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Posted: 6/15/2015 12:43:40 AM EDT
Got a telescope for Christmas, but didn't have a decent tripod so I hadn't even tried it out yet. Well, after seeing Mr. Player's sweet Manfrotto rig a couple weeks ago I decided to get one for myself. 
The telescope is an Orion Apex 102mm (1300mm focal length) Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope Link (Thanks to Gman for the recommendation). I've been curious to see how the telescope would work as a long-range objective for my micro monocular. 
Micro with a C-mount to telescope adapter: 
Stop sign at 260 yards (1x) 
Stop sign at 260 yards (1x) 
Stop sign at 260 yards (50x) 
Stop sign at 300 yards (1x) 
Stop sign at 300 yards (50x) 
Flag at 250 yards: 
Assisted Living facility building at 500 yards: 
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I cannot see that having any useful purpose at all.
Nope. Not one bit. This was in no way an educational experiment where one could learn anything useful about boosting the capabilities of a starlight device. On that note.... In before your images are stolen by ATN and used for advertising... |
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Cool experiment, would be interesting to see how something like that would do in Uber dark conditions. As always, your pics are marvelous. Quoted:
Cool experiment, would be interesting to see how something like that would do in Uber dark conditions. As always, your pics are marvelous. Thanks! I haven't gotten much time yet to experiment, but with the 50x magnification it loses a lot of light and does begin to struggle in darker conditions. With a little moonlight, or in areas with some city lights/sky glow, I think it will be awesome for long-range observation and identification. I'm planning to put a rail on it and attach a laser illuminator like the Luna ELIR, which should make it useable under any conditions. With the laser zeroed to the telescope, I should be able to pick up heat signatures with the PSQ-20 and then use the laser to guide the telescope to the object of interest. Quoted:
I wonder if Mark could make a quick detach mount for that scope?  Haha, I think that would probably be a piece of cake. He's already made a QD mount for the tripod and I'm pretty sure an Acog mount would work as is. Just need a reticle and it would be GTG 
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I cannot see that having any useful purpose at all. Nope. Not one bit. This was in no way an educational experiment where one could learn anything useful about boosting the capabilities of a starlight device. On that note.... In before your images are stolen by ATN and used for advertising... I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot showed up and started this douchebaggery again. OP: That is awesome. The clarity and especially the light level, or minimal loss of light, is impressive. |
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Very impressive pictures, but the price of admission for the LaRue set up is cringe worthy for what it is. I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. |
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I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. Quoted:
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Very impressive pictures, but the price of admission for the LaRue set up is cringe worthy for what it is. I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. I bought the $200 tripod. Way to upstage me again Rich. |
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I bought the $200 tripod. Way to upstage me again Rich. Quoted:
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Very impressive pictures, but the price of admission for the LaRue set up is cringe worthy for what it is. I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. I bought the $200 tripod. Way to upstage me again Rich. Ha! Well, yours is lighter and more compact |
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Very nice! :) Now you need a GEM mount and use the Mak for stargazing :D...
Glad you finally got the scope out for testing. The PVS-7 makes a very nice stargazing tool for DSOs... :) You might also want to experiment with some filters to get more contrast out of the sky! G. |
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I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. Quoted:
Quoted:
Very impressive pictures, but the price of admission for the LaRue set up is cringe worthy for what it is. I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad to me. The only actual LaRue piece is the QD mount, which is $85. The tripod is $350 on Amazon Link and the joystick is $160 Link The tripod is made of carbon fiber and is rock solid. The joystick head is also a very high quality piece. I think the setup is a pretty good value, especially considering people routinely pay $500+ for things like Norotos/Wilcox helmet mounts etc. I should have clarified that it is the price of the entire setup that I find cringe worthy, but I hear you on the price when you compare it to the cost of other gear. I'll stick with me $40 tripod
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When do you weapon mount it and put a reticle in it? Quoted:
When do you weapon mount it and put a reticle in it? Be on the look out for it at Shot Show 2018
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Super nice shot of Venus and Jupiter, I have been watching them all this week and they are amazingly bright, could have been the Star of Bethlehem as it certainly is unnaturally bright!  Thanks! Yea it's been a nice month for star gazing. Would probably be better without all the sky glow. Might give it another shot when we go camping this weekend. |
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Great experiment! Where did you get the C Mount for your night vision? It would be interesting to see the results with a spotting scope with less magnification. Thanks! The NVD Micro monocular and ENVIS monocular both use C-mount threads for the objective lens. The C-mount is nice because it makes switching lenses as easy as unscrewing the existing objective lens and screwing another one on. To attach the micro to the telescope I bought a C-mount to Telescope mount adapter from ebay. I think it was about $10. It's funny you mention the lower-magnification spotting scope because that's actually the latest thing I've been working on. While the telescope gives you a crazy amount of range with the 50x magnification, it loses a lot of light due to the F/12 focal ratio and the extreme magnification. Works great in brighter conditions, but definitely needs supplemental illumination when it gets really dark. With that in mind, I looked at a few other options. I was initially considering picking up a TVS-5 with a Gen 3 tube, but I decided to stick with the Micro. Since I already have some zoom lenses for my DSLR camera I looked for an adapter that would allow me to use my camera lenses on the Micro. I found this one on Amazon for $40 Nikon G to C-Mount Adapter I already had a 55-200mm zoom lens, but it is a cheaper lens and fairly slow (F/5.6) so it gave me an excuse to buy a nicer lens Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 VR II Got one off ebay for quite a bit less. Here are some pictures of each lens and some through-the-tube pictures as well. Micro with Nikon 50-200mm F/3.5-5.6 
Micro with Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 
Video through Micro with Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 
The Nikon 70-200mm also works pretty well for non-NV pictures
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Point that Micro with Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 or that Orion 9823 Apex 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope at THIS please!
