Shroud By Heather

 Well, I broke down and purchased a Shroud by Heather for the 17.5.  Rob handled the communications and he was very friendly, professional and cared about what I needed. Heather did outstanding work! The challenge was the 17.5" is a single upper ring. However with the right measurements the end product works perfectly!!!! It adds darkness which will improve the contrast as I observe and I am looking forward to using the 17.5" next week at a dark site (hopefully a couple of times).  

The shroud is black as you can see in the pictures below. I thought about green to match the focuser but decided to stick to black. The material is excellent and all I can say is that if you need a shroud, THIS IS THE PLACE (to use a Utah term) to get one. I usually don't promote here, but this is the LINK to Shrouds by Heather and again, if you need a shroud this IS the place to get one. I am very very happy with the end product and the entire experience. 

Here is the 17.5" in my garage all set up. Fits like a charm and I love how it changes the view of the scope. I'll be using it a lot and I am sure though there will be times I will not use it, especially at a very very dark site. We'll see after I use it next week at the dark site I go to observe at. I am very excited to see the difference. 

In addition I ordered a case for my truss poles. The case is made of heavier material than the shroud. It holds the truss poles wonderfully except for one mistake I made. I did not give the accurate measurement so the case only holds 4 of the 8 poles. So I ordered a second one to hold the other four! It is being made and will soon be here. I want to thank Rob and Heather for their great service and product. As always, first rate! 

Astro Tech XWA's 100 degrees

 Back in 2015 I owned the Explore Scientific 9mm and 20mm 100 degree eyepieces. There were things I enjoyed about them and things I didn't like about them. I ended up selling them and staying with my current collection of Pentax XW's and the TeleVue eyepieces that I have. 

However, of late I have wanted to try a hyper wide field again and was debating which series to try. I have looked through the TeleVue Ethos, the 21mm, 13mm and 10mm.  They views are wonderful in them but thinking of paying $700 or more for each of them wasn't something I really wanted to consider. Yes, TeleVue are the elite in many ways, yet I wanted to see if there was something else. 

Over on CloudyNights and on Reddit, I began reading on the Astro-Tech XWA lines. The reviews on them were positive and a member there that I really respect let me know his views on them which he had stated in various threads. So I decided to pull the trigger and ordered the entire line of the XWA's from Astronomics. 

The ordering process was a breeze as it always is with Astronomics and their communication and follow up is truly outstanding. They are my first choice for ordering astro gear from if they carry it. 

They arrived and I unboxed them. I saw that they had the two inch adapter and also can be used as a 1 1/4 eyepiece. They are large, as a 100 degree eyepiece is. Here are images of them after I had unboxes them. 

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I picked up a can of Baja Mountain Dew Zero just to show a comparison. The build on the eyepieces is excellent, firm and sturdy.  They are easy to grip and hold, and in terms of weight of each eyepiece is as follows according to Astronomics. I have a food scale so at some point I will weigh them myself. 

20mm~24 ounces; 13mm~19 ounces; 9mm~17 ounces; 7m110m~ 17 ounces; 4.8~19 ounces. I stopped with the 4.8 because the skies in Utah rarely allow me to use my 3.5mm Pentax XW so I didn't purchase the 3.5mm 110 degrees, figuring the 4.8mm 110 degrees would be enough. 

The one critique I have of them before I ever viewed from them are the eyecaps. The eyecups really don't fit that well and I noticed as I started using them in the backyard and in the field at my dark sites, I really didn't like how the eyecaps sat on the eyepieces. I am going to have to look to find an alternative if there is one. 

Here is each except for the 4.8mm 110 degree which arrived a few days later. Here they are from the 7mm to the 9mm, to the 13mm to the 20mm. 

I have to say that they are long, and when they are in the Paracorr 2 they do make for a long distance at the focuser. 

First light was in the backyard with my XT10 and a 102mm refractor. The first object was the moon. It was one day past first quarter in the waxing gibbous stage. I put in the 20mm first and all I can say was WOW!  Crisp across the field and the contrast was excellent. After talking with my optomistrist a couple of years ago, I now only wear my glasses to see the night sky. I do not need them when at the eyepiece. I did find that putting down the rubber guard help me to take in the whole field a lot better. I had that space porthole feeling. Immersive and expansive! I have to admit that the 20mm is giving my 22mm T4 Nagler a run as my finder eyepiece. The 20mm does show some fuzziness near the edge. 

