John

Messier and Messier A and a little further north, the Rupes Cauchy are looking superb just now

Saturn & Jupiter are now hidden by tree branches so that's my little window of time with them over for tonight. The moon looks lovely though

Just managed to catch these two with my Vixen ED102 refactor at 141x. Easily (and delightfully) contained within the field of view of an 82 degree 4.7mm eyepiece. The pair are 15 arc minutes or a quarter of a degree apart now Crazily variable weather so it's nip and tuck on whether glimpses are got at all and I have to be ready to haul the setup in at a moments notice

The best views of the planets that I have had were when they were much higher in the sky. Mars was quite good at times this opposition (higher than the last one) but otherwise Jupiter and Saturn have not been as good as I have seen them in the past by some margin. This is regardless of the eyepieces being used. I think it is tempting to switch around eyepieces quite a bit searching for the best views and it is fun (I've done it a lot in the past ) but in reality they are quite low down in Suiters "Wobbly Stack" of factors that impact image quality: Perhaps I would have been better to save my £'s for a holiday home somewhat further south

Panoptics or cooking equipment ?

I have cleaned a couple of objectives which were in a similar state. It is a delicate business though. Doublets are not too awkward although a lot of care is still required to keep the rotation of the lens elements correctly positioned and, if they are used, the foil spacers correctly spaced. I would be very hesitant to do a triplet lens though. The optical centering of the elements is even more critical with those. A job for a specialist really. The only William Optics scope that I've owned was a Megrez 90 doublet (bigger brother to yours really) which was quite a nice scope. I bought that new though so the objective was pristine when it arrived. And when I sold it for that matter. I hope yours gets sorted in due course. It does look as if it needs a clean as well as the UV treatment.

It has been a really rotten day here, weather-wise. Rain practically all day and heavier this afternoon and evening. No chance of seeing a glimpse of anything. Tomorrow looks a little better so there maybe a possibility of a glimpse of the pair.

You could probably just get to that 1st step on the red line, stay there, and enjoy the hobby just as much !

12mm / 13mm is a very useful focal length for eyepieces and in a wide range of scope specs as well. It was no accident that 13mm was the first focal length that Al Nagler produced his Nagler in and also the 1st focal length that the Ethos came in.

This is how the sponsor of this forum sees the situation: I think this applies to all suppliers in the UK, Europe and quite possibly worldwide.

Nice photo ! As John Dobson said: "...the importance of a telescope is not how big it is, it's not how well made it is, it's how many people less fortunate than you got to look through it...." Difficult this year and I've missed sharing the views.

The Astronomik Oiii is very good

Just to illustrate the wider field of view that the 2 inch format can deliver, below is the Orion's Sword area with the field diameters marked for the following eyepieces used with your Skywatcher 250 dob: Green: The Vixen NPL 30mm plossl in the 1.25 inch format. Yellow: The Explore Scientific 30mm ultra wide angle in the 2 inch format.

Hello and welcome to the forum Nazim Thanks for sharing your finding technique

Doug has highlighted the main advantage with the 2 inch format - a wider field of view. In an F/4.7 scope though you also need reasonably well corrected eyepieces otherwise the distortion in the outer parts of the field of view, which can be from astigmatism from the eyepiece and / or coma from the newtonian optics, can make you wonder why you bothered investing in the larger field of view For finding purposes "sharp across the whole field" might not be so important though.

I had the ES 100 / 20 before I had the Ethos 21. The APM / Lunt 100's were not launched then otherwise I may well have decided on one of those at 20mm. I got an excellent used deal on the Ethos 21 though so could not resist

No chance here this evening due to Hoping to get another go at them closer to the conjunction itself but the forecast looks rather dodgy. Saturday or Sunday might throw up a chance but I'll have to be on my toes. The 21st itself is not looking good at all.

I'm thinking about the 4.77mm APM for my dob. I had an Ethos 4.7mm for a while and eventually decided that the Pentax XW 5mm was a slightly better performer so I let the Ethos 4.7 go but I think it would be nice to have something of that focal length back in the "big" eyepiece set to save hauling the XW 5mm out of another case. Actually, that sounds a bit extravagant when I think about it

That is a slippery slope This is my 12 inch dob eyepiece case: The APM 100's are really good as well though. The range of focal lengths available is very useful too

I believe it is one of the best in the Ethos range. The only one that I have not owned or used as well

Quite a few years ago I picked up a Skywatcher 10 inch dob in fine condition for £100 as a "buy it now" on e.bay. I had to drive about 150 miles round trip to pick it up but it was well worth it. The owner had not used the scope for some time and had lost interest in the hobby. I think his other half wanted it gone hence the low price - priced for a quick sale, as they say ! My biggest worry with your scope is if an inexperienced owner cleaned the mirror and has left scratches in the coatings. I would prefer a slightly dusty but uncleaned mirror to be honest with you. So check the condition of the mirror carefully before committing.

Great report ! You may well have seen indications of one of M31's dust lanes. I do on a good night here (Bortle 5, mostly here) with my 12 inch dob. The hyperwide 20mm/ 21mm eyepieces are superb for this because you get the image scale and darker background sky AND large true field

I owned the ES 24mm 68 before I moved to a TV Panoptic 24mm. The ES was a very nice eyepiece in my opinion. It was a bit bulkier than the Panoptic but it's optical performance was right up there and it was probably slightly more comfortable to use. The Baader 8-24 zoom (which I've also owned a couple of) is pretty good in the 20mm - 8mm range but at the longer end the field does seem constricted (it narrows to 44 degrees independantly measured) so you would also need a true wide field like the ES 24 / 68 to compliment it. Get both !

Anyone on here own a Tele Vue Apollo 11mm ? I know that Don (Pensack) has one but anyone else ? If you are nervous about handling a 21mm Ethos, the price tag of the Apollo 11 will make things worse https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/tele-vue-apollo-11-special-edition-eyepiece.html

You might think that the small plate had never been on Dave's GP. There is no wear mark on the lug which the 12mm bolt would bear against to hold the latitude angle of the mount