Understanding “afocal” observing with Night Vision...

[PeterW]

9 hours ago, DRT said:

This sounds fantastic.

How much could I get for a 53 year old kidney? ?

Also exchangable for family members, pets, pounds of flesh etc... 

 

PEter

PS Balaclavas are not required, but can help you keep warm when observing and also add a touch of “ninja” when you are out observing with your superhuman night sight.

[GavStar]

After my experiences this week with my 60mm Altair and Stu’s 72mm TS, if I had £7k to spend on a visual setup, I would spend £1k buying a 72mm TS, skywatcher AZ GTi, 55mm plossl, Ha filter (2 inch and 1.25 inch for 1x viewing), 685 bandpass filter and the other £6k on an NV monocular.

Perfect imo for the urban visual observer who (has some cash ?), wants to see a full range of DSOs and brighter objects such as the moon and planets and wants to have a very portable quick to set up scope.

Better than splashing out on a 140 TEC or Astro physics 130GTX imo...

I think if I could only have one scope (heaven forbid!) it would be a 95mm Baader travel companion with NV. A travel scope setup that would be great on most objects.

[alanjgreen]

51 minutes ago, GavStar said:

I think if I could only have one scope (heaven forbid!) it would be a 95mm Baader travel companion with NV. A travel scope setup that would be great on most objects.

Agreed. My current thoughts are that the Borg 107FL and NV will be my long term nighttime viewing equipment.

- it will be key how it performs on the Sharpless objects as I am loving some of the ones I have seen so far and if I can pull any spiral arms into view with it... (as Galaxies are my thing).

But I know that I won't live out here in the countryside forever and I am not planning on taking the big dob into town when I move in a few years time.

But I am planning on going to New Zealand a few times before I expire  

So, all in all a scope around 4" seems the best bet... Roll on delivery so the testing can begin!

Alan

[PeterW]

Hence my “truncated” 80mm f4 jumbo finder, super convenient, though I wish it was mounted sometimes and for more scale you are looking at the 10” class fast reflector (or refractor, given @GavStar results). 

PEter