What did the postman bring?

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, TheycallmeRiver said:

Did you get the same ‘back in stock’ email I got from FLO earlier this week?  I also jumped as soon as I saw it.

No I actually bought mine from the Widescreen Centre and I paid for it when I was told they were one week away. I should have paid for it with FLO before the price shot up.

[Dave scutt]

19 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I’ve already got the majority of them and I am not getting the 30mm due to them being bad for coma. I only need the 18mm and I have it pre ordered. Will you have to pay import duty on your American bought eyepieces?

Hopefully not ,his sending them as a gift and under the import tax bracket 

[DaveL59]

6 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

The nice man from DPD just dropped this off to me

Won't be for astro, just decided to upgrade from the walkabout/go-anywhere 18-270 that I had to the later 16-300 for a tad extra range (24-450 vs 27-405 eqv). Likely the last that model Tamron will make for the Sony mounts at least for a while from what's been reported so I figured grab a good one while it's available 🙂 

hmm after the initial excitement of receiving this and a quick test to verify it works well, I'm noticing a very musty (mold) smell and it is very strong in the Tamron box and of course the lens having been stored in this it also smells, not so pleasant to have near your face. Have given it a wipedown with 303 but little improvement which wasn't unexpected, the rubber grips especially seem to be hanging onto the smell. Oh dear, looks like I'll be getting in touch to see what can be done as this was listed as excellent condition, which physically it is other than the smell 😞 

edit: I've dropped the company a message on their contact us page, hopefully they'll get back to me soon to see what's best to do. Reading online maybe a laundry tumble dryer sheet would help, or just air it out in sunlight for a few days. Thing is I've a vintage bino that arrived with this exact problem a long time back and it still smells to this day after a full strip-down and cleaning with bleach, vinegar etc. Hope there's a simple fix other than sending it back...

The fact that I'm a smoker and can clearly smell it I guess says it is indeed a strong smell too.

Edited June 30, 2022 by DaveL59

[Richard_]

I wasn't planning on purchasing these until later on this year, but having seen the price of ZWO cameras shoot up by over 10% I thought I'd buy now rather than being disappointed later if QHY cameras went the same way. That and a 5% discount on Antlia filters helped soften the blow somehow and made me think I saved money 🤷‍♂️. I guess you could say that I'm now "financially embarrassed".

• QHY268M monochrome camera
• QHYCFW3-M-US filter wheel (for 36mm unmounted filters)
• Antlia LRGB V-series (36mm unmounted filters)
• Antlia EDGE 4.5nm SHO (36mm unmounted filters)

The camera and filter wheel was delivered yesterday so last night I installed the drivers, connected the camera and wheel up to NINA and everything works great. Today I received the filters so I spent a few hours tonight installing them and attached the filter wheel to the camera. Man, I don't want to do that again any time soon (I hope I got the filters the right way around)! Talk about a fiddly endeavour.

All I need now is some clear skies and darker nights Very excited to try this out!

[bosun21]

25 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

I hope I got the filters the right way around)!

The shiny (shinier) side should be facing the telescope. I don’t know whether the Antila filters have a V marked on the edge ,showing the light travel direction. Baader and I think Astrodon use this mark. The Antila website states that the reflective (shinier) side is towards the telescope as i previously stated. If you get any troublesome reflections with a particular filter, just flip it around.

[Richard_]

8 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

The shiny (shinier) side should be facing the telescope. I don’t know whether the Antila filters have a V marked on the edge ,showing the light travel direction. Baader and I think Astrodon use this mark. The Antila website states that the reflective (shinier) side is towards the telescope as i previously stated. If you get any troublesome reflections with a particular filter, just flip it around.

That's right! I saw the below picture on another forum which shows advice from Antlia on filter orientation. Antlia have added a coloured line on the edge of the filters to denote which filter it is, but it doesn't denote direction. 

Some of the filters were easy to identify using this method, but some were borderline and these are the ones I'm hoping I got right! The first chance I get, I'll be doing some test shots of some bright stars and checking for halos. 

[Zermelo]

As described in a different thread, the fruits of another speculative bid.  Not a blemish.  I actually quite like the Altair green.

But my God, it's heavy!  It might qualify as my first "hand grenade".

 

[Dave scutt]

11 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

As described in a different thread, the fruits of another speculative bid.  Not a blemish.  I actually quite like the Altair green.

But my God, it's heavy!  It might qualify as my first "hand grenade".