The 13mm frames the moon in a wonderful view, and the 100 degrees allows for longer viewing. I liked, no I really liked this eyepiece. I found the contrast excellent, and easy to use and view with. 

The 9mm also really magnified the view and I liked the view. I thought it was nice and bright, good contrast. I would say you are not going to wear glasses with the XWA's and especially on the 9mm. 

The 7mm, all I can say is this is my favorite of the set. Clear crisp stars across the entire field, great contrast, just incredible. 

The 4.8mm also showed a wonderful view, great contrast, good field and the view was sharp. 

I also viewed several double stars and found the 4.8mm really beneficial in splitting along with the 7mm. 

My next time was out at a dark site. I will soon be posting about my trip up to Wolf Creek, Duchesne Ridge in the high Unita Mountains. Here i was able to really use all the eyepieces in this line. Actually, I never pulled out any other eyepieces this night. I found the view in the 20mm as a finder was wonderful and allowed me to see a larger field than in the 22mm Nagler T4. Jury is still out on which will be the finder but the 20mm framed some of the multiple galaxies in the same field quite well. 

I found myself also using the 13mm to sketch some of these multiple galaxies as I found the view inviting. Details were hinted at and when I put the 7mm in, pow! I was able to really see details and the 4.8mm really enhanced that view. I was at 9380 feet in elevation and Antoniadi I with very good transparency and seeing. I LOVE the views in the 7mm and the 4.8mm allowed me to see even more details.  Anyway, by 4:00 a.m. I was in love with these eyepieces. 

Are they the Ethos? Nope. However many say they are 95% of the Ethos with 1/3 the cost. I would agree with this. My two complaints are the eye caps and the undercut. I had to fight with the undercut a couple of times but the view is worth it. Here is how I break down each eyepiece: 

20mm XTA 100 degree: 

Coma: 4/5

Astigmatism: 5/5

Distortion: 5/5

Field Curvature: 4/5

Lateral Color: 5/5 

Internal Reflections: 5/5

Eye Relief: 3/5 

Kidney Bean: 4/5 (some if you don't place your eye in the right place). 

Weight: 3/5 

Cost / Benefit: 5/5 

Overall: 3.9/5 4.3.  This is a very good eyepiece and in the Paracorr 2 it becomes excellent. 

13mm XTA 100 degree 

Coma: 4/5 if no Paracorr is used: If Paracorr is used, 5/5) 

Astigmatism: 5/5

Distortion: 5/5

Field Curvature: 5/5

Lateral Color: 5/5 

Internal Reflections: 5/5

Eye Relief: 3/5 

Kidney Bean: 4/5 (some if you don't place your eye in the right place). 

Weight: 3/5 

Cost / Benefit: 5/5 

Overall: 4.4/5 (VERY GOOD with no Paracorr; Excellent with the Paracorr).

9mm XWA 100 degree 

Coma: 4.5/5 (if no Paracorr is used: If Paracorr is used, 5/5) 

Astigmatism: 5/5

Distortion: 5/5

Field Curvature: 5/5

Lateral Color: 5/5 

Internal Reflections: 5/5

Eye Relief: 4/5 

Kidney Bean: 5/5 (some if you don't place your eye in the right place). 

Weight: 3/5 

Cost / Benefit: 5/5 

Overall: 4.6/5 (VERY GOOD with no Paracorr to EXCELLENT EYEPIECE with Paracorr. 

7mm XWA 100 Degree

Coma: 5/5 

Astigmatism: 5/5

Distortion: 5/5

Field Curvature: 5/5

Lateral Color: 5/5 

Internal Reflections: 5/5

Eye Relief: 4/5 

Kidney Bean: 5/5 (some if you don't place your eye in the right place). 

Weight: 4/5 

Cost / Benefit: 5/5 

Overall: 4.8/5 Outstanding Eyepiece. 

4.8mm 110 Degree 

Coma: 5/5 (if no Paracorr is used: If Paracorr is used, 5/5) 

Astigmatism: 5/5

Distortion: 5/5

Field Curvature: 5/5

Lateral Color: 5/5 

Internal Reflections: 5/5

Eye Relief: 4/5 

Kidney Bean: 5/5 (some if you don't place your eye in the right place). 

Weight: 3/5 

Cost / Benefit: 5/5 

Overall: 4.7/5 (an EXCELLENT Eyepiece). 

So here is my rating of these excellent eyepieces. 

1. 7mm XWA.  Equal to an Ethos in my opinion. Outstanding. 

2. 4.8mm XWA. Very close to the 7mm when conditions are good. Excellent to Outstanding (based on conditions).

3. 9mm XWA. An excellent eyepiece. 

4. 13mm XWA. A very good eyepiece that is excellent with the Paracorr. 

5. 20mm XWA. A very good eyepiece that is excellent with the Paracorr. 

I have to say that these eyepieces are just excellent to outstanding. I LOVE that I spent what I did on them, saving a lot of money that allowed me to purchase some others things. I do not feel I compromised at all on these. I am extremely happy with these eyepieces and am looking forward to using them again during new moon next week. 

Mod to the Twilight 1 Mount

 So I've owned a Twilight 1 mount now for over 11 years. I use it with my Explore Scientific AR102. I use the AR102 for wide field observing and some quick backyard observing. I use a Yellow Filter #8 to kill the fringe from the Achromatic when I observe bright objects. I like the Twilight 1 mount and the AR102 on it. However the Twilight 1 mount has always had a good 10 second vibration as I observe. 

I recently purchased a SvBony SV48p 102mm and Sybony SV503 102mm. I did both because the SV48p was on special and I got it for about $225.00.  Here are some views and I have a review coming after I take it to a dark site for a couple of hours next week. 

On CloudyNights, JimofOakCreek shared the following that he implemented to stop the vibration from using the mount. Here is the LINK. 

After reading the thread and several others, I decided to give it a try. Here is what I did. 

I used the measurements above as a guidline. I cut my wood pieces out, painted them and installed them on my mount as you can see in these two pictures. 

Here you can see the SvBony SV48p on the adapted Twilight 1 Mount. 

Installing this mod after treating and painting the wood put the vibrations down to about 1-2 seconds top. I find I enjoy using the mount a lot more now. So if you own the Twilight 1 Mount this is an easy fix. 

The Explore Scientific Twilight I mount can have its slow motion control cable interfere with the telescope or tripod legs. This can be fixed by adjusting the angle of the mount head or repositioning the cable. This video shows one way to do that. 

Another mod that I will do to improve my use of the mount. I'll soon review the SvBony Sv48p 102mm and the Sv503 102mm refractors. 

SeeStar S50

 Okay, I bought the kool-aid and purchased a SeeStar S50. I watched a couple of reviews, one by an amateur I really respect who said to wait. I didn't. I would like to share my reasoning and my experience with this new telescope.

I purchased it as a way to get images without investing a ton into astro photography. Also the ease of use on the app is a plus to me and I installed SeeStar app on my iPhone 14 and my iPad.  I then spent two evenings in my SQM L 19.4 skies practicing imaging. I sat on the grass as the telescope went to work. Here are the images from those nights of June 17th and June 18th from my backyard in Herriman Utah. 

I tried some of the eye candy objects as you can see and a also a couple of Hershel 400 galaxies. I liked what came out even with the short exposure times.  I have a purpose on this and one will be to capture the images of what I sketch and list them side my side moving forward. 

I also took the SeeStar S50 to Forest Road 006 and imaged as I observed and again at Wolf Creek.  Here is the telescope at Forest Road 006: 

It's light, portable and easy to use! I actually really am enjoying imaging with it. Here are my images from Forest Road 006: 

You can see at a dark site that the SeeStar performs quite well. Here are the Wolf Creek Images: 

Again, I really like this both in my backyard and especially in the field. I have wanted to use it the last couple of nights but clouds have been in the way. I am hoping later in the week. I have some special in mind to use this. My only compliant on it is they do not include an adapter to plug into the way for the USB C cord they provide. They should provide the adapter as well in my opinion and the 2" filter adapter. 

I know for new moon in September I will be on the Oregon coast and with no scope except for the SeeStar S50. I expect it to get a lot of use there as well! 

My overall impression is for someone like me, a visual observer, the SeeStar S50 provides an rather inexpensive way to do some imaging. Here are some projects I thought I would or could use it for. 

1. First project will be to image all the Herschel 400 so I have an image of each one to go with the sketches I do. 

2. Supernova Hunting on the main galaxies of the season. I love supernova and being able to image 5-10 galaxies every couple of nights and compare them to see if there is a supernova could be fun. 

3. To confirm my observations if I have questions. 

4. For those nights when I cannot get out but can image from my home by setting up the SeeStar S50 in my backyard. It will also help to to decide if some of the objects I want to visually go after at a dark site are worth it.