John

They work superbly together. The effect is simply to create a 100 degree 4mm or 3mm eyepiece. No other impact of havng the Powermate there other than that and the additional weight and length to the stack.

Eye relief does not change either.

Certainly a lot less expensive than the Ethos SX 4.7 and 3.7

Lovely !!!

Same as my 130mm F/9.2.

Does yours have the Kruppax 50 tube ?

The paperwork looks superb !

2001 is going back a bit but LZOS certainly do know how to make a fine objective lens

When independently tested the LZOS objectives usually turn out to be at least as good as the supplied tests say if not a wee bit better.

I'd like to see some pics of the scope, when you get the chance

Amazing how much detail you can go down to with that tool - I got down to boulders about 5 meters across sitting in the bottom of the Hadley Rille !

The long eyepiece plus Powermate stack can come in handy though

1 minute ago, space3 said:

My new grab and go setup, 

Great setup - one of my favourite combinations

Dobsonian mount every time for me. EQ3-2 is not really up to 150mm F/8 tube in my opinion. And I would stretch to the 200mm F/6 dob as well

My best Saturn was actually with an old C8 SCT that I used to own. Saturn was very high in the sky and the view with an 8mm TV plossl was absolutely breathtaking. No shimmer and no "coming and going" patches of best detail, just solid "Voyager views" for a couple of hours. Amazing.

I've had some really nice views since, particularly with the 12 inch dob but the really top drawer nights are thin on the ground.

Nice big stack when you use a Powermate 2x with a 20mm 100 eyepiece

2 hours ago, jetstream said:

I wonder how many reflector owners push their scopes to the limit?

Under my best conditions the 15" Astrosystems/Ostahowski mirrors goes over 60x/inch on the moon. This is truly something to see, giving a wow moment every time conditions allow.

If people think 90x/inch in a refractor is amazing, try looking through a large dob capable of high power!

 

As Stu says, the conditions over here usually preclude being able to really push a larger aperture scope. I have had a few nights over the past few years when I've been able to usefully use 400x - 500x with my 12 inch dob but most often that does not deliver any benefits.

With the refractors though, I reckon around 1 in 3 nights ands sometimes better than that, they can be pushed beyond 50x per inch with good results.

1 hour ago, niallk said:

... on the upside, I'm not tempted to purchase any Ethos SX EP's 😂

Been there, done that, decided that XW's were a touch better so eventually I let the Ethos SX's go.

In my case it is an observing area (patio) that is very close to the house so that I can pop in and out really easily. I keep my eyepieces, star charts, laptop etc in the dining room just a few paces and a pair of french doors away from where the scope is. Easy to pop in to warm up, use the loo and have a cuppa as well.

If I did not have such a convenient arrangement I'm not sure that I would still be in the hobby to be honest with you

I've bought a couple of really cheap scopes over the past couple of months and those have proved a lot of fun for very little outlay.

In many ways it's more satisfying getting some nice views from a £50 scope than it is pushing a £2000+ scope to it's limits

What scope does the original poster (@pob175) have ?

6 hours ago, Nair al Saif said:

Out of 10 how noticeable is the difference and is it worth shelling out an extra 155 quid.

 

yeah Ik Ik it’s not funny, just like to make the world a joke-ier place.

The link that @Shimrod posted is worth a look. I posted these approximations in your other thread yesterday:

Exactly what YOU will see will depend on factors such as seeing conditions, how much time you spend observing and the positions of the planets when you observe them. This is not an exact thing to do and the quality of the view will vary session to session and even hour to hour.

Placing a quantified value on additional performance potential is not really useful I feel. I think the consistent message though is that the 150mm Skywatcher dobsonian will give you the best potential performance for the budget you have available.

I would not consider the Startravel refractors for mostly planetary observing. They have too much false colour. Stick to F/10 refractors, F/11-14 mak-cassegrains (which they all are) or F/6-F/8 newtonians.

Getting something on a tracking mount for £300 or less is going to be the challenge I think.

Lovely images - thanks for posting them

Just how Mars looked with my Tak 100mm refractor a few nights back.

As you gain experience you will see a little more detail with the 150mm and the larger scope will show deep sky objects better because it gathers more light. Not very large differences but they will be there, a bit more so on deep sky objects, as you become used to observing.

40 minutes ago, Roger_Laureys said:

Sorry to disagree ....

No problem - opinions on eyepiece performance are often very personal

17 minutes ago, Nair al Saif said:

Is this vid accurate?

 

The details shown of the planets are about right for an experienced observer under good conditions but the size of the planets as they will appear in the eyepiece is way over stated. They will be much, much smaller than this. More like this:

Also, you can see quite a lot of deep sky objects with 80mm - 150mm scopes. Lots of them will appear small and fuzzy but that is also the case with larger scopes.

25 minutes ago, Refractor4life said:

Last time I’m gonna use this account, 6inch it is soon.

 

i meant cooling not cooking lol

 

One of the admins will need to close this account down now. You are only allowed one.

I have asked them to do that.

Just now, Refractor4life said:

.... There is also a 6inch dob that I’m eyeing but it doesn’t have tracking.6 inch Tabletop costs 199, dob mount costs 219 and on eq3-2 319 pounds.

You might need to change your forum ID but the 6 inch dob is an excellent scope. I would have an F/8 one over either a 90mm or 102mm F/10 achromatic refractor.

Very nice drawing Chris and of an unusual subject

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

You maybe get more patience though to partially compensate? 

Mmmm - not sure about that !

1 hour ago, Piero said:

Sad news.

I have three of them and they are outstanding on both planets and double stars. They are also terrific for white light solar observing, although I do not remember the last time I observed a spot due to the low solar activity in these years.

It is also a shame that they did not make a 5mm model. As far as I read, the design cannot be scaled to that focal length. In a desperate need for a 5mm, some time ago I bought a Fujiyama 5mm HD ortho. Clearly not as comfortable as the Vixen HR, but to my surprise I do not have any issue with its rather tight eye relief (I observe without spectacles). I might have been very lucky with its optics because the eyepiece looks like on par with the HR trio I have, in terms of sharpness, snap focus, and neutral colour tone. It has been delivering some great views of Jupiter, despite the low altitude of this planet in these years. 

Those HD orthos are pretty good if you are OK with the eye relief, FoV etc !

I had the University Optics version for a while and it was excellent;