Baader ClickLock 2" DiElectric

[Nightspore]

 

I just couldn't resist it. I'd been looking at this for ages. The clicklock is very good although I'm not so sure about the nose-piece safety smurfs, sorry, kerfs. I could probably swap the nose with an older Baader version. It weighs about the same as my 2" Altair dielectric with carbon fibre sides. 

 

 

Indoor tests seem to indicate the safety barfs aren't as ineffective as I'd assumed. Unlike the click locks on my other 2" diagonals this holds the 19mm Luminos. Unfortunately the blanket cloud over most of the Midlands will not allow me to outdoor test it any time soon.

[+Bino-viewer]

Yes, i've ditched all the nosepieces that came with my Baader diagonals. (i have 3 now)

In place are (T2 compatible) Moonlite Smoothbores.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Bino-viewer

[Nightspore]

10 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said:

Yes, i've ditched all the nosepieces that came with my Baader diagonals. (i have 3 now)

In place are (T2 compatible) Moonlite Smoothbores.

Sounds like a good substitution. In the meanwhile I'll have to make do with the safety smurfs lol.

 

The diagonal (& the smurfs) fit nicely into the ED80 case!

 

[Nightspore]

I finally got first light on the Baader dielectric with the ED80. Seeing was better than usual for such a humid night and seemed to dance between Antoniadi I and II. The transparency combined with a near full Moon wasn’t so good. Only a few hours earlier the mendacious BBC Weather app claimed that there would be blanket cloud at this time. Which wasn’t strictly true as I could see the Moon and Jupiter.

 

 

In my haste I grabbed a fistful of eyepieces and headed out yonder. Jupiter was up first with the 4.5mm and 4mm TMB lookalikes. I usually use an Amici prism for lunar and planetary observing, especially viewing the Moon. The upside-down world of the Newtonian is basically normal for me but lunar mirror-reversed images seriously bend my mind. And believe me, it takes a lot to do that. Detail was good at 150x but I was a little too early for the GRS. I could see Callisto right underneath the planet. Io would only become visible when Jupiter was behind my roof. Ganymede and Europa were easily seen.

 

 

The Moon was pretty good at 150x with the 4mm TS Optics wannabe and at 187.5x with the 3.2mm BST StarGuider. The 4mm and 4.5mm EP’s get a lot of use with various scopes but the StarGuider doesn’t get out so much these days (or nights). I got a very clear ‘through the looking glass’ view of Schroter’s Valley and Aristarchus and could see a lot of clear detail. After observing a rising Saturn at 150x and 187.5x the Moon had right ascended sufficiently to be hidden behind my roof. This made some rich field/DSO with the Baader Clicklock and the 19mm Luminos a lot easier.

 

 

I had a good sweep around Cassiopeia, Perseus, Ursa Major, the Summer Triangle and elsewhere. I was pretty impressed with the Baader dielectric. The safety smurfs were on the ball and the diagonal was relatively easy to safely rotate. Ergonomically it is a nice diagonal to physically use and feels smooth and comfortable in the hand. Varying between the 36mm Baader Aspheric and the Luminos I could see the Andromeda Galaxy and the Apple Core Nebula, albeit faintly with the bright Moon. I couldn’t actually see the Moon by now but it was still there doing its ‘Devil’s Searchlight’ impression. I occasionally switched to the 4mm TS Optics Planetary HR to split doubles like Cor Caroli and Albireo, not to mention the Double Double. The Ring Nebula proved elusive though and eventually I discovered why. The objective on the ED80 had dewed. The finder went first as usual. I mean, it’s July right? I honestly didn’t expect that.

 

 

Overall, the Baader Clicklock did what it says on the tin, whether it’s that much better than my Sky-Watcher and Altair 2” dielectrics is debatable. The clicklock mechanism alone is worth the extra cost in my opinion.

 

 

Lunar image by courtesy of Moon Atlas