John

Overland from Siberia in it's wooden "coffin". TAL Apolar 125:

Having been involved in creating, specifying and recruiting to a number of such posts in central and local government prior to my retirement from the Civil Service, I can categorically state that this is not the case. Can't argue about the weather point though

For visual observing I'd go for the dob every time. An EQ mounted scope (and I do have them) is quite awkward to use IMHO. The dob version is F/6 compared to the Explorers F/5 by the way. F/6 is a bit more forgiving on eyepieces and collimation.

Yes, the XW's also have razor sharp field stops.

The first I head of these was a review of their american versions, the Astro Tech Paradigm's 11 years ago: https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/cn-reports/eyepiece-reports/first-look-astro-tech-paradigm-eyepieces-r1845 The manufacturer (Barsta) has added the 5mm and 3.2mm focal lengths since then. The Sky's the Limit chap, Alan was the first to import them to the UK I think. Having owned and used a few over the past few years they are not difficult to recommend as an upgrade to the stock eyepieces At least, at <£50 a pop, collecting them is not as wallet draining as some ranges I can think of

I ought not to but I do find a fuzzy field stop really annoying as well ! It does not affect the operation of the eyepiece though and the Morpheus otherwise will be delivering probably comparable optical quality to the Delos. Maybe it's just your Morpheus 12.5 or is it generally found with these eyepieces ? The 2 Delos that I have (17.3mm and 14mm) have razor sharp field stops but you probably don't want to hear that

I'm not using my dob on Saturn and Jupiter currently because they are so low. Fortunately I have some nice refractors on tall tripods which make life easier with low targets.

Often these turn out to be some of the best

The Cassini Division is visible in scopes from 70mm and upwards. It requires steady seeing though at smaller apertures. It was very obvious the night before last with my 130mm refractor. The GRS can be seen in scopes of a similar aperture to the above, when it is on "our" side of Jupiter again half decent seeing is required. I spotted it fairly easily with a 90mm mak-cassegrain a few nights back. Personally I don't find filters do much for my planetary observing but others have found them some help. With the low position of the planets some are finding Atmospheric Diffraction Correctors (ADC's) working well for them:

I don't think most on here are bothered where things are made to be honest with you.

Most of us are happy with scopes that come from the far east, Europe, Russia, the UK and the US Mike. Restricting it to just USA made ones will reduce the options and probably the suggestions hugely. We are a worldwide forum

There are so many eyepieces around I think this would be more or less impossible to compile and keep up to date. Don Pensack's annually updated eyepiece specs list has over 1000 eyepieces on it and those are just the ones in current production: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/700069-2020-eyepieces-buyers-guide/ That list does not specify the position of the focal plane within each eyepiece. Some brands (eg: Tele Vue) are very specific about this, many are somewhat vaguer.

Dimmer but still a nice looking comet here tonight. Anyone else seeing a slight greenish tint to the nucleus and tail emissions immediately around it ?

Skywatcher ED150 - oh dear !!! They have since improved the packaging a great deal thank goodness !

The ones that the scopes come in are rather good - all 3 of them

Ahh - it was you Dave ! I wondered who snagged that one I'll be very interested to hear how you get on with it

It looked good a few nights back. Plenty of dark features and a nicely defined south polar cap. That was with my ED120 refractor. If the dust storms hold off (on Mars) I think it's going to be an excellent opposition

These planets look even better through the eyepiece. Both were razor sharp last night through my 130mm refractor.

That's very interesting - thanks for posting those pics Did you find that you managed to keep dust out of the optics when it was all back together again ? I did a similar job on another zoom a couple of years ago (not a Baader) and found that no matter how clean I though I was keeping the optics, there was still some dust visible when the zoom was at certain focal lengths It's in a drawer somewhere - I rather lost patience with it.

Nice image ! You seem to have captured that slightly green tint that the comet seems to have acquired lately. My images showed something similar and one or two observers have commented on it as well over the past couple of nights.

I feel the same Dave. Good luck to those trying these things out though - it's interesting reading about their experiences.

Here is the APM 24 UFF from APM in Germany: https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/binoculars/binocular-eyepieces/apm-ultra-flat-field-24mm-eyepiece-65-fov.html A lower cost but still good alternative to the above and the ES 24 / 68 is the Maxvision 24mm 68. Out of production now but they do turn up pre-owned and for around £50 are a bargain. I use a 24mm Panoptic myself and it's excellent but very pricey.

Nice report You may be doing even better than you think around M57 - I think that star near it is mag 13:

Does the nose piece of the Omni 2x not unscrew then ? I thought it did.

Spare part for a Dalek perhaps ?