John

Hi Mark,

I seem to recall that you and I had Istar 150's at around the same time ?. They were heavy things I agree !

Over the past couple of years I've been attracted to all the refractors that you list at some time or another.

The only one that I've actually used was the Skywatcher ED150. The examples I used were very early ones and there were a few issues as I recorded on the forum at the time but since then Skywatcher have reacted very constructively and the reports I have read over the past 6 months on this scope have been very positive.

If I was in the market now for a larger aperture refractor than my 130mm, I would certainly be considering a Skywatcher ED150. Would probably go for one that had been tested by ES Reid just for reassurance but I think the scope has the potential to perform at least as well as the others you list even if the finish and accessories are not quite as glossy.

Hope that helps a bit

13 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Same here... that “haze” turned into a full on proper fog 😬Still, got 90mins on the moon and Mars too and an excellent view through the new dob 👍Hope you got some good views 😃

Until the fog showed up, the views were superb !

14 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

I’ll be interested to hear your result John.

My own part in this same transaction is that I symmetrically bought the wooden Uni tripod from @billhinge of which John’s EQ6 head was a spare, to directly replace my SW steel tripod. So I too will do a like-for-like comparison. Personally, I think the steel tripods are quite springy, but we’ll see...

The steel tripod that came with the T-Rex mount is a 2 inch steel legged EQ6 one. Pretty sturdy I've found. I prefer the look of the Berlebach but we will see. The BB did well tonight with my 130mm F/9.2 triplet frac on board. Didn't try and compare the tripods though - too busy observing Mars and the Moon under excellent seeing before the fog came along !

Looks like I'm about to be fogged out

I've just been observing a fascinating crater on the opposite side of the Mare Humorum from Gassendi, called Vitello. This crater is 21km in diameter and has a small central peak complex which is almost completely encircled by a rille. The rille is showing as a bright ring around the central peak area this evening - quite striking.

The seeing has been really first class tonight. It's a bit crazy when 300x seems to be just cruising with a 130mm aperture scope, but that's how it's been. Not that I'm complaining

25 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Well I had an 90mins with the 10" dob before the haze came over and can confirm that this ES Focal Extender is effectively optically transparent and worked perfectly with all the Pentax XWs (30, 10 & 7) as well as the Panoptic 24 & 15mm. The moon using 2x on XW10 & XW7 was incredible... lovely bit of kit 👍

I've now ordered the ES 2x Focal Extender 1.25" variant, as it's significantly lighter and should work well on the StellaMira and remain balanced in the Zero mount 🤞

I've used both the ES 2x Focal Extenders and they are really good

I'm still waiting for that Thornbury haze to come down here - hope it stays away for a bit longer !

Still clear and fog-free here.

I've taken my 130mm triplet up to 600x on Mars and the definition is still pretty good. Much better than I could get last night at 150x !

I've now moved onto the Moon and in particular the crater Gassendi which is really nicely illuminated tonight with the complex rille system and central peaks looking splendid.

To be fair @JamesF did predict that tonight might be better than last night and he has been proved quite correct

26 minutes ago, globular said:

100% fog and 10 mile visibility.... [googles definition of fog.... ]

Must be that ultra-diffuse type of fog 

Still nice and clear here. Many light years of visbility

Cold though - have to keep popping in to warm up.

"Clear Outside" is not too optimistic about this evening. Glad that it's proving very different currently. I would not be surprised if the fog / mist showed up at some point though.

Supper consumed, the seeing is much, much better tonight

375x on Mars and the Moon = very sharp indeed !

33 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

I absolutely see your point of view because that is the way I started out in astrophotography after many years of just observing. I began astronomy around 1960 and  astrophotography in 1990 with an old film camera, star hopping through the scope referring to a star wall chart and doing my best to focus looking through that little camera framing lens the size of my thumbnail. I would use the whole reel, 36 exposures, and vary the focus and exposure with ever one of them hoping that when I got the developed photos back two weeks later at least one of them would be reasonable. It’s surprising after a while how many did come out right.

Yes, it was difficult and demanding, but as I said it did teach me how to navigate my way around the night sky. 
The technology we have today has revolutionised astronomy and opened it up to a much wider base than it ever could before. How many members do you think SGL would have if astronomy had never gone digital? I’d guess very few.

