John

The tube that is pictured sat on the dust cap of the scope needs to be fitted into the focuser and then the eyepiece goes into that. Apologies if you already know that ! Astro newtonians generally can't focus on things closer than a couple of hundred metres away so your test targets need to be a good way away to enable the scope to reach focus.

Fair enough - your point is taken. I "liked" that post but I've also contributed to this and your other threads so I hope that demonstrates a willingness to help as well. You have had contributions to this and your other threads from some of the most experienced folks on the forum. I think sometimes, a supplementary question back to the original poster is justified to sound out the purpose of a question or topic - that then helps "fine tune" responses I feel. Some of the topics you have started seem to be going over the same or similar ground so perhaps a sense of "deja vu" sets in ? Hope you are getting somewhere with your decision making anyway 🙂

The poster of those is a long standing member here. Perhaps he can chip in personally ? 🙂 Maybe he actually looked through the scopes as well ?

Thats interesting. I'm not an imager of any sort but when I look at the stills of the moon in the side by side comparison, from the perspective of a visual observer, I see pretty equal resolution and sharpness but the contrast between the lighter and darker areas on the surface seems more enhanced in the refractor. Whether that would be replicated in purely visual use, I don't know though.

Yep. Thats where I am on this I think 👍

I don't think the perpetrator is typical of the majority of Somerset folk, thankfully 🙄 We are generally quite normal and well behaved down here in the SW 🙂

Thanks Lee - I have to confess that one is not my image though. I just look and let others with the skills and patience take the pictures 🙂 This one I can credit: Apollo 12 Command Module, 21 November 1969:

A Vixen Porta II is quite light. I found the Porta I coped with my 102mm F/6.5 ED quite well. The AZ-5 or AZ-4 on an aluminium tripod might do the job too.

Nice sketches David 👍 I wonder what the view would be like from the surface at that time, looking across the crater floor towards the "gap" ? 🙂 Hesiodus A is worth a look when it's floor is illuminated - it's one of the best "double walled" craters to observe:

I was looking at this angle - a different type of "face" - shows what tricks the mind can do with light and shadow !

Interesting effect - my eye shows this looking more like Friar Tuck with my Tak 100 just now ! I'm probably looking at it from the wrong angle 🙄 Maybe I need another 28mm aperture to get the wolf ? 😁

Also, not far from the Rupas Recta, the crater Davy and it's famous chain of tiny pits - the Catena Davy. The larger ones resolvable with the 100mm frac, the smaller ones hinted at and form the curving line. Another of my favourites 🙂

The so-called "straight wall" is not so straight under good seeing at 250x 😉 I can see why it's sometimes known as Huygens's Sword tonight.

I've just managed to catch some of this event with a hurried deployment of my Tak FC100-DL after completely forgetting about it. Nice to see at least some of the effect. Thanks to @dweller25 for "bumping" the original thread as a memory jogger - my memory seemed to need more "jogging" than usual this evening though 🙄 Hats off to the Tak as well for being able to give sharp views at 250x straight out of the house !

It looks like one of the Beacon Hill Telescopes newtonians and their standard equatorial mount. The finder looks like an early Orion Optics one. Actually, the mount could be an old Orion Optics one as well - they were very similar to the Beacon Hill mounts. I'd guess that it dates from the 1980's ? The tripod is a photo one, not an original part. It's not going to do the scope and mount any favours at all in all honesty.

Cool down time and weight / balance. Triplets can be front heavy and tend to be heavier overall. Also, it's been known for a good ED doublet to have better colour correction than a triplet 😉 I need all my setups to be as portable as possible so weight is important. Also, within a given price bracket, I reckon you have more chance of getting 4 good optical surfaces than 6. Probably me being pessimistic though !

Superb lunar views at the moment 😁 Lovely fine detail such as the Rima Hadley cutting across the plain beneath Mons Hadley. The area of the landing site of Apollo 15 clearly on view. I'm working on the basis that the Svbony zoom at 3mm is really giving around 3.5mm so that's 257x in the ED120 and sharp, sharp, sharp 🙂

Only just managed to get the ED120 outside now after a busy evening. Hope it stays clear for a while longer 🙂 The moon looks pretty splendid and it's pretty much right overhead so the seeing is good and steady.

As purely a visual observer I would go for a doublet I think. There are quite a few very positive reviews out there of the 125mm Stellamira and the same scope under different branding. The weight of the Stellamira makes it appealing to me as well.

Tonight looks quite good here, after 9:00 pm 🤞

Some double stars and the moon with my 70mm F/6 ED this evening. Seeing not so great through. Moon was behind the house later so it was worth at least trying for some brighter DSO's. Despite the paltry aperture, I did manage to see M 65 and M 66 of the Leo Triplet group. NGC 3628 was not visible though, perhaps unsurprisingly given the small scope. As Meatloaf sang in 1977, "Two out of three, ain't bad" 🙂

The last one that I saw was on a pretty cloudy day as well. I got lucky with a few breaks in the clouds to snap some photos:

The Myriad has a somewhat more chunky eye cup design than the APM 100's.

Was that even with the top section of the eyepiece in the lowest position Alan ?

I'm currently feeling that my 130mm F/9.2 is as large a refractor as I want to deal with. Like you, from time to time I look at 150's but, having tried some in the past, I'd probably go for a different design if I want to get more aperture again.