35 replies to this topic

[AstroApe]

While I knew it would be large, and your photo confirms that; I did not really think about the placement of the eyepiece. My AT102EDL is back heavy, so the scope is balanced near the focuser. These large scopes seem to balance closer to the middle.

Yeah I was surprised by the eyepiece placement on this scope while using it. With my 102 I can use a stool and easily view from any position but that's definitely not the case with the 125.

 

I was viewing the Ring Nebula last night near zenith since I was wanting to see how the SkyTee-2 would handle it, and I basically had to sit on the ground to have a comfortable view at the eyepiece. I was using the scope on the side saddle of the SkyTee-2 which is mounted on top of a 16" Orion SkyView Pro pier extension and 2" Celestron CG5 tripod. Without the pier extension the diagonal would've probably hit the ground. I was using a small tripod chair that worked well for most elevations and the camera angle adjuster really helped to turn the eyepiece to a good viewing angle. I've been meaning to buy a dedicated observing chair or build a Denver Chair but have been putting it off since my stool has worked great up until now. This scope will definitely give me motivation to finally get a decent one.

 

As far as scope placement on the mount, you're exactly right about the 102 balancing closer to the focuser and 125 towards the middle. The 125 feels like it's nose heavy whenever it's picked up without a diagonal & eyepiece in it, but a 2" dielectric and medium weight eyepiece in it balances out well. Here's a few pics that show this difference pretty well:

 

 

My original plan was to use the 125 together with a 70ED on the SkyTee, but the more I think about it the more I think that I won't really be happy with that setup. The problem is that I'll be low down while using the 125 then will have to standup to view through the 70, and since it'll be on the top saddle the eyepiece will be fairly high up. The 70 doesn't have a camera angle adjuster like the EDL scopes do which also makes adjusting the angle of the diagonal more aggravating. I'll just have to get more time in with that setup to see if it's something that'll work for me. I may end up trying the 70ED sans diagonal (straight through Japanese style) as an experiment but I'll need to use an extension tube. I don't think this would be too bad or uncomfortable using the top saddle of the SkyTee since the 25x100 mounted on it were quite comfortable to view through, but it'd still be less than ideal IMO.... so I may end up just ditching the idea of the 125 / 70 combo and just mount a Telrad or similar on the top plate. IDK, time will tell.

[AstroApe]

does the c102 beat out the 125edl in anything, not asking about weight or focal length math...

 

at the ep can the c102 beat the 125edl in any comparison?

 

john

Besides the grab-n-go aspect of the 102 over the 125 and smaller mount requirements, it's next biggest advantage IMO is it's larger FOV. Using an eyepiece like a 35mm Panoptic (which I unfortunately don't own) would give me a 3.33° TFOV in the 102 and a 2.44° TFOV in the 125. This may not seem like a major difference, less than a degree, but a ton more objects will fit into the FOV of the 102 that won't the 125. So in sky area covered the 102 wins.... but on pretty much everything else the 125 wins. As the saying goes, if everything else is equal (which it basically is on these scopes) "aperture is king".

 

----------

 

Edit:

Sorry, I just saw the "C102" and I'd posted about the "AT102EDL". The 125EDL will still win in aperture, but the C102 may or may not have a bigger FOV depending on it's focal length. I think there were 2 versions of that scope produced, a 500mm FL f/5 & 1000mm FL f/10, but I'm not completely sure.

Edited by AstroApe, 20 September 2023 - 04:50 AM.

[AstroApe]

For me an advantage of using the smaller aperture telescope is being able to get the telescope with mount/tripod out the door of my house in one piece. It is possible and doable if carefully done using my 102EDL/AZ5 mount.

 

I highly doubt my ability to do the same with a solidly supported 125 EDL. Also the TFOV capability mentioned above by Greg using the smaller aperture telescope isn't lost on me. It all depends on how and what one wants to use a particular telescope for.

There's no way I'd attempt to move the 125 around while mounted! Maybe if I was in the yard and just had to move it over a few meters or so, but no way I'd try carrying it out of the house mounted. 

 

The 102 on a small mount such as the M2C would be pretty easy to do tho, although I probably wouldn't move it mounted either because I just know something crazy would happen while trying... I'm an extremely lucky person, it's just bad luck instead of good

[Cpk133]

Yeah I was surprised by the eyepiece placement on this scope while using it. With my 102 I can use a stool and easily view from any position but that's definitely not the case with the 125.

 

I was viewing the Ring Nebula last night near zenith since I was wanting to see how the SkyTee-2 would handle it, and I basically had to sit on the ground to have a comfortable view at the eyepiece. I was using the scope on the side saddle of the SkyTee-2 which is mounted on top of a 16" Orion SkyView Pro pier extension and 2" Celestron CG5 tripod. Without the pier extension the diagonal would've probably hit the ground. I was using a small tripod chair that worked well for most elevations and the camera angle adjuster really helped to turn the eyepiece to a good viewing angle. I've been meaning to buy a dedicated observing chair or build a Denver Chair but have been putting it off since my stool has worked great up until now. This scope will definitely give me motivation to finally get a decent one.

