New gear first light

[cajen2]

Firstly, apologies for this being a very brief test, for reasons I'll explain.

I've recently bought one or two bits and pieces:

- a SW extension for my AZ GTiX mount

- a StellaLyra 4mm 1.25" LER/UWA EP (the 80° range)

- a Baader Hyperion 2.2x Barlow (designed for my Hyperion zoom but fits all 1.25" EPs with a filter thread)

The first is easily dealt with: the extension was wonderful, bringing my tripod / mount up to the perfect height.

Disclaimers. My back garden is heavily light polluted, so no chance of any DSOs. I decided on the moon and Jupiter as they were adjacent but had to hurry as they were headed for nearby roofs and trees, so no wooden tray/spreader for my Berlebach Report and no power for my mount - strictly manual. Warning: the AZ GTiX does NOT make a good manual mount! 😂

I ran through some different EPs on the moon: Vixen NPL 30mm as a finder, Morpheus 17.5 and 6.5 and then the SL 4mm. I have the 2" 20mm from the same range and it's one of my favourite EPs, so I had high hopes for the 4mil. It was extremely competent. Eye placement and focus are often iffy with low f/l EPs but the SL was fine. It's often said that this range suffers from edge of field brightening but this doesn't manifest itself on either of my two. If it ever existed, it's clearly been corrected. So, a sharp clear image that didn't deteriorate right up to the edge and gave me c179x mag in my Starfield 102ED. The terminator of the moon was sharp despite the wobbly seeing near house roofs and Jupiter showed clear banding though no sign of the GRS. One warning, though: the SL is huge! Larger than some of my 2" EPs but not overly heavy.

The Baader 2.2x Barlow is quite the opposite - tiny. I tried it first on what it was designed for: the Hyperion zoom. It did a great job and there was little deterioration of the image. The zoom is not parfocal - I always have to twiddle focus as I change mags, and of course the Barlow needs more changes of focus. Nevertheless, the zoom and its Barlow make a great G&G setup: a range of f/lengths from 3.6 to 24mm. I tried the Barlow on a different EP - the 6.5mil Morpheus and it was equally as good.

My two targets duly disappeared behind the trees and I didn't want to hunt for any more and came in. A proper extended test will have to wait for Astrocamp and dark skies ....

Edited September 4, 2023 by cajen2

[Guest]

Glad that SL 4mm lived up to expectations.  It should be a killer planetary eyepiece. 

[cajen2]

14 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

Glad that SL 4mm lived up to expectations.  It should be a killer planetary eyepiece. 

That was the idea in ordering it - that plus the fact that it was £££ cheaper from @FLO as a return! 😜

I've always had a problem getting an ideal view from low f/l EPs: good ones like TOEs and Baader BCOs are often compromised by narrow fields of view, poor eye relief or both.  The SL has an 80° AFOV and 20mm of eye relief, so I'm very glad I like it (so far!).

[cajen2]

Little and large....

[cajen2]

It didn't come out well in the photo (awful cheap phone) but the little one is the Hyperion 2.25x zoom.

[Louis D]

13 hours ago, cajen2 said:

It didn't come out well in the photo (awful cheap phone) but the little one is the Hyperion 2.25x zoom.

Did you mean Barlow rather than zoom?

[cajen2]

Oops, yes. It's the Barlow FOR the zoom! 😂

[John]

That 4mm 80 looks rather similar to my Ethos 4.7mm 110 with the 2 inch adapter removed 🙂

"turkey legs" as some rather unkindly refer to them 🙄

 

[cajen2]

Never used one (couldn't afford one! 😆) so can't compare.

[bosun21]

18 hours ago, cajen2 said:

That was the idea in ordering it - that plus the fact that it was £££ cheaper from @FLO as a return! 😜

I've always had a problem getting an ideal view from low f/l EPs: good ones like TOEs and Baader BCOs are often compromised by narrow fields of view, poor eye relief or both.  The SL has an 80° AFOV and 20mm of eye relief, so I'm very glad I like it (so far!).

Should have bought the 4.5mm Morpheus Clive. It’s a fantastically sharp eyepiece and it’s my go to for Mars.

[cajen2]

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Should have bought the 4.5mm Morpheus Clive. It’s a fantastically sharp eyepiece and it’s my go to for Mars.

I already have a Pentax XW 5mil, plus a Morph 6.5, so it would have been a bit of a waste of money.

The SL came up at an excellent price at just the right time and loses nothing to the other ranges.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

Should have bought the 4.5mm Morpheus Clive. It’s a fantastically sharp eyepiece and it’s my go to for Mars.

Those SL branded Long Perngs are fine eyepieces.   No two ways about it.