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Point that Micro with Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8 or that Orion 9823 Apex 102mm Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope at THIS please! Haha okay I'll see if I can find it on google sky maps! |
I picked up a 1.7x teleconverter for the Micro/Nikon 70-200mm combo, which increases the magnification from ~8x to almost 14x.
Last night I finally got a chance to try it out somewhere besides my front yard. It worked excellent and I ended up getting some pretty cool footage in the process. While I was messing around shooting some skunks that were digging up a hayfield, I looked up and saw a pig through the thermal. I quickly headed back to my car and swapped out my 22 for my 6.8. With the Micro setup on the tripod I could easily observe the pig rooting around in the adjacent field from 550 yards away. No need to explain much more. The video pretty much sums it up. I was surprised that the pig got up and ran after taking a 6.8 round to the face. Also, super annoying that I had another malfunction after spending all morning modding my mags and polishing my feed ramps 
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Last night I finally got a chance to try it out somewhere besides my front yard. It worked excellent and I ended up getting some pretty cool footage in the process. While I was messing around shooting some skunks that were digging up a hayfield, I looked up and saw a pig through the thermal. I quickly headed back to my car and swapped out my 22 for my 6.8. With the Micro setup on the tripod I could easily observe the pig rooting around in the adjacent field from 550 yards away. No need to explain much more. The video pretty much sums it up. I was surprised that the pig got up and ran after taking a 6.8 round to the face. Also, super annoying that I had another malfunction after spending all morning modding my mags and polishing my feed ramps I didn't hear a " fuck" in that video! lol.. I'm going to start shopping for you a thompson center. No need for all that extra weight in that magazine! lmao Seriously though. Bad ass footage Rich! Looks like the lens set up worked very well! |
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My personal favorite Messier for using my NV gear is the Lagoon nebula with an H-Alpha filter. Another super nice target is the helix nebula; with Night Vision I found that the sky glow tends to mask most of the good stuff, so once I got an H-Alpha filter it was like I started doing astronomy that day...
G. |
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My personal favorite Messier for using my NV gear is the Lagoon nebula with an H-Alpha filter. Another super nice target is the helix nebula; with Night Vision I found that the sky glow tends to mask most of the good stuff, so once I got an H-Alpha filter it was like I started doing astronomy that day... G. Great post. I really like M13. Vic |
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I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot showed up and started this douchebaggery again. OP: That is awesome. The clarity and especially the light level, or minimal loss of light, is impressive. Quoted:
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I cannot see that having any useful purpose at all. Nope. Not one bit. This was in no way an educational experiment where one could learn anything useful about boosting the capabilities of a starlight device. On that note.... In before your images are stolen by ATN and used for advertising... I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot showed up and started this douchebaggery again. OP: That is awesome. The clarity and especially the light level, or minimal loss of light, is impressive. I think your sarcasm meter is broken. |
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I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot showed up and started this douchebaggery again. OP: That is awesome. The clarity and especially the light level, or minimal loss of light, is impressive. Quoted:
Quoted:
I cannot see that having any useful purpose at all. Nope. Not one bit. This was in no way an educational experiment where one could learn anything useful about boosting the capabilities of a starlight device. On that note.... In before your images are stolen by ATN and used for advertising... I knew it was just a matter of time before some idiot showed up and started this douchebaggery again. OP: That is awesome. The clarity and especially the light level, or minimal loss of light, is impressive. Care to tell us what interests you have with ATN? Only a person that practices douchebaggery would support the kind of false photo douchebaggery ATN practices. Enlighten us please. |
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Great post. I really like M13. Vic Quoted:
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My personal favorite Messier for using my NV gear is the Lagoon nebula with an H-Alpha filter. Another super nice target is the helix nebula; with Night Vision I found that the sky glow tends to mask most of the good stuff, so once I got an H-Alpha filter it was like I started doing astronomy that day... G. Great post. I really like M13. Vic M13 is a tough target to get all the detail out using a night vision due to all the scintillation you get with the tube. IMO, where Gen3 really shines is at most of the H-Alpha emission nebulae, and even with the standard 1X magnification and H-Alpha its unreal to see the sky, its like amazing to see the entire milky way with amazing nebulosity that you can't even see naked eye. Without any filters, the skyglow tends to reduce the Gen3 effectiveness for most targets, like making a pretty high EBI. Now, with that said, I recently tested one my PVS-7s with a 12.5 inch Dobsonian at the local astronomy club and it was amazing!!... that's when I fully realized there was no replacement for aperture... :D We also managed to see the Veil nebula with my friends' 80mm APO triplet telescope... G. |
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