John

The ES17/92 is indeed quite a bit heavier than the 21E. 1300g vs 1021g I was using both last night My counterweight "system" is a magnetic knife strip attached to the lower part of the scope tube and a couple of old iron counter weights that I can place in various positions along it.

Nice report of this event By the time Io emerged from the shadow Jupiter had gone behind a tree for me so It's good to read your report of the re-appearance

Sorry to hear of your pains Michael. Perhaps it's time to consider a lighter rig ? If you are dreading setup and tear down motivation is going to be hard to come by. At least you got out for a bit

Sometimes. Not the Tak which is setup for 1.25 inch eyepieces but the other refractors do get their turn with the big Ethos. And the big Nagler as well You are right though - you can't really hide these things away

My 12 inch Orion Optics / Moonshane dobsonian is out tonight. Here it has Neptune and Triton in it's sights. Note the eyepiece - Nagler 4mm-2mm zoom. High powers help to tease out Triton

I use a Tak FC100-DL or a Skywatcher ED120 Pro on my Skytee II and they work extremely well on that mount. Very sharp views of the planets from both scopes. The Tak FC100-DZ that mike mentions would also be a superb choice. I guess a Tak TSA120 would also be really excellent. A good alternative to a refractor would be the Mak-Cassegrain 150mm as mentioned above.

I did the Downs one. Actually had some clear skies ! My task was to show folks Neptune with my ED120 refractor. A bit of a challenge but most managed to see it I think My avatar pic was taken at the Failand observatory. I was there all on my own to observe the lunar eclipse. Worth the effort though: Nice reminder about the BAS subs ......

Lots of options for this. A budget plus any preferences you have will help narrow things down though.

When using my 12 inch dob the 21mm Ethos is probably my most used eyepiece. I've had galaxy hunting sessions with it when that is the only eyepiece that I've used. In that scope the E21 gives 76x magnification and a 1.3 degree true field of view. Potent combination !

My refractor inspiration was Sir Patrick Moore's Cooke 5 inch at Selsey:

The amount of sky (true field) shown depends on the specifications of the eye piece. If your goal is to have a sharper view across the field then the upgrade will almost certainly achieve that. If the goal is to also have a wider view then it may not do that, depending on the specifications of your 35mm eyepiece.

I felt just the same about last nights shadow transit: @si@nite Nice image

I don't think you were observing too early. Maybe you had some local atmospheric disturbance ? Last night I was observing Mars from 11:00 pm for a while then again at around 1:00 am when it reappeared from behind a tree with my ED120 again and the views were quite well defined with the S polar cap showing distinctly. The seeing was quite steady last night so I found 225x - 300x produced a decent image with the ED120. I've not tried my Vixen ED102SS which at F/6.5 is closer in spec to your scope. I'll give it a go on Mars and let you know how that does.

Will that show you any more sky than your current 35mm 2 inch though ?

That is just how I like an eyepiece to be. The ES 92mm 17mm, although an excellent eyepiece, is a bit on the marginal side in this regard - the eye cup is just a touch shorter than I'd ideally like. I'm gradually getting used to it though. On the Ethos 21, I agree that the new price is crazy now at £800+ and the used prices, when they occasionally come up, are pretty eye watering as well. With my fastest scope being F/5.3 I would probably have happily gone for the APM 20mm 100 if I didn't already have the 21 E. Perhaps I should sell the 21 E, buy an APM 20 / 100 and bank the difference ?

Nice report Stu I've been observing Mars tonight with my ED120. I get it at around 11:00 pm before it goes behind a big tree and then from around 12:30 onwards when it comes out from behind said tree. There some some good detail visible in the steadier moments. Nice to see the planet looking as large as this in the eyepiece ! The 8 inch F/8 must be a wonderful planetary scope

I have the feeling that I could get on better with BV's but I would have to keep on using them and become as familiar with them as I am the single eyepiece. Eventually I guess the BV's would become 2nd nature.

Superb Garry I was going to get my TMB 130 out tonight but I was unsure about the forecast so I put the ED120 out instead. The seeing turned out to be excellent on Jupiter, Saturn and Mars so I should have gone all out for the 130 after all The ED120 did pretty well though.

Still good here. Jupiter has gone behind some trees so Saturn took over in the eyepiece for a while and now I'm on Mars. Some of the best seeing that I've had for a while on these planets. Mars good at 225x - 300x with my ED120 refractor.

I don't dislike BV's and I really wished that I enjoyed using them. This setup should have been wonderful 130mm triplet refractor that is BV ready so no barlow or transfer lens required to reach focus.

Did you see any photos of the objective before you purchased the scope ?

It threw me as well Andy ! With triplet lenses, my understanding is that the accurate centering of the 3 lens elements is critical as well as the tilt of the objective as a whole. I have collimated doublet refractors quite a few times but if my 130mm triplet went out of collimation I'm pretty sure that I would seek professional help with that.

I've tried at least 3 pairs of BV's in a number of different scopes over the past few years and didn't get on with them either. They BV's worked OK and I could merge the images but, for me, I just preferred the "cyclops" views. I get on fine with normal binoculars (I prefer them over a scope for birding) but I've concluded that BV's in a scope are not going to "do it" for me now. As to why that is, I really don't know

It's not my case. I guess it's similar to camping mat foam with a recess in the darker foam beneath ?

So much for "We checked this scope and it’s normal to have these small particles. You will not got one that is particle free......." Glad you have now got what you deserve