John

I wonder how many fags you had to smoke to get the full set of the Wills "Romance of the Heavens" cards ?

I have the XW 3.5mm and it seems just as good as the 10, 7, and the 5mm. It's a pretty tall eyepiece though and sometimes I prefer the ergonomics of the little Nagler 2-4mm zoom.

Triton's magnitude seems to average out at around 13.4. Looking at the various scope calculators around on the web, they are fairly consistent that magnitude 13.4 is the limit for a 130mm aperture scope. I have not seen Triton with my smaller aperture scopes so far, so the optical theory seems sound. Or can someone do better ?

I love both the artwork on them and the notes on the back of the cards. In many cases they really emphasize how far our understanding has come since they were issued in 1928

I had the 4mm Nirvana for a while and it turned out to be an excellent high power eyepiece

They look great ! I have an old set of the Wills Cigarettes "Romance of the Heavens" cards somewhere - getting those mounted would be a nice winter project - thanks for the inspiration

Personally, I don't use a filter to view Venus. I do try and catch it when there is as much daylight still in the sky as possible though and, for me, that is the best time to observe the planet. Seeing surface or cloud top features on Venus is very challenging I've found.

Great stuff Nik - well done !!!!

I was thinking more of the things you come across while star hopping. Things that you didn't realise were there until you stumble upon them

I love those "accidental findings" as well Another reason why I don't use a GOTO system. Maybe there is one now that has a "stop at interesting places on the way" option ?

They have some glamping huts and pods for hire. I used to take our caravan although I did camp for the first one that I went to - in my daughters tiny guide tent ! It was a clear but cold April and I have never spent such a cold night After that it was our caravan, with a nice warm heater and comfy bed. Sadly sold a couple of years ago Much of the star party could take place in a socially distanced manner but the moving from scope to scope enjoying the different views part might have to be compromised

Indeed - 50 degree AFoV as well with the Nagler zoom Fortunately the slow motion controls of the T-Rex are very smooth and create no vibrations in use. It's not exactly a relaxing pastime though

Do they make the glass as well ?. I believe they do with Fluorite but how about the glasses used in the TSA and TOA refractors ?

While they share the orthoscopic characteristics of a relatively narrow apparent field of view and eye relief which is at best 80% of the focal length, the Baader Classic Ortho 10mm and 18mm eyepieces are really excellent performers, way above their purchase price. That said, I spent some time comparing the 8mm BST Starguider with my 8mm Tele Vue Ethos in my 12 inch F/5.2 dobsonian a while back and found very little difference in terms of optical performance. The Ethos just provided it over an additional 40 degrees of field of view. In terms of light scatter control (which can be important for planetary observing) the Baader Classic Ortho would be (as it should be) slightly better than the more optically complex BST Starguider. They will also have slightly higher light transmission. There are some good options for around £50 apiece these days

My brother is called Alan - so I know who to blame !

I don't know, I've never tried. I suspect not but I'll have to try it at the next opportunity. I think I used to be more fussy / ambitious / discerning over optical performance in the past than I am now. If I get nice views and occasionally see something that I've not seen before then I'm a happy camper

My observing eye is clearly not as acute as some here. I've compared my T2 BBHS prism with my AP and TV diagonals quite often and I just can't see any differences in performance in any of my refractors Probably not much point in me trying a TOE - I probably won't see any differences over my current high power eyepieces ! I struggled to see much difference between a TMB Supermonocentric 5mm and a University Optics HD 5mm ortho when I had those in my eyepiece case. Only perhaps on the nights of very best seeing and then the differences were very subtle indeed.

I'm actually not that keen on using ultra-high magnifications. When observing the planets I will always prefer smaller / sharper / more contrast over a larger image scale. I have found very high magnifications useful for some tasks though so it's good to have instruments that support that, when required.

I've honestly no idea. Without using a barlow, my shortest fl eyepiece is 2mm. I don't use that very often but on the right sorts of targets and under the right conditions, the optics of the scope seem willing. With the Baader Q-Turret barlow I could get to 1350x - I might give it a go for a lark sometime

I was using 600x on tight double stars and to spot Triton last night with my LZOS 130. 240x seemed the best for Jupiter and 300x did well on Saturn. Your LZOS (and @Stu's) are very similar optical quality I think. If you get the seeing, pump up the power ! Hope you get some good sessions in with the scope soon A question for TSA 120 owners if I may: We know that Canon Optron make the objectives for the Tak Fluorite doublets. Do Tak make their triplets (such as the TSA) themselves or is a third party optical house involved for those ? Edit: Just found the answer from Roger Vine's review of the TSA 102: "The TSA-102’s lens is an air-spaced triplet made in Japan by Canon/Optron"

It's quite possible with an 8 inch dob I'm sure. I would think more magnification might be needed to tease out the faint point of light but, you never know Last night Triton was on the opposite side of Neptune from a magnitude 6 star which would be appearing in the same high power field of view. Triton was around 10 arc seconds from Neptune's disk: This is the newtonian view at high power from Cartes du Ciel:

I've compared a Baader T2 Zeiss diagonal with an Astro Physics Maxbright in my F/9.2 LZOS 130 a few times on a variety of targets but I have not seen any tangible differences. Off the original topic though so apologies to the OP.

When there is a bright moon close to them in the sky, I've found the colour of both Neptune and Uranus more vibrant than when they are against a pitch black background. I assume this is a similar effect to that which makes Jupiter seem more contrasty and colourful when observed against a twilight sky. The downside of a brightly moonlit sky is that it makes finding the fainter planets that much more challenging !

Interesting report Mark The seeing tonight was excellent and judging by the views I had with my 130mm F/9.2 LZOS, I'll need to buy all 3 TOE's I had to "slum it" with the XW 5mm and 3.5mm and the Nagler 2-4mm zoom tonight though

Reminds me of the movie "The French Lieutenant's Woman". When the film was first released we saw a midnight showing at Lyme Regis cinema and then walked down to the Cobb in the moonlight