I can only seem to get the TS versions of these, so I'll be paying German prices. I looked for BST's in the UK and all I could find here were the StarGuiders. I thought I might give Astromania a go. I'm guessing these are a US importer as their stuff seems pricey re-exported here. I could only locate a finder and a finder shoe.

£1 = $1.28 (at current exchange rate)



This isn't even an Amici, although we are talking Amazon. I strained my neck at 160 quid though!



RVO (Rother Valley UK) price for what in effect is the same thing is 55 quid. My personal favourite though is the Astromania finder shoe.



It's more than you would expect for the finder lol.



Not even a tenner at 365Astronomy.

 

TV don't really have an equivalent of these though. The DeLite is much heavier, and the weight of the HR's was a factor for me. These Astromania/TS Optics appear to be modified Plossls with a bit of possible TMB influence. In my opinion the Astromania/TS Optics HR EP's whizz over the much vaunted StarGuiders in fast scopes.

 

Soon be time to see how early in the year I can see M42, last year I beat September the 1st by a day, catching it on the last day of August.



I think I'm prepared for the dew lol. I've had to order another powertank as the battery in mine is a bit brown bread.

 

It may sound funny, but I enjoy taking a small 60mm refractor out for a quick planet fix. Or, I did when I had one. With only $100 in the scope, I would leave it out sometimes all night,in the middle of a field. Catching s few views before bed, and catching s few more in the predawn time.

Now that I no longer have that scope, I take binoculars out instead. But, there just might be s $100 scope my nearest future.

 

I'm seriously considering this 72mm ED doublet. According to the blurb it has has a theoretical top end of 216x. This puzzled me for a while, until I tried some maths, 216x is 1 inch multiplied by 75. 72mm is 2.88 inches.

 

Yup! This proves my latest sociological theorem: Society at large is rejecting the adage that 'bigger is better.' Replaced with a drift to 'smaller is the way!'

I'll let the gophers find the way to describe & delineate the reasons for this happening.

However - that looks like a really nice little scope! Please do let me/us know your conclusions!

D.

 

Well, it has a Schott & ED glass doublet, a nice focuser, will fit every mount I own, is under two kilo, everything I've bought for the ST80 should fit or work in it, and it's cute.

 

It’s around the time of year that I try to see how early I can catch M42 rising in the south east. I broke my previous record last year by observing it on the last day of August at around 05:30. Where I live this time of the year can bring dew laden ‘hop picking mornings’. However, I have recently been experimenting with some new dew gear for my ST80.



Firstly I had to replace my original two year old powertank as the battery was distinctly brown bread after I neglected charging it when it was in storage. The new tank duly arrived Thursday and at 11:00 it was plugged in and charging.



I was eagerly anticipating a decent clear window around 23:00 to 01:00 that the BBC Weather app promised. Of course, this would inevitably change but at least it was something to prepare for. At around 23:00 the weather was looking decidedly cloudy, although the regularly capricious, often bordering the mendacious, app claimed I may get an hour of fairly decent conditions at least. By 23:30 I was all set up, the only anti-dew precaution was a sleeve extension on my Orion ST80. The powertank was still charging indoors and I’d decided to bring it (and the dew gear) out only when needed. The conditions had improved but the humidity was high, seeing was barely A~II and the transparency was poor. Nevertheless I could recognise the Summer Triangle and was soon observing a subdued Western and Eastern Veil Nebula at 13x (aided by a broadband ES OIII filter) with a 30mm Vixen NPL. I viewed some of the Triangle’s open clusters and split Albireo at 13x, 27x and 57x. Seeing all four stars of the Double Double took 143x, which is an indication of the transparency issues as this should be easy at only 120x.



As light cloud scudded by I switched to the rich star fields of the Cassiopeia and Perseus region. With a 15mm TS Optics Planetary HR the Double Cluster, Stock 2 and the Owl Cluster were among the highlights, although the Owl’s 'wings’ were a little indistinct I thought. Plus, I was racing a rising Moon, which was certainly not going to ameliorate the poor transparency. Even so, I managed to observe the Andromeda Galaxy, although it was not easy in close proximity to the Moon. At around 01:00 I fetched the powertank and plugged the dew gear in. Dew was starting to form on the finders, the objective, with its extended shield was clear though. After a session desperately trying to find Brocchi's Cluster aka ‘Coathanger’ and Collinder 339 I finally located it. I was starting to wonder if someone had moved it lol.



I also found a quite faint M27 at 27x utilising the ES S/N1484 OIII after a bit of searching.



I noticed that although my finders were now toasty and dew free, the RACI eye lens itself was a bit dewed. I was so ready for this and retrieved my mobile hair dryer. I bought this a couple of years ago and hadn’t really needed it in the field before. Of course, I broke it straight away! The removable nozzle snapped into two and I couldn’t get the dryer to work. I discovered later that its input plug needs to be waggled a little bit in the cigarette lighter socket to make an effective contact. I may be shopping for a better design soon. By now the Moon was looming higher in the east and I decided to give it a bit of a butcher’s hook.



