John

....Apart from that its down to, I want to know what 110 degree field is like.

Good point. I've been able to find out with the Myriad 5mm and 3.5mm that FLO loaned me.

Alan,

Interesting that you are selling your XW 5mm, have the 4.5mm Delos and are considering the 4.7mm E. As you know I have the 6mm E and the 5mm XW. Looking at it very critically I reckon the XW is probably very slightly better than the E on the sort of things I use that magnification for. I'm wonder if the 4.7 E, apart from the big FoV gain, would really deliver anything for me, other than satisfying curiosity ?

I still might get a rush of blood to the head and go for the 4.7mm E at some point but I'm not convinced enough at present.

Ask me another day and I might be thinking differently though !

There could be one to add to it very soon, I keep looking at the TH site and nearly sent an e-mail last night while the lightning was flying around everwhere, more sparks today they say and 3 inch of rain so if I am bored I might press the button tonight. However if the forecast is correct we will not have power.

Alan.

4.7mm something or other ?

What a load of old rubbish Alan

If you had invested in that Revelation eyepiece and filter set a couple of years back as I suggested you would have saved youself a lot of trouble and just need one small case !

My observing kit comprises of scope, eyepieces + filters, a red torch and the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas. Thats enough to keep me busy for a few hours, clouds allowing. I sometimes pop indoors for a coffee to warm up or to consult a more detailed star atlas or my laptop,

The last two cases pictured have both been pretty neat and tidy and full of useful goodies

My set has actually not changed for a while now, which breaks the trend of the past decade

I'm going to be playing with a set of the Vixen SSW's for a while though, thanks to First Light Optics

Not a "ramble" at all, very interesting stuff Dave

I think thats the 1st time I've seen your eyepiece case Dave

Those ES boxes are massive !.

I thought you might be an ortho type person but maybe not ?

Nice set though

Thats a great set Dom

This is my favourite mak of the ones I've owned. It's an Intes (despite the Orion sticker !) MN61 an F/5.9 maksutov-newtonian. Lovely scope, great optics and very well put together by the Russians

Great looking scope David

Here is the 6" F/12 Istar that I used to have - quite a handfull to mount and a challenge even for an EQ6 on the massive Meade Giant Field Tripod !

I'm trying to upload a picture of my frac but seem to be unable to do so. It's under 1mb...

You need to use the "More Reply Options" tab at the bottom right of the posting window. That then gives you the "Attach Files" option at the bottom left of the enlarged text pane.

Hi Mel, hope you are well:-)

Loved your pics of the Polarex 114 but have to disagree ref the performance.. I had two of these and both were little belters. Sure, the eps have narrow fields but I found my objectives to be excellent when used with modern plossls and orthos..and as for the mount, I loved it, an engineering marvel, and quite stable given the long tube of the scope.

Each to their own I guess:-)

Dave

Hi Dave,

The conclusion I've come to over Unitron / Polarex refractors is that their quality, like many mass produced scope types, varies. You have had a couple good ones, others were not so lucky. I've had similar expriences with other refractors where I've had a good one followed by a mediocre one a while later. I reckon the Celestron and Meade SCT's are the same as are many scopes.

Hi and welcome to SGL

I like all the refactors on this site. superb collection of just about everything.

Now you frackers, like me I hope you're crackers, about scopes with lenses, I mean.

Mines an 80mm Celestron apo.

During my long life with scopes, never have I seen such sharp, clear colour free, coma free, non astigmatic and beautiful images at the eyepiece than I get with my apo.

A term often used by those in the business of selling scopes is "Entry Level", at which point they refer to their scopes such as mine. Do these retailers ever take note of what they are actually saying?

To me an entry level scope is a 12" dob. After that, migration to better mounts follows, then by a reduction of aperture, a whole line of scopes ending with the one that should have been bought right at the beginning. You got it! an Apo! not too big either. A 4" is plenty, with such a scope you begin, at last to enjoy Astronomy.  

Apoapo

The ED80 doublets are very nice scopes but I can't agree with you about a 12" dob. I've owned loads of lovely refractors including a number of the ED's and currently a Vixen ED102 and Skywatcher ED120 but my 12" dob out performs them in every way apart perhaps from the aesthetics of double stars.

I can't compete with your 61 years of scope owning though - my own experience is just 35 years

It's great to celebrate the scope designs in these threads but lets not loose sight of the high standards of performance and versatility that the wide range of scope designs available offer us - they all have their strengths and weaknesses

Interesting looking dob theritz 

What aperture and focal ratio is it ?

My 12" F/5.3 dob has an Orion Optics primary of around that strehl - they are good

It looks a lovely scope Mel but it's a shame that the performance does not quite live up to the looks. I have read other similar experiences with these scopes so perhaps they are better to look at rather than through !.

Perhaps we need a definition of some of the terms we use when referring to astro equipment ?:

Example: "I'm done" = "I won't be buying any more.....until I do"

With the exception of the 10mm I've resisted the temptation to buy and try more Deloi. I'll do the same with the Delites I expect. In a sense I think I know what they are going to be like so I'd rather invest in something which might have the capacity to surprise, in a pleasant way of course

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.

I keep promising myself a Powermate but have become completely disillusioned with the 6 or 7 Barlows I have owned, including 4 from TV. Is the Powermate really that much better? If so I might have to do 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

I love mine too Jules, a really versatile and capable scope.

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

John, I had the 3.7 for a while as it gave an almost perfect high mag in my refractors. Personally though I found it uncomfortable to use. I had to push my eye into the dished lens to see the full 110 degrees and I ended up seeing my eyelashes more than the target! I guess the eye relief feels shorter than it actually is. You can pull your eye away a little but then don't see the full field which defeats the object a little.

Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely eyepiece if you can get on with it.

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.