Alkaid

It's field curvature, nothing to worry about (for visual anyway) as present in many catadioptic designs. A focal reducer / field flattener will fix it for imaging, but not sure how you would get on with a Meade / Celestron one as these are made to suit F10 scopes. Hopefully some of the advanced imagers will know what to do...

Fantastic. Following this with great interest.

Yep. TAL100RS wasn't really an entry level scope either...

200P Dob. Very well regarded. Have not read a single negative review. 8" aperture will provide wealth of detail on Moon, also very good on Planets. Good all rounder on deep sky. Inexpensive (for a telescope). If I had my time again as a beginner, I'd have one of these. Only disadvantage - no tracking. But from what I gather, most Dob enthusiasts don't mind that. You can also de-mount it and put it on an EQ mount (HEQ5 as a minimum I would say) if you want tracking. You can also get tracking platforms (or even make one if you're handy).

Sounds good. It would work quite well I think. No real difference from a skype call other than other than the webcam / phone view is through the scope? Could use a wifi extender from a ground floor room, that should be able to cover the garden. I think it's a great idea. Cheers Steve

I loved mine, gave very sharp views. The figure of the mirror is very good. Do not let the ‘spherical vs parabolic’ debate sway your decision, as at F7 the spherical mirror has a long enough F ratio to work very well. The mount is great, like a rock. It’s an excellent scope, but for imaging you will need the version with the motor drive.

Excellent report, going to take a look at this area next time.

That’s fantastic Mike, wow, all the way to ‘h’ - brilliant. Good stuff!

Mak 150. If you'd have asked for a more general use scope, then I'd have said C6, but for dedicated solar system then it's the 150.

Some fantastic images there folks! I'm going to try s slightly lower power next time to improve the seeing. I am captivated by Plato - what seems like a boring flat floor in a smaller scope actually presents some very interesting challenges in a larger one. Fabulous.

Hi Geoff, I used a Celestron Xcel 9mm which gave x222. At first I didn't think the seeing would support this, but it just turned out to be the OTA cooldown that was the initial issue. After cooldown, I was getting good hard views, with a little image shimmer. I also use a good quality diagonal (TAL). Have fun with these, they really are great to hunt down. Out of interest, how are your viewing & seeing conditions in Melbourne? Do they differ form the UK (lack of jetstream??) My sister lives in Melbourne, tells me it's a nice place to live.

After what feels like months of poor weather, finally got my C8 out last night. It was a cold crisp evening and cool-down was a little longer than expected, but once acclimatised I spent an enjoyable amount of time hunting down my old friends, the Craterlets. Plato was fully illuminated (76% waxing gibbous phase) and there was some, but very little shadow relief to help me out. Craterlet A - seen immediately and easily. Craterlet B - Seen last. Had some trouble with this one, but got it in the end. I feel that I now need a bino-viewer, as this would no doubt help somewhat in the detection process. Craterlets C & D - seen after a long period of squinting. As they are both very close together, they're not too difficult if you put a bit of time in. I'm sure you've all seen the link below from a sister forum, but I really like this guide and you may find it very interesting. Best of luck with the hunt! https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/34841-guide-to-plato-craterlets/

If you're going down the SCT route to better the Vixen, I would step it up a gear....go for the C8. In good seeing it will beat the Vixen. The image will not be as 'clean' but there will be more information there. In poor seeing, you can revert to the ED80. Form factor is good, the C8 is quite a manageable scope and I suspect not much harder to mount up than the C6.

Perhaps a little mak, with a driven mount. A good diagonal and 3 good eyepieces to suit low, med & high power. Maybe....a 127 mak on the AZ GTI mount if just for visual? Not sure how steady that is, but there's got to be a review out there.

Which bit is the scope and which bit is the eyepiece? (Grin!) I’d really like to hear how the Meade performs Michael, thanks Steve.