 

Are you going to the tin of beans comparison

[Zermelo]

1 hour ago, Dave scutt said:

Are you going to the tin of beans comparison

It's actually quite compact for its weight.
It must be 90% glass, 9% steel and 1% air.

[mog3768]

Not the postman but DPD a  Lacerta solar wedge another present from my lovely wife. Unfortunately having a thunder storm here at present so don't know when I will get to try it out.

 

[Pixies]

A new thing to play with!

[DaveL59]

17 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

hmm after the initial excitement of receiving this and a quick test to verify it works well, I'm noticing a very musty (mold) smell and it is very strong in the Tamron box and of course the lens having been stored in this it also smells, not so pleasant to have near your face. Have given it a wipedown with 303 but little improvement which wasn't unexpected, the rubber grips especially seem to be hanging onto the smell. Oh dear, looks like I'll be getting in touch to see what can be done as this was listed as excellent condition, which physically it is other than the smell 😞 

edit: I've dropped the company a message on their contact us page, hopefully they'll get back to me soon to see what's best to do. Reading online maybe a laundry tumble dryer sheet would help, or just air it out in sunlight for a few days. Thing is I've a vintage bino that arrived with this exact problem a long time back and it still smells to this day after a full strip-down and cleaning with bleach, vinegar etc. Hope there's a simple fix other than sending it back...

The fact that I'm a smoker and can clearly smell it I guess says it is indeed a strong smell too.

OK so we've agreed for a return & refund on this one, their customer service seems as excellent as others have said 🙂  

Gutted tho as it was pristine, worked nice and quietly and the always available manual focus override seemed excellent with a sensible amount of travel compared to many AF lenses. Just that awful mold/mildew smell, my lungs didn't feel good last night after playing with the lens for a short time. Even my cat wasn't impressed, as soon as he came in he noticed, went to the box to investigate, one sniff and recoiled and ran off!

Oh well, another will turn up and I'll manage on the Minolta and M42 glass meantime and just live without much of a wide-angle end.

[JeremyS]

Thought I’d try one of the big ones

[Ratlet]

Early birthday present from the wife.

Got to say, it's making skysafari make a bit more sense.  Looking forward to learning about the night sky, once it's dark enough to see it!

[Chaz2b]

On 30/06/2022 at 12:26, bosun21 said:

FINALLY! Managed to buy a new Baader Morpheus 9mm. This completes my full set. I also decided to upgrade the primary springs on my 8” dobsonian mirror.

 

 

 

Binoviewer next?!!

[Simon128D]

17 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Thought I’d try one of the big ones

These eyepieces are incredible, I went mad a few years ago and bought the 13mm and 4.7mm and there is nothing to compare them with. These stand alone and are (in my opinion) the best eyepieces ever made. The 13mm never leaves my 16" and the 4.7 is so good it questions reality. 
I cannot even use any of my Naglars any more, the downgrade in image quality and FoV is just too dramatic. 

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Chaz2b said:

Binoviewer next?!!

How did you know?

[Chaz2b]

The TVStarbeam has just one issue, the mounting system it came with. So I need something else to mount it on…this!

nooo..not the Celestron c100ed-r, the TV clamshell!

chaz

[Chaz2b]

23 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Thought I’d try one of the big ones

“Try” one of the big ones?! What if it doesn’t work out? I mean, where would you go from here? 🧐

chaz

[JeremyS]

I ordered this from Amazon last evening having seen a mention by @Highburymark on SGL. 

I’ve only dipped into it so far, but it has stimulated a new line of research. I am fond of Patrick’s writing style.

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I ordered this from Amazon last evening having seen a mention by @Highburymark on SGL. 

I’ve only dipped into it so far, but it has stimulated a new line of research. I am fond of Patrick’s writing style.

I also ordered one yesterday from Amazon after seeing the same post as yourself. 

[Highburymark]

Good choice chaps - glad you managed to track down copies. Mine’s already out in preparation for a holiday in Menorca at the end of this month. 

[badhex]

A replacement TS 2" diagonal arrived Friday, and my copy of Discovering Deep Sky Objects arrived today! Looking forward to using them both 🙂

Edited July 4, 2022 by badhex

[Pixies]

A big box!

Quite some packaging by @Franklin. I'm never going to have to buy bubble-wrap again!

Et voila!

[Richard_]

I like cats, and I like astronomy so this A4 print was an easy buy 😻

https://v.redd.it/cmh2hrq5rs391