob every time I tried!

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On 11/06/2022 at 18:43, Felias said:

Projectile motion is also part of the Physics curriculum, so a football cannon would be fun! 😅 But yes, I can't complain about the behaviour, I know I can leave the telescope outside while I go back to my lab for more eyepieces, and no one will touch it. It's a nice feeling...

When I was at uni some French exchange students decided to build a potato gun and it promptly blew up.  Unfortunately for them, there was a facility linked to an animal testing company on the campus so the cops showed up (they brought many things, but not a sense of humour).  I think they got to remain on the exchange course but it was close lol.

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I got a small package my cheap China illuminated cross hair eyepiece failed so I got this to replace it with SVBONY 20 mm 70 deg FOV 

Looks every well made its had some good reviews so I will give it a go 

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22 minutes ago, Neil H said:

I got a small package my cheap China illuminated cross hair eyepiece failed so I got this to replace it with SVBONY 20 mm 70 deg FOV 

Looks every well made its had some good reviews so I will give it a go 

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Interested to know how this turns out. Have heard they are not too bad for the price. 

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59 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

When I was at uni some French exchange students decided to build a potato gun and it promptly blew up.  Unfortunately for them, there was a facility linked to an animal testing company on the campus so the cops showed up (they brought many things, but not a sense of humour).  I think they got to remain on the exchange course but it was close lol.

I recently had a chance to talk to the members of a rocketry club from York uni, and their clashes with the police for keeping explosives in the campus were ridiculous. I assume that terrorists wouldn't be asking permission to the campus authorities, but maybe I'm too naive to be a policeman... 💣

Edited by Felias
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8 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Postie brough me this new toy, courtesy of @Jim Smith. Looks in lovely condition and nicely packed. Thanks Jim!

Looking forward to trying this out on the moon as soon as I get chance. It will be nice to give my non-dominant eye a piece of the action for a change.
 

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Well “bagged”! I was interested but spotted it way too late. Will be very interesting to test on the moon at the moment. Let us know how you get on. 

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