 

As far as scope placement on the mount, you're exactly right about the 102 balancing closer to the focuser and 125 towards the middle. The 125 feels like it's nose heavy whenever it's picked up without a diagonal & eyepiece in it, but a 2" dielectric and medium weight eyepiece in it balances out well. Here's a few pics that show this difference pretty well:

 

 

 

 

 

My original plan was to use the 125 together with a 70ED on the SkyTee, but the more I think about it the more I think that I won't really be happy with that setup. The problem is that I'll be low down while using the 125 then will have to standup to view through the 70, and since it'll be on the top saddle the eyepiece will be fairly high up. The 70 doesn't have a camera angle adjuster like the EDL scopes do which also makes adjusting the angle of the diagonal more aggravating. I'll just have to get more time in with that setup to see if it's something that'll work for me. I may end up trying the 70ED sans diagonal (straight through Japanese style) as an experiment but I'll need to use an extension tube. I don't think this would be too bad or uncomfortable using the top saddle of the SkyTee since the 25x100 mounted on it were quite comfortable to view through, but it'd still be less than ideal IMO.... so I may end up just ditching the idea of the 125 / 70 combo and just mount a Telrad or similar on the top plate. IDK, time will tell.

Can you add another ring on the aft side and a vixen bar or some other means of mounting the 70 on the aft side like a big finder?  That would change the balance point further aft allowing you to slide the whole thing forward thus reducing your woking envelope and having the 70mm on top for convenient back n forth.

[AstroApe]

Can you add another ring on the aft side and a vixen bar or some other means of mounting the 70 on the aft side like a big finder?  That would change the balance point further aft allowing you to slide the whole thing forward thus reducing your woking envelope and having the 70mm on top for convenient back n forth.

That's a really interesting suggestion and one I hadn't thought of. Although the 70ED is a small f/6 scope it's still pretty beefy with it's 2" dual speed focuser combined with a 2" dielectric & chubby eyepiece, so it'd definitely add some weight to the end it was mounted on and would probably make balancing a real pain. The 70 has a little mounting foot on it but I have been thinking of upgrading to rings and a dovetail at some point. I'll think about this idea some and see what I come up with.

[AstroApe]

The weather is pretty poor this weekend, so I've been inside today messing around with my astro gear. I started with the mission to organize my gear room, but all I've managed to do is drag everything out and scatter it across the house Since I store my gear at my parents house instead of my own home, my Mom isn't very happy about this at all 

 

Anyway, while playing around I changed the saddle setups around on the SkyTee-2 and added a longer counterweight bar so that I could get the 102 balanced on the top saddle. I'm not planning on using both scopes together really, although I may just to compare the views between the two. Their sizes and performance envelop overlap so much that I don't think it'd really be worth the trouble to run both at the same time in most situations. I was mainly just interested in what they'd look like mounted together:

 

 

Pretty gnarly looking IMO! Definitely something that I may pull out if I'm just looking to show off in front of people who don't  have a clue what they're looking at I do think this would work really well for public outreach, especially something like WL solar during the upcoming eclipses or some similar event. 

 

My idea when getting this mount was to run the 125EDL and 70ED together, but I don't really think it'll be worth the trouble most of the time either. I'll use the 70ED when I'm working through observing lists and know they'll be some large extended objects coming up, but the majority of the time I'll just run the 125 on the side saddle solo. I'll probably figure out a way to mount my Telrad in the Vixen top saddle and use that most nights.

[CHASLX200]

Nice report. Thanks for all the kind words, and sorry about the rain!  Yes, the weather was beautiful until I arrived with the scope. Here’s a pic that I took of the AT125EDL on your SkyTee mount yesterday, set up for white light solar observing with a Herschel wedge.  I really like that mount, and if I didn’t have so many mounts already, that’s one that I’d like to get someday.

 

IMG_3589.jpeg

Any slo mo's on that mount?

[GOLGO13]

Surprised by the size comparison 

 

Think I'll just stick with the 102edl. It does ride sweet on my Half Hitch FTX!!

 

[PatientObserver]

Surprised by the size comparison

Think I'll just stick with the 102edl. It does ride sweet on my Half Hitch FTX!!

I wish that mount was still being produced. So many great features.

[GOLGO13]

I wish that mount was still being produced. So many great features.

Yes, they are very nice. I had one back in the day, but without encoders. I jumped on this one when I saw it at a good price.

Only alt az mount that doesn't need slow motion controls, as long as everything is well balanced. It does take some calculations on eyepiece changes. The TeleVue Equalizer helps a lot

[AstroApe]

Any slo mo's on that mount?

Yep, sure does. If you look at the pic Scott posted, you'll see that it comes with slow-mo knobs on the right side towards the saddle. I've taken the knobs off and have slow-mo cables installed right now but I can't make up my mind as to which I like better.

 

The problem with the design is that the controls don't rotate with the mount. That's not really much of a problem with the altitude controls, but the azimuth controls will sometimes be at an awkward position. The design also causes the clutch lever to hit one of the azimuth control knobs so you don't get 360° of rotation from it unless that knob is removed. So I've taken the knobs off and replaced with cables. This seems to fix most of the issues, except now the cables can interfere with the counterweight bar depending on what configuration the mounts setup in, but I can just slip it off and stick it on the other side when that happens.

 

The SkyTee-2 is a little rough around the edges, but for the capabilities to price ratio I'm really happy with it. It seems like a solid mount that'll hold a ton of weight and it's pricetag wasn't much more than the 2 ADM saddles I bought for it. To get a better mount with similar capabilities would've cost me 4-5x the price. I just wish they were offered in the US, I had to order this one from FLO in the UK.