John

Yep, that's what I've found. The Rigel is fine in the dark though.

I'm so glad that I managed to find another 4.7 Ethos. They are spectacular to use

It is only visible here for about an hour or so in a patch of open sky between my neighbours house and some large chestnut trees. I can prolong my "window" of viewing a little by gradually moving the scope a few feet but that's about it. Luckily, when it is clear of the neighbours house, it lies over a school and some open countryside so is not affected by central heating plumes too much.

Tonight it is the turn of my 130mm triplet refractor to try and split Sirius A & B. I particularly wanted to compare the performance of 2 diagonals at this task - an Astro Physics 2" Maxbright and a Baader T2 Zeiss prism. The seeing is quite steady although there are bursts of scintillation of Sirius from time to time with more settled periods of a few minutes in between those. I was able to see Sirius B, the Pup star, for short periods at 300x magnification using both diagonals. On this particular occasion, neither the prism or the dielectric mirror seemed to have any advantage. The eyepiece used throughout these comparisons tonight was the Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom in the 4mm setting. Splitting Sirius with the 130mm refractor is a harder business than with my 12 inch dobsonian of course. Sirius itself is generally more tightly defined with the refractor but the Pup star proportionately dimmer too. The Pup seems to lie just outside the halo of glare from Sirius A with the refractor image whereas with the 12 inch dob, the dim companion star shines through the more extensive halo. So tighter control of light scatter from the refractor (this did not change with the diagonal used tonight) but a dimmer Sirius B to search out. Another factor that comes into play for me when observing this target is moisture over my eyeball. This seems to be connected with being tense and probably "trying too hard". My eye gets a little more moist for a short while which increases the scintillation of the very bright Sirius A. When I take my eye from the eyepiece, give it a short rest and then observe again in a slightly more relaxed manner, Sirius seems to settle, it's form is more regular and the B star becomes attainable again. Cloud cover is increasing now so that will soon put an end to this session. Next time it is clear with reasonably steady seeing I will see if I can repeat this exercise with my ED120 refractor.

Superb set Dale

It's nice and clear here just now Mars showing a crisp gibbous disk with some dark features in the S hemisphere at 400x. Found the nice triple star Pi Arietis near Mars. Component stars are mags 5.3, 8.0 and 10.00 with separations of 3.2 and 24.1 arc seconds. Well worth a look https://www.webbdeepsky.com/double-stars/object?object=pi%2BArietis

Rather mixed forecast tonight but I can see Mars so I have put a refractor out:

If we get a clear night I can compare my Tak FC100-DL with my OO 12" F/5.3 dob which has a 21% obstruction and, according the paperwork, a primary of Strehl .987 What targets would be the most suitable for a fair comparison I wonder

Those Berlebach foldable spreaders are about the best upgrade you can make to a Berlebach tripod. Not much else you can improve in all honesty.

Speak up Robin, we can't hear you !

MTF ? Modulation Transfer Function I think that is all that I can contribute to this

Reminded me a little of this: "I think you had it there a while back Ted"

While the Taks are light compared to some, they thrive on high and very high magnifications so the mount choice needs to be able to deal with that. I didn't think that I would use my Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom all that much but it's very frequently used with my Tak.

For visual observing the Skytee II or Giro Ercole (in my pic) does very well. An EQ5 is fine or Vixen GP. For imaging something heavier duty though. I have put the scope on an AZ4 and it was OK for low to medium magnifications. Bit wobbly at higher powers though.

Just at the moment, that might not be many

Take it to The Repair Shop ? Spectacular though !

On an alt-azimuth mount it's a readily portable scope and quick to set up . I can pick this whole setup up and move it around the garden. I take it out of the house in 2 parts (tube + mount / tripod). Cool down time is about 20 minutes for best high power viewing. Whether that is fully "grab and go" depends on the definition of that term I suppose. There is not an official definition !

Yes, I had a play with one when it was first launched

It does happen

Reminds me of this by Chesley Bonestell

It will be Skywatcher's choice. I seem to recall that FLO were selling the AZ5 as just a mount head at one point but it is not listed that way now.

The AZ4 was one of the most portable mounts I've ever owned. It was my "go to" mount for outreach events in remote sights where I had to carry the equipment some way. When we can do such things again, I'll probably get another one.

Highly resistant to dewing as well - objective included

I ought to qualify my reply by saying that was without the 2 Rowan 3.8 kg counterweights that I needed for the scope that I was using to test the mounts operation. Also I guess I ought to add that "Your Mileage May Vary". We are not all the same shape, size and capacity as humans !

I don't think the he mount head of the AZ5 is quite as solid as the AZ4. Also aluminum tripods don't generally have the stiffness and solidity of the steel tripods, although there are better ones about eg: Vixen. I'm rather cautious about translating loading capacity figures into relattive "real world" capacity because the characteristics of the scope can make a major difference ie: the physical tube length and the focal length. The weight capacity is just one part of the equation.