any astronomers here?

[HughP3]

getting back into it after 10+ years away. did not realize how much I missed it…. very soothing to the soul.

 

[astrotoy]

Very nice. How big is the refractor? Looks like a very good sized one for an amateur instrument. Also takes time to set up the equatorial mount accurately. Larry (retired astronomer)

 

[HughP3]

Very nice. How big is the refractor? Looks like a very good sized one for an amateur instrument. Also takes time to set up the equatorial mount accurately. Larry (retired astronomer)

hi larry its a APM 152ED 6 inch doublet. some say semi-apo but star tests show chromatic aberration minimal, I say Apo. i love refractors. mount is a Mach2 from Astro-Physics, first AP mount i have owned and it is exquisite. i used to do astro photography but that just took too much time and effort, it’s difficult. this scope is very reasonable for an Apo but as i cannot control myself i ordered my forever scope a TEC 180FL (Florite triplet), about a year wait. looking into night vision setup which increases aperture some say up to 100x. thats a big big scope…

 

[astrotoy]

Very nice. A triplet is a big deal. When I was in college at Harvard we had a 15 inch refractor from the mid 1800's - the largest telescope in the US during that time. I did my senior thesis using the school's 61" reflector. In grad school at Cal (Berkeley), we had both a 36" reflector (I used that for measurements on my PhD thesis), and a 36" refractor (the second largest refractor in the world after the 40" Yerkes refractor). The big telescope is the 120" reflector, which at the time was the second largest telescope in the world after the 200" at Mt. Palomar. That was back almost 60 years ago. Today, lots of bigger telescopes, including many with segmented mirrors.

I was a founding member of the Board of the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, CA. We have two wonderful refractors. The first from the late 1800's is a nine-inch Alvin Clark refractor (Clark would later do the lens of the Yerkes refractor). The second is a 20" refractor with a lens by John Brashear from 1914. The larger telescope is named Rachel and the smaller telescope Leah. If you know the Biblical story of Jacob and his two wives - Leah was the first, but Rachel was the one he really wanted to marry.

Larry

 

[HughP3]

Glad to meet a real Astronomer! I have heard of these huge refractors, one day i hope to look through one. Your story is amazing, your obviously a gifted guy. Would enjoy a sit down with you. Are you still active the field?

Its a 152mm or 6 inch. I have a 180mm or 7”on order. Its as big as i care to lift! You asked about setup and polar align. Its really easy with this new stuff. The mount comes with a very accurate polar scope with illuminated reticle. i level the mount then use free software called PS align pro on my iphone. It replicates my reticle and using my gps location and date/time calculates the earths procession and displays where to put polaris on the calculated reticle. I adjust the mount in dec and ascension until polaris is placed in the reticle in the calculated right spot. i then slew to a known star center and tell the mount to resync. It calculates and stores the pointing error. All done. The best way if i had a permanent setup and using pc control software would be to use a camera that plate solves stars in various slew positions. the pc software calculates the error. Very accurate goto from then on.

Total setup from storage to fairly accurate goto is about an hour taking my time. Tear down and storage is about 40 minutes or less. I do love the hobby. Its awe inspiring.

 

[A-Line]

In addition to my music hobby my other hobby is amateur solar/planetary/lunar astronomy. I started my amateur astronomy hobby in the mid-1990's.

TELESCOPES: Takahashi TOA 130NS APO air spaced triplet(Moon/Planets), William Optics FLT110 f6.5 TEC APO oil-spaced triplet(Solar), TeleVue 85 APO doublet(Grab-n-Go)

MOUNTS: Takahashi EM200 USD II w/ wooden tripod , TeleVue Gibraltar HD4

SOLAR: DayStar sub-angstom solar filters (.5A Ha, .4A Na D, .3A He D3 Quantum PE, MgI b2 Quark), Baader Herschel Wedge Prism, Baader ASTF 80 For TV85

EYEPIECES: Various Brandons, TeleVue 55mm Plossl

Like any other hobby once you've acquired the necessary components you stop buying and simply enjoy the hobby.

 

[A-Line]

getting back into it after 10+ years away. did not realize how much I missed it…. very soothing to the soul.View attachment 109539

APM is a nice scope.
I have that same adjustable observing chair but mine is white.

 

[A-Line]

hi larry its a APM 152ED 6 inch doublet. some say semi-apo but star tests show chromatic aberration minimal, I say Apo. i love refractors. mount is a Mach2 from Astro-Physics, first AP mount i have owned and it is exquisite. i used to do astro photography but that just took too much time and effort, it’s difficult. this scope is very reasonable for an Apo but as i cannot control myself i ordered my forever scope a TEC 180FL (Florite triplet), about a year wait. looking into night vision setup which increases aperture some say up to 100x. thats a big big scope…

Like you I also tried astrophotography for a while but lost interest due to the setup. I now do just visual observations.

