John

One of my early scopes was a Vixen SP102M. I have very fond memories of it. My current Vixen ED102SS dates from around 2000 and is Japanese made. It looks like a shorter version of the SP102M but with a 60mm focuser. It's a fine scope too

I believe that some of the current Vixen scope range are still Japanese made or have Japanese optics and are of very good quality. They tend to have comparatively high prices in the UK though.

Very nice

Wooden tripods as well !

Just wondered - is the longest, biggest  thread ever? 124 'pages' and counting! 

I wonder that each time I pop in here Kerry

It's actually become a sort of history of our collections for some of us. Come to think of it I've not posted mine for a few weeks and there have been changes

Nice set and a very neat and tidy case Lorne

"Final" is a word we see a lot in this thread, often several times from one person !

If I were in your shoes I'd get another Telrad. My 1st choice preference would be a Telrad and an RACI optical finder but with a budget constraint I could cope very happily with a 14" dob with just a Telrad (working !) mounted on it

Lots of the planetarium software and printed star charts have Telrad rings as an overlay and combining those tools with a decent wide field, low power eyepiece in the main scope will enable you to find your way to practially any target.

The Hyperions are nice eyepieces, well made and thoughtfully designed. They perform well in scopes from F/7 and slower. They do show astigmatism in faster scopes than this and really quite a lot when the focal ratio gets down to F/5 or faster. When they originally came onto the market they caused quite a stir. There is a lot more competition in the 60-70 degree eyepiece niche now though.

Hmmm ? ? ?,  13 Ethos on a Telementor.      

Mark (at Beaufort) posted a pic of an Ethos 13 in a PST a couple of years back. The eyepiece was larger than the scope !. It worked rather well though I believe

The scope doesn't need a ladder but the eyepiece does

We ought to set up a "Top Trumps" game for eyepieces (if anyone remembers that old card based game)

Yep, you have deinitely got that "baseball bat" look there Steve

I will throw a picture up of the Nikon in the powermate when I get chance John, we are talking mini scope size   

I'd like to see that Steve

I thought the Nikon came with some form of tele extender which turns it into a 12.5mm ?

Thats a great set Kerry

The 20/21mm 100's seem large but somehow the shorter but fatter 30/31mm 82's seem larger when you put them in the drawtube !

When you use a Powermate, things can get a bit silly :

Thanks Shane - I may well take you up on that !

Apparently 3 new focal length Delites are due out by Christmas. The focal lengths are not known yet but the "buzz" seems to favour 9mm and 5mm plus another short focal length.

Sound reasoning I think

I ought to add that I still like the Radians. For what they cost on the used market now I think they are very good eyepieces. Comfy to use as well

Nice Shane

Is that one of those simple cheshire's that I can see the top of ?

I have one like that - dead cheap but it seems to do the trick so easily

If the Delite's come out in 4mm and 3mm focal lengths I'd be interested to see if they could oust the Radian's I currently have in those slots. From the reports on the current Delites I suspect they would.

Thankfully DRT (Derek) is feeding me two DeLites (7 & 11) to fill the gap :0)....

Low mileage ones too !

Looks like I'll be the only one on the forum who still uses hyper wide eyepieces at this rate

That is close to my ultra-lightweight travel set: MV 68deg 24mm for wide field, WO Zoom-II 7.5-22.5mm and Vixen SLV 5mm.. Bit more expensive, though

Do you have lightweight and mediumweight travel sets as well Michael ?

Nice set Michael

I've gone for a minimalist approach here. Maxvision 24mm 68, Celestron 8-24 zoom, TAL 6.3mm plossl, moon filter and a freebie red light torch from somewhere. Around £100 for the lot including the case

You've got the works there Shaun

I understand that the barlow provides a variety of amplification depending on the spacers you use. With the Leica zoom it gives virtually a complete eyepiece set. You can therefore send me the Pentax XW 7mm through 20mm 

Haven't visited in a while. Some really great scopes here. I might be getting a 4" F/6.5 achromat some time soon, to make EVEN bigger solar H-alpha mosaics

Thats the same spec as my Vixen ED102SS Michael, except that it's an ED doublet. I ought to try a Quark in it sometime, I believe it's the right sort of specification for that device.

That last image shows the Lunar Apennine Mountains. The Apollo 15 landing site is in there. You can see the Hadley Rille and Mount Hadley with high magnifications through my 12" dobsonian.

Nice pics of the scopes

In that last one of the moon, it looks like the CA around the limb varies in tint from the top (greenish) to the bottom (blueish). I've not seen that before. Usually you see it as per your other two photos, a consistent colour around the limb, changing colour, again consistently, as you rack through the focus point.

Does the Antares show that visually or is it a photographic artifact ?

Thats a bit of a rarity

I think it was the field stop of that Kellner (if it is a true Kellner and not modified by Celestron somewhat) that intrigued me the most. It seemed so wide compared to the Plossls I had. It's objective lens does seem too far from the end of the barrel compared to the diagram to be a Kellner even though Celestron describe it as one....

The field stop diameter of an eyepiece will increase as it's focal length increases so a 25mm Kellner (or similar 3 element design) will have a larger diameter field stop than, say, a 15mm Plossl. The Plossl will still have a larger apparent field of view through.

The 25mm Kellner type eyepieces supplied as stock items are often labelled "Super Wide Angle" or similar because their field stop is a little wider than the a normal Kellner would be. So you see a little larger apparent field of view even though it's not going to be that well corrected, especially in a faster focal ratio scope.

These are low cost eyepieces though (you can get them for £5 used) so thay don't do too badly considering that and they do get you started

Been recommended to get a Plossl 25mm eyepiece, can anyone tell me where is the best place to get one from? Or should I just order from the likes of EBay/Amazon?

First Light Optics do the Skywatcher SP plossls at £20 for the 25mm:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-sp-plossl-eyepieces.html