John

I'm going to be mobile on the day of the event. I did manage to catch a few minutes of the last one from my graden but that was down to luck and a little gap in the otherwise solid cloud layer that day. I'll probably use my Vixen ED102SS and the Lunt Herschel Wedge - on the AZ-4 mount it's a pretty mobile setup.

Feel free to say - the more opinions, the better

Sikhote Alin specimens can vary quite a lot in appearance. If they have not been cleaned since being picked from the ground they can look like Kn4ftys piece as can uncleaned or "as found" Canyon Diablo, Nantan and other irons. The cleaned up specimens fall into two further types, the ragged, twisted pieces known as "shrapnel" such as Lukeskywalkers specimens and the sculpted individual pieces that show reglmaglypts, flow lines and roll over lips (AKA flight markings). Needless to say, the nicely shaped individuals that show these flight markings are the most sought after and most expensive ! I used to have a 200g piece that looked like the one below but sold it years ago to fund more astro gear. I sometimes wish I'd kept it

I've owned an AVX and an HEQ5 and I think the C9.25 would be more comfortable on the HEQ5. The AVX would carry it but it would be somewhat closer to it's limits. I didn't have any issues with my AVX but I have read about plenty of frustrating stuff from other owners. The HEQ5 is a well proven mount. Not perfect but it's quirks are well known and there is plenty of info out there on how to deal with them.

Thats very similar to Vixen's advice for their R&P focuser (lower one for refractors): http://miltonhill.us/Tele/Vixen_Focuser.html It does work !

I agree - the weather has been very poor for observing or imaging lately. Hopefully it will get better and with the clocks changing soon, we can enjoy the Autumn / Winter skies

You mention that you are considering an 11” HD edge F/10 OTA. Have you considered what mount you will use it on ? One of my society friends has one of these on the Celestron fork mount. A very capable scope but having helped him set it up and take it down they are large and heavy scopes - definitely not "grab and go" !

Sorry to hear about these problems. The trouble is, once you have had some negative experiences with a piece of kit, it can be difficult to build up confidence and enthusiasm in it again. I'm sure FLO will do all they can to help though.

How is coma impacting your view of the Moon Piero ?

I replaced the finder bracket on a couple of Meade refractors that I used to own. I did need to remove the focuser in both cases to be able to get to the nuts on the small screws that hold the bracket in place. I found that the SCT type vixen / skywatcher compatible finder bracket bolted on using the existing holes in the tube so no drilling was required. This is what the bracket looked like that I found fitted (it is the bottom one in this picture):

The Pup star follows the primary star as it drifts across the field of view with the mount undriven. The separation is around 10 arc seconds so thats not the challenge - it's spotting the much fainter star amidst the glare from the primary that is the trick. I did it 1st with my 12 inch dob a few years back and I've since got the split with my 130mm refractor and my Tak 100 but not as yet with the ED120 ! The seeing conditions are a key part of spotting the Pup - they can make or break the attempt.

The focusser on my DL was a little stiff when I got it so I adjusted the grub screws slightly which has made it spot on. No side to side movement on mine though Have you tried adusting the screws on the bottom of the focuser that tension the pinion ?. They are under the plate that covers the pinion mechanism:

Is it the finder bracket that is attached to the scope that you want to replace or the one that holds the finder scope ?

The Topic refractor looks very similar to my 1960's Tasco 60mm. The focuser wheels and lens cell / dew shield design are exactly the same. These were sold under a variety of brand names back then. I think they might have been made by Towa - check to see if there is a "circle-T" logo on the label.

It would be. False colour increases with aperture if the focal ratio stays the same.

With a little TLC that will be a super scope ! Vixen made stuff for Celestron back in the 1980's and 90's. The mount is a Vixen Polaris but I'm sure you know that. The focusing arrangement on the scope was unusual using a side to side movement with the whole secondary assembly moving back and forth along the optical axis as I recall.

Thats why forums like SGL can bs so useful - just keep asking the questions, there is a heck of a lot of experience on here

A 4 inch achromat has to have a focal ratio of F/15 or so to show no false colour visually. At around F/10 the amount of false colour is really quite small so that is a popular focal ratio because the scope tube is manageable (ie: not too long). The achromats that operate at F/5 or F/6 do show quite a bit of false colour but their main intended use is for low to medium power viewing of deep sky objects and in this they do a good job. There are filters that reduce the amount of false colour that is visible but they do tend to add a noticable tint to the image. Some people find them useful and some don't like them. A 8 inch F/6 newtonian will show no false colour at all and is likely to show excellent planetary views.

If you use a 40mm 68 degree 2 inch eyepiece with the 115mm F/7.8 refractor you will get a 3 degree true field of view. With a 6 inch F/5 the same eyepiece would create an rather large exit pupil which would not be as effective IMHO so you would need to reduce the focal length of the eyepiece to something like 30mm. With a 30mm 82 degree eyepiece the 6 inch F/5 would show you a true field of 3.3 degrees so not a lot more than the 115mm F/7.8 can muster. Depends whether you feel that the relatively small additional field and some additional light grasp is worth owning another scope for

The Tele Vue 32mm plossl is very nice quality but it does not have a wider field of view than any other 32mm eyepiece in the 1.25" format. Just worth being aware of that.

I've been there with the TV Naglers and the Plossls owning full sets of those for a while. But I also don't like to see an expensive piece of kit not getting used so that overcame the desire to hold on to full sets. Incidently the 17.3 and 14mm Delos are not par-focal with the others in that range. For me thats good because it means that they fit nicely with my Pentax XW's and are close to par focal with them but I know that it does slightly annoy those who have full sets of Delos. I said to my other half just a while back that I didn't think that I was OCD with my eyepieces these days. She gave me a funny look and said "Really ???"

Hmmm, maybe not then ? If the original poster could do without slow motion controls the AZ-4 would do the job well as mikeDnight and paulastro have said.

Scope fettling - the ideal antidote to a rainy evening If this weather keeps up, we will all have the best collimated, most highly polished and optically clean instruments anywhere on the planet !

Just been going though mine. Rather surprised to find: 8x21 unbranded 10x25 unbranded x 2 (pair in each of our cars) 8x30 Carl Zeiss Jenoptem x 2 (one old pair and one newer pair) 8x30 Swarovski Tirol 8x30 Komz 8x32 Opticron Adventurer Roof Prism 8x40 Helios Naturesport 10x50 Helios Naturesport 8x56 Opticron Vega II 11x70 Opticron Oregon LER Where do they all come from - must breed in the cupboard

I find Polaris is a good star for star testing. Bright enough but not too bright. Easy to find (from where I am anyway) and it does not move (much) when being observed. A green filter can be used to better discern the diffraction ring / airy disk pattern.