John

I have the XW 10, 7, 5 and 3.5mm. They are all excellent. The 5mm would give you 150x which would be a very useful higher power.

I read an owner review of the ED102S some time back and it did seem to be a sparkling performer. When I acquired my ED102SS I got a copy of the Sky & Telescope 2001 comparison review of the GP102M, the ED102S and the ED102SS which was an interesting read. I think the ED103S might have replaced both the ED102S and the ED102SS - the focal ratio seems to fit somewhere between them. Unfortunately I mislaid the article and have not been able to find it for the past couple of years I suppose that the FL102 is the one that is the most sought after and venerated. I would certainly love to have owned one at some point. I wonder what the current Vixen A105M II F/9.5 achromat is like ?

Nice report and sketch ! I think there are 4 Plato craterlets that can be seen with a 100mm scope but two of them are close together and appear as one and the lunar phase does need to be right to get effective illumination. These are known as the "Big Four" or A, B, C and D Nice guide to these little craters here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/34841-guide-to-plato-craterlets/

I can't help with the GOTO function but if you are still planning to build a big refractor, one of these type of home build mounts might be more suitable than the dobsonian type:

5x is generally used for planetary imaging where you need a large image scale. It produces too much magnification for visual use in most scopes.

It's been rubbish here for over a week as well. I've been under what can be really dark skies for the past week on holiday. Nice days but cloudy nights so no observing possible. Last night was the first time I've seen stars for about 10 days and even then they were smallish clear patches

I can't see that a 5x amplifier (Powermate or otherwise) will be much use for visual observing - too much magnification !

To get a wide apparent field, especially in a variable focal length eyepiece, there will always be some distortion. The question is, which compromises will the manufacturer make ?. Usually with such things the initial reports are very positive and then the more balanced views come in a little later, once examples of the eyepiece have been used in a wider range of scopes and on a wider range of targets. It would be really good if APM could make some units available to independent testers on a free loan basis. From my personal experience, this arrangement frees the observer from having made a personal investment which helps in keeping the mind, clear, balanced and critical when making and reporting on performance comparisons

Congratulations on the 70mm F/12.9 achromat - hope you have fun with it ! I picked up a very low cost 90mm F/11.1 Celestron branded optical tube last year with similar ideas of simple, fun, lightweight observing. I must dust it down and use it a bit more !

Having owned a couple, the great thing about the TV Powermate is that it gives a totally transparent power boost. No impact on light scatter, light throughput, focuser position, field vignetting etc, etc. Having said that, the DeLite or the XW's (and the Delos) are really excellent eyepieces as well. The low altitude of the planets currently is the biggest "downer" for me having observed them for years when they were much higher in the sky. Still, we have to make the best of what we have !

First clear sky for some time here for me (well, clear in patches anyway) so I grabbed my 11x70 binoculars for a quick look at Nova Cas. In between the clouds I came up with an estimate of around magnitude 7.0 tonight. That was handheld though so might be a bit off The thing is still clearly visible in bigger binoculars at least.

The Konussuper 120 6x30 finder scope itself is pretty much the same design as the Vixen original. The finder mount and the fitting on the scope does need to be checked though because Vixen quite often used a different type of finder fitting on their SP refractors from the one that the Konusuper 120 and other chinese made refractors use. With the Vixen 102M being long out of production now, spare parts are hard to find if you need them. Your Konusuper 120 is a pretty good refractor itself by the way. I used to own one of those for a while.

One eyepiece late last year is all that I can recall I could still downsize a fair bit in terms of gear I reckon. No pressing reason to do this or to chase anything new though.

I nearly bought one from Phil around about that time as well. He was getting it sorted for me when a pre-owned one with the "Skysensor" GOTO system came up locally so I went for that instead. Saved a couple of £hundred as well (sorry Phil !). He was a helpful chap though and took it pretty well ! I was so pleased to get one of these after looking very enviously at them in Telescope House during trips to London for a year or so.

Must be a record for me - nothing "astro" delivered here for over 6 months now Can't think of anything that I want to be honest. Not really doing "my bit" for the astro retailers or 2nd hand equipment market am I

I find higher powers produce more satisfying results with Saturn and Mars. If the seeing is good and your scope in decent collimation, you might find the 234x useful on those targets. For Jupiter lower powers seem to (usually) produce a sharper and more contrasty view so 140x - 180x would be more effective. As has been said, having a range of magnification options is very useful so you can experiment and see what will give the best views on a given night. The seeing conditions are the main determining factor on what proves successful.

If will be good to hear a few, from folks using a range of scope specs, particularly faster scopes that give the eyepiece a real challenge.

I'll look forward to reading your experiences with it. I'm less keen on being an "early adopter" these days - must be old age

F/5 newtonians made by Synta (such as the Celestron C8N and the Skywatcher F/5 newtonians) used to have these plates over the rear of the primary mirror cell held in place by 3 small screws. They are not really necessary - I used to remove mine a put it away and forget about it when I had these scopes. The plate got in the way of the collimation adjustment screws and, in my view, slowed down cooling a bit. For some reason Synta never included them in the 150mm F/8, 200mm F/6 and larger dobsonian mounted newtonians. Synta also make Skywatcher scopes by the way.

On holiday currently so not observing but I will be interested to see where it has got to when I'm back at the eyepiece

Try a 150mm f/8 reflector (newtonian). Much lower cost, easier to get or make the parts, |Easier to mount and good performance for each $ spent. Of if you feel more ambitious a 200mm F/6 newtonian which will probably better than a 160mm refractor and still cost less and be an easier project to achieve. If you go for the dobsonian mounted approach the costs and build are simpler still.

Looking at those 2 scopes (I've not used either I ought to say) I think they will be optically and mechanically of very similar quality. So the question is what does the additional 20mm of aperture give you in return for the additional size and weight ? The answer is that the 150mm gathers around 45% more light than the 130mm. In practice this will mean slightly better views of deep sky objects, eg: nebulae, clusters, galaxies etc. In principle the larger aperture should resolve a little more detail on the moon and planets but in practice that might not be too apparent. The 150mm will show a slightly narrower field of view because of it's longer focal length. According to the specs published, the 150mm weighs around 11 kg against the 9.5 kg of the 130. While these particular scopes are not that common on this forum, there are a number of folks who have owned / used both the Skywatcher Heritage 130mm and the 150mm which are very similar scopes so perhaps they might chime in regarding the real world differences in use ?

NGC 6124 is an open star cluster, not a galaxy. Most references that I've seen have it at 18,000 light years distance. So no anomaly. Welcome to the forum, by the way

I think it is. The cut off corner of the prism is the giveaway - that produces an upright image with left and right the correct orientation. The vendors description states "..The included 90° prism provides an upright and unreversed image...." They just don't use the RACI term. I use the Skywatcher 9x50 and 6x30 RACI's and they do a good job though for a lot less £'s than the APM.

The trick is to add a finder shoe that takes Skywatcher type finder feet but is compatible with the SCT tube holes. Here is one on e.bay (not my sale): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133773875263?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=133773875263&targetid=1279902197899&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1006567&poi=&campaignid=12125450102&mkgroupid=123976368138&rlsatarget=pla-1279902197899&abcId=9300480&merchantid=6995734&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjZW7sqKz8QIVF5ftCh2y-wN-EAQYByABEgIGvPD_BwE