John

I think you are right Dave. It was the older SP that could do the alt-az thing. I've just found a photo of my GP and it did have a plate where those 2 holes are on your mount. One of the latitude adjustment bolts runs though it like the EQ5. I only sold the mount a few weeks ago and I've forgotten the details of what it looked like already

Thanks Louis. I thought it was odd that the 4mm Radian showed this characteristic quite strongly and the 3mm did not. Either way I prefer the XW's that I now use

The odd thing is that I've seen that plate on some GP's but not others. I've recently sold a GP but I can't for the life of me recall if it had the plate or not That "Cloudynights" thread seems to about the GP-DX / GPD2 mounts which have a different design for the latitude adjustment bolts and their mountings. Back to the GP mounts, is that plate removed to allow the mount head to be used in alt-azimuth mode ?. (I maybe incorrect on that)

Since getting the ES 17mm 92, the 21E does not seem so heavy to me now I think the Ethos 21 - APM 20 / 100 weight difference is 160 grams if their published weights are accurate (they are not always I've noticed). ES do the 25mm 100 but I've read some very mixed reviews of those

They do look nice I've often wondered if they are optically the same as the Myriad 100's. I think Don Pensack might have confirmed that they were when I asked the question a while back on another forum but I can't remember for sure. I'll have to try and find that thread on there. They look very similar apart from the design of the top section / eye cup.

The clear sky here was a bit after the pair got too low to observe so I missed them tonight

I found that the 4mm Radian showed a sort of halo of light when observing the moon's terminator that extended on the opposite side of the field of view to the illuminated portion of the lunar surface. The 3mm Radian did not seem to show this. Was this SAEP ? Whatever it was, I moved to Pentax XW's and found them really nice lunar eyepieces. I think the 5mm is my favourite when I'm using my 12 inch F/5.3 dobsonian.

Well Steve, it's going to be difficult to find an "upgrade" to the Nav HW's !

A Skytee II on a beefy tripod could handle it. You would need to add tube rings and a dovetail bar to the OTA.

I do grab and go observing mostly and that has been challenging over the past few weeks with most sessions only lasting an hour at best. Goodness knows how folks who have complex setups for imaging are getting anything done Although it has been an awfully challenging year outside of this hobby, 2020 looked at from an astronomical perspective has been quite a spectacular year with the best comet for over 20 years, the best opposition of Mars (no planet-wide dust storm this time) for many years and a once-in-a-lifetime grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurring right now. We are going through a difficult period weather-wise just now but there will be better times ahead, I'm sure

Nice report Barry

To answer my own question, the last time they were this close (ie: 40 arc minutes) was in February 1961 I think. I was 1 year old so I missed out on that. I don't think they will be as close as they are tonight again until 2080. I will be 120 then so I'll probably miss out on that one as well !

The very best quality eyepiece in purely optical terms that I have ever owned and used was probably the TMB Supermonocentric 5mm. I would not really call it a favourite though. It was hard to use and only had a 30m degree AfoV. It did show Saturn and Jupiter superbly well though, during the 6 months or so that I owned it. These change hands at crazy prices now. I think I paid £100 for it and sold it for the same:

I don't need to move my head around to see the whole field of my 21E. I may be unconsciously moving my eyeball about but I've never found 100 degree eyepieces any particular effort to observe with. I know this varies person to person so that's fine. I can only give my experiences with them If they were tricky or awkward to use I wouldn't have held onto them. There are many other fine eyepieces available today Also I would not have tipped them as my favourite eyepiece .....

