John

I think this apparition of Venus and more lately Mercury have been the best that I can recall observing

I caught the 2.1 day old Moon, 3.5% illuminated Venus and Mercury about 8:30 this evening and observed them for about 30 minutes before they dipped behind the hedges. Lovely sight, all three. I was using my Vixen ED102 F/6.5 on this occasion.

Nice to see all three here as well with my Vixen 102 ED

4.5% illuminated Moon and 3.5% illuminated Venus. Slim but lovely.

There seem to be some rumours circulating on another forum that plastic is used quite a bit in these refractors. I know that was the case with the Bresser ones but I would have thought that the ScopeTech ones would use mostly metal / alloy construction. Is that the case ?

Thanks.

According to the blurb in the description, these are "Professional Binoculars". I wonder what the amateur ones are like

This guide by Rod Mollise is a free download and provides loads of information about the history of SCT's of all brands. Click the Cat to get it:

https://skywatch.brainiac.com/used/index.htm

Very nice.

I'm going to try and glimpse Venus again this evening. Might be my last chance for quite a while !

This is the difference that an O-III can make on the Veil Nebula. It is no exaggeration either, from my experience. A UHC does make the nebula easier to see as well but does not have the impact that the O-III does by any means. Worth the price of the filter alone IMHO. For quite a while the Astronomik O-III was the only deep sky filter that I owned. I still find that I use O-III filters more than UHC but I do have a number of each now and an H-Beta for good measure.

A few times over the years I have re-purchased an eyepiece that I used to own and enjoy.

Most of the time this has made me realise why I parted with them and that things have moved on in terms of observing comfort, coatings and glass types

I tend to resist the temptation these days.

1 hour ago, Peter Drew said:

I already have a 300mm aperture apochromatic binoscope.  Mine uses mirrors though, lighter, cheaper and takes up less room.  At F3.5 it probably has a wider field of view than the one posted.  Envious? not me.    🙂

I was not trying to sell these Peter and not trying to make people envious.

Just posting some pics of what I thought was an interesting instrument

I'm sure they will perform to the limits of an 80mm aperture unobstructed scope.

What type of Meade scope ? - they have lots of models. The old ones were made in the USA but they have also used manufacturers from Mexico and in recent years mostly the far east.

If the objective is made to a good quality (which I'm sure it is) the CA levels in the F/12.5 would be very low and the F/15 should be visually colour free I would think.

25 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I wonder what its intended purpose is?

Apparently, the binoviewing equipment can be removed so they can be used singly for imaging.

The mount is available separately and is also multi-purpose - a childs swing can be fitted to the top of the arm

It actually reminds me of the davits that hold the lifeboat's on large ships.

Don't know what the cost is or who the customer was. 2000 kg in total weight (scopes and mount) 

I came across some pictures of this professional instrument on the APM website.

Not only is the instrument itself extremely impressive but the mount is an engineering work of art as well in my opinion

The objectives are a pair of APM / LZOS F/7.5 300mm triplets. Mouthwatering !

I think you can do better than the AstroMaster 70AZ for a budget of £100-£150. Much better.

Take your time and see what suggestions come forward from others.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

An idea of what your budget actually is would help a lot - the choice these days is huge and prices vary widely as well.

As "food for thought" here are a selection of decent starter scopes from the forum sponsor First Light Optics:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html

One piece of advice straight away is to discount the National Geographic scopes. They are really pretty poor.

On your subject, I'm not sure you will see any benefits with your scope from 100 degree eyepieces, apart from the wider field of view.

You current eyepieces are of very good quality - the Delos are a touch better than the Ethos.

So, unless you really yearn to see that additional true field, there might be other ways to spend your money !

I've moved this to the eyepieces section - it should get more responses there.

I have left a link to it in the original posting location so people will find it from either place.

Does it deal with the moment arm issue John ?

Just to be sure, is this the Bresser scope that you are thinking of ?:

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/bresser-messier-5-dobsonian.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0eLLi6bK6QIVze3tCh1CowobEAQYBCABEgI0YvD_BwE

I wonder if it is the same 36.4mm thread that this Vixen 40mm Kellner uses ?:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/500045-what-to-do-with-vixen-k-40-eyepiece/?p=6585567

With my mount, the precise location of the PTFE pads (3 on the azimuth, 2 on each altitude) was apparently quite important to the smoothness of the movement.

The pads bear against black laminate of some sort which covers bottom of the rocker box and the edges of the alt bearings. Works very well

I have heard of old vinyl LP records being used as azimuth bearings !

22 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

was almost thinking that myself, since one of my EQ5 has the 1.5-inch legs and the other the box-section type, hmmm

I was thinking that someone might want to replace their current 2 inch legs that have been damaged / got rusty. I don't think the 2 inch legs will fit onto a hub that previously had smaller diameter legs fitted ?

Someone might be interested in it just for the legs - I think they are inter-changable with HEQ5 / EQ6 hubs.