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As purely a visual observer I would go for a doublet I think. There are quite a few very positive reviews out there of the 125mm Stellamira and the same scope under different branding. The weight of the Stellamira makes it appealing to me as well.

Hope you get clear windows I just looked at the aurora alert and it's red now

Tonight's Aurora forecast is better than last night's and the weather is forecast to be clearer. So I'm hoping to get some more late season, Moonlit aurora.

I'm seriously looking at a nas server thing with spinning metal disks for storage. I massively underestimated data storage requirements. I'm crap and noob and even I regret deleting stuff. My plan is to have cern begging me to let them have a little of my server storage

Have you considered the physical aspects of both? I.e. length and weight. The sm125 being about half the weight but slightly longer. The height of my mount head is about 1700mm from the deck but the length of the sm125 makes visual near the zenith awkward but not impossible. Lifting the sm125 onto the mount at that mount height is not a challenge.

Sorry I misunderstood I'd love you to have a go. I'll check my SD cards, possible they are on there.

Difficult choice without looking through both at the same time. Both of these (My askar choice being a 103 or 120) are of interest due to providing a medium FL between my current scopes. For me it'd be the Askar because it's a triplet but that's because I image more than view.

After almost two years of illness post covid I am slowly getting back out with the telescope. Starting small and lightweight. The moon is looking great.

I am looking at buying myself a new refractor shortly and I can't decide which way to go. The two contenders are the StellaMira 125 doublet with FCD100 and lanthanum glass and the Askar 140 triplet with one ED element (type not disclosed). I have been reading reports from owners of both and both are said to perform very well for visual. The 140 is bino friendly with a 3.5" R&P focuser as opposed to the 2.5" of the SM 125. It's the question of whether the better glass type of the doublet will be better than the supposed better correction of the triplet with one ED element. This being a considerable purchase for me I want to make the best choice possible. Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks, I was trying to look for weight of Altair option. It was hyperion for wider fov. Morpheus would be better optically.

I had forgotten what observing was like somehow, especially solar! Quite gusty out there, and the seeing isn’t great but nice to be out. I finally got a chance to use the Vixen GP mount, very good to have simple tracking with minimal setup back in my life 😊. The mutt has a habit of dropping her ball against the tripod leg so I don’t forget she is there 🤪🤣

Nice shot...Quite a difficult subject I imagine. Mark.

Nice catch Paul !

Was an awesome eclipse, thanks for sharing.

Excellent work...

I still think its a decent lens for daylight - small, very light and cheap yeah its f8 and darker than my bias frames for astro anyway. Ill do as you say when i get a bit bored of my 72ed. gonna try the bahtinov mask from my 72ed on it - what could go wrong? btw i also thought i might have camera/sensor alignment issue because of those shapes, but after getting my 72ed, i think it was more of a vintage lens issue well, hopefully its ok for the moon btw, so maybe i should keep it for luna photography, which i never do?

Out and cooling down - hoping the wind drops a bit. Moon looks great already through the 150

They have their own protocol in order to communicate with the EAF

I've already done that, but the asiair simply uses the EAF SDK compiled file, that's why you can't connect another focuser like a MyFocuserPro2 one or Moonlite one.

It may or may not be relevant to the decision that the Altair version (I have this one) has a steel body, and is heavier than some of the others. [EDIT] I just looked it up, 331g

Early hours Sunday. The castle has a dozen billion watt floodlights and I found it all a bit challenging at 03.00 hours. Ended up doing untracked sky subs beyond the castle. Then a mix of exposures for foreground, 1 castle, 1 mid and 4 near. A bit of a disjointed result. Cheers, Paul.

I always go for the Startech industrial hubs. These are powered by a separate power supply. Sometimes can be got for a reasonable price on Ebay. There is a used 4 port 3.0 for £34 available.

That image isn't bad, the star shapes are quite good so if that was the lens I had I'd be trying it again. If it's a mirror lens is it f8? Whilst that might be slower then F5 still useable on bright targets could also try it on bright globular clusters I get odd white cross shape stars and think it's more the camera then the lens As processing skills develop old data can be revisited and reprocesses. If you decide you don't want it, clean it and could pass it to a charity shop

This is getting silly, okay the mounts I’ve placed it on are not ideal for looking up so I’ve had to place it on my AZ-GTI mount, luckily I had 3D printed a dovetail bar last year so it fitted a treat. The moon is quite high up hence the change of mount and I’m getting a very good view, the optics are really good on this little scope! I’m glad I bought it. The seeing is quite steady considering there’s blustery winds about, producing very crisp views of the craters and mares even though it’s still day light. Much to look forward to with this little Ranger, how’s your viewing going then? chaz