John

That looks a full on job but worth the effort I'm sure 🙂 I think I've got an old brochure for Dark Star telescopes somewhere - I'll have to look it out !

You can use this field of view calculator to show graphically how much sky can be seen with given scope / eyepiece combinations: astronomy.tools The question that I am not always clear about with the 5 and 6 inch SCT's is whether the gains in field width that can be obtained from using 2 inch eyepieces are really worth having given the limitation in the diameter of the opening in the back of the scope where the diagonal and eyepiece attach. Perhaps others can advise on this.

The 32mm Tele Vue plossl is an excellent eyepiece but, with an apparent field of view of 50 degrees, it shows no more sky than the ES 24mm with 68 degrees will.

They can still be some of the very best eyepiece "buys" around. The Baader Classic 10mm and 18mm orthos are optically superb performers against any competition, for example. As said above though, check that you are OK with the shorter eye relief (around 80% of the eyepiece focal length) and relatively limited apparent field of view.

It is always interesting when a brand such as Takahashi launches a new product but, for me personally, the specifications of these new eyepieces don't offer much attraction. They probably will do what they do very nicely though 🙂

I've been retired now for 12 years and since then late night time sessions have been much easier because I can sleep on for a bit longer in the mornings. By nature I'm happy to go to bed late but don't much relish early starts. As long as I get 6-7 hours sleep in then I seem to feel OK mostly. We get enough cloudy nights here that I can catch up on my sleep if I feel I'm falling short 😏

I used to have some of those Celestron plossls. I thought that the rubber O ring might provide something to grip on an otherwise smooth body but it didn't seem to project much, if at all. I can't think what other function it performs.

I saw that one as well. I can just about explain why I need 100mm F/9 and 102mm F/6.5 refractors but I can't see how I would explain the need for a 102mm F/9 as well 🙄 The ED102S has had some very good reviews over the years, not least by Roger Vine: Vixen ED102S Review (scopeviews.co.uk)

If the CA produced is commensurate with the aperture and focal ratio of the achromat, then I can live with that as long as the image is decently sharp 🙂

I can recall the impact those made when they were 1st imported to the UK. The first review I read was in an early edition of "Astronomy Now" of a Konus branded one which had a bright orange-yellow tube ! Setting aside the colour scheme of the Konus version, it was hard to take in that a near 5 inch refractor was now available at a price that amateurs could afford. I found one in an photo retailers in Cheltenham and though it looked a massively impressive thing 😲 I had one of the blue tube Skywatcher ones for a while and the views of Jupiter looked pretty good to me back then. Lots of detail and the GRS was the clearest I'd seen up to then.

One of the things that attracted me to Vixen telescopes from early on in my time in this hobby were reports that the company used to regularly consult with Japanese amateur astronomers and then use their feedback to improve their products. We could do with a bit more of that today I think. There are number of specific scope-related issues that seem to get reported and discussed over and over again on forums such as SGL which could be easily rectified by manufacturers and yet the message never seems to get back to them

On the best lunar night I can remember I managed to see 11 Plato craterlets with my 12 inch OO dob. The illumination was spot on and I was getting them as tiny pits with an illuminated rampart during the moments of best seeing. I recall my Pentax XW 5mm being "the one" on that night so that was 318x. Good memories 🙂

My 2nd "proper" telescope was a Vixen SP102M from the late 1980's with a very early GOTO system, the Skysensor Mk1. Although Vixen made the whole thing it was in an all black colour scheme (matt black rather than the gloss black that Vixen used on the scopes they made for Celestron). My scope was branded under the Bresser label and the model was the Uranus. It was a very nice scope indeed 🙂

Sounds like cracking optics in your 12" Michael 🙂

I agree. With my refractors my most used 1.25 inch set goes 24mm, 14mm, 10mm, 7mm, 5mm, 4mm and then .5 mm steps down to 2mm. All but the 2mm get plenty of use. That's why the short focal length zooms can be so useful - you get the FL's between the click stops as well !

Achro and Apo tend to be used. With Apo sometimes it is useful to qualify it with the term "refractor" if relevant. Reflecting telescopes are apochromatic as well you see.

Browsing the web looking for interesting stuff on scopes, I came across a website for a Japanese seller of 2nd hand telescopes. They seemed to specialise in older / interesting instruments which included a very nice (in my opinion) Takahashi FC-125 which dates from 1988. Optically it is an F/8 doublet using fluorite for the rear lens element. It has some very interesting features including a rather massive stock focuser. I imagine that these are quite rare - I don't think I've seen one quite like this before 🙂 The first 3 links below are to photo galleries of the scope. The 4th link is to the site owners report on performance. Interesting comparison with a TOA 130 🙂 https://koji-matsumoto.com/FC-125-1.htm https://koji-matsumoto.com/FC-125-2.htm https://koji-matsumoto.com/FC-125-3.html https://koji-matsumoto.com/FC-125-4.htm Maybe one day we will see a 125mm version of the current FC series ? 😋

The ED80 and 100 came in blue tubes initially - I've owned them both in that colour scheme. The 100 was a peach of a scope and I wish I'd held onto it. The ED120 was anticipated for some time but it took longer to come to market than expected so by the time it arrived Skywatcher had launched their "Pro" series in the champagne / white livery which comprised the ED80, ED100, ED120 plus the 150 and 180 maksutov-cassegrains. I think that was around 2006/7. So I guess mine is around 16 years old. I've owned it for more than a decade.

It is still going to be difficult to resist the temptation to have a look at NGC 5297 at the next decent opportunity "just in case" 😁

Of the 3 Baader Classic Orthos I felt the 10mm and 18mm were the best - they seemed even a touch better than the Baader Genuine Orthos at or around that focal length. The 6mm BCO was pretty good but I felt that it was just a little behind the Baader GO 6mm. Some folks in the USA who use very large aperture dobs under desert skies rated the 10mm Baader Classic Ortho as one of the very best eyepieces for teasing out faint galaxies - only the Zeiss ZAO 10mm could best it and even then, only by a hair.

I am very fond of my ED120 as well. It is an older one than @russ has. The optics in it are really good - I've realised just how good since I've been able to compare it with my much more expensive Tak FC100 and LZOS 130 🙂

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I'd spotted the entry on the Rochester database but I have not had a chance to seek it out yet. The host galaxy is in the same part of the sky as M 51 so quite well placed. Forecast here is rather pessimistic for the coming days though 😒 If we get a clear spell then this should be within reach of my 100mm and above scopes. It would be good to see a reference image to get an idea where the SN lies relative to the host galaxy. Thanks for the heads up on here 🙂

Well, not quite all

I had the Baader MkIII a few years back and it did seem a bit flimsy. The MkIV seems better put together. Hopefully it will stay in 1 piece long enough for me to see how it fares !