John

Thats the joy of the pre-owned market

My delivery today was a 2 inch 2x Powermate. I've owned and sold a couple of these in the past but fancied another go with one to extend my Ethos set to 4mm and 3mm. The 2x PM completes my 2" eyepiece case which comprises of the 31mm Nagler, 21, 13, 8 and 6mm Ethos and, with the PM, effective 4mm and 3mm Ethos.

Additional: On reflection I'd say more like 1 degree W of 4 Cam. Just picked it up with 11x70 binoculars without much trouble

Got this comet this evening. Brighter than I was expecting with my ED120 refractor. Comparing it with M81 and M82 I'd say that it was closer to the surface brightness of M82 so perhaps around magnitude 9 ?. It looked a bit like a globular cluster except that it won't resolve into stars (of course !). I'm no good at sketches but the position in Cartes du Ciel seems accurate. About half a degree W of the 5th magnitude star 4 Camelopardalis curently (but moving quite fast hour to hour !). No obvious tail noticed. Picked up to start with at 43x and then observed at 70x. Here is a link to it's live position tracker on the Sky Live website: Comet C/2017 S3 (PANSTARRS) Position and Data Live Well worth a look !

I do agree with this. I think that quite often people with some interest in the hobby find themselves with a chunk of cash and decide to get something that will last them a lifetime, will avoid aperture fever etc, etc. It all seems good until the thing is unpacked and assembled. The first few uses are driven by enthusuasm but gradually the hassle of using such a large scope eats away at this and increasingly the scope remains unused, eventually to be sold either to move to something more practical or to move to another hobby. I regularly use my clubs 10" Meade LX200 and that is quite a lump to put together. Our chairman has a Celestron CPC 11 Edge which I have helped assemble a couple of times and thats a touch larger again. By 12" the SCT seems to have grown appreciably again and at 14" it's a monster !. I've unpacked a 14" Meade SCT and the box the OTA and forks came in seemed really massive. It was a two person job to carefully lift the OTA and forks onto the wedge. That scope was to be observatory mounted and I can see why.

Last evening I had some lovely views of Jupiter at around 200x with my ED120 refractor. Really steady and at times I even found that 250x was delivering great details. Fast forward 24 hours, same target, same scope, same eyepiece, same clapped out observer and it's like observing the planet through a shallow stream of moving water. Constant shimmering and shaking even at 150x. I can see the main features but with nowhere near the clarity that this time last night was delivering I guess the Jetstream must have moved over my area in the past 24 hours.

I hope you enjoy it Mike I'll be glad to have another opinion on this pairing - sometimes, when you observe on your own a lot, you do start to wonder if you are seeing things differently to other people

And, therefore ....... ?

A friend of mine bought one for £1,000 plus the costs of quite a long car journey to collect it. They don't hold their value that well. Not that they are bad scopes as far as I know.

I guess that depends on the scope that is being used and the target that is being observed. I seem to be using a 3mm eyepiece fairly regularly over the past few months. Thats with scopes with focal lengths of 665mm to 900mm. If the scope has a focal length of 1000mm or more then I agree that the use is likely to be limited.

I've used a Vixen SLV and compared it with a 6mm Baader Genuine Ortho and other 6mm eyepieces when I did this review for the forum: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217971-vixen-slv-eyepiece-report-6mm-12mm-and-20mm/ I did not try a 5mm SLV but the 6mm definitely does have a 50 degree AFoV. It also proved to be an excellent performer, even when compared with the more specialised planetary / high resolution eyepieces such as the Baader GO. The Baader Morpheus do get good feedback but I've not used one, as yet. If you are looking for a wide field eyepiece then the Morpheus is your choice I would think.

Just a quick additional point. It's worth making absolutely sure what the true retail price is of the exact scope model and spec you are considering - don't just take someones word for it. But I'm sure you will be cautious with an investment at that level

Depends on exactly which scope but generally 60% of the retail price would be reasonable so 55% is better still. My only caveat would be that some brands (eg: Orion Optics) seem to depreciate a lot more than others.

Nice buy I reckon, assuming that it did not cost too much. The focuser looks like a stock Skywatcher rack and pinion. These can work quite well with a bit of tuning but at F/4 I think a dual speed unit would be a much better bet. The OO focusers are not that great to be honest (I've used 2 of them). If you are on a tight budget think about a GSO or Skywatcher dual speed upgrade. My OO 12" dob had the GSO on it before I moved to a Moonlite and the GSO was actually pretty good: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p780_TS-Optics-2--Dual-Speed-Crayford-Focuser-for-Newtonians-with-Base.html I'd certainly put a Telrad or a Rigel Quikfinder on the scope and, if possible, a RACI 9x50 optical finder as well. F/4 is sensitive to accurate collimation if you want the best high resoloution observing from it but it's quite possible to achieve as others who own them will testify. Well corrected wide field eyepieces will show some coma which is the fast newtonian optics rather than the eyepiece. Stopping down the aperture, as suggested above, may well show better planetary images than using the full aperture with their low elevations currently. Have fun with it

I'll be in Yorkshire for the opposition so will be able to study Mars bouncing along the horizon