John

I was referring to 40mm in the 1.25 inch fitting. 40mm (and sometimes longer) in a 2 inch or larger fitting can be spectacular eyepieces.

Nice piece ! The eyepiece looks very much like the Skywatcher 32mm Panaview. I guess they could be the same ? Hope you enjoy using it

I expect many of us have got similar experiences Michael. Things that "seemed a good idea at the time" Many years ago I was in an astro dealers showroom and had the choice of a 32mm plossl or a 40mm. Went for the 40mm not realising that the true field visible with the 32mm would be practically the same. The 40mm plossl does have it's uses in slow scopes like mak-cassegrains I believe. I didn't have one of those though. We "live and learn" as they say

I'm in a similar, fortunate, position. Need to get rid of some stuff really. I could do with some more clear skies though but I suspect that will be on everybodys wish list

I stand corrected with regard to determining AfoV What method does Earnest in Russia use ? His data and opinion seems to be held in high regard by many

Yes - here is the front of one of their old catalogues: There was one small section of the Exchange and Mart that covered astronomical gear and that was about the only place that you could find contacts for these firms. There used to be a shop in Praed Street, opposite Paddington Station as well that sold some astro bits but I've forgotten it's name ? When "Astronmy Now" launched in 1987 their classifieds section provided an important new home for these supplier adverts.

I still find it incredible that you can watch this stuff happening live from the other side of the Atlantic. We visited KSC in late February this year. Had no idea then of what 2020 held in store ........

Drift timing is probably the most accurate method: http://www.mikehotka.com/Measuring_field-of-view.htm

I've still got an H W English catalogue of optical components somewhere. I think it was mostly made up of ex-Government items but I used to spend hours looking through it and wondering how I could cobble something exciting together @DAVE AMENDALL - Ken Fulton was American. He sadly passed away in August this year. I have the sequel to the book but I've yet to read it.

Even the 4mm VT is a a usable eyepiece, or at least easier to use than the later 4mm "flat top" styles. The VT lifts the eye lens towards the eye which helps with the tight eye relief. Baader included a sort of "mini volcano" top in their Classic Orthos but personally I think they could have taken that a little further. The ended up with more of a fumarole than an proper volcano !

Makes a nice change to get a little more than the spec says

I agree with the above - a good quality UHC or O-III. Usually the advice is to go for the UHC first but personally I've found the O-III makes more of an impact. Having both in due course is the ideal of course I use these filters often with 100mm scopes so you don't need big apertures to get benefits from them

The F/5 achromats are just not designed for high power observing really. At low to medium powers on DSO's they are nice but above around 100x and they just don't really do to well. If you wanted a better "all rounder" one of the Skywatcher ED80 Pro's could do a good job. Wide views and nice at 150x plus as well.

Super collection Michael - something for all eventualities

The TAL Apolar 125 was a 6 element refractor that used a very novel optical layout and no ED glass as far as I know. It showed little or no CA when I tried one out: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/104408-tal-125r-apolar-apochromatic-refractor/

The obituary for the achromat has been written a few times over the past 20 years or so but they do seem to keep making a comeback

As has been said, using the 2 inch barrel makes no optical difference to the eyepiece but does enable 2 inch filters to be used and a 2 inch fitting might be considered more secure for a largish eyepiece.

That's why I'm going to have a look at these planets any opportunity I get over the coming 15-20 days. They are a lovely sight in the evening sky right now Even at 1 degree separation I will easily get them both in the same field of view with my ED120 refractor and the 13mm Ethos eyepiece @ 70x. Alternatively I could use the 8mm Ethos with the ED102 refractor at 83x.

With the stocks so low currently I honestly feel that it might be better to defer the purchase of a scope for a few months and perhaps go for some good books and / or a pair of decent 10x50 binoculars to continue to feed the interest ? What is still left in stock are probably not the best choices and you could end up being disappointed rather than encouraged by the results you get.

That's the one that got me started It was actually given to my brother but I nicked it ! I've still got it somewhere, must dig it out. I slightly more controversial one that I personally enjoyed was "The Light Hearted Astronomer" by Ken Fulton. I appreciate that it is not everyone's cup of tea though.

The sold tube is a little lighter than the flex tube version. Not by much though.

I just preferred the darker background sky that a 21mm or 31mm eyepiece gave me over a 40mm in my F/5.3 12 inch dob. I let my 40mm Aero ED go to a new home recently for this reason - each time I tried it, I much preferred the views with the shorter focal length eyepieces in terms of background sky and the contrast of deep sky objects against it When I have seen the "secondary shadow" it has been a vague and ill defined darker patch rather than anything firmer than that. Not that I used the 40mm in the 12 inch dob very often for the reasons described earlier in this post.

They look good but I've not been 100% sure about the quality of the objectives since reading Neil English's experiences with the 80mm F/5. He got a poor one unfortunately. He put the objective from a Skywatcher ST80 into the tube and then was much happier with the scope.

Back in 2017 the cost of ED glass was: FPL-51 = 11x BK7 FPL-55 = 15x BK7 FPL-53 = 18x BK7 I believe the relative costs are similar today. Given the above you would have thought that the glass used in the objective would be the principle determining factor on the overall cost of a scope

The EQ3-2 Pro has the same fitting as the EQ5 and HEQ5 which are also the same as the Vixen GP I think. This is the tripod top from an EQ5: The bolt in the centre is M10.