Posts Made By: Vladimir Fedosov

A TV-85. Very sharp optics, portable, no cool down time... And the list goes on. I miss that little scope(think I will buy another TV-85...).

Out of the ones listed I would go with the 5mm Nag. Why? Because of FOV and it’s just as sharp and more contrast then any other EP. Stay away form the 5mm ortho. I had one and your eyeball is on the lens because there is hardly any ER.

Ehhhhh since you posted in the wrong forum I will do the same. Here is my picture of M42. Taken thru a NP101 with a Canon 300d mounted on a LXD55. Stack of a 2min and 1 min exposures. Adjusted in Photoshop 7. Just started taking pictures and still trying to get down my tracking and all that. Vlad.

Hi Vincent, I too had trouble with the stability of my LXD55 when a AR6 was mounted on it. After a bit of usage I sold the ar6 because the scope was just too much for the mount to handle. I then bought a TV NP101 thinking that the mount would support the 4” APO with rock solid stability. Nope I was dead wrong. Dampening times where still around 3-4 seconds witch was better then the AR6’s 5-6 second dampening time but still not acceptable to me. As it turned out the cause of the vibration is not the mount itself but the flimsy aluminum legs. I have since bought very good legs from KB systems(who make legs for TV) that are made of Purpleheart wood. With these new legs and Celestron vibration suspension pads I have sub second dampening time using 220x. I was shocked at how much of a difference the legs made. As far as the goto goes, I get accuracy that is totally acceptable to me. Keep in mind that with my 31mm Nag I get a 4.6* FOV out of my NP101 so the accuracy does not even need to be that good. It is defiantly worst then my 12” LX-200 but as stated with such a wide FOV it does not need to be dead on. If you are getting horrible goto accuracy I will be willing to bet that a day of twicking the mount and you would be satisfied with it. The first thing to check is if the gear retaining screws are tight. That is the cause of bad LXD55 performance 90% of the time and the rest is ether user error or encoder problems. I have even begun to get into astrophotography with the NP101 and LXD55 combo. It is actually acceptable even for that purpose(see pictures below). Anyway good luck with whatever you decide on. Vlad.

So you have never looked thru one? The view has something magical about it. Stars are not blobs as in other types of scopes and the view is generally more contrast. There is also the factor of pride of ownership playing a role. It is a pleasure to use my NP101 every time it is outside. Vlad.

I just barely made it out last night with my astro clubs 16" Ritchey - Chretien, H-beta filter and 26mm Nag under dark skies. And it was BARELY visible. Sorry to inform you but your chances of seeing it with your current equipment/ location are about the same as winning the lottery.

Here is some of what I have done so far with my d300, NP101, LXD55.