I'm going to join you in being lazy Luke I've had plenty of sessions with my 12 inch dob when the 21mm Ethos is the only eyepiece I've used. 76x and a 1.3 degree true field. Superb 2nd Favourite (not that it's been asked) would be the 8mm Ethos probably. With the same scope a real planetary nebula / globular cluster killer eyepiece ! No disrespect to any of my other eyepieces either - they all earn their keep

Clear SW horizon here tonight so out with the ED120 refractor to check on Jupiter and Saturn currently nestling just 40 arc minutes apart. Very nice views using the 8mm Ethos eyepiece @ 113x. The field of view frames the pair with a bit of room to spare either side. Enough magnification to see some details as well 3 Galilean moons showing plus a couple of cloud belts. GRS might be on view but the seeing is poor so that's not clear. Titan just beginning to gleam. Cassini Division flicking in and out of visibility. Grabbing every chance I can - just don't know what the next few days are going to bring, weather-wise ! I get about 40 minutes of time between picking Jupiter out of the twilight sky and it dropping behind the branches of a large tree so need to make the best of it. Fortunately I can see that piece of sky from the back garden so I'm not needing to travel far. Wonder when these planets were last 40 arc minutes apart in the sky ? Hope others are getting some views this evening too

I've used Vixen SLV's quite often and reviewed them for the forum a while back: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217971-vixen-slv-eyepiece-report-6mm-12mm-and-20mm/ I don't use SCT scopes but I'm sure the SLV's would perform just as well in those as they did in my 12 inch dobsonian and refractors. I've not used an ES 82 though so I can't make that comparison.

Hi Stuart, You are on the right track - both of those are very good scopes for visual astronomy. Stock levels are very, very low everywhere though due to an upsurge of interest in astronomy over the past 8 months (Pandemic related I'm sure) and a downsurge of imports from the far east (where most stuff is made) for the same reason. Good luck if you can find any stocks but I think you may need to be patient.

I had completely forgotten about the Geminid's I'll have to pop out again and see if I can see any. I did get the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini before packing the scope up. Nice view with the central star gleaming away

After getting clouded out earlier this evening, the clouds broke up and I now have quite extensive dark, clear patches of sky to enjoy. I have the ED120 refractor out and I'm just enjoying the simple pleasures of the highlights of Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Monoceros and Ursa Major. Most of my observing has been with the 17mm ES 92 degree monster eyepiece and the 8mm Ethos. My tour stops have included: - Galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major plus the large planetary nebula M97, The Owl Nebula. I added the Astronomik UHC filter to pick the ghostly "football" of M97 up. - M1, the famous Crab Nebula in Taurus. Again the UHC filter was helpful in teasing that one out from the starry backdrop. - The large, sprawling open cluster M35 in Gemini looked wonderful with the much fainter and more distant (4x further away) cluster NGC 2158 close beside. - The lovely triple star Beta Monoceros. Easily split at 112x with the 8mm Ethos. - The quadruple star Sigma Orionis with it's faintest component the 9th magnitude "C" showing well. - Tour highlight Messier 42 which looked absolutely stunning in the huge field of the 17mm 92 degree eyepiece. Adding the UHC filter extended the breadth and reach of the nebulosity noticeably and the whole view, encompassing the "Sword" of Orion with the Great Nebula sprawling in it's centre, was magnificent Examining the Trapezium stars with the 8mm Ethos eyepiece revealed the much dimmer E and F stars for the first time this winter season. Lovely to see these Winter showcases again and to be reminded of just why they are so popular. Great to find that the 17mm 92 degree eyepiece works so well with this scope and that the Astronomik UHC filter has such a positive impact. Just good to be out observing again in fact ! And it's still dark and clear out there .........

I got this using my old mobile phone held by a cheapo clamp to the eyepiece in my 12 inch F/5.3 dob. It's not the Apollo 11 landing site but the Apollo 15 one next to the Hadley Rille. For scale, the rille is about 1,500 metres across. I'm not any sort of imager and I'm sure that a proper lunar imager could do lots better but I was quite pleased with it for a casual snap. No sign of the Lunar Rover though - it must have been clamped and towed away ......

Knew that I'd regret posting that

Is this the scope you have ?. It appears to have 2 screws to secure the eyepiece:

Just managed to get them from an upstairs bedroom window, with the naked eye, through a gap in the clouds which are starting to break up a bit.

Little or no chance here tonight. 99% cloud cover