John

Last night CO was much too pessimistic. While there was some thin cloud about, it stayed generally clear so the outreach session worked well and I was even able to get some observing in when I got home

Mike was using the Baader Morpheus eyepieces of 17.5mm and 12.5mm in the above post which have a 76 degree apparent field of view. The Morpheus are 1.25 inch eyepieces. The only advantage in using 2 inch format eyepieces is that you can achieve a wider field of view. The downside is the expense and weight (in a small scope) plus you need to have a 2 inch diagonal to use them. Many folks end up with a set of 1.25 inch eyepieces and one or two 2 inch ones for the lowest power / widest views and a 2 inch diagonal which accepts both eyepiece sizes via an adapter (these usually come with the diagonal). With a short focal length scope such as the ED72, you can get wide fields of view (showing nearly 4 degrees of sky, which is pretty huge) even with 1.25 inch eyepieces.

I must have missed Marks original thread back in 2016 I'm just back from a society outreach session but, being a glutton for punishment, left my ED120 refractor out while I was away so that its all ready to observe now I'm back home. I've just tried 7 Tau and got what I would call a "slightly notched pair" at 300x using the definitions below from David Knisely: The further off, fainter star in this system was also visible. So Marks 2016 post has inspired me tonight as well

I used to have a LVW 22mm for about 6 months. It was a lovely eyepiece. It probably ought to be on my "should not have been sold" list

Venus, Saturn and Jupiter, so far, with 11x70 binoculars. Hoping to help some others see some stuff later this evening at a society outreach observing event

Here CO is telling me that it is clear but that cloud will spread and not clear again until around 11:00 pm. Unfortunately it seems accurate looking at the cloud that is approaching from the north. I say unfortunately because I'm helping at a society outreach observing event this evening. I actually hope that CO does prove incorrect tonight !

Yes, I was surprised that it occurred myself. I wonder if it is because my T2 prism barrel is smooth - no undercut

I observed Jupiter this evening with my 200mm Orion Optics newtonian. Similar results to yours. Last night Jupiter was a lot crisper with my 100mm refractor. I think the current altitude of Jupiter plus the seeing conditions tonight (we have the jetstream over much of the UK tonight) are hindering the views. Last night I suspect the seeing was better plus the refractor seems to cut through turbulence in the atmosphere. Most of my planetary observing lately of Jupiter and Saturn has been with refractors despite having a couple of nice reflectors of significantly larger aperture. When those planets are better placed (ie: higher in the sky) the additional aperture of the reflectors will give them an advantage. I also observed Uranus tonight, which is a lot higher in the sky than Jupiter, and got a crisply defined view of the small (3.75 arc seconds in apparent diameter) disk of Uranus even at 348x magnification. Probably nothing amiss with your scope, eyepieces etc, just the positioning of Jupiter (it will be lower still in Edinburgh) and the jetstream.

I have my 200mm F/6 newtonian out currently. I've put a new Rigel Quikfinder on it and so far aligning that with the 9x50 RACI plus having supper is all that has been achieved. I have had quick looks at Polaris, Gamma Andromedae and Iota Cassiopeia so far to check the finder alignment, which seems OK. Might get some more observing in later if some clear sky is available.

Fascinating movie

Are scopes of this spec aimed at NV users perhaps ?

I'd intend not to be the one paying for it !

That is an interesting new one With a 4 inch focuser it would be fun to put the Explore Scientific 3 inch diagonal and 3 inch 30mm / 100 degree eyepiece on the scope and get a near-4 degree true field of view. M31 would look rather fine on a dark night I would think

Hello and welcome to the forum There are quite a few fans of the long refractor on here who will chime in soon I expect. For me, this one was just a bit too long and heavy - a 150mm F/12. I had dreams of being like the Victorian observers, at the end of a large, long elegant instrument. The scope, though excellent, was just too much of a handful and needed a very heavy duty mount. Once setup it was there for the night. A nice idea but it turned out to be a little impractical. Really a scope of this type needs to be on a permanent mounting in an observatory I think. It was fun for a while though Now my longest refractors are a more modest F/9 and F/9.2.

That's the best looking tangent arm alt-az that I've seen for a long time

Thanks Dave - we had Modena as well. Lindor truffles sound a nice way to recover ! More mundanely paracetamols seem to help but I'll probably resist the temptation to observe tonight even if the clouds do clear here. I may be doing an outreach event with Bristol AS tomorrow evening so I'll need some energy for that ! John

The focusers would cope OK I think, especially the Feathertouch on the TMB/LZOS 130 - it's in another league Sorry for the intermittent involvement - we had our booster jabs yesterday and are feeling a little groggy today

I use the Tak twist lock / visual back to hold the Baader Zeiss T2 prism but on the other side of the prism I have a Baader click lock T2-1.25 inch adapter. One of these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-click-lock-125-inch-eyepiece-adapter-with-t-2-thread.html The Tak silver ring clamp is where I have had issues. I guess having it sometimes hard to loosen is better than having uncertainly about it being tight enough though !

I often use 250x-300x on double stars sometimes as much as 400x. I tend to be drawn towards the closer pairings. I seem to prefer the "sledgehammer to crack a nut" approach even with the wider ones

Hi Dave. It's not really a preference thing but when I use my refractors I tend to have my 1.25 inch eyepiece case with me rather than the Ethos / Nagler 31 case. It's a simple as that. When I want a really wide field with a refractor I do use the Ethos 21 or Nagler 31 of course but mostly I find that usually my refractor targets don't need that. From time to time I use the 13mm Ethos in the Tak FC100 and the views of star clusters are rather stunning and very immersive Perhaps if I kept all my eyepieces in a single case they would get more even usage ?. I'd need a case with a strong handle though !

I've had just the same problem a number of times. Eventually I've been able to get enough purchase on the twist ring to loosen it but it's a bit annoying. I'm not too keen on the Tak 1.25 inch adapter for this reason. Luckily I leave the prism on the scope more or less permanently rather than swap it between scopes. I may move to another design of 1.25" adapter or maybe put a 2 inch barrel on the prism and dispense with the Tak 1.25 inch adapter altogether. On the eyepiece end of the prism I have a Baader T2-1.25 inch twist lock adapter which works like a dream on all my 1.25 inch eyepieces.

With my refractors I would say that the 24mm Panoptic, the 5mm Pentax XW and the Nagler 2-4mm zoom get the most used. I don't seem to do much medium magnification observing with those With my 12 inch dob it is often the 21mm, 8mm and 4.7mm Ethos's

Yep, I could live with those scopes, and without the Nexus as well Not sure about the "comfy chair" though

They don't damage the coatings as far as I'm aware but they can cause a lack of clarity and additional light scatter to the views, which is not a good thing. The Baader fluid and cloth mentioned above should clean them off.

Smaller field of view but possibly a touch sharper with less light scatter. Small gains but welcome perhaps ? The 6mm will give you 333x so might not get a lot of use, depending on the seeing conditions and target choice.