John

As you can see, I'm rapidly running out of space. Just enough for the 10mm Ethos which hopefully, will be my next buy.

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'm slightly moving up in the world, getting explore scientifics soon

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 John,

Thanks for the kind comments . I don't know if you recall but yours was actually bought from me - must be around 5-6 years ago now?......

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

I must be one of the few people not to admire the moonrakers, just dont like the look of them

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 !

Very nice legs John!

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:

Fozzie - that looks like a great setup! it's quite a big frac that Altair f/11, looks great on the Skytee with the pier extension.

How is the focuser and chromatic aberration on the Altair f/11? I'm not getting on with the focuser on the C100ED, even though it has literally no CA I'm thinking of swapping it for a long achro with a nicer focuser, either that or buy a Moonlite for it. 

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.

Perhaps just better seeing, with a field in front of me - the fact that the split shows up well in an image shows it's not just eyeball factor?

Chris

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

Very nice APM152 Adam - that scope is on my wishlist.......

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.

More fracs from my past. Original Skywatcher ED100 "blue tube", Orion (USA) ED80 and a Bresser Uranus 102mm F/9.8 AKA the Vixen SP102M in stealth colouration

A few more Chinese achros I've owned, a couple of Synta 6" F/8's and a Bresser 127L F/9.4:

Here are some I used to own:

Intes MN61 mak-newt, Celestron C8 Plus and a Celestron C5.

I've owned several C8's and C5's over the years and 5" and 7" inch mak-cassegrains too but I've no photos of those.

My 1st proper scope. A late 1980's Astro Systems 6" F/6 with David Hinds mirrors on a Fullerscope Mk III eq mount:

Heres a couple I used to own. Just 6" F/8 Chinese achros but they did have matched Chromacors installed

What a nice looking scope Michael