John

What mount are you intending to use ? One thing about largish, long scopes is that they need pretty strong and capable mounts to allow them to perform.

A Belgian company that, for that model, use an Istar R30 objective lens: http://www.frtelescopes.com/ Here is a review of the objective in an Istar tube: http://www.istar-optical.com/istar-127-mm-(5”)-r30-f12-doublet-refractor-review.html Neil English on his Istar 127mm R30: https://neilenglish.net/5-inch-shootout-5-f-12-refractor-vs-a-5-1-f-5-reflector/ Hope that helps !

Good report ! That eyepiece looks identical in every respect to the Aero ED 30mm that I had recently. Including the lens coatings and the dust caps. They are nice and light for 2 inch eyepieces and the one I had worked well at F/7.5 and slower I thought.

If it wasn't for CN we would not have this thread. Markus Ludes (APM) posts there but not here. It's a different style of forum to SGL but there is much to be gleaned from it if you have some patience.

Amazing discoveries from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-56268439 If life can work things out there, I wonder where else in the solar system it might be lurking ?

It did come down quite hard looking at that landing again. I could see a little "bounce" of the nosecone through the vapours.

Well they will have learned a whole lot more - and it was a spectacular show from all perspectives !

Great stuff - you have to pinch yourself to believe what you are watching sometimes !

The altitude locking rod idea was OK but incorporating the slow motion control into the rod compromised it's rigidity somewhat. It was a nice idea though. The "flex" gets progressively worse as you near the end of the altitude slow motion travel. You kind of got used to such quirks though, it was just so exciting to be using a telescope ! Having set my old 60mm Tasco up last Summer and observed with it again, I realized just what I used to put up with back in the early days of observing. The objective was good quality but the focuser and mount were quite trying by todays standards.

I used to have an Orion Optics 10 inch newtonian which had similarly projecting primary adjusting and locking screws screws. To enable it to be stood on it's mirror end I added 3 hard rubber furniture feet to the bottom of the mirror cell, spaced in between the collimation screw pairs. These feet were a bit taller than the screws projected so I could stand the scope on it's mirror end without affecting the collimation. Over the years that I've owned newtonians of different brands I've found it best to only use the locking screws when transporting the scope in a car. Once you have the prim

I think finding things in the sky and having an idea of whether or not what they have found is what they were looking for are the most challenging aspects of beginning visual astronomy. Most images online or in publications are very misleading when it comes to giving an idea of what a target object might actually look like visually through the eyepiece. This website is more help and aims to try and get quite close to what you will actually see. Even then, it is a little optimistic for those who lack experience and / or who observe under light polluted skies. But it is better than ima

I find the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas very useful at the scope. I tend to refer to the more detailed ones indoors. Pity the Pocket Sky Atlas is hard to get hold of.

If you are on a budget, the best performance per £ spent will come from an ortho I think. The Baader Classic orthos offer amazing performance for their <£50 cost IMHO. If you can splash out, there are wide angle eyepieces that get very, very close to ortho performance such as the Tele Vue DeLite's and Delos and the Pentax XW's. These also the observing comforts of long eye relief, a large eye lens and a wider apparent field.

I've still got mine - the 12TE-5 Mostly identical to the 9TE-5 that you have bought except that the 12TE-5 is 800mm focal length. I've lost the "Worlds Beyond" booklet and the maps etc, unfortunately but otherwise it's complete and in it's wooden trunk. I borrowed a 60mm Astral on the equatorial mount (I think it was a Prinz branded one ?) from a mate a few years before I could afford my own. I spent a happy summer observing and sketching Jupiter from my bedroom window with that scope. Yours looks a very complete and original set

This thread is titled "in praise of the AZ-4 mount" - maybe folks who want to knock it should wait for another to come along (or start their own) called "What I don't like about the AZ-4" ? I'm sure glad that I don't post gear reviews here now