Yuri at TEC makes excellent scopes. My William Yang 110 uses one of his oil spaced triplet lenses.
180mm refractor is a big scope!
Enjoy

 

[Solartiger]

Another astronut here.

Telescopes (my refractor collection):
TEC APO160FL, Astro-Physics 130 GTX, Astro-Physics 130 EDF GT, Takahashi 102, Astro-Physics Stowaway 92

Mounts:
2x Astro-Physics Mach2GTO

I have a roll off observatory in the garden but unfortunately in a bortle 7 zone.

 

[A-Line]

Another astronut here.

Telescopes (my refractor collection):
TEC APO160FL, Astro-Physics 130 GTX, Astro-Physics 130 EDF GT, Takahashi 102, Astro-Physics Stowaway 92

Mounts:
2x Astro-Physics Mach2GTO

I have a roll off observatory in the garden but unfortunately in a bortle 7 zone.

I wanted a AP refractor but didn't want to wait 20 years for one... Is Roland Christian still alive?
Nice scopes that you have there!

 

[HughP3]

In addition to my music hobby my other hobby is amateur solar/planetary/lunar astronomy. I started my amateur astronomy hobby in the mid-1990's.

TELESCOPES: Takahashi TOA 130NS APO air spaced triplet(Moon/Planets), William Optics FLT110 f6.5 TEC APO oil-spaced triplet(Solar), TeleVue 85 APO doublet(Grab-n-Go)

MOUNTS: Takahashi EM200 USD II w/ wooden tripod , TeleVue Gibraltar HD4

SOLAR: DayStar sub-angstom solar filters (.5A Ha, .4A Na D, .3A He D3 Quantum PE, MgI b2 Quark), Baader Herschel Wedge Prism, Baader ASTF 80 For TV85

EYEPIECES: Various Brandons, TeleVue 55mm Plossl

Like any other hobby once you've acquired the necessary components you stop buying and simply enjoy the hobby.

very nice setup. Taks are amazing. i did my rounds on them. 130, 152 fluorite, 300 mewlon. various mounts. i am waiting for the insufferable heat and humidity to lessen a bit. this

 

[HughP3]

Another astronut here.

Telescopes (my refractor collection):
TEC APO160FL, Astro-Physics 130 GTX, Astro-Physics 130 EDF GT, Takahashi 102, Astro-Physics Stowaway 92

Mounts:
2x Astro-Physics Mach2GTO

I have a roll off observatory in the garden but unfortunately in a bortle 7 zone.

great tools there too! i feel like not doing photography is letting my AP mount down but its needed to support the big apo. incredibly well made. i need to make a permanent pier. too much weight for the AP tripod

 

[HughP3]

I wanted a AP refractor but didn't want to wait 20 years for one... Is Roland Christian still alive?
Nice scopes that you have there!

as far as i know he and his wife still run things. you can gets mounts etc but getting a scope is impossible. TEC or some others is a better path.

 

[A-Line]

as far as i know he and his wife still run things. you can gets mounts etc but getting a scope is impossible. TEC or some others is a better path.

Yes the wait time for a AP refractor is ridiculous so that's why I chose the TAK 130 orthoscopic air spaced triplet refractor instead.
TEC is nice. I have a local friend that has a TEC140. I liked Tak better though. Besides my WO FLT110 FluroStar already had a TEC oil-spaced triplet cell so..

 

[Solartiger]

Takahashi refractors are very nice, I also have a TSA102. What I don’t like about Tak is their proprietary adapters, I never understood the logic behind this.

I have a roll off observatory in the garden with two piers and two AP Mach2 mounts. But my favourite is to put an Astro Physics Starfire 130 onto a manual AZ mount without counter weights in the middle of the garden. In the eyepiece the southern constellations around Eta Carina, Jewel Box etc are just stunning. Colourful star fields, you can get drunk by starlight. There is nothing in the Northern Hemisphere that is even close.

 

[A-Line]

Takahashi refractors are very nice, I also have a TSA102. What I don’t like about Tak is their proprietary adapters, I never understood the logic behind this.

I have a roll off observatory in the garden with two piers and two AP Mach2 mounts. But my favourite is to put an Astro Physics Starfire 130 onto a manual AZ mount without counter weights in the middle of the garden. In the eyepiece the southern constellations around Eta Carina, Jewel Box etc are just stunning. Colourful star fields, you can get drunk by starlight. There is nothing in the Northern Hemisphere that is even close.

I started out using a alt-az mount until I learned the sky. Started with a Vixen 80mm refractor. Once I was able to find Saturn in the sky at 2pm in the afternoon by using a planisphere and a variable polarizing filter all with a cheap alt-az mount.

Then I started investing in better equipment with a focus on planets, moon, & sun.

A local friend of mine has a mechanized dome observatory in his backyard. He has a Celestron C14 and a TEC140. I wanted my setup to be mobile but also needed scopes/mounts that I could manage in old age.