John

Very nice Derek I've had both the 8mm and 6mm Ethos for some time. They are practically identical to my eyes although I find the eye relief on the 6mm just a little tighter. It's specified by Tele Vue as being the same though. Having tried a Delos in the middle of my Ethos pack (I had the 10mm for a while) I found I just didn't use it. I was skipping straight from the 13mm to the 8mm Ethos without feeling the need for anything in the middle. The Delos was an excellent eyepiece though in every respect, just not needed by myself. In fact I often jump straight from my 21mm Ethos to the 8mm and skip the 13mm but I won't be getting rid of that one. Unless the Delites are proven to be a step up in terms of transmission, sharpness and light scatter (which would be tough) ie: they get into Zeiss ZAO / Pentax XO territory, I don't think I'll be going for them as I'm not going to invest in them for the sake of it.

The 2" 2x Powermate is a superb piece of kit. I've tried a lot of barlows over the years but a Powermate is in a different league. What amazes me is that with something like Saturn, the full 100 degree FoV of the Ethos is preserved and also it's sharpness right across the field. I could see all the subtle features of Saturn including the ring divisions, shadows on the globe etc all the way across the field and they were still sharply defined as the planet slid behind the field stop, no focus adjustment needed, no slight CA creeping in at the field edges, not dimming at any point. Great optics Hope you enjoy the 6 and 10 Ethoi. They are just as good as the others in the range PS: Steve / Swamp Thing rates the Powermate as the best thing in his eyepiece case

Same here with mine

I've been using the Powermated 8mm and 6mm Ethos's with my ED120 on Saturn this evening. Wow !! How the heck do Tele Vue manage to get 13-14 bits of glass to become so invisible even with "just" 4.7" of aperture feeding light through them ???

Great looking stuff despite the dust and cobwebs A lot of really large refractor owners (the scopes not (necessarily) the owners being large) would give their eye teeth for that mount. It would have been fantastic with my Istar 6" F/12 refractor

I found a similar effect when I had the Myriad 5mm and 3.5mm 110 degree eyepieces on loan from FLO Stu. They were very nice eyepieces but even I found 110 degrees just a little too much combined with the eye relief. The Powermate 2x has just been delivered (my 3rd one of these - when will I learn not to get rid of good things ? ) so I have access to 4mm and 3mm virtual Ethos's when I want them to compliment my short focal length Pentax XW's and Radians.

Have you posted a pic elsewhere in the thread or should there have been one attached to your post above ? Sounds a great collection. I did wonder about the 10mm Ethos myself but find that I skip straight from the 13mm to the 8mm so I've not pursued the 10mm. I'm thinking about the 4.7mm SX though. How often do you find you use the 3.7mm ?

I'll be interested to see what differences you see between the ES's and the BST's and whether you feel any additional investment is worthwhile

Lovely cases Derek I recently decided to stick to wide / uber wide eyepieces so I've let all but my 20mm TV plossls go. They are great eyepieces though. The 20mm is my "Horsehead" eyepiece for use with my Lumicon H-Beta filter in the Autumn / Winter. I'm fighting the urge to get a 4.7mm Ethos SX at the moment I've bought Terry's Powermate 2x to use with the 8mm and 6mm Ethos so maybe that will quench the desire. We will see .....

Thats a lovely photo Phil JohnH really knows how to capture the atmosphere

Breathtaking selection of scopes Matthew

You have had some nice refractors there Spaceboy I've lost track of my old ones that I've posted here so apologies if there are any repeats. Here are my old ED100 (original blue tube), a bunch of Chinese 6" F/8's (Helios 150, Meade AR6, Konus 150 and Skywatcher 150), Bresser 127L, Meade AR5 LXD75, William Optics Megrez 90, Konus ST80 and the Vixen ED102SS which is sharing a mount with some of the others. All gone now except for the little Vixen

Hi Dave, Now you remind me, you are quite right - it was originally yours. An excellent scope and my first "big" refractor

That looks excellent Dave I'll be very interested to hear how it performs for you. I've been eyeing up those for a while now, having owned the earlier version (with the shorter dew cap and dark grey trim) a few years back and enjoyed it. You certainly get a lot of good looking scope for your money ! I wish people would unexpectedly offer me nice scopes

A mates Prinz 60mm frac was the 1st scope I ever viewed through. Spent a month studying and drawing Jupiter with it back in the early 1970's. Eventually I saved up enough to get my own 60mm, a 1960's Tasco one. These sound puny scopes but the optics were decent and a 6" newtonian or 3" refractor would have been way beyond my paper round means. Saw my 1st galaxies through it, 1st Saturn (we never forget those do we ?) and split my 1st double with it. Enough to set me on a path which I'm still plodding along 40 years later !

This one has gone to a new home now. It's a really great scope but a back injury has forced me to let it go. It's an Istar 6 inch F/12 achromat. The mount in the photo is an EQ6 mount on a Meade Giant Field tripod. Around 120 lbs all up weight and the top end of the scope was getting on for 9 feet from the ground when pointing towards the zenith area

It's a matter of taste I think Jules. I'm sure Mark does a fantastic job of engineering them and I admire that work he puts in but the designs are just not quite how I like a scope to look. I'm quite happy with the classic white tube with black trim. Of course I'm sure he would make one like that, as would Richard at Skylight scopes, if you wanted it that way This is one where others will have different opinions though, which is not at all surprising !

Super refractors Roberto My latest acquisition is at least the same colour scheme as your AP and Polarex refractors, if not quite the pedigree 2001 TAL 100RT:

It's hard to beat the Synta ED doublet refractors in my opinion. I've got a Moonlite focuser on my ED120. Goodness knows how much I'd have to pay for a 5" class refractor that would be a better performer. The Skywatcher focusers were not amazing but unfortunately Celestron put an even worse one on their versions of the ED80 and ED100. Well worth an upgrade if you can to keep that excellent objective lens.

That may well make a difference. All my observing from home is done over rooftops. In winter the heat plumes must have some impact. Or at least thats my excuse

I don't find it an easy split at all with my ED120 Stu. It's about the hardest I've managed and to start with I was not even sure I was getting a split. The secondary looks more like a greyish bump in the 1st diffraction ring than a pinpoint star.

Here is an interesting one from TAL that I was loaned to review a few years back. It's the 6 element TAL Apolar 125: For anyone interested here is a link to my report on it: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/104408-tal-125r-apolar-apochromatic-refractor/ There is no exotic / ED glass used in the design but it did seem to control chromatic abberation very well indeed. It was almost non existant. I'd not fancy having to collimate one though

Mine too !!! Great looking scope Adam

Lovely little Vixen newt that I seem to recall that the secondary moves with the focuser and the action is along the tube rather than in and out. Vixen made a number of scopes that were sold badged as Celestron and Orion (USA) in the 1908's and 1990's. Some of the Celestron badged newts had the same focuser arrangement.