Helios Quantum shakedown

[+bryand]

I'm still waiting for the new tripod, but my BigBins upgrade is working out nicely.  As before, I took them to Staunton Harold reservoir to get decent long-distance view.  A tad foggy, but more than good enough for testing.

My favourite eyepieces are likely to be the 19 mm Panoptics, which will be shared with my binoviewer and give 29X magnification:

The Stellalyra 12.5 mm pair yield 44x magnification, which may be the limit unless the seeing is exceptional:

If you're lucky, the 8.5 mm Pentax XFs might get a look in at 61x magnification, but these are approaching the limit for these binoculars:

 

As I was packing away, this fellow popped up for a look:

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by bryand
typos

[BAZ]

That's an epic pair of Bino's, your little friend looks impressed too.

[+Ibbo]

That looks a nice setup.

 

[philjay]

Very nice. 

[+Bino-viewer]

Looking good Bryan.

 

Are you using Dioptrix on those 19mm Panoptics ??

The eyecups look 'different' to mine.

[philjay]

My favourite ep,s in my Ed80 binoscope are the TV 18.2mm delites. 

For general wandering around I have a pair of Vixen LV 8-24mm zooms which work well but fov is a bit limited in them.

Seeing you bins has reminded me, i must get mine out again, its been too long.

 

Big bin observing is a pleasure. I,ve used binoviewers on scopes many times but you cant beat 1 dedicated scope per eye

[+Bino-viewer]

There's big bins, and then theres these......

They've been on ABS a little while now.

 

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=193653

[+bryand]

2 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

There's big bins, and then theres these......

They've been on ABS a little while now.

 

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=193653

Bit big to hump up to Tannenbaum every week though…

[+Glafnazur]

Nice set up Bryan 👍

[+bryand]

11 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

Looking good Bryan.

 

Are you using Dioptrix on those 19mm Panoptics ??

The eyecups look 'different' to mine.

Thanks for reminding me - it's ages since I've used them, and they do make a difference - though they are fiddly to set up.

Fortunately my current prescription is close enough to these for them to still work well - a nice circular Jupiter with four pinprick moons.

 

[+Bino-viewer]

Arr, thought so Bryan. Thanks.

 

I'm beginning to think i may benefit having them myself. 55 year old eyes and they are starting to show it.

I only have the 24 and 19mm Tele-vue pairs now ; they are my 'workhorse' eyepieces so i think it would be well worth looking into.

I'll wait for the next Tele-vue 'sale' first i think 😃

[+bryand]

2 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

Arr, thought so Bryan. Thanks.

 

I'm beginning to think i may benefit having them myself. 55 year old eyes and they are starting to show it.

I only have the 24 and 19mm Tele-vue pairs now ; they are my 'workhorse' eyepieces so i think it would be well worth looking into.

I'll wait for the next Tele-vue 'sale' first i think 😃

Mine are both -1.50 dioptres.  If that's anything near your prescription, you're welcome to borrow mine to try them out - or simpler still borrow my Dioptred 19 mms.

Same goes for Doug, whose need may be greater than yours.

[+Streetbob]

I’ll look into this. Thanks for the offer Bryan

[+Bino-viewer]

@bryand @Streetbob

Gentleman, i have started a thread over on SGL about Tv Dioptrx. You may have seen it.

I've been thinking for a while now about trying them and think they may be of some benefit to me.

 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/403989-time-for-tv-dioptrx-what-do-i-need-to-know/#comment-4326727

 

My current prescription is - 0.50 left eye and - 0.75 right eye.

Recommendations say they are best suited  with refractors (not Newtonians) and with medium fov eyepieces 60-70º (Panoptics ? 🙂) rather than ultra wides which i don't have anyway,

and with an exit pupil over 3 mm. They may be of slightly less benefit with the 19mm Pans, but i can try them and see. I have quite small pupils, even for my age.

 

I've decided to purchase 3 i think, although i'm not 100% definite yet.

 

My 24mm Panoptics get the most use and with my F7 scope have the biggest exit pupil.

I'm thinking of trying 0.75 and 1.0 in them (they need the adapters) and also another 0.75 for the 35mm Panoptic i have.

 

365 Astronomy seems to be the cheapest online (better than FLO) so i'll order from them, but they are quoting a 4 week leadtime.

I'll let you know how i get on 🙂

 

 

 

[+Bino-viewer]

.....and many thanks for the offer Bryan. They may be a bit strong for me though (i only have a -0.50 left and -0.75 cylinder prescription)

so its debatable that i really need them at all. 

[+bryand]

Well the BigBins upgrade turned into a bit of an epic, where nothing went right first time:

 

The first pair of Helios binoculars were so far out of collimation that I was literally seeing double.  
Joe at the Widescreen Centre arranged for a new pair to be sent out from OVL and the first pair to be collected within 24 hours, so full marks for service.  
The second pair are fine.

 

The tripod took its time to arrive, and when it did, the second leg clamps were missing.  
In truth I probably don't need them (the tripod is higher than I anticipated) but I paid for them so FLO are sending a second set.
I was going to use the upper clamps for a spreader chain, but the built-in spreader clamps seem to be strong enough for my needs.

 

My original fork mount had a tripod-mounted base into which the mount's spigot slid.  Nice and easy and quickly demountable.  
Because the APM mount has encoders, the base is captured onto the mount and so I need a hefty Quick Release mechanism for the APM mount, to split it from the tripod for transit.  
The Manfrotto MOVE QR works well and is rated for up to 20 Kg.  Effective, but an extra expense.

 

All was going well with the Nexus and Fork Mount until one night I tried to align the Nexus and all attempts failed.
Using the Encoder Test routine it became obvious that the Azimuth encoder wasn't working properly.
I videoed the problem and sent it to Rupert at Astrograph who spotted that APM had mounted the encoder's shaft adapters upside down. (German workmanship, eh?)  
He sent detailed instructions for stripping, re-mounting and re-assembling the encoder, and the repaired system has been working fine ever since.  
Rupert suggested I check the Altitude encoder as well and sure enough, that is backwards too.  But for the time being it ain't broke...

 

So, a bumpy passage helped by some real displays of competence - a rare thing nowadays!

[+Streetbob]

On 18/12/2022 at 13:41, Bino-viewer said:

@bryand @Streetbob

Gentleman, i have started a thread over on SGL about Tv Dioptrx. You may have seen it.

I've been thinking for a while now about trying them and think they may be of some benefit to me.

Rob are you trying to spend my money again.😄

[+Streetbob]

@bryand

How frustrating. Glad you’re sorted now though. I’ve found that customer service in the Astro industry is mainly first class.

Hope there’s a chance for a dark site meet soon so you can give us a demo.

[+Bino-viewer]

12 hours ago, Streetbob said:

Rob are you trying to spend my money again.😄

 

I myself have a good excuse Doug.

We went to the IAS a couple of months ago and i never spent a penny hardly 😀

 

Have you had any more time to evaluate the motors on your AZ100 ?

[+Streetbob]

Managed to get out last night.  I shall post some more detail later. Thanks for asking.

[+Streetbob]

On 19/12/2022 at 18:07, bryand said:

Rupert suggested I check the Altitude encoder as well and sure enough, that is backwards too.

Just a thought Bryan.  Have you changed the +/- sign before the encoder steps setting? (page 9 of the manual).