John

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maksutov_telescope#Gregory_or_"spot"_Maksutov–Cassegrains Perhaps I should call it "Spot" ?

Thanks for that link. That's what your £120 is buying you with the Scopetech Zero then The AZ5 has clutches I think so that one is not of interest. Anyway you have ordered the Zero now and I'm sure you will love it with your little Vixen frac

I've owned 127mm and 180mm maks for a short time but I've never used one of the little ones. I have refractors from 100, 102mm, 120mm and 130mm but I was attracted by the sheer cuteness of the 90 mak

Do you have a link to that ? I'd be interested to see it I don't own / use a Vixen Porta II which is why I used the "?" What scope are you intending to put on your Scopetech Zero ?

Saturn and Jupiter are just to low for my 12 inch dob to get onto due to "clutter" around that horizon from my back yard where I do 99% of my observing. So while they are down there I'm using my refractors of 100mm - 130mm which seem to be doing rather well when the seeing is good - an ADC can't help with poor seeing as has been mentioned before in this thread. Mars will be within reach my my 12 inch dob but may be high enough from here that an ADC is limited in what it can achieve. If these devices are helping improve the views for others, that's good and it is interesting reading about their exploits with them

If you order enough from Barsta you can have your name on them !

Vixen Porta II ? https://www.vixenoptics.co.uk/Pages/porta_II_mount.htm

The EQ5 is the Vixen GP clone. The EQ 3-2 is a clone of the Vixen Polaris. The mount in the picture looks like an EQ3-2 / CG4 / Skyscan 2000 (and older name for it)

I've seen these with about a dozen different brandings on them. Unless you are really OCD it makes no difference at all of course

I can actually post something in this thread now - my little 90mm gregory maksutov-cassegrain

If you suffer from light pollution I would go for a scope which can be transported easily to a darker sky. A 6 inch scope under a dark sky will out perform a 10 inch scope under a light polluted sky.

Glad you are happier now Mark My 5mm and 3.5mm XW's are older and have the green boxes. My 7mm and 10mm were purchased new from FLO a couple of years back and are in the grey Ricoh era boxes. They seem to perform universally well. Interesting that you have become AD sensitised now. I found that I became the same over scope generated CA and eyepiece generated astigmatism but coma I don't seem to notice, or at least it does not bother me. Others would simply have to use a coma corrector I expect When I was testing eyepieces and the odd refractor for the forum I guess I was really looking out for these issues. Now I've "retired" from that, I'm more relaxed about them. Yay ! - I'm enjoying cheap eyepieces again !

Thanks Ade. This one (branded Celestron Sky Prodigy, minus the GOTO mount) has a tiny set of push-pull collimation screws for the primary. They actually work !

It was a bit of an impulse purchase because the price was low and I wanted something ultra-portable. It nearly fits in the glove compartment of the car !

Pi Aquilae is a good challenge for a 100mm - equal mag 6 stars 1.5 arc seconds apart. Delta Cygni is an uneven brightness pair (mag 3 and mag 6) about 2.7 arc seconds apart. Mag 13 star next to the Ring Nebula is a good test of 100mm scopes. Central star of M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) is another one. Bright stars such as Vega, Altair and Deneb to compare CA. Racking through the point of sharp focus a bit either side and watching the airy disk expand is interesting. Scatter around point sources might be an interesting comparison to make. Keep the magnification when comparing as close as possible - at least these scopes are of similar focal length. If the seeing is mediocre that will hamper proper comparison. I moved from a TAL 100 to an ED100 as it happens, many years back now. Both very good scopes of their type of course

This one did not cost much to be honest with you. It did need a little collimation when it arrived but that was easy enough using an artificial star. The stock diagonal was rubbish though so I've replaced that. The RDF is basic but is actually quite accurate despite the relatively small field of view of the scope. I thought it would do a decent job on double stars and the planets, which it certainly does for it's aperture, but I've been more surprised at the views of DSO's so far. Really quite bright and contrasty. Max true field I can get is around 1.3 degrees but that's enough for many DSO's. What is really nice is the ease with which you can wander around the garden with the whole thing to get the best views.

I seem to have acquired a nice little CATadioptric in the form of this Celestron branded 90mm mak-cassegrain. It's coming to deepest Wales with us in late September hopefully to show me Mars close to opposition but also seems to do pretty well on a range of other targets from initial trials Sits well enough my my Slik Master Classic tripod and the whole lot is easy to pick up and carry with one hand. Just need to make a dew shield. Takes up very little packing space so won't annoy my other half ! My first small CAT and so far I'm quite impressed

Jupiter does not really respond well to very high magnifications. The detail on it's surface is actually clearer at 130x - 170x than it would be at over 200x. Saturn and Mars are different - the higher magnifications are more useful on those. It's not the scope so much as the seeing / atmospheric conditions that are the limiting factor. 200x and above needs really steady seeing conditions, a target that will benefit from such magnification and a properly cooled and collimated scope. Those things don't come together all that often ! Jupiter's surface details are subtle which is why lower magnifications do better. Strongly consider the BST Starguiders as an upgrade path. Proven eyepieces with lots of members here who use scopes like yours !: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

I guess I was thinking of the old BBC2 nature / geography series "The World About Us" when I thought of the title. I used to watch that as a kid and it kindled my interest in nature and geography at a young age

This is not a detailed report, but just a celebration of what is observable in the sky currently. Last night I had my ED120 refractor out complimented with 11x70 binoculars. Over a period of around 3 hours I was treated to superb views of a wide range of nebulae, clusters, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, galaxies, coloured binary star systems, the star clouds of the milky way and of course that fabulous, still naked eye visible, comet. On the man-made front, a bright pass of the ISS right overhead put a crick in my neck and a smile on my face. Whichever way I looked, there was something to marvel at It really is a beautiful Universe and a privilege to be outside gazing up at it

Sorry Geoff - I did miss that. Jupiter is around 15 degrees where I am and Saturn a touch higher. Some nights the seeing has been poor but there have also been good nights, like tonight.

My 8th session observing comet C2020 F3 Neowise tonight I'll miss it when it's no longer visible

As this is the observing section of the forum, no images are required Really lovely views of Jupiter and Saturn tonight with my ED120 refractor. Saturn's disk banding stood out particularly well and the globe had a 3D look to it. Glimpses of the Crepe Ring as well as a clearly defined Cassini Division.

Its still a naked eye comet here tonight. A little dimmer perhaps. Pale greenish tint to the nucleus. Seems to be dropping around 1/10th of a magnitude per 24 hours according to posted magnitude estimates. A slow, dignified fading

What a nice report Stu I'm looking forward to some group observing again, hopefully in the not too distant future.