John

For observing the planets the F/8 will be much more effective than the F/5 because of the amount of false colour that the F/5 focal ratio in this aperture generates. As has already been said, these are big scopes which require substantial mounts.

Nice report Rob ! I've read a number of reports on binoviewers which reckon that the quality of the eyepieces you use with them is less important than if you are observing in cyclops mode. I guess being able to use two eyes is much more benefit than minor differences in eyepiece performance ? I just wish that I could get on with the things ! FLO loaned me a pair of the William Optics ones complete with those eyepieces when they loaned me the Skywatcher ED150 to try out and I held onto those for a while and tried them with my 130mm triplet. They worked fine so it must be me

Great report Stu Each time I read a report on the Heritage 150 or 130 I get very tempted

I recently (lat year) had a Celestron branded ST102 F/5 achromat for a while. It's the same thing as the Skywatcher Startravel 102 but in black. It's peformance at low to medium magnifications was better than I expected. The star test was very good and the CA no more than I would have expected from an 102mm F/5 achromat. The focuser did what was needed as well ie: held the diagonal and eyepiece steady and moved it in and out smoothly. I wish I'd kept it but I'm on a 3 scope limit agreement with my other half and I already have 6 ........ I have to also confess to having an excellent Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 which is not a lot heavier or larger than the ST102, gives a true field of 4 degrees and will also perform well at 200x plus so no excuses really. I just like playing around with different scopes though ......

If I need gloves for astronomy I use neoprene fishing gloves where you can fold the thumb and index finger tips back to temporarily bare the fingers that are most used.

I used Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel which are both excellent I find, and free or course. I have used Starry Nights V4.5 and V5 (the intermediate level versions) and found that they were OK but did nothing more than the freeware and personally I didn't find the Starry Nights packages as intuitive to use.

I have a Uni 28 with single leg clamps. I've never needed to use it anywhere near fully extended even with quite a long refractor on the mount. This is a 130mm F/9.2 triplet:

Thanks for the kind comments folks ! I've just had to pack the scope up in a hurry - a huge and very threatening cloud is looming overhead Looks like that might be it for tonight but I've really enjoyed those Martian views this evening. More clear skies forecast later this week so reasons to be cheerful

Seeing still rather good. 257x delivering very nice views. I've even just done a crude sketch (a rarity for me !) which seems to match some of @Lockie's features. I did say that it was crude

Mars is looking very much like the simulation below tonight with my ED120 refractor at 225x magnification. The dark Syrtis Major very obvious extending northwards with the brighter Hellas area to the south of it. The darker markings create a sort of upside down "Y" shape. Nice dusky pink hue for the lighter areas. I've not observed it (or anything else ) for at least a week so it's nice to see it looking quite contrasty and sharp. Still a near 20 arc second disk so a reasonable size in the eyepiece.

I use the Hyperflex clone 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom when I image through the scope with a mobile phone. My cheap clamp seems to hold the top of this eyepiece well and having the zoom makes it a flexible tool. With a 2.25x barlow lens the zoom becomes a 3.2mm - 9.55mm.

My refractors are all air spaced including the triplet. The SW 150 ED is air spaced. Not sure about the Stellarvue 102. I don't know if the way I store them is the best way but it's the only practical way for me so that's what I do.

I did wonder about this when I installed my system but it's worked well so I've stuck with it.

Then don't buy it.

No. Steel washer and two plastic washers. The tips of the collimation screws press against the plastic washers as per Jason D's approach: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/446178-secondary-mirror-milk-jug-washers/?p=5775875

I have a "scope corner" in the dining room for the OTA's:

I've added a large washer to the top of the boss of my secondary and also a couple of the milk bottle washers. Seems to be a good arrangement. The secondary adjustment screws press against the plastic washers and the large steel washer prevents pitting of the top surface of the aluminum secondary boss. I rarely need to adjust the position of my secondary now. So it's this plus the large steel washer between the plastic disks and the secondary boss:

I've had a few of the ST80 F/5 and ST102 F/5 achromats over the years and found that they do the sort of job you describe on a lightweight mount pretty well. The ST102 has a 2 inch focuser as standard so great if you really want to go wide with a 2 inch eyepiece.

Great movie Apparently I'm nearing the "danger zone" I ought to have awarded myself a few more points for the hours I've spent over the years reading Ed Ting's reviews

This is a reasonably accurate representation of Mars as it appears at around 300x magnification through a moderate size scope:

Mars is a distinct pink colour with darker patches on the southern hemisphere. If the seeing conditions are poor it still appears distinctly pink. What you describe does sound more like Jupiter which does have bands across the central part of a white / cream disk.

The First Light Optics website gives the eye relief and apparent field of view of the eyepieces that you list in the specifications for each eyepiece or eyepiece range if the eye relief is consistent across the range. Eg: "The new enhanced Celestron X-Cel LX eyepiece series are 6-element fully multicoated eyepieces designed for comfortable high magnification observing. Wide 60-degree field of view. Parfocal so require little or no focusing when changing from low to high power. Generous 16mm eye-relief. Twist-up eyecups. 1.25" barrel threaded to accept filters."

As we approach the time of year when the wonderful constellation Orion is on show together with it's showpiece deep sky object Messier 42, the Orion Nebula, I thought that I would share a couple of information sources that I have found very interesting and that have stimulated me to look a little bit more carefully and curiously into this amazing target when observing it. The first is an excellent Sky & Telescope article by Bob King from 2014 which gives some good insights into the structure of the nebula and how what we can see visually links with that: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/see-orion-nebula-3d12172014/ So now we can look out for "The Fishes Mouth, "The Sword", "The Sail" and "The Cliff" as well as the well known Trapezium Cluster, Theta 1 Orionis The second link is an amazing "fly through" sequence that NASA put together in 2018 of the Orion Nebula using visible and infrared imaging from the Hubble and Spritzer space telescopes: I hope those "whet the appetite" for just one of the treats that the Autumn and Winter skies have in store

I have owned the Vixen LVW 22mm and it is a very comfortable eyepiece to use and also a top perfomer. The other Vixen LVW's are pretty good as well. One of my early reports for the fourum: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/blog/vixen-lvw-vs-baader-hyperion-review.html

I agree, which would suggest an abbe orthoscopic based design modified to permit a slightly larger well corrected field ? Rather like Al Nagler did with the plossl.