John

You get the advantages of the 2 inch barrel format when the field stop (the internal ring defining the edges of the view) is larger than it can be within the confines of the 1.25" eyepiece barrel. To use a larger field stop though the optical design needs to be relatively well corrected across the wide field that is created. The Kellner design is limited in this respect which is why they have not pushed the field stop diameter out as far as it can go within the 2 inch format. In the 28mm focal length you can get an 80+ degree field of view if a large field stop is used but an optical design that can provide a reasonably well corrected image (ie: stars continue to look star shaped) over that view is required and that costs money to design and implement so such eyepieces cost more for us to buy. The scope that the eyepiece is going to be used in also affects the degree to which the quality of the view is maintained across the field of view. "Fast" scopes (eg: F/4, F/5, F/6) are more demanding on eyepiece design than "slower" ones (eg: F/8, F/10 etc).

I find the "nudge- let drift-nudge-let drift" approach works well. I do use hyper wide eyepieces with my dob though.

Here is a detailed map of Plato and it's craterlets. The best I've managed is 10 of them with my 12 inch dob on a superb night

That eyepiece has a 56 degree apparent field of view according to the spec. It's not going to show any more sky than a decent 1.25 inch 32mm plossl such as the Revelation does, a touch less in fact. https://www.telescopehouse.com/revelation-32-0mm-plossl-eyepiece-1-25.html

I would get the book first

I have both types and love both types. When I want aperture however its a reflector - I can't afford or house a 12 inch refractor !!!!!

Nice little area of activity this, though small. I've just taken a peek with my Vixen ED102 and the Lunt HW. Not steady seeing currently so around 90x is as much as I can usefully use. Novelty to actually see a feature in WL !

That is very true John

Despite having 4 superb refractors from 100mm to 130mm which I love using I find my 12 inch dobsonian just as quick and easy to setup and use. While it needs 30-40 minutes to cool for high power observing, low to medium power can be used with the scope practically straight from the house. And the vast majority of my most memorable views and "firsts" have come from the 12 inch dob Its a close run thing though and, as all my scopes have been chosen and setup to be as easy and quick to setup as possible (because that's the way I like to do astronomy), none of them are really a chore or take more than a few minutes to get outside and ready to observe. The refractors have cost me a heck of a lot more than the 12 inch dob has as it happens but then quality refractor aperture does cost a lot more per inch than reflectors

We could actually do with a spot of rain for the garden. Looking on the bright side here

Good luck with your craterlet quest Stu. Just too much cloud cover here plus a large, dark bank of it coming across from South Wales now so I don't think I'll get a chance. There have been a few clear patches now and then but rather fleeting. I might get a glimpse with binoculars if I keep them on standby.

You can only adjust the secondary on an SCT. There are no collimation adjustments on the primary. There are no lock screws on the secondary - just 3 cross or hex screws. You sometimes need to loosen one a little to be able to adjust another one.

The one that I've pictured is from a LDX55 - I wondered if that component was the same thing. The Bresser EXOS2 and the Celestron CG5 are probably the same as well. Especially the Bresser which I believe is a clone of the LXD75. These are the worm housings (RA and DEC) from the Exos2:

Does your RA worm gear assembly look like this (apart from the colour) ?

The EQ5 is pretty much the same as the LXD75 I think so you might be able to use a spare part for an EQ5 to replace your broken LXD75 part. Exactly what is broken on your LXD75 ?

I agree with Stu - a good 100mm refractor will be comfortable at 200x, 250x and even 300x when the seeing / target allows. The T6 Naglers are very good eyepieces in all types of scopes. I used to have a full set of them.

I have had a pair of 25 x 100's but found them heavy and unwieldy despite having a decently tall and stable tripod. I found that I was seeing more with 15x70's and 20x80's simply because they were that much easier to use. If I ever own another pair of 100mm binoculars they would be the type with 45 or 90 degree angled eyepieces and mounted on a sturdy fork mount. Something like these:

There are several things that I've ordered that are yet to show up. In one case I've been warned of a delay. In the others I assume that the current circumstances are causing all sorts of problems for both the companies I ordered from and the delivery agents. Probably both. I'm owned a couple of refunds on other things which will be processed in due course but are taking much longer than normal because the companies involved are short staffed and completely snowed under with other similar transactions. These are unprecedented times. We have food in the house and are currently healthy. Everything else does does not matter right now in my opinion. I think companies have every excuse for a lack of service but many are still managing something despite the odds.

What ever you go for, budget for a really tall strong tripod to hold the binoculars. The 20 x 80's are easier to mount steadily than the 25 x 100's. Don't under estimate the size and weight of the 25 x 100's - they are really large and heavy.

That can also result in the "black eye" effect !

I've observed M87 a few times but I've not seen the jet. To be fair though I've not really looked for it so I'll take that challenge the next time I have my 12 inch dob out I wonder if any narrowband or line filter would help spot it even if that is at the expense of the galaxy view a bit ? I usually get distracted by Markarian's Chain when I'm in that part of the sky which might be why I've not studied M87 for too long

I was thinking just the same last night.

Here Neil:

Having setup my 130mm refractor for a photo shoot this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised when the skies cleared as evening approached despite a forecast of 50-70% clouds. While the transparency is rather mediocre ( eg: comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas was quite hard to spot despite being billed as mag 7.9) the seeing seems very good. The Moon and Venus put on a great show earlier and then I was able to split Sirius at 240x and 300x while there was still some light in the sky. The faint glimmer that is the Pup star became somewhat more tricky to see once the sky was dark though. Revisited Tegmine (Zeta Cancri) with the 130mm refractor and this triple star looked truly spectacular. Having the 2mm-4mm Nagler zoom in the diagonal I could press on the power and, my gosh, the stars stayed so well composed and crisp right up to 600x ! The close pair here are around 1 arc second apart and that thin black gap was clearly defined by the 5.1 inch objective lens. I played the same game with the easy pair of Castor and found a pair of bright headlights blazing back at me with a large gap between them at the top end power. Over to Cassiopeia for an up close view of another of my favourite multiple stars, Iota. Another superb grouping framed by the field stop and looking sharp and tight again at those very high magnifications. Using this sort of magnification and with such well defined star images you can see very subtle differences in the tint and brightness of these tightly grouped stars which tend to look very similar at lower powers. The two long slow motion control cables of the T-Rex alt-azimuth mount gave smooth and precise control even at these crazy magnifications and the mount handles the F/9 130mm triplet scope so well. Virtually no vibration at all and any that crops up when focus is adjusted damps down in under a second. At last I'm able to really push these excellent Russian optics hard Hercules is still quite low but even so I've managed to split Zeta in that constellation and I'll be back for more when the constellation has risen higher. Some nights I love to go to those distant faint fuzzies with my 12 inch dob but other nights, conditions allowing, the smaller but precise optics of a quality refractor deliver these text book views of binary star systems that are a sheer pleasure to observe

Missed them both ! Just been taking a call from my mum though so can't be helped.