This thread is about our favourite accessories so that's what I posted. Mine are different to yours because the way that I like to undertake the hobby is different to you 

We could start another thread on how technology has revolutionised the hobby if you like

Forgot to have a look at these today. Fingers crossed for some clear patches tomorrow

Got the 130mm refractor out this evening. Quick look at Mars before supper reveals a sharper, steadier, more contrasty disk than last night. Some nice detail should be visible if it stays clear

Got to try not to look as if I'm rushing the food now - I'll get told off by my other half

Well done Doug

21 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

2.  Tablet.  Where would we be without our ever faithful tablets/laptops? Without them we would be back in the dark ages of astronomy, manually star hopping to find our target....

But that's exactly how I like to do astronomy

Perhaps I am back in the dark ages though

Room for all approaches in this hobby - that's the joy of it

130mm LZOS triplet riding on the T-Rex mount and Berlebach Uni 28 tripod. Waiting for Mars ........

Probably my Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky atlas, putting RACI finders on all my scopes, alongside a Rigel Quikfinder on the 12 inch dob and being a member of the Statgazers Lounge (not necessarily in that order !)

I use the Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel software a lot as well.

2 minutes ago, And_yB said:

I must admit that the evenings I have spent sitting on the patio looking up at an amazing sky are too numerous to count.   The contrast to what can by seen by the naked eye in northern Europe is incredible.   Having had an interest in all things in the cosmos since a very young age, it was a natural choice as a hobby for retirement... and I'm sure all on here would agree to that.

Yes indeed.

I've been observing for about 40 years now but since I retired in 2011 I've been able to take advantage of more clear nights without having to worry about getting up early the following morning.

I hope you enjoy your journey of discovery

3 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

You’re in for a treat. One of my favourite astronomy memories was summer 2015, in rural Menorca, testing an Ethos 13mm for the first time in an 80mm ED refractor on the Double Cluster. Will never forget it.

Yep - I had my Ethos 13 in my Tak FC100 last night looking at the clusters in Auriga. Fabulous

9 minutes ago, And_yB said:

Maybe one day John... although I guess that would be like a learner jumping into Farrari right now

Dobs are really simple to use but very potent indeed. Under the dark skies of the Spanish mountains a big aperture scope would be a fabulous tool. Even my moderate 12 inch dob shows amazing views under dark skies

I didn't find your post smug at all. We have astronomers based all over the world on here

3 minutes ago, And_yB said:

Understand your advice John, and thank you for it.   Not wanting to sound in any way smug though but, I  fortunately will soon be retiring to my house in the mountains of Eastern Spain, where the sky is clear most nights and that any light pollution will have been caused by... well, me     

Also, I have a very secure and stable patio to set up on , plenty of room to rest my wine, and will be able to sleep during the day.   Hence my astronomy hobby choice.... I can't wait to get started.

Sounds wonderful

If that was me I'd have a very large dobsonian telescope and spend happy hours exploring the deepest of deep sky targets

What scope are you going to be using ?

1 minute ago, Deadlake said:

How much weight does it save you over the steel tripod you have?

The overall weight is about the same. I just wanted to use the Uni 28 with the T-Rex Mount

At some point I will compare the EQ6 steel tripod + pillar extension with the Uni 28 and see how they compare in terms of performance and convenience with this mount.

I suspect there will not be much in it but I do like wooden tripods

My advice generally is to keep things as simple as possible. Our weather in the UK is challenging for astronomy so, unless you can leave your scope permanently set up in an observatory type structure, you need to keep the set up and tear down times quite short and without undue complexity.

I have a number of scopes from 100mm to 300mm in aperture and any of them can be setup or taken in within a few minutes. I don't have an observatory and the scopes live in the house so I've kept the setups as simple as possible and therefore all the scopes get used frequently.

There is nothing more frustrating than spending a fair amount of time setting up mount, software, IT and getting the scope cooled, only to find that clouds are threatening and it all has to come in again

What scope do you use your Ethos 13 in Ken ?

One of these care of @billhinge

So that I can put my T-Rex alt-azimuth mount on my Berlebach Uni 28 tripod:

If needed this will go tall - the dovetail clamp is at around 2 metres at max:

Most of the time though the legs will be less than 50% extended.