John

Sounds like you would really like to go for the 102mm F/11 ED refractor If that is the choice you make, do make sure that you have a mount that is up to holding the scope steady and without undue vibrations at high magifications. This will ensure that you can fully exploit what this type of refractor is capable of. The mount may need to be stronger than you think - the length of the tube, with this scope, will have much more influence than it's weight.

4 glass elements in 2 groups. It's on this chart, somewhere:

I'm in the camp that do not get on with binoviewers as well. I have tried them a number of times. I appreciate that some really do find them game changers though.

I quite often use the zoom + barlow combination for flexible high power observing of the moon, planets and double stars. Sometimes small planetary nebulae and globular clusters as well. My scopes, mostly, have shorter focal length than the C6 SCT though. With the barlow lens, my zoom gives me a focal length range of 9.5mm to 3.2mm. In most of my scopes, that is a very useful range. Having the ability to instantly adjust the focal length is very useful for finding out the optimum magnification for the seeing conditions and target.

These are "Super" but not really ......

I think this is pointing to something being wrong with the 9mm eyepiece

I suppose there comes a point when you have been in the hobby quite a while and have seen quite a lot of stuff. Perhaps there is a fork in the path at that point where you becomes less interested in seeing new stuff and more interested in seeing the best quality views possible at lesser apertures ? Maybe light pollution intrudes and you either get a huge dob and a camper van to carry on going deeper and further or invest in premium quality smaller apertures ? As @Stu says in his post above, there are multiple options as you go down the path and all of them lead to interesting new challenges and places Just don't step on the fork !

The alternative route was taken by Celestron with their version of these eyepieces - the Ultima range. The 5mm in that range did not use a barlow set. The eyepiece was consequentially physically much shorter but the eye relief was much tighter. There was no 3.8mm in the Ultima range though. Presumably without a barlow element the eye relief would be so short you would practically need to glue your eyeball to the eye lens.

The odd thing is that a planet that is visible with the 25mm eyepiece should disappear when the 9mm eyepiece is used. It does not make sense because in your scope (a 130mm F/5 newtonian reflector I believe ?) the 9mm eyepiece should be entirely functional - the 72x that the eyepiece produces is hugely within the limits of the scope. It's a puzzle

Looks a good job. The Baader film is designed to work fine with the ripples in it. It should not be tight across the apertures.

I agree with the above. Moving from the 25mm to the 9mm will show a much smaller portion of sky so unless a target is centered before the eyepiece change, it might well "disappear" when you get to look through the 9mm eyepiece. Also, if the scope is not tracking accurately and the eyepiece change takes a little time, the target may have drifted out of the field of view before you get to put your eye to the 9mm eyepiece.

I think it is one of the "pseudo Masuyama" eyepieces, made in Japan. This is the 3.8mm branded by Orion (USA) as the Ultrascopic: There was also a version branded as Parks "Gold" series and I think an Antares branded version as well.

In order to be certain you will need to get a sample analysed by an accredited laboratory such as the Natural History museum: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/meteorites-and-meteor-wrongs.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8Oiw--e06gIVGdGyCh0gMQG5EAAYASAAEgJkuPD_BwE The vast majority of finds turn out to be of terrestrial origin. Ataxite is a type of iron meteorite.

Balance seems pretty important to the smooth operation of many alt-azimuth mounts. Of the ones I've owned (in that class of mount) the Skytee II and Vixen Porta I have been the least affected whereas the "T" style ones such as the Giro II and Ercole are more sensitive and benefit from counterweighting across the alt axis to get smooth motion.

Can you catch anything from licking a laptop screen ? Oh dear, the wife has seen me. Have to come up with an excuse now !

Views with scopes of that aperture live with you for for a long time I can still vividly recall M13 and M51 observed with a 20 inch at the SGL star party quite a few years ago now. Jaw dropping

This one is more apt though, for this thread It's the Lick 36 inch:

Same for me. Glad to have found a T-Rex in the UK earlier this year Course, I could have made something better from a Cornflakes box and some sticky backed plastic but I didn't have those available

Something old, something new, something borrowed ......

I sort of agree with it actually. And I have 4 refractors and just reflector

Spend time observing targets and re-visit them often. The more you look, the more you will see. Much of the detail that we observe and discuss on here are not obvious initially and need to be teased out. This takes time and practice. If you saw Pluto you did really, really well. It's magnitude 14.3 at the moment and that will be diminished by it's low altitude. Have another look, make a sketch, then come back again in a few days and make another sketch to see if the suspect has moved against the background stars. It's the only way to be sure

When we start to push our kit towards the edges of it's performance capability, small differences start to show and matter a bit more A wise man (Michael Wilkinson I think !) once posted that the time to consider an upgrade is when you try something and see a difference that matters to you. Once you have seen an improvement it is very difficult to "un-see" it

I'll cross it off my list then

I know the AZ100's are very good - I have used a couple of them I read so many good things about the Discmounts (particularly the DM6) elsewhere that I thought it would be good to have that option here in the UK alongside the AZ100.