John

Very pleased to hear that and well done ! You have obviously had better skies where you are than I have had tonight. Thin cloud restricted observing here to the brighter stars, Venus and the Moon. It was not a deep sky night !

They will almost certainly be made by the same factory that makes ES stuff. Most of the stuff we buy is made by a handful of manufacturers in China or Taiwan. ES don't make things themselves. Make sure you know what the import duty is before you order. Things bought from the far east look low cost but once import duty and handling charges are added the overall price can take a jump.

As a variable FL eyepiece (rather than a zoom) I guess it uses a similar concept to the Baader Fine Tuning rings, but, er, variable ?

Those old Japanese refractors had good objective lenses in them. My 1st scope was a Tasco 60mm F/13.3 of a similar vintage to yours and it produces good views for it's aperture. The thing that let them down was a wobbly mount and simple eyepieces but then again you don't really need complex eyepieces at F/13. I see yours has the Circle-K logo on the label so made by Kowa perhaps ?

I'll look forward to your feed back on the SW "variable" Dave The ONLY 80 degree variable / zoom around as far as I'm aware.

Ooops, my mistake - I thought all the photos posted were of the Maxvision versions Mind you, if they can be acquired 50% of the price of the ES, still worth consideration ? Tele Vue seem to get by OK without purging or waterproofing.

Thanks John - saves me searching for that thread !

I guess if they are Nitrogen or Argon purged, they must be sealed ?

Same as Explore Scientific I think. Maxvision is a brand name that the manufacturer uses when one of the big brands is not taking up their stock. The same thing happened when Meade cancelled a larger order for SWA's and UWA's a few years ago - the manufacturer stuck them out under the Maxvision branding. The dust cap even has the recess for the ES button moulded into it !

Nice job Stu ! My Berlebach is an HEQ5 fitting so is fine for the Vixen GP but I wouldn't mind putting the T-Rex on it as an option which is EQ6 compatible. I'll have to look up the johninderby HEQ5 - EQ6 Berlebach conversion thread and see how he did it. Which Uni tripod is that by the way ? Did you need a longer fastening bolt ?

The Skytee II gets so much use with all my fracs except the 130 which is what the T-rex is for. I've rather taken to the slow motion controls and I find that I miss them when I'm using the Ercole.

That Vixen does look lovely ! I have my trusty Tak FC-100DL for the same purposes Stu. Venus has been really nice this evening The forecast is not great but so far the conditions are pretty good. A little thin, high cloud but that won't stop some binary fun and games !

There are loads provided that you are OK to wait up until it gets properly dark. The Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra and the Dumbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula spring immediately to my mind. Both straight forward to find and observe with all scopes from 100mm and upwards. My favorite Summer DSO is the Veil Nebula in Cygnus but you need a UHC or O-III filter to do that justice. It's very hard to see at all without such a filter ! The 2 magnificent globular clusters in Hercules, M13 and M92 should also be on the "must see" list. I'm sure others will come forward with plenty more !

The SW zooms have a great reputation. There have been a number of versions but yours looks like one of the more recent ones ? I'll be very interested to hear how this one performs Dave. I've only used some of the fixed length SW's which were a mixed bunch I have to say.

If we can dispense with GOTO / motor drives than the Skytee II with upgraded clamps does at least have slow motion controls. The Ercole / Sabre / Giro II are great but I'm not sure that I'd want to use a mount without slow motion control with a mak-cassegrain ?

Brighter than it's host galaxy. Pity it was not a couple of months back when Leo was better placed.

Thanks Alan, Pity that Virgo is rather awkwardly placed after dark here. If that SN had popped a couple of months back .....

The views of the planets would be about the same but the views of deep sky objects would be a little dimmer with the smaller aperture SCT or MCT. The SCT or MCT should show slightly tighter star images which make double stars a touch easier to split. The SCT / MCT would be more compact to store of course but would take longer to cool down (especially the MCT) to outside temperature, if stored indoors. I moved from an 8 inch SCT to an 8 inch dobsonian and was pleasantly surprised that the less expensive and simpler dob gave just as nice views. Others might have different experiences though and I'm sure they will chip in soon

I guess we wont be able to see it as thin as we could last time around because Venus will get too close to the Sun for safe observation in due course ? I got this far last time (simulated view) - mikeDnight got it a bit thinner I seem to recall ?

The Cats Eye nebula (ie: the tip of my triangle) is around 3 degrees (6 full moon diameters) from that pair of stars. A 30mm finder has a field that is around 6 degrees wide and a 50mm about 4 degrees so that is a useful guide as to where to put the centre of the view in relation to the 2 stars at the top of the triangle. Use a low power eyepiece in the scope and look out for a star that looks "bloated" compared with the others. This image shows a wide view of the sky with the nebula in the middle. Under a dark sky this is the sort of view that you might get with a low power eyepiece in the scope. I see less background stars than this but you get the general idea I hope:

Similarly for me and I was very pleased to get it from my back yard. I will probably look in on it again occasionally but no more. I think chasing these "hard to get" targets sharpens your skills though and that pays dividends when observing more straightforward targets - you can tease a bit more out of them.

Jupiter does not respond to high magnifications as well as Saturn does but that is because of the nature of the features we are trying to detect. With Jupiter we are looking for subtle contrast and tone variations which are what defines the surface features. Such features seem to stand out better if you back off the magnification. Also observing the planet with some sunlight still in the sky seems to enhance the tints and contrasts. I've had some of my best view of Jupiter under such conditions. I suspect that trying to make the best of Saturns disk detail would also be better at slightly lower magnifications while the ring system features, in the main, have strong contrast variation so higher power works well. Each of the planets needs a slightly different approach to get the best from it.

I've prepared this from Stellarium. I find the Cats Eye by imagining a long thin triangle with the 2 mag 5 stars at the top end of it and the nebula at the bottom. I've marked my imaginary triangle in red. The 2 stars at the top of the triangle are visible in a 30mm finder but can be a struggle to the eye unless your seeing conditions are good.

Nobody forgets their first view of Saturn - I can remember thinking it looked so "artificial" when I first saw it with my old 60mm refractor that I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I have to be honest though, Jupiter is my favourite of the two planets. Always something changing on the surface of Jupiter as well as the moon and shadow transits. You never know quite what you will see there. Surface detail on Saturn is rather indistinct at best I find.

Great report and sketches Mike So what is thought to cause the cusp brightening effect ?