John

I observe mostly from my back garden in Portishead. I've heard that the National Trust car park at Sand Point is quite dark. There are 2 of those, one at Middle Hope and one below Sand Point itself. Bristol AS observatory is at Failand but it's no darker than I have it at home. The top of the Mendip Hills would be good, I agree. There is a car park on Bleadon Hill, beyond the golf course which has good views in most directions and is quite high up. That might be worth a visit one evening.

I'm going to feed my Vixen ED102SS some starlight this evening, I hope 😀

Yep 🙂 And, many, many years back, SP's for Bresser:

I tried to be as balanced as I could with my early post in this thread. That didn't last long, did it ? 🤣

It is quite indistinct but I did manage to spot it with the 100mm refractor a few years back: NGC 2419: A very, very distant globular cluster - Observing - Deep Sky - Stargazers Lounge Amazing to think back to what was going on back then and what was still to come - thank goodness astronomy was still possible 😬

Great scope and mounts 👍 You don't see many T-Rex's around., at least here in the UK. I have a black one and it's superb 🙂 Welcome to SGL as well 🙂

Absolutely "nail on the head" stuff there 👍 Observing planetary detail is a real skill that has to be worked at. Sketching what you are looking at helps the process and makes you "look" harder, even if you don't do anything with the sketches later. There are also plenty of nights when the seeing will not permit larger apertures to really show what they can do. You might get occasional glimpses during the moments of good seeing which is why prolonged study of a target is needed to pick out the most detail. Very occasionally you get a night when it all comes together but a lot of the time the seeing conditions will favour the smaller aperture scope, acting as a kind of "aperture equaliser". And of course for some of the year, the interesting planets will not be well placed for observing so you need to find something else to look at 🙂

Here in the UK the positioning of the Jetstream can make a lot of difference to the quality of the seeing conditions. This can vary hour to hour. When the Jetstream is positioned overhead, the seeing (and therefore planetary sharpness and contrast) can be awful in whatever scope you are using.

You may well have seen this already - it is Roger Vine's report, on his excellent "Scopeviews" website, comparing a LZOS 100mm F/8 with a Celestron C8. Admittedly much older scopes than the one that you are considering but I don't think the LZOS 100 F8's have changed much recently: TMB 100/800 vs C8 Review (scopeviews.co.uk)

One of my favourites at this time of year. I've not had a go so far this year though so thanks for the reminder 🙂

There is a certain attraction to owning and using what is widely acknowledged to be a top class refractor. It almost defies logic at times but there is a quiet satisfaction to be had when observing an astronomical target with some confidence that the views you are getting are probably as good as any instrument of that aperture can give under the pertaining conditions. I had the opportunity to purchase such a scope back in 2016. I ended up buying two, one of which had a LZOS objective 🙄

I don't image but my current favourite planetary scope is either a 4 or 5 inch refractor. More often it's a 4 inch because of the unsettled weather we have had in the UK lately. In the past I have had fabulous planetary views with a 12 inch F/5.3 dobsonian when the planets were high in the sky but as the planets got lower and lower I found refractors usually doing a better job of cutting through the atmosphere. As the planets start to achieve higher positions in the sky again I might be tempted by something like a 10 inch F/6.3 newtonian again. We will have to see 🙂

Me too, with binoculars in my case. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/416019-comet-12ppons-brooks/?do=findComment&comment=4466248 It's still quite nice out there but I'm having an evening in the warm.

On the subject of the cost, the APM/LZOS 100mm F/8 triplets seem to retail new for around £4K so 50% of that for a 12 month old one, presumably in excellent condition, is a very fair price indeed. If you decide that it is not quite what you want at some point in the future I'm sure you will have no problem recouping your full investment.

