John

Thanks for these replies and suggestions folks 🙂 I have a measurement for the inside diameter of the drawtube (taken with a digital caliper) of 35.4mm. I'm wondering if the thread is one used by Tak and Vixen of 36.4mm but that might be a touch wide 🤔 Are thread diameters usually measured from the top edge of the thread or the valley between the threads ? Thanks again 🙂

The message you don't want is "We've got it and we rather like it so we are going to keep it" 😁

Still "kicking the tyres" David 😉

I may have the need to have a custom adapter made in the not too distant future. It is going to be 1.25 inch fit on one side and an as yet unknown male thread on the other. Brass would be my preference but alloy would also be OK. Can folks suggest any places that I might approach when my specs are more certain to undertake such work ? Many thanks 🙂

My 12 inch dob was as quick as my 100mm refractor to setup. A little more time to cool though - useful after 20-30 minutes.

A pictorial history of some of mine. Yellow stars = I still own it, except for the 12 inch dob which I parted with last year. There have also been some duplicates over the years which are not pictured:

I rather optimistically had a bash as this one with my Tak 100mm tonight 🙄 The transparency is not too good so that did not help. I managed to get down to magnitude 12.6 stars near the location of 3C-273 but I really needed to be able to go half a magnitude fainter to be in with a chance of spotting the quasar. It was good to remind myself of the star patterns in that part of Virgo though, for the next time I try. On a slightly better night with the 120mm refractor I think I'm in with a chance 🙂

We did a similar thing when we visited Alice Springs in 2018. Unfortunately it clouded over before we got to using scopes 🙄 It was odd seeing Orion rise "feet first" ! Seeing the Magellanic Clouds and the magnificent globular cluster 47 Tucanae with my 8x56 binoculars on another night was pretty special though 🙂 I've seen Saturn looking like that with a C8 many years back when it was high in the sky here in the UK. Almost like the Voyager 1 images !

I suspect my scopes of being quite rude to one another, when I'm not around 🙄

Astro society meeting this evening so I didn't get the scope out until after 10:00 pm. So far I've been using my Tak 100mm to compare different high power eyepiece / eyepiece + barlow combinations on Iota Leonis, which is fun 🙂 Not proving much though - they are all providing very similar views tonight 🙄 Seeing is decent however - even a rather silly 450x is giving a quite nicely defined split of this uneven brightness pair. 300x is razor sharp with text-book looking airy disks. I picked up an old Parks 2x 3-element barlow a few days back. Nice Japanese glass in this one - same as the Celestron Ultima 2x I believe. These are supposedly 2.2x in reality.

Yep - high magnifications certainly help.

I had a Megrez 90 for a while. I'm pretty sure the ED element was FPL-53, judging by the colour correction.

A Ceravolo 5.5 inch reflector always looked an interesting scope. They seem to be held in very high regard by those lucky enough to own one. Another that I could have bought about 20 years back, but that might have risked a divorce 🙄

I've always wanted to own an Astro Physics refractor. They are like hens teeth to find over here though and command high prices when they do come up. I had the chance to buy an AP Star ED 120 around a decade back but I passed on it for one reason or another. I sometimes regret that decision 🤔 Right now I seem to be very attracted to an Ernie Elliot brass 3.1 inch F/15 refractor which is currently being sold. That desire is totally illogical though, given the other scopes that I already own. It's just such a wonderful looking instrument though ........

I find this tool for assessing Triton's position is useful but I generally consult it after having a go for it, to avoid averted imagination kicking in: Neptune's Triton Tracker (skyandtelescope.org) Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel seem to plot the position of these faint planetary moons quite accurately as well.

Sorry it's me again 🙄 I've seen Triton visually several times with my 12 inch dobsonian and a couple of times under very good conditions with my 130mm refractor. I was hoping to see it with my 120mm refractor at the last opposition but that didn't happen, or at least not conclusively, mostly due to poor weather. I still think it's possible with that scope though. Maybe even with a 100/102mm if things fall into place. When I had the 12 inch dob I also managed to see Oberon and Titania, Uranus's brightest moons. I've not managed that with a smaller aperture as yet though. Triton is quite magical to see visually. It's just a faint dot of course but it is the most distant rock and ice world that I've managed to see. I seem to specialise in faint dots of light 🙄

It would probably be my 100mm refractor for me as well.

I've tried to switch my radar off from time to time but it's just to hard too avoid peeking at UK Astro Buy & Sell and the classifieds on SGL a couple of times a day. It's a bad habit - I've just seen a C8 that I fancy but my other scopes are hardly getting used lately 🙄

If I was in your position now I would be looking very seriously at the Stellamira 125 ED doublet as well. When I was (quite a few years back) a good 125/127 mm refractor was not within my budget so I ended up with an ED120 instead. That was excellent and I use it a lot. The Stellamira 125 should be handled by your HEQ5 without any drama.

Hello and welcome to the forum 🙂 Of those that you list, I would only recommend the Skywatcher 200P Classic. It is tried and tested and there are many happy owners of it on this forum. The Visionking branded scopes do not look impressive to me. The scopes numbered 4. and 5 on your list would appear to be of the bird-jones reflector type which are generally best avoided. I have owned 2 Skywatcher 200P dobsonians, one quite recently, and they were both very good scopes.

Maybe someone in Bristol Astronomical Society has those skills ? You could try contacting the Secretary and they would ask within the membership: secretary@bristolastrosoc.org.uk

I gave up trying to justify (to myself and others) why I own many scopes and eyepieces. If I'm asked I just sort of mumble something now and change the subject 🙄

I did and I got the azimuth motion sorted with a single "milk carton washer". It was a very good scope but, probably influenced by the rather poor weather we have had over the past few months, it was not getting used enough so I let it go to a new home.

I have 6 scopes currently, all refractors: - Tasco 60mm F/13.3 achromat - Altair Starwave 70mm F/6 ED doublet - Takahashi FC100-DL F/9 Fluorite doublet - Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 ED doublet - Skywatcher ED120 Pro F/7.5 ED doublet - APM/TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2 triplet When I get the urge for some more aperture again it will probably be a reflector. I'm not sure I want to deal with a refractor larger than 130mm now 🤔

Thanks Mike, Yes, I still have the Tasco in it's wooden box complete with the rather wobbly alt-az yoke mount and .965" eyepieces. Every now and then I set it up and have a look at something for old times sake 🙂