Jump to content
  • Join the online East Midlands astronomy club today!

    With active forums, two dark sites and a knowledgeable membership, East Midlands Stargazers has something for everyone.

Latest Purchases


Guest Kheldar

Recommended Posts

Astrofest purchase. (it arrived early)

Baader Planetarium 90º Amici roof prism with BBHS multi coatings.

 

The prism is very solid (it needs to be) and is built to the Zeiss factory standard with T2 threads on both sides.

Although it only has 31mm of free aperture, i've brought it to use solely with my Mk 5 bino.

Optical length is a mere 47.5mm

46956819002_6253e2e513_z.jpg

 

Now i know why these things are so difficult to make well, and are the price they are.

Inside looks rather complex to say the least.

47008654611_f9e028654b_z.jpg

 

Here it is with the Baader T2 quick changer fitted (to attach the bino) and a smoothbore 2" barrel fitted (filter threaded)

and a comparison with my other normal (reversed left to right) diagonal. Its about 10mm longer in the body.

This Amici prism with give an erect, non reversed image.

I'm only going to be using it for Lunar, astro wise.

Its main use will be for terrestrial and bird / nature watching.

How it performs will be a post for the future, as i'm without refractor at present.

47008654601_21c32d7a69_z.jpg47008654511_9689f127e1_z.jpg

Edited by Bino-viewer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always been a fan of Baader stuff Mick.

Although it says Zeiss on the website, its not actually Zeiss as such.

Its just made to the same standards. Allegedly.

If you want the best of the best, Baader do one that costs more than double the price i paid for this one.

But as i don't use 2" glass, i didn't consider it.

 

But I kind of have my doubts whether this new Amici will be as good as your own.

How does yours perform in daylight ?? 

 

Hopefully this one will be ok.

But i may be able to detect that diffraction spike (is that what it is ?) that is reported

with the budget models. Reviews seem positive enough.

We will see.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never used it in daylight so can't comment on that.

 

The diffraction spikes are visible but only on really bright stars such as Sirius, Capella etc. I was told by APM that even on the top of the range Baader and APM diagonals you will still be able to see diffraction spikes, To be honest it doesn't bother me as I spent years looking through dobsonians so I'm used to spikes on stars. Have never seen any defects on the moon. In fact the moon looks fantastic when using the AMICI, seems to be sharper then the supplied Skywatcher diagonal.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You won't be disappointed Rob. I got one for my telementor. Certainly haven't seen the diffraction spike yet, but only really used it on the moon. Just a shame it doesn't come with nose or eyepiece holder. Like you I opted for a click stop but only 1.25.

Edited by tuckstar
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Andy. Its not even a click stop, just a dovetail type fitting that the bino couples to.

Just had a look at those Telementors. I'm assuming if you are using the Clickstop, yours has been adapted to use 1.25" previously ?

According to this review i read, its quite difficult to do, as the scopes were all built to take .965 eyepieces.

It looks an interesting scope, and with it being Zeiss from that era, will certainly be valuable.

Was it built in East Germany, with the fixed eyepiece (ie focusing achieved by moving the primary up / down ?

 

http://scopeviews.co.uk/ZeissTelementor.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yep that's the one. Carl Zeiss Jena Telementor 2 from about 1985. I converted it to 1.25 as I unfortunately didn't get any eyepieces with it. Just two adapters from teleskope services. I was lucky enough to pick it up as a job lot with a 105/500 rubinar mirror lense and a couple of meade skylux's. Really didn't know what it was but so glad I took the punt. Got £100 more for the rubinar on ebay than I paid for all four items. They don't go for major money, seen a few for around the 350 mark. At only 63mm it's not great on dso but planetary, luna and particularly doubles are a speciality. 

 

Obviously before I upgraded to the prism.

2019-02-07_06-37-25

 

Jenny from jena enjoying kelling with one of Phil's old scopes.

 

IDAS at Kelling heath equinox starparty autumn 2014.

 

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Second hand purchase, to go with my UHC version.

46367771664_1199e4a5cb_z.jpg

Edited by Bino-viewer
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

.....and this arrived from FLO.

In one piece !  ?

Its for my new refractor, hopefully arriving soon.

32149373867_df04cb8ed7_c.jpg

Edited by Bino-viewer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice Andy. I would save up for the 25mm and complete the set, but then I've always had a thing about collections, must be my OCD.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still wouldn't get the whole set as the 30mm is a 3" barrel. That would mean a new scope, or a larger focuser, hhhmmm!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tuckstar said:

I still wouldn't get the whole set as the 30mm is a 3" barrel. That would mean a new scope, or a larger focuser, hhhmmm!

And a 3" diagonal! 

 

If you go big, you can borrow my 3" 30mm 100 degree and diagonal. You'd love the 25mm 100 to top off your 2" collection though.

 

Don't think you'd be satisfied with the 30mm 82 degree, after your 100's it would be like looking through a drinking straw. ?

 

The 5.5mm is going to be a nice high power ep. Your collection is growing nicely. ?

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I've sourced another used 9mm Nagler to go with the other second hand one i found at the back end of last year.

Both are in A1 condition. Both only cost 60% or so of a new one, so a good saving.

One appears from an earlier production run, the barrel design is a bit different.

Hopefully, given Tele-vues pedigree, they will both perform equally as well.

 

This will be my 'high power option'

So they may not get a whole lot of use.

They will throw out 280x in my forthcoming refractor.

Saturn should be a good candidate for that in about another 5 - 10 years !!

 

I now have 9mm, 13mm, 14mm, 15mm, 19mm & 24mm pairs.

 

Despite me selling off my 2" glass, there may be need for a new eyepiece case for this little lot.

 

If anyone wants to check them out, try them out in your own scope at a meet, you'd be most welcome. Just give me a shout. ?

 

46854547804_63e7d1cdaf_z.jpg40612263883_45b7da023e_z.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by Bino-viewer
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Whilst out and about yesterday I came across a wrecked pair of Celestron Skymaster 25x70 bins in a boot type sale bin. The focusing is wrecked, only one eyepiece but both objectives are in good condition plus the prism assemblies are all there.

 

All for the princely sum of £2.01, dont ask about the 1p ?

 

I could not resist. I could make a birding spotting scope out of 1 side, a finder scope out of the other. However initially I am going to investigate the prisms, these may be useful on my ED80 bins, although I reckon they may vignette too much to be of any use.

 

But if I cant make something from these I need to change my job ?

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

 

 

spacer.png

 

 

Edited by philjay
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I've been after one of these for a little bit now but they rarely come up. Ended up paying more than I wanted, that's customs for you, but does complete, for now, my Clavè set. The set was put together by the previous owner as a barlowed set. So with a 25, 16, 10, 6 and 4mm + the barlow, it is a barlow by the way, it covers all the bases. Interesting eyepiece holder, it's like a cut in the casing which acts as a spring to hold the eyepiece in place and is actually quite secure. Still not in the same league as Docs collection but I'm happy.

20190523_175836

 

20190523_175904

 

Edited by tuckstar
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.