John

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.

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

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

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

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 ?

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.

A picture or two would be so useful to determine the make and model of the scope and how you have set it up. I'm sure a quick solution would then be forthcoming

Well I didn't manage E & F Trapezium tonight. The seeing and transparency were just not good enough. I could barely see the 9th mag star in Sigma Orionis which is a decent "barometer" for E & F Trapezium. Never mind. Nice session anyway

Just for kicks I've been using the 6mm Ethos with the refractor to pretend to be an astronaut approaching the moon It makes quite a sight at 150x. The full disk is visible plus a thin frame of blackness around it. When I relax my eye I can almost feel vertigo ! Also had a look at the Pleiades at 38x with the Panoptic 24mm. The 1.8 degree true field Just about gets the whole of this cluster in the field. At that low power the seeing is fine and the "diamonds on black velvet" look is very apparent. If it stays clear I'll have a go at the E & F stars in the Trapezium once Orion is higher. They can be quite challenging in a 10cm aperture. Cold out there - we might have a frost.

Thanks for that feedback folks Good to know that it's not just me I suspect @JamesF is correct with his assessment. Got to roll with the conditions and make the best of it

Clear conditions prompted me to pop my Tak FC100 refractor out earlier. Mars and the Moon make a very attractive pairing. The seeing conditions though, are not so attractive. Normally this scope handles 200x - 250x without breaking any sweat on these targets but this evening even 150x is proving rather much for the unsteady conditions. Some darker areas are visible on the Martian disk and the tiny south polar cap pops into view occasionally in a rather teasing manner but the clarity and contrast of the views is lower than I've enjoyed a couple of weeks ago. The nice close double star Alpha Piscium is resolvable at 150x but the normal razor sharp star definition that this scope is capable of is missing just now. Same for that unequal brightness pair Theta Aurigae over towards the north east. The Lunar phase is an attractive one from an observing point of view but again the seeing is limiting my ability to burrow into the finer detail with high magnifications. It's more enjoyable throttling back and observing the whole disk at around 100x. Comparing the tones of the various terrain types is interesting. Shades of grey, quartz white and pitch black but also suggestions of a tawny tint in some areas. A refractor is a good tool for this - they show contrast very well. It is a nice night for observing lunar rays splashed across the illuminated portion of the surface though. One of my particular favourites are the twin rays that emanate from the crater Messier A located, along with it's partner, Messier, in the Mare Fecunditatis. Tonight these bright and well defined straight rays are prominent as they extend for 100 km or so across the Mare. At right angles to the direction of the Messier A rays, a more indistinct lengthy fan of brighter material "flows" past crater Messier, widening northwards. Another great sight this evening is the Palus Somni, the entrancingly named "Marsh of Sleep". It is dominated by the marked, vivid and angular terrain colour variation caused by bright rays fanning out in a dramatically uneven fashion from the very brightly rimmed crater Proclus. A super sight tonight. Returning to Mars at lower magnifications is delivering more satisfying views now too. Despite the small image scale at 125x, the surface features stand out more clearly and the color of the disk is more saturated under these conditions. I'm starting to enjoy myself even though high magnifications are not delivering that well. Give the medium power eyepieces a chance to shine. Sometimes less is more

Nice Mark Jupiter is now more or less impossible to observe from my back garden due to its current positioning, unfortunately. Saturn is not much better Have to turn my attention to non-planetary observing as Mars recedes I think.

Nice report. I think the Telementor is F/13.3 (840mm focal length). That and the smaller aperture will make a big difference to the amount of CA that the objective produces: As can be seen from the above, a 60mm F/13 achromat will be producing noticeably less CA than a 102mm F/9.8 (the Vixen 102M). No special glass needed !

Not yet. Other priorities have taken over so I'm still using the Baader T2 Zeiss prism diagonal with my Tak.

I think it might be a Swift refractor. I think it is more likely from the 1960's - 1970's or even earlier. This is a 1964 Swift 50mm refractor and you can see the similarities: There is a larger one of these involved in this 3 scope review but here branded "Eikow" and again from the 1960's: http://www.joebergeron.com/shootout.htm

Wow !! - 6 years and still no 1st light. That's tough on you and the scope. Would something more portable and quicker to setup / take in be more useful to you ?

Apologies Louis - I misinterpreted your post. I did own a Baader Aspheric 36mm, but not for very long. I've not owned the 35mm Aero ED though.

If I had a choice, I would not choose the Aero ED's (in any focal length) for use in an F/5 14 inch newt. I've not used the 35mm though. The 40mm is certainly better corrected than the 30mm and is possibly the best of this design. Not a particularly useful exit pupil with an F/5 scope though. Maybe your 36mm Baader Aspheric is better than the one that I had ?. I was rather shocked to see astigmatism in the outer field in a 150mm F/12 refractor I must say For a 14 inch F/5 dob I'd get the counterwieghting sorted out and and go for a 21mm Ethos or 20mm APM XWA and soak up the fabulous views I might not even bother with a longer FL eyepiece.

A 6 inch F/8 dob could be a 5 inch apo refractor "killer" potentially, at a far, far lower cost. Interesting thread from 2017 on a comparison between an F/8 6 inch and a F/5 of the same aperture: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/294136-6-f5-vs-6-f8-newt-planetary-shoot-out/ The Bresser dobs were not around then though.

With reference to filters used to enhance the views of deep sky objects, namely nebulae, I have found the more expensive filters (UHC and O-III) better performers than the lower cost ones. Not that the lower cost ones don't work, they do, but the more expensive ones do seem to deliver stronger contrast enhancement in the targets that they excel at. Are they 2x, 5x or 10x better ?. No but then nothing works like that with astro equipment. It's an exacting hobby though and as the observer gets more experienced they push the boundaries of their kit and themselves more and more and that's where the better performance starts to show. I'm a visual observer so I can't speak for imaging filters and the above refers to deep sky filters rather than to those intended for solar, lunar or planetary use. Others might well have different experiences though so it will be interesting to hear them I thought the Stargazers Lunge was the movement made by an astronomer when an expensive filter has been dropped from cold fingers ?

Nice report Dale - thanks for posting it