Had A bit of a spending splurge

[Glafnazur]

 

 

I managed to get the Baader Mark IV zoom for half price on SGL 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 6 by Glafnazur
Added text

[+Bino-viewer]

Looks like a nice haul.

Excellent diagonal, a beauty.

Used one before.

 

The Neodymium filter has a very good reputation.

I'd be very interested on your thoughts on how it performs, the Morph as well.

[Bob Dobber]

Sooooo selfish!!! Clouds for another 5 months with that lot!!  😉

 

Just kidding, looks like a soul-enhancing haul.

 

I have some of those rubber feet things, I used them a while but then lost patience putting them underneath, do they make much difference?

[BAZ]

Try the neodymian of objects you wouldn't expect it to work on, I had some success on various nebulas that gave a different view. It doesn't drop the contrast as much as say OIII which i find makes the whole view too dark.

[+Streetbob]

A nice bag of goodies there. 

[Nightspore]

You're going to have fun with that lot! The white Baader diagonal is my favourite 2" dielectric.

 

 

One caveat, don't put a Celestron Luminos into it. Luckily I was only doing indoor weight/balance tests at the time.

 

 

The diagonal's compression ring doesn't play too well with deep or wide undercuts. A couple of years ago it took me nearly an hour to extract this (above) 19mm Luminos from my Baader diagonal. Basically disassembling both of them in the process. The BHZ works well in the diagonal with the 2" skirt as it sits lower in the eyepiece holder. The 2.25x BHZ Barlow is also excellent, although I tend to use mine threaded into other eyepieces and I've only used it with the BHZ once. I have the 14mm Morpheus, I've had it for years. My only regret is that it doesn't get out as much as it should. 

 

 

Soon to be remedied hopefully. Visually I'd put them on par with a Delos. Plus, they're a bit lighter. The Neodymium filter is basically the Swiss Army Knife of filters. Mine goes out with me on every session, whether it's used or not. It's basically a sine qua non for planetary. Also useful for doubles in adverse conditions, as well as nebulae. Plus it stacks well.

Edited July 7 by Nightspore

[Speed]

would be rude not to 🤣

[Glafnazur]

22 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

Looks like a nice haul.

Excellent diagonal, a beauty.

Used one before.

 

The Neodymium filter has a very good reputation.

I'd be very interested on your thoughts on how it performs, the Morph as well.

I'm hoping to have a good test tomorrow night presuming the forecasts are correct and it stays clear 🙂 

 

I had a quick session last Saturday and was quite impressed with the diagonal, filter and the 17.5 Morpheus. I have the 4.5 and 9 Morpheus already and love those and if first impressions are anything to go by the 17.5 doesn't disappoint. I was also quite impressed with the MKIV zoom, I've never used a zoom before but hope to use it on the moon tomorrow.

[Glafnazur]

14 hours ago, Bob Dobber said:

Sooooo selfish!!! Clouds for another 5 months with that lot!!  😉

 

Just kidding, looks like a soul-enhancing haul.

 

I have some of those rubber feet things, I used them a while but then lost patience putting them underneath, do they make much difference?

There did seem to be less vibration when I tried them last Saturday, I'll try them again this weekend.

[Glafnazur]

14 hours ago, BAZ said:

Try the neodymian of objects you wouldn't expect it to work on, I had some success on various nebulas that gave a different view. It doesn't drop the contrast as much as say OIII which i find makes the whole view too dark.

Thanks I'll try that.

[Glafnazur]

5 hours ago, Nightspore said:

You're going to have fun with that lot! The white Baader diagonal is my favourite 2" dielectric.

 

 

One caveat, don't put a Celestron Luminos into it. Luckily I was only doing indoor weight/balance tests at the time.

 

 

The diagonal's compression ring doesn't play too well with deep or wide undercuts. A couple of years ago it took me nearly an hour to extract this (above) 19mm Luminos from my Baader diagonal. Basically disassembling both of them in the process. The BHZ works well in the diagonal with the 2" skirt as it sits lower in the eyepiece holder. The 2.25x BHZ Barlow is also excellent, although I tend to use mine threaded into other eyepieces and I've only used it with the BHZ once. I have the 14mm Morpheus, I've had it for years. My only regret is that it doesn't get out as much as it should. 

 

 

Soon to be remedied hopefully. Visually I'd put them on par with a Delos. Plus, they're a bit lighter. The Neodymium filter is basically the Swiss Army Knife of filters. Mine goes out with me on every session, whether it's used or not. It's basically a sine qua non for planetary. Also useful for doubles in adverse conditions, as well as nebulae. Plus it stacks well.

I've got a couple of ES Maxvisions that look similar to that Luminos, I may avoid using them with the diagonal.

 

What filters are you stacking with the Neodymium?

[+Streetbob]

1 hour ago, Glafnazur said:

I've never used a zoom before but hope to use it on the moon tomorrow.

I have the MkIII and find it great for the moon. Saves swapping eps. I don’t have the Barlow for it though so would be interested to see what you think. I may get one. 

[Nightspore]

16 hours ago, Glafnazur said:

I'm hoping to have a good test tomorrow night presuming the forecasts are correct and it stays clear 🙂 

 

I had a quick session last Saturday and was quite impressed with the diagonal, filter and the 17.5 Morpheus. I have the 4.5 and 9 Morpheus already and love those and if first impressions are anything to go by the 17.5 doesn't disappoint. I was also quite impressed with the MKIV zoom, I've never used a zoom before but hope to use it on the moon tomorrow.

 

The diagonal has a deliberately oversized mirror. I'm not really sure what advantage it gives though. Almost everything Baader can be customised somewhat like an optical Meccano set lol.  I tend to use the BHZ for deep sky/rich field but it should work well for lunar viewing. I think the BHZ Barlow is very high quality. I was using it with a 6mm Vixen SLV for Jupiter this morning. I got a sharp 135x with a 60mm ED doublet, admittedly the conditions were above average. The neodymium filter really helps with Jupiter.