John

The Ercole needed a lot of counterweighting (10 kg) on the other side to allow smooth motions. Due to the optical issues that I had with both the ED150's that I received I didn't do any serious observing so I've not used the Ercole "in anger" with that scope. The Ercole copes with my 130 F/9.2 triplet (which is not far off the same length and weight as the ED150) quite well but the Skytee II is a bit more stable at high powers. I've thought for some while that I probably need a mount with more capacity / capability than both the Skytee II and the Ercole for the 130 F/9.2 to give it's best but I've been wary of investing £1K plus in one thus far. I have hopes that this new alt-az that FLO are due to announce might be what I'm looking for

You are quite right about the elongation from the host planet making, or breaking, the chances of spotting them. I have managed to see 2 Uranian moons with my 12 inch dob - Titania and Oberon. In theory I might also be able to manage Ariel and Umbriel under good conditions. All 4 of these are fainter and harder to spot than Triton.

150 F/8's are a lot larger than the ED120. The Giro Ercole was very much at it's limit with this lot on board to be honest. It's much, much happier with just the ED120 !

I agree with Mark - it's interesting to use an O-III filter on M42 but I feel that its best without a filter. It is probably the most striking nebula that we can see in the northern skies. With an O-III filter however, the Veil Nebula complex rivals it for intricacy though and there is more of it to explore

The Ercole will cope with 2 quite large and long scopes reasonably well:

Don specialises in visual observing accessories, which is why I thought his comment was interesting.

The comment that I read was posted by a well known and respected dealer in the USA, Don Pensack. Don posts here occasionally as well.

Perhaps I'll tell the poster on the other forum that he might be mistaken ? He is a dealer though so I wondered if his comments were based on sales trends.

As above. It's visibility varies though. A couple of nights ago Triton was clear with my 12 inch dob at 450x with direct vision. Last night I could not detect it at all with that scope under similar conditions

I've really enjoyed reading though the posts in this thread - thanks so much for sharing your thoughts I think what really counts is that astronomy now offers a very wide variety of ways to enjoy and engage with it - hopefully that will enable a wider range of people to find interest in the Universe around them. It's not just a hobby for "boffins" but has something to offer everybody

Very interesting responses folks - thanks for posting them I have to confess to snapping the Moon and (filtered) Sun a few times lately with my mobile and having enjoyed getting some easy but half decent results. There does seem to be a strong urge from folks I talk to in my astro society and others whos views I read on here and elsewhere towards capturing in some way what they see rather than just describing it. Maybe some of the Facebook type culture is also coming into play - the "if there is no picture, it didn't happen" type thing perhaps ?

I've just been reading a long thread on another forum during which a respected source stated that observational astronomy was on the wane compared with imaging. I have suspected for some time that this is the case, although observation is all that I do. I'd be interested to hear others views. Is observing now becoming a minority occupation within the hobby of astronomy ?

Hope your Op is a success Alan and that you are feeling your old self again soon

I've been a member of Bristol Astronomical Society for the past 4 years now and I've really enjoyed what I've got out of it. I've been a member of SGL for over 10 years and enjoyed that immensely as well. The two things complement each other for me What the Bristol AS has provided, in addition to excellent, frequent and stimulating meetings, is the chance to get involved with outreach events which is a dimension of the hobby that I had not really been involved with until I joined the society and one that I've very much enjoyed. The Society also gives me the chance to meet regularly face to face with other folks interested in astronomy in my area and have access to a well equipped observatory with some exciting "toys" to play with

Now that does look really nice !

I think Synta / Skywatcher have addressed the issues of packing and made some small modifications to the objective cell design now. The more recent reports of these scopes that I have read have been much more positive. I'd like to try another at some point - despite the issues that I encountered with the early ones that I tried, I think the scope has a lot of potential.

Quite correct. The Skytee II is not a Skywatcher product.

The 130mm F/9.2 is a triplet (LZOS objective) and it is not far off the weight and length of a 6 inch F/8 frac to be honest. To get a 6 inch with comparable performance would cost me much more than I can afford just for the OTA and then I'd need to spend another £1K or so on a mount hat could really do it justice. The Altair 150 EDF is a very interesting entry into this niche though, no doubt about it.

Hopefully priced somewhere between the Skytee II / Ercole and the £1K plus items I mentioned earlier ?

I had an Altair Sabre Mk2 for a while. It was OK to use and looked good but I felt that both the Ercole and the Skytee II did a better job with my ED120 refractor in terms of both smoothness of motions and high magnification vibration dampening. I tried a 6 inch F/8 refractor on the Sabre and it was rather overwhelmed. Very interested to hear what FLO might be thinking of

I still think there is a niche for a heavy duty alt-az mount somewhere between the Skytee II / Ercole and the top end ones such as the APM Maxload / T-Rex / DM6 etc.

I was observing with a Lunt 100 at 8,000 feet altitude recently in the USA and found precious little detail to see on the solar disk. There were one or two small prominences and that was it. I was quite pleased that it was not my £7K plus scope given the amount of detail visible

I'm on my 3rd Ercole. It took me a while to work out how to get the best from them ! I also have a Skytee II and while it's build and finish are not near the Giro Ercole standards it does hold my longest and heaviest refractor more steadily than the Ercole does.

Another big fan of alt-az mounts here and, after a few false starts, the Giro Ercole as well

Interesting that they are using FPL-53 element on this one and at around the price (or a touch less) that APM use FPL-51. Having owned and used a few 6 inch refractors over the years I'm happy to stick at 120mm and 130mm as my largest refractors now. I'll go for other scope designs for apertures greater than that. £2.5K gives an interesting range of other options.