Geoff Barnes Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 I've just had a look at Izar on SkySafari and it won't be in good position for me until August. That's okay, nice dark winter skies then and Izar will be at its highest altitude at about 25 degrees above our northern horizon , so I'm fairly confident of splitting it with the 12 inch Dob so long as I can get a clear sky! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiltonstar Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 13 hours ago, John said: I had a choice of 64x, 133x or 200x Stu. Simple Huygenian type - 2 elements in 2 groups ! Mind you, F/13.3 fracs are not too fussy. A cloud free night, a stable mount and a modern eyepiece / diagonal and the results may well be different Edit: my earlier post should have read thin cloud cover rather than tin cloud cover. Doh ! I'm tempted to try my old f13 Vixen 102mm out with a vintage 9mm ortho I have - might give a nice view of the pair. The scope performs gloriously on doubles, just the inconvenience of the length which means I have to have the tripod at maximum height, and use extenders on the SkyTee alt-az knobs. It's a bit susceptible to wind also (bit like the horses in the field next to my house at night!). Chris 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 26 minutes ago, chiltonstar said: I'm tempted to try my old f13 Vixen 102mm out with a vintage 9mm ortho I have - might give a nice view of the pair. The scope performs gloriously on doubles, just the inconvenience of the length which means I have to have the tripod at maximum height, and use extenders on the SkyTee alt-az knobs. It's a bit susceptible to wind also (bit like the horses in the field next to my house at night!). Chris That sounds like it could be fun Chris. Wait till it calms down a bit, very blowy round here! We have horses like that too, in the field opposite 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeDnight Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 1 hour ago, chiltonstar said: I'm tempted to try my old f13 Vixen 102mm out with a vintage 9mm ortho I have - might give a nice view of the pair. The scope performs gloriously on doubles, just the inconvenience of the length which means I have to have the tripod at maximum height, and use extenders on the SkyTee alt-az knobs. It's a bit susceptible to wind also (bit like the horses in the field next to my house at night!). Chris Does the Sky Tee have a counterweight arm Chris? If so you could construct a Hargreaves Strut extending from behind the lens cell to the end of the counter arm, which should add some stability to the 4" F13. Ive a real soft spot for the Vixen 102mm F13. I had one for years and loved it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiltonstar Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 18 hours ago, mikeDnight said: Does the Sky Tee have a counterweight arm Chris? If so you could construct a Hargreaves Strut extending from behind the lens cell to the end of the counter arm, which should add some stability to the 4" F13. Ive a real soft spot for the Vixen 102mm F13. I had one for years and loved it! There is a counterweight arm - in the past, I have used a couple of elasticated cords to stabilise the scope a bit. For nostalgia's sake, I had the scope out last night (excellent+ seeing) and looked at Izar with it for the first time in maybe 20 years, with the 9mm Ortho. Well resolved, although at x145 or so the colours were slightly muted. With a 6mm ortho (x220), the pair were still sharp but now with the full magnificent gold and slatey-blue colours. I had a hunt around for some old favourites including Epsilon Lyrae (textbook pattern with sharp, stable diff rings) , Delta Cygni (resolved), Lambda Cygni (not resolved) and Beta Cygni. Izar at its current altitude is a bit of a neck-twister though! Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeDnight Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) Izar last night in my nearly 4" refractor. Edited May 12, 2020 by mikeDnight 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 The Skytee II, although it has its imperfections, is quite a stable mount even with a large long refractor on board. With around 10kg of counterweights the mount did a reasonable job even with my 130mm F/9.2 triplet. It holds the ED120 rock steady even without a counterweight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markse68 Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 Almost split with the o-16mm (52.5x) with the telementor last night and clean with the o-6 (140x). No chance on zeta herc or pi Aquilae though. Antares showed promise!😳 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 1 hour ago, markse68 said: Almost split with the o-16mm (52.5x) with the telementor last night and clean with the o-6 (140x). No chance on zeta herc or pi Aquilae though. Antares showed promise!😳 Good stuff Mark. I need to try Pi Aquilae although I’m sure it’s impossible in the Telementor. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robhatherton Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Well all the comments just go to show: we can find it quite an easy split or a nightmare all dependent on the seeing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 2 hours ago, robhatherton said: Well all the comments just go to show: we can find it quite an easy split or a nightmare all dependent on the seeing! The seeing does need to be decent to get the more challenging ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15Rules Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 On 11/05/2020 at 10:51, chiltonstar said: I'm tempted to try my old f13 Vixen 102mm out with a vintage 9mm ortho I have - might give a nice view of the pair. The scope performs gloriously on doubles, just the inconvenience of the length which means I have to have the tripod at maximum height, and use extenders on the SkyTee alt-az knobs. It's a bit susceptible to wind also (bit like the horses in the field next to my house at night!). Chris Come on, Chris, man up!!😂😀 Long tubes are great! I owned a Vixen F13 Pulsar altaz some years ago..and IMO the quality of the double star images these long old fracs serve up are hard to beat..proper observing for oldies like me!😊 Dave 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15Rules Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 (edited) On 11/05/2020 at 11:18, Stu said: We have horses like that too, in the field opposite 🤣 ...I have an 87 year old mother in law like that (I kid you not!), whom we are shielding in our home. I do sometimes wonder who needs the shielding more though!😆😷 Dave Edited May 12, 2020 by F15Rules Spelling correction 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiltonstar Posted May 12, 2020 Share Posted May 12, 2020 3 hours ago, F15Rules said: Come on, Chris, man up!!😂😀 Long tubes are great! I owned a Vixen F13 Pulsar altaz some years ago..and IMO the quality of the double star images these long old fracs serve up are hard to beat..proper observing for oldies like me!😊 Dave Man up? it's "gender neutral internally fortify" these days! I love the view through my 102mm f13, but not the practical aspects, which is why I mainly went to Maks about 10 years ago. Lying on my back on wet grass at 0 degrees at 70+ years of age is best avoided. My 180 Mak gives "nearly a refractor view", but is compact and fairly easy to mount. With insulation to lick the cooling issues, it is ready to go in just a few minutes and the larger aperture gets me down to 0.7 arcsec separation doubles, and a much lower limiting magnitude than the 102mm could ever manage. However, the view through a 102mm frac is exquisite! Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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