Virtual Moon Atlas

The best magnification I got was with a Meade 2x Barlow and a 6mm Vixen NPL for 133x (Bresser Single Polariser). Highlights included the Pyroclastic Atlas North, Hercules, Posidonius, Gutenberg, Sea of Nectar and a very distinct Janssen. At 02:00 the clouds were getting thicker and conditions deteriorated so much I decided to pack up. I’m still wondering whether I can beat my record for seeing M42 tonight, the app is predicting 90% humidity, partly cloudy with good visibility for 05:30.

 

Not to mention it's 8mm less aperture than the ST80! Oh yeah!! "Less! Less! We Want Less! Less! Less! We.....!"

That certainly looks like a very nice, diminutive tube. How much £££ is it running for over your side-o'-the-pond? And I think you're going to L*O*V*E* that power-supply. I have the same critter, except that mine is branded 'ORION' and it's grey in colour. Just be certain to re-charge it on, or as close to, the same date every month. All the way to a steady 'one-green-light' whether it needs it or not. I'll often let it run down beforehand by powering my laptop for a day - until it gives me a 'red-light.' But after even a little use - recharge it to 'steady-green.'

Not being diligent is always the root of problems people report. And then they blame it on the battery - unwilling to take responsibility themselves. Other than that, I've had mine for over 5 years with no problems whatsoever.

Those little USB-ports are really handy for recharging things like emergency-lights and radio's. Me like!

Happy Pondering to 72mm telescope -

D.

 

I don't know what I'll end up with, but need/ want something to take out to the bean field. My fat rear has enough trouble dragging a rifle, and chair for my blind. Plus, to be legal,the rifle has to be back in the truck by dark. Otherwise I'm in a deer blind with a light, optics and a rifle, trying convince the game warden I'm an astronomer. Nope. All hunting gear will be hailed the truck,then the scope hauled back away from the road. I need light and portable.

 

Or you might accidentally shoot at Aldebaran and try focusing a Deer that walks up to you by his antlers! Hunting accidents can take some unusual turns...

Nice to see you back again. Sorry 'bout that silly skirmish!

Dave

 

I wonder how much difference that 8mm (third of an inch in old money) really makes? I'm not sure I'd notice it to be honest. The scope is a tad slower than the ST80 at f/5.8. There is an 80mm Evostar but it's around 540 quid as opposed to £262 for the diddy scope.



This 72mm Altair (possibly Long Perng) is nearly 600 quid, which seems a lot of spondoolies for a diddy scope. None of the Evostars have compression rings (hurrah!), although you have to supply your own 1.25" adapter. They're selling like hot cakes apparently. I'm going to pull the trigger I think.

You can get the Orion and Celestron identical powertanks here, although the Orion is more expensive naturally. It was my own fault the battery got knackered. I got too worried about overcharging it and causing a China Syndrome. lol

 

Hey Mak - got some news on some really cool software that I think you'll like hearing of. It's a 'beta' of one of your favorite programs: Cartes du Ciel.

The 'beta' is called CdC 4.1.1-3763 and after that 'Asteroid' incident, the CdC folks suggestsed I give it a try. So be a brave soul, I tracked it down and downloaded it. A simple 'Google' of Cartes du Ciel 4.1.1 worked. There are a confusing number of '4.1.1' out there: .tar. .z. .-it's grandmother..... But the download I wanted was quickly located that matched my OS:

0-beta/2018-07-07/skychart-4.1.1-3763-windows-x64.exe

It's running smooth as silk. The download didn't change any of my settings in my copy of CdC. The 'Asteroid' Update works great (and FAST!). So all is well.

So I thought you might like it too! Here's a screenshot of my copy merrily up & running. The little, yellow dots are the first 5,000 asteroids - named - on mine.

​

As Reggie says:

EXCELSIOR!

Dave - Zeta Reticuli Fan-Club President

 

The CdC beta's are long term. Patrick Chevalley and the other bloke who develops CdC really iron all the bugs out before the release candidate is even considered. As a consequence CdC is one of the only astronomy freeware programs that actually improves. I've been running it for over ten years and not only do they really fix any bugs they actually add features that are good.

Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure you can't run a tarball on Windows.

Yahoo! have a discussion group, if you have a Yahoo! account it might be useful.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/skychart-discussion/info

 

Well that's good to know - thanks!

Stellarium, too, delivers helpful fixes and in-process improvements and bug-fixes.

Thanks for the link to the Yahoo-group. I'll certainly be looking into that bunch!

Have a good night!

R & D

 

Fixed that for you.

 

And I'll write up some Love-Letters to Cats - and sign your name to them!

May Alex sit on you,

D.

 

I love cats ... to pieces ...

 

What feelings you register when looking at the following images will speak volumes regarding one's general pathology:

​

What's not to LOVE?

​

 

I think my predatory instincts are cutting in. I keep imagining those cats through cross hairs lol.