John

2 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Precisely the problem John - but a nice problem to have. I also have Delos 6, 10 and 17.3, Ethos 13 and a Leica zoom (8.9mm-17.8mm) - so lots of doubling up. I don't like rebalancing the scope in the middle of a session, so can justify having separate light and medium heavy sets. The Delos now look like the most vulnerable EPs in the case, except the 10 and 17.3 are perhaps the finest eyepieces I've ever looked through - so crisp and colour free in the FC-100.

The Delos 17.3 is excellent. It's the heaviest of my lightweight set though. I recently picked up a Nagler 13mm T6 which shows nearly as much sky in a much smaller package. The Delos is really easy and relaxing to use though so I'm happy to give it case room.

As you say though, these are nice "problems" to have to think through

Nice set Mark

I've also built a 1.25" lightweight set to use with my fracs. Trouble is that I'm finding that they are convenient in the 12" dob as well so my Ethos set is not getting as much light as it used to

1 hour ago, nightfisher said:

John, dont suppose you know the diameter of the ED120, mine is all packed away and i have been thinking about getting CMC tube rings for it

Sorry that I missed this Jules but it looks as if you have your answer

Very nice Paul

I like the handle on the scope as well - I could do with some of those on my fracs.

I guess you mean ED120 - or have Skywatcher produced an exciting new 130 and kept it quiet ?

Very interesting and useful stuff folks

I think what this tells me is that anyone joining the hobby over the next year with the intentions of concentrating on planetary observing should be gently pursuaded that there are plenty of other interesting and worthwhile targets in the sky !

Excellent report Mike !

The most detail I've read on this mount since it was launched.

I can see that Losmandy might just go on to be a big name in mounts

Guess what happened about 20 mins after posting these photos ? ......... thats right

Silly hobby !

PS: @ Mike / iPiece: The Ercole will be next up !

My TMB / LZOS 130mm F/9.2 on the Skytee II mount and the Berlebach UNI 28 tripod. Hoping to catch views of Venus and tiny Mars before the clouds roll in

This setup has ticked one important box for me already - I can pick the whole setup up and move it around the garden without too much trouble !

6 hours ago, Louis D said:

Having tried plenty of 40mm-ish widest (or near widest) field 2" eyepieces over the years, I recommend you skip the mid-range eyepieces being recommended and go for the Explore Scientific MaxVision 68° Eyepiece 40mm (2") while they are still available.  You'll get near TV 41mm Panoptic performance for a fraction of the price.  If you decloak it, you'll bring the weight and girth down to the same level as the Panoptic.  I can attest that once you decloak it, you'll have about 29mm of usable eye relief.  It's basically sharp to the edge at f/6.  I also have no problems holding the view with eyeglasses.

If you decloak one of those you get a flat topped eyepiece as per the picture below ?

OK it looses weight and girth but you also loose the eyecup feature. When I've used flat topped long focal length eyepieces without an eye cup (eg: Ultima 35mm, old style "smoothie" Meade plossls, Orion Optiluxe etc) Ive found that the lack of an eye cup introduces a few extra challenges:

- eye positioning is a matter of "hovering" away from the top of the eyepiece with nothing to rest your eye against. This can prove less relaxing I feel.

- the gap between your eye socket and the eyepiece top (around 20-25mm I guess with the above eyepiece) admits any straylight around which gets onto the eyelens top surface which introduces reflections and can reduce contrast in faint objects.

- the top surface of the Meade eyepiece, adjacent to the eye lens, is highly reflective which again introduces the possibility of reflections and light scatter.

It's a personal thing I guess but the above factors are worth considering if you are considering decloaking an eyepiece or even purchasing one of the older "smoothie" designs that does not have an eyecup.

It's looking great Mike

Solid cloud here since the Ercole arrived of course

32 minutes ago, balzer said:

What your opinion on Paragons EPs compared to aero ed

I believe the TMB Paragon, the Astro Tech Titan II and a few others share the same optics. The one I've personally used was the Aero ED.

I think the 24mm Hyperion shows as much sky as a 1.25" eyepiece can. If balzer wants to go wider still, the 2" format will need to be considered. He does already have a very fine 2" diagonal

Very neatly done Nicos. It's nice to see something other than the foam lined aluminum cases (like I use )

I think the Skywatcher Aero ED's are better corrected than the Hyperion Aspherics, for what it's worth.

Lovely, really lovely Mike

I think the pics in this thread are the best ones I've seen of this mount anywhere - it looks so well put together.

The big test is when you use it of course. I'm looking forward to hearing about that almost as much as I am to using the Ercole !

I will be very interested to find out about the Losmandy AZ8 Mike

I noticed it when it was 1st launched but it's quite hard to find much feedback on it. With Losmandy's reputation it should be really good though

As I unserstand it, the secondary offset is built into the way that the secondary holder is designed.

5 hours ago, Louis D said:

......  Sometimes I wonder if I'm an amateur astronomer hoarder.

I can certainly empathise with that

15 minutes ago, iPeace said:

It feels so coincidental that I have recently been conducting thought experiments on how to split up my eyepiece case into two smaller ones to improve my grab-and-go capability. Then, were I to find that I only ever used the one case...

...but the evidence would have to be pretty compelling.

I'm onto my 3rd case now

So much for rationalising my eyepieces ......

40 minutes ago, iPeace said:

Yes.

Me too.

For £80 (+ delivery ?) it's probably a good buy. Looks like you will need to add a dovetail bar (can't see one in the pic) but the carry handle is a nice feature. On an AZ-4 mount it would make a nice, portable scope that was pretty much "grab and go". The only other thing to think about is the finder. The Bressers use a Meade-type finder mount which is not compatible with Skywatcher type finders. You could just forget about an optical finder and stick a Rigel Quikfinder or a Telrad on the scope. That would be enough "finder" for most applications with that scope I'd have thought.

The Vixen / Bresser days were pre-internet Ben

Some of the early Bresser scopes were made by Vixen in Japan. Definitely far from sub par !

The more recent ones are OK as well though. For £80 it sounds a good deal. As long as it has a parabolic primary mirror. A 2" focuser would be good as well.

The Bresser scopes (refractors) I've seen and used recently have been very like the ones that have Meade branding on them.

This review of the contast booster, semi-apo and fringe killer might be of interest:

https://www.baader-planetarium.uk.com/en/pdf/baader_contrast_filters_US_ATT_review_0414.pdf

If it was me I'd probably go for the one that give the most natual looking views / tints even if some residual CA was still present. I suspect personal preferences might vary on this though.