Looks good. I'm certain they're the same (Barsta) eyepieces. After six 7mm borked eyepieces in a row, the Sky-Watcher/Barsta 7mm was the first total unborker! I actually received the replacement 7mm Fujiyama today as well.



Looks OK.

 

They say when NY gets pants weather we get it here a bit later. It might be better later in the week here though. I've had to postpone Big Cat rehearsals because of a virus. I've slept for days! I'm a bit better now though.

 

I should be getting the 4mm Sky-Watcher Wednesday. Don't beat yourself up too much about hesitating Ray. Recently I hesitated buying a 7mm Nagler, just before Brexit, then it went up by the equivalent of 130 USD!

I'm seriously considering one of these TS Optics 8mm EP's:


They look a lot like the Agena Planetary BST's.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop...-1-25--Eyepiece--58---fully-multi-coated.html

http://agenaastro.com/bst-1-25-uwa-planetary-eyepiece-8mm.html

So I'm guessing they're also Barsta/BST. They are about the same price as well when you work out the comparison between USD, Euro, and Brexits.

I don't know how similar they are to the SW/Olivon's though. The housing is similar in ways but from what I can gather they have six lens elements as opposed to the five of the Sky-Watcher's. It would fill the gap between the 7 & 9mm for me. An 8mm will give me 293.75x on the Big Cat. This is a very good lunar magnification and will be good for some planetary. I do have an 8mm TV Plossl and a 16mm Nagler that I can Barlow. But the 82° of the Nagler is a bit of overkill for the Moon and the Plossl, although superb, is a tad small. The TSO 8mm would work on both my Mak's and the Bazooka as well. Markus Ludes of TS Optics has apparently stated that the original design of at least the 4mm was actually supplied to him by the late Tom Back. From what I have gleaned from several sources the two element negative Smyth lens in the draw tube corrects spherical aberration . There can be two or three additional lenses or lens groups and the eye lens is possibly on its own. Some people have experienced ghosting or stray light reflection from the large eye lens. I have to admit that I once experienced the stray light phenomenon with the 5mm SW UWA. The telescope was aimed at a low twilight Saturn at 17° (over the roof of my house lol) and some pillock who lives at the top of my street switched on a huge unshaded floodlight he has on his roof. Although I have a six foot fence to the west his house is slightly higher than mine and some of the light reflected off my neighbour’s aluminium shed to the east of me. Thankfully he switched the searchlight off after a while. I can’t say I’ve experienced any ghosting though. Eye placement is critical however, and the twist up eyecups do a lot to ameliorate any difficulties.

 

Hey Ray? Where is this 20mm coming from - the seller I mean.

That Tropical-Storm/Hurricane is said to be strengthening again - before coming ashore someplace. $5 says it'll make a straight-line for you! You know how the Weather-Gods love us astronomy-people!

I may grab one - or even the 15mm at $67 might fit my plans.....

Batten down the hatches!

Dave

 

I've ordered the 8mm TS Optics. I haven't seen an 8mm SW UWA/Olivon either.

 

I'm a bit better thanks Ray. Hopefully the 4mm SW will come tomorrow. I don't know when the TSO 8mm will arive. I've also discovered this:



http://www.omegon.eu/omegon-cronus-wa-8-mm-1-25-/p,32984#tab_bar_0_select

It looks a lot like the TSO EP. I'm guessing it's the same thing with a slightly different housing.



The Moon might be in a decent position for me later in the week.

 

The eyecups on these are a bit like on the TeleVue DeLite and Delos EP's but less sophisticated. Basically, the whole top part of the housing (with the rubber grip) can be rotated and raised or lowered and helps with eye positioning as you can rest your eye against the rubber quite comfortably and determine the distance that best suits you. Also there is a rubber flip-up eyecup in addition. These EP's do benefit by good eye placement so these twist up cups are beneficial IMO.



This is my new 4mm that came today. The large upper part of the housing can be twisted up or down. The chrome draw tube at the bottom of the EP itself houses the negative Barlow/Smyth lens and can probably be removed by unthreading. Although I haven't unthreaded it completely myself they can become slightly loose and sometimes need tightening.



Above is the 9mm with the eyecup twisted right down.



And now with it twisted straight up so you can see the gap between the cup and the eye lens.



In addition, the rubber top flips up like a more conventional eyecup like this above.



The flip up bit can completely unthread (I found this out by accident lol). I've read that this is by design to facilitate some sort of T-thread for camera attachment if required, but I really don't know.


These are all Barsta/BST even though the EP's are sold by Sky-Watcher and the Barlow is an Omegon. All of these are sold under different names around the world. The Barlow is very high quality.

 

Talking of small apertures, I've been considering a Startravel 80 (3.1") as it's f/5 and might be better as a grab'n'go than my Skymax.


I reckon it should fit my other EQ2 mount.


I believe there is a dovetail that could fit the mount head.



More research needed I think lol.

 

Yeah, there's a bit of a knack to it. Watch out for any grease residue sometimes left behind by the mechanism. You can actually pull the TeleVue ones up and down as they have a locking ring. Those 7mm DeLites were beautifully engineered, it's a shame they were borkers. It broke my heart to return them.

 

The Startravel is very decently priced, although I'd get a Baader Semi-Apo filter for it as well. I've got everything else really. FLO do a dovetail especially for it. If I can fit it to the mount I can use the tripod I've got (I actually have two) and just switch mounts between the Bazooka and the Startravel when needed.

The mount in the jpegs is the standard Synta EQ2 that came with my Skymax. The same mount type exactly that was included with the Bazooka. The only difference is the saddle/connector to the OTA itself.


This saddle was bolted to the mount head so that the Skymax mounting bar could be threaded directly onto it. Because of my disability I had to assemble the Skymax with my left hand only. I had to sit on a ground sheet, connect the OTA to the mount on the ground sheet, place the combined mount/OTA into the tripod, then attach the 2kg counterweight and finally balance the scope. With the Bazooka I can now put the OTA into the O rings while still standing. The mount is already prepared.

I was thinking that I could achieve a similar thing with the Startravel. It's small enough for me to easily aim at the zenith on a DSO/globular/Messier/starfield hunting Moonless night as well.

 

Skymax mounting block saddle: