Well, my investigations into the 24-25mm and 9-10mm ep pairs is complete. 24 Pans and 9 Nagler type 6's. Big suprise, huh? It is weird to look in my ep case and only see 4 pairs of ep's though (still have the 32mm GTO plossls and the 12.5mm orthos).
Now I am venturing into the 11-13mm and 7mm ranges. The new Starmaster has a 1508mm focal length, so I'm a little out of kilter with my ep numbers. What once was second nature is now a mental chore. Luckily, the 24 Pan fits with any scope but it certainly took a hit with the added focal length. I'm down to 86x and .75 deg TFOV as the best I can do. The 9mm hit a semi-sweet spot (230x w/ 2" OCS and 335x with the 2x corrector). I wanted to fill in around 180x (a popular Jupiter mag) and something around 280x to split the 9mm's mags. That would give me a good range of planetary magnifications to choose from for persnickity seeing and Jupiter's challenging low contrast detail. 11mm fits both those mags with the 2 correctors I have, but there isn't a lot to choose from in that focal length.
The 7mm would be used for the 8+ seeing nights and globular clusters, so not a lot of use. It would give me 295x and 431x. The 295x is somewhat duplicative of the 11mm x2, but I want access to 431x and higher. That's why I bought the Zambuto mirror. I'm thinking I should add a pair of 7mm orthos to start off.
I am also entertaining the idea of putting 2 powermates in the ep holders to get to ludicrous power. But now I'm getting back into the whacky world of multiple amplifiers that I was trying to avoid.
So, I solicit thoughts and recommendations.
Also, I talked to Rick Singmaster at Starmaster telescopes and he recommended I definitely should not crop my truss poles. But I could get a 1 deg TFOV if I went correctorless. Russ recommended against cropping as well. But the tinkerer in me is finding it hard to resist. Sometimes I wake up with the Dremel in my hand pretending to grind things
Clear skies,
Tom
Now I am venturing into the 11-13mm and 7mm ranges. The new Starmaster has a 1508mm focal length, so I'm a little out of kilter with my ep numbers. What once was second nature is now a mental chore. Luckily, the 24 Pan fits with any scope but it certainly took a hit with the added focal length. I'm down to 86x and .75 deg TFOV as the best I can do. The 9mm hit a semi-sweet spot (230x w/ 2" OCS and 335x with the 2x corrector). I wanted to fill in around 180x (a popular Jupiter mag) and something around 280x to split the 9mm's mags. That would give me a good range of planetary magnifications to choose from for persnickity seeing and Jupiter's challenging low contrast detail. 11mm fits both those mags with the 2 correctors I have, but there isn't a lot to choose from in that focal length.
The 7mm would be used for the 8+ seeing nights and globular clusters, so not a lot of use. It would give me 295x and 431x. The 295x is somewhat duplicative of the 11mm x2, but I want access to 431x and higher. That's why I bought the Zambuto mirror. I'm thinking I should add a pair of 7mm orthos to start off.
I am also entertaining the idea of putting 2 powermates in the ep holders to get to ludicrous power. But now I'm getting back into the whacky world of multiple amplifiers that I was trying to avoid.
So, I solicit thoughts and recommendations.
Also, I talked to Rick Singmaster at Starmaster telescopes and he recommended I definitely should not crop my truss poles. But I could get a 1 deg TFOV if I went correctorless. Russ recommended against cropping as well. But the tinkerer in me is finding it hard to resist. Sometimes I wake up with the Dremel in my hand pretending to grind things
Clear skies,
Tom