Help me spend for xmas and birthday

[iceman]

With xmas coming very soon, and my 30th birthday is just around the corner in early February.. help me spend some extra xmas money and plan what I should get for my bday.

My main purchase has already come and gone, got the ToUcam and have been lucky (!) enough to use it twice since I got it :mad:

What's your opinions on what I should get next?

On the list.. (remembering I have an f/5 10" dob, 4 GSO plossls (1.25"), a GSO 2x barlow (1.25"))

- OIII (or UHC) filter ~$140-$180
- Telrad ~$90
- Green laser pointer (~$125)
- 2x powermate or good 2x barlow (1.25")
- GSO 30mm or 42mm widefield (2") or Andrews UW30mm 80deg (2") ~$100-$140
- Colour filters for planetary detail (are these any good for photographic purpose?) ~$10-15 each
- Moonlight dual rate focuser (hi vermin! :P) ~$210
- Collimation tools (laser, cheshire???) ~$?? (I only use a 35mm film canister with a hole in it atm)

I guess there's a problem with getting 2" eyepieces when i've only got a 1.25" barlow.. It'd mean I can't double my eyepiece set with the use of the barlow.. I suppose I'd need to get a 2" 2x barlow as well?

Your thoughts?

[iceman]

heh would be nice, but it's not gonna happen :P

[Vermin]

The focuser of course :)

But seriously, things to consider:

1) How good is your current finderscope?

2) How good is your current focuser?

3) How well can you collimate your scope with existing tools?

4) How often have you needed a wider field of view?

Which one has affected your viewing sessions the most on previous occasions?

V.

[[1ponders]]

An observatory to put them all in :)

[iceman]

hmm good questions Vermin..

1. My current finderscope is the standard 8x50 that comes with the GSO dobs. It functions fine as a finder, annoying having to tilt the head to look through it, but a telrad isn't going to be any different there. I just need to get some red LEDs to illuminate the crosshair.

2. It's a pretty ordinary rack and pinion focuser, again standard on the GSO dobs. There's a lot of slop if the screw isn't turned tight, and when focussing it can make the image shake a bit, especially at high magnifications, which is a real pain when doing webcam imaging, watching it drift out of the FOV in 10 seconds while you're trying to get a wobbling thing focused is hard!

3. I'm a bit of a collimation newbie, i've really only done it a few times and it appears to be fairly accurate atm.. When I do a star test it's mostly round and the spider veins are fairly well centered.. i need to check this again.

4. When looking at M45 I wish I had a widefield.. when looking a the moon I wish I had a high-mag widefield. I like starfields, so I also wish I had a low-mag widefield for open clusters etc.

I tend not to use my barlow that much because I find image quality degrades in it too much, eg: I prefer to use my 15mm rather than use my 32 with the barlow.

From answering those, the focuser is probably high on the list.. But I *want* all of them! :)

Anyone else got any ideas?

[Saturn%5]

Hey Mike go for this.

The Focuser and a 4x Powermate you won't look back:cool:

[Vermin]

Win the lottery, rob a bank... :) I want my Binoviewr and Servocat now as well, I know how you feel.

Your answers do narrow it down a bit (focuser or WF ep). I'm not a big fan of barlows either, though the reflections and slight loss in contrast are only just visible in my 2" Big Barlow.

Wide field low mag ep, drool.... utterly fantastic if you can get to a really dark site.

I can give you a full money back guarantee (including the cost to ship back to me) on the focuser if you are dissatisfied with it in any way whatsoever (if you ship it back to me in original condition). I know you won't be dissatisfied. It's a class bit of gear.

If you are considering purchasing it you may want to check the height of the spacer as the ep tube does project through the base of the focuser mounting plate when fully racked in. I can measure this if you want.

The only minor quibble I have with this focuser is the plastic ep retaining screws on the focuser barrel and 1.25" adapter. It shouldn't be a problem unless you don't know your own strength, the plastic is quite tough (delrin I think, which was marketed as a general substitute for non-ferrous metals) .

Tell you what, you can have it for $200 including standard postparcel shipping.

V.

[ving]

my gso focuser seems ok...
get one of those finders that have a diag in them... you get a kink in you neck then :)

[Dave47tuc]

I'm with Aragorn,
Forget the rest go for a Nagler or Panoptic, take it from me you will not regret it:)

Best.

:astron:

[Starkler]

*chuckles*

The thing is though, once you look through a <i> real </i> eyepiece, you'll never want to look through another plossl again.
It's an expensive fetish to have:wink2:

[iceman]

Aragorn the 22mm and 9mm you mentioned are med-high magnification.. I want something for widefield starfield views.. what do you recommend then?

PS: I can't afford Pentax, Nagler or Panoptic :(

Those Andrews or GSO's are the only EP's in my budget and so that's why I'm looking at those budget widefields. I understand that they will have their limitations and coma at the edges etc but I'm not willing to spend $700-1000 on 1 eyepiece.

I think the focuser and collimation are my 2 most important things to get right.. As you said the others are handy but really more gimmicky and fun than truly useful every night.

hmm so hard to decide.

See the problem with this hobby is, you can't just say to your family "get me a XXX eyepiece" or "get me a telrad", because it's such a specialised hobby that they'll either end up getting the wrong thing or paying top dollar when you could've shopped around and bought in online from overseas etc.

Anyway thanks for the suggestions and advice, keep it coming! :)

[Starkler]

I agree with Aragorn in that the first ep to buy that costs $$$$ should be the one you use most . For most people thats with approx 2mm exit pupl. For me that was the 10.5mm pentax xl. That cost me about $350aus.

It sounds like a cliche, but the eyepiece is really half or more of the optical train. At first I couldnt justify to myself spending 40% of the price of my scope on just one eyepiece, but once you see how much nicer and more comfortable it is, it justifies itself .
The quality of the GS dob is every bit worthy of the best glass to look through.

To my mind long focal length eyepiece views are only pleasing when at dark skies.
At home a 6mm exit pupil (30mm ep @ f5) gives a grey background instead of black.

I bought a 27mm panoptic which is a 2 inch eyepiece. I find that changing the adapter in and out becomes tiresome after a while.
Id gladly swap it for a 24mm panoptic which is 1.25 inch.

[Dave47tuc]

Starkler,
Swaping between 1.25 and 2 inch, is a pain, as you said.
I brought all my eyepieces with 2 inch barrels.
All except the 35mm panoptic have 1.25. but as i use the 35mm
i found it easier to not use the 1.25 adaptor.
Even my 8.8 has a 2inch barrel.
Somethiong for all to look at when buying those eyepieces.

best.

[Daring Dave]

Mmmmm tough choice...

Given you have already bought the toucam..

Maybe...........remain patient and stick with what you have and save for a 2nd hand laptop for your toucam........ unless of course you have changed the boss' mind ?



Cheers DD

[iceman]

Hey DD, it looks like the boss is coming to the party in terms of a laptop, otherwise a laptop would definitely be at the top of my list.
Unfortunately it doesn't look like it'll be here before xmas, it's gotta go through the approval process at work etc, but hopefully early next year i'll have a laptop to use EVERY week instead of every second week :) :clap:

I'll definitely get the focuser, it'll help both with imaging and visual stuff, and next on my list will probably be a decent budget widefield, either the superview or andrews UW. Sorry Dave47Tuc, Starkler and Aragorn, no 2" Naglers or Pentax's on the horizon just yet :P

I still want the fun things, like the GLP, and I still need a decent collimation tool.. I guess it depends how much money I get for my bday, or how many people ask what I want :)