Just managed a nice view of this comet with my 11x70 binoculars. I used the star Alpheratz in Andromeda as starting point then went N a bit from there. The comet seems quite bright with the 11x70's, perhaps slightly wedge shaped ? It's in a part of the sky that is difficult to observe for me and just about impossible to get a scope onto it so the binocular view will have to suffice. I'm glad that I've seen it though 🙂

I suppose the question is, would the APM/LZOS deliver what you were aiming to get from the 125mm Stellalyra ? Although it's optics will perform about as good as 100mm can (it's in the top tier of 100mm refractors IMHO) 25mm is a lot to catch up, even for the magic of LZOS glass. The Stellalyra may well cool quicker and the optical tube may even weigh the same but do you want what a good 125mm refractor can deliver or what a top tier 100mm can deliver ? It's quite a finely balanced decision in some ways.

I remain very pleased with the Feather touch micro pinion upgrade that I fitted to my FC100-DL. After some tweaking and adjusting it now has the same feel as the full FT unit on my 130mm refractor. I didn't feel that the stock Takahashi R&P was a particular problem though, I lived quite happily with it for 5 years. The FT unit just came along at a nice price 🙂

I have probably experienced a combination of unrealistic expectations and under-performing examples of Ha scopes - they do seem to vary, as can the Quarks, according to reports. The Lunt 60 did impress though. My current solar observing equipment is a Lunt 1.25 inch Herschel Wedge for white light observations and that does produce some nice views coupled with one of my refractors 🙂

Make sure your daytime target is a long way off - ie: a KM or so, rather than meters. Another thing you can try is to twist the focuser all the way inwards, pop the 25mm eyepiece in but don't tighten the holding screw, view your distant target and then pull the eyepiece slowly out of the focuser while looking through it. See if you can find a point somewhere along the eyepiece movement where the scope does come to focus. That might tell you quite a bit about what's going on. Did you buy the scope new ?.

I've owned a PST and a Lunt LS50 (both single stacked) and I've used a Lunt LS60 and once a LS100. I don't have a great interest in solar observing so I didn't hang on to the PST of the LS50 for that long. Frankly I didn't find the views that impressive, or at least impressive enough to have that amount tied up in, what was then, a single purpose instrument. I was impressed with what the LS60 could show though. That belongs to a society friend so I've used that quite a lot at outreach events and side by side with a PST. The LS60 showed noticeably more detail and contrast - quite engaging even for me 🙂 Maybe double stacking the PST or the LS50 would have delivered more from those ? If I was to get more seriously involved with solar Ha observing I think I would go for an LS60 if I could or maybe a double stacked LS50. The LS100 was quite spectacular but the sun was quiet when I had the chance to use it. It's price is quite spectacular as well !

Thanks for reminding me why I don't post my new stuff here Mike

There should be a small screw on the lower side of that box. Remove the screw and the box slides off revealing the motor, if fitted. I seem to recall that Vixen motors have DIN type connections so I would guess that the motor under there is a Skywatcher EQ5 RA drive, or similar. Edit: I see from your 1st photo that the screw is missing so the cover should just slide off - downwards and away from the mount body.

Exactly why I use my 21mm wide field eyepiece much more often than my 31mm wide field. If I had to live without one of them (which I don't thank goodness !) I'd have to let the 31mm go.

After the initial run, I was half expecting the Svbony 3-8 zoom to jump in price. It would still be a decent buy at £200 apiece IMHO. I'm glad that has not happened though. It will be interesting to see if it comes out under one of the big name brandings at some point - I'll bet it would be a £200 eyepiece if it had Celestron, William Optics or Meade branding.

I've not used a UFF myself but I believe that the 30mm is a slightly better performer than the 24mm although that is also a very nice eyepiece. The 2 inch 30mm shows a considerably larger true field of view of course. I use 2 inch diagonals in all my refractors now so I can pop in a 2 inch eyepiece when I want a really wide view. For medium to high powers though I'm usually using 1.25 inch eyepieces, though not always. That is the main benefit of the 2 inch fitting - the wider field of view than the 1.25 inch format can deliver.