John

Not all those brands but certainly some probably do come from the same manufacturer. Most stuff comes from China or Taiwan these days. The plossls branded "Revelation" are decent quality for a low cost. They are made by a manufacturer called GSO which is based in Taiwan.

You will need to either use a shorter focal length eyepiece such as a 5mm or use a 2x barlow lens with the 10mm eyepiece which effectively makes it a 5mm. The planets do tend to look small with telescopes though even when very high magnifications are used.

Choosing eyepieces can be more confusing that choosing a telescope There are a wide range of optical designs and then you have the manufacturers names for their ranges which don't tell you what optical design they use. A term such as SWA or UWA refers to the characteristics of an eyepiece (ie: super wide angle and ultra wide angle) but there are no official designations of what those terms mean and a number of optical designs can deliver such views but with varying quality depending on the scope they are used with. No wonder you get confused ! One safe way to go is to find out what others who have the scope you have use and what they think of them. The BST Starguiders have proved very popular on this forum and, having used them myself, they do work pretty well in a scope such as yours. This piece by Robin Wilkey (a member here) is a pretty good overview if you have not read it already: http://www.swindonstargazers.com/beginners/eyepieces.htm

IMHO, the gap between 6.5mm and 4.5mm would be too much. At shorter focal lengths I feel that having 1mm or even .5mm increments gives you the high power options you need to enable you to get the best from conditions and target. My shorter focal lengths are: 8mm, 7mm, 6mm, 5mm, 4mm-2mm zoom. I often find that I'm using the zoom in .5mm increments to find the optimum high power for a set of conditions / target.

I use the eye cup of the Delos fully "up" and it seems just right for my preference of having the eyecup gently surrounding my eye with enough pressure to keep stray light off the eye lens of the eyepiece. With the ES 17 / 92 I find that the correct eye position (for me) avoiding blackouts and seeing the full field is a few mm above the top of the eyecup even with the eyecup folded up - not really how I like things. If ES had designed in a twist up eye cup with a few mm more travel than the one they currently use, things might be quite different. I reckon these sorts of ergonomics will vary person to person though and will be affected by the shape of the observers face, depth of eye sockets, etc etc. My advice on the ES 92's is try before you buy if you can. Probably a good idea with any expensive eyepieces actually !

I have quite a lot of gear that I am intending to move on but I've put that on hold for now. It is feasible, I guess, but I just don't see it as any sort of priority at all right now. I'm not tempted to buy anything either.

Having tried the ES 92 12mm and 17mm (I still have the 17mm) I'm not as enthusiastic about them as others. They are really well corrected but their eye relief seems to be design to suit the glasses wearer more than the non-glasses wearer IMHO. I have found my Ethos and Delos eyepieces quite a bit more comfortable to use. People vary with these things though. I'm glad that I tried the ES 92's to see what they were about.

If the Morpheus 17.5 is like the ES 17 92 then I'll not be in such a hurry. I've not got on too well with the ES 92's (I had the 12 and still have the 17) because of their eye relief. Fine if you wear glasses when observing but as I don't, not so good for me. I agree that the ES 92's are superbly corrected eyepieces though. I'll stick with my Delos 17.3 in that niche I think.

Well £200 could get you a set of 3-4 eyepieces or one very nice eyepiece.

Is that £200's and is that for all the eyepieces ?

Not a lot in it to be honest with you. There was a time when Meade ran both systems side by side. I think the LXD55 was introduced earlier than the 75 though.

Lovely set of eyepieces. I really must try a Morpheus sometime

Assuming that you keep the same eyepiece in the scope, if you have the moon in sharp focus, you would only need to make a very small adjustment to get sharp focus on something further away such as a planet or star.

I think so Chaz.

A shortage of outward travel is easier to solve than a shortage of inward travel. My DL focuser seems to have ample travel for a very wide range of eyepieces - does the ES 14mm have a particularly extreme focal point ?

I have occasionally done outreach under bortle 7-8 skies. It is hard work showing folks galaxies I agree, even the bright ones (galaxies, not folks).

I've used Hermes dozens of times over the past few years with 100% success, even with international deliveries. I'm not expecting much to be "normal" currently even if website info is optimistic.

Split them into a number of zip files ?

My typical sky is Bortle 5 but I seem to do OK on actually finding galaxies. Seeing details in them, spiral arms etc is another matter though. That is limited here except on a really good night. Still, I'm lucky that I can have a good galaxy hunting night from my patio. Many folks have to take their scope somewhere dark to do that.

I felt that the comet was less extensive than M82 but my sky is not that transparent tonight. You could well be right about mag 8 being an integrated figure while the surface brightness of the comet is less.

Good one - sounds like your conditions were much better than mine tonight. Every time I've observed it with my 12 inch dob, even under the best conditions, the B star has glimmered faintly out through the glare that surrounds Sirius A. Not at all like observing a "conventional" double star (eg: Rigel) although the separation between A & B is about the same as Rigel and its companion. I've found 265x - 318x the optimum magnification for seeing this. Pentax XW 5mm or Ethos 6mm. My 1st ever sighting of it (about 4 years back) was with the same scope and a 6mm Baader Genuine Ortho eyepiece. I have spotted Sirius B a couple of times with my 130mm triplet refractor but it is more obvious (though still hard and not consistently seen) with the 12 inch dob. You have done very well to get it with your 8 inch dob IMHO

I've just viewed the comment with my Tak 100mm refractor. Fairly strightforward to find as you say. I though M82 was brighter than the comet though, despite the comet being billed currently at mag 8.0 and M82 at Mag 8.4.

Well done if you have got it ! Here is my sketch of Sirius A and B made around a year ago with my 12 inch dob. Its position angle has changed a little in the past year but not a great deal: The B star (the Pup) trails behind Sirus A as it drifts across an un-driven field of view.

Just had a look with my Tak 100mm refractor. Fairly easy to find but I still feel that it is a bit dimmer than M82 (mag 8.4) despite the claimed mag 8.0 for the comet

Looks like the view you might expect to get from a spacecraft approaching the moon Mike - nice one