John

I have heard that very occasionally from folks using very wide angle eyepieces and panning around with them. All eyepieces of this type have some distortion to achieve the very wide field of view and I think that can affect some people in that way. I have not experienced it myself though - I use the same very wide angle eyepieces that you have in your signature. It is not unheard of though. Not a silly question either.

SET optics rings a bell for me and I can't quite remember why Nice looking scope though 🙂

That might have been mine - sorry Jeremy 😬 It has a black focuser and finder mount as well but at least I can blame Tak for that !

The slightly odd thing is that even if you are lucky enough to get your "Holy Grail" scope, this does not seem to stop lusting after other interesting scopes as they pop up - Holy Grail #1, Holy Grail #2, Holy Grail #3 etc, etc. I guess the truth is that we are just equipment junkies really 😅

I've just been looking at the same constellation with my 11x70mm binoculars, right overhead here ! Messiers 81 and 82 were quite clear. The two bright globular clusters in Hercules looked v.nice as well. 90% clear sky now after 100% thick cloud 90 minutes ago. 14,000 KM between us but similar challenges Joe 🙂

Completely clouded over and looked set in so I bought the scope back in. Now there are quite a few "sucker gaps" in the cloud of course and stars are showing very nicely in them 🙄 Might dig out the 11x70 binoculars for some quick peeps.

We have one of those. Nice little chap. I hear him (or her) snuffling through the flower borders quite often on a summer night 🙂

Venus has been nice and crisp here from 300x to 480x. A touch less crisp at 600x. A large cloud bank from the NE is about to spoil the views though, alas so it looks like, for tonight at least

It's been nice and clear to the west so Venus has shown well. Not too good to the NE though with ominous cloud bank spreading from that direction. 130mm refractor is out but not sure for how long.

Venus-bound this evening:

I have done it before with the 100mm. Star hopping from 6x30 RACI then to a low power eyepiece and finally more power to tease the faint point source out. Stellarium shows it if you load the quasars catalogue. This article is quite useful as well: Cosmic Challenge: Quasar 3C 273 - Phil Harrington's Cosmic Challenge - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights It can vary in brightness however so if it is experiencing a "dim" phase then 100m will stuggle I think.

Thanks Jeremy. My next intended target with the 100mm last night was going to be the quasar in Virgo 3C 273 which is mag 12.9 but the clouds spoiled the fun.

I used my 13mm Ethos with my 100mm F/9 refractor last night and the views were superb 😁 Plus the true field was large enough to allow both Messier 13 and the nearby galaxy NGC 6207 to appear in the same view at 69x. Spotting a 12th magnitude galaxy in my skies with a 100mm aperture scope can be tricky and the additional magnification really helps tease such targets out.

Great find Stu and in lovely condition as well 🙂 How much does an FS 128 actually weigh with clamp / DT plate / finder and diagonal installed by the way ? It would be very interesting to compare the FS 128, LZOS 130 F/6 and the LZOS 130 F/9.2. Probably need a night of excellent seeing to do the job properly though.

I was clouded out about 30 minutes ago. Just getting into the swing of things again as well .........🙄

Some cloud patches but not too bad here this evening. Some nice views of Venus 62% illuminated earlier with my 100mm refractor. Same scope is now starting to pick off some double stars. Seeing seems quite stable with 300x plus delivering very well defined stellar disks of pairs such as Gamma Virgonis and Iota Leonis. The former looked like 2 almost identical "car headlights" at 450x 🙂 Seems a while since I've been able to get out but I've managed to remember which end of the scope to peer into !

I think I am probably the only member of my astro society who does not use GOTO systems so there is no need at all to feel any guilt in using one. I suspect the majority here use them as well and I don't notice a general air of "guilt" on the forum 🙂

I've been using Tele Vue eyepieces from most of their ranges for about 30 years now and in over 20 scopes of various brands, types, and sizes. I've never encountered a Tele Vue eyepiece that I could not get to work and work well.

The Tele Vue hybrid barrels work well enough with "Hi-Hat" style 1.25 inch adapters where the adapter slips up inside the 2 inch barrel part which gives the 1.25 inch clamp a longer barrel to grip. The only ones I have experience with are the Ethos 13mm, 8mm and 6mm though. I have used those eyepieces in a standard 1.25 inch fitting but much prefer the security that a 2 inch fitting provides. The downside of the hybrid design is that I needed to fit barrel extensions to these 3 eyepieces so that I could use 2 inch filters with them. On the whole I prefer the approach used with the 4.7 and 3.7 Ethos SX eyepieces where you are provided with a 2 inch barrel section that screws over the 1.25 inch barrel. Again, for security reasons, I prefer to use these long and heavy eyepieces in 2 inch mode. Also the bottom end of the 2 inch eyepiece barrel contains an additional light baffle which I think improves the contrast a wee bit. On the number of eyepieces used in sessions, I have had sessions where I've used just one and others where most of my collection have had a turn in the drawtube. It all depends ......

As above for me. I recall that it is mirrors rather than lenses that the Baader fluid is not recommended for.

This post caused me to pause and I'm still paused. I did grab a TOE 4mm though 🙂 With the weather we have had in the my part of the UK since I started this thread, the contents of my eyepiece case seems somewhat academic 😒

I've been following Ed Ting's reviews for years. I've not seen so many of his video reviews though. He has just posted this one on eyepieces and reveals his most used ones, which is quite interesting. I don't necessarily agree with all of his preferences but a number of the points that he discusses are relevant I think. Apologies for the ad breaks, which are beyond my control 🙄

Congratulations Matthew 🙂 I had nearly 10 years without a scope at all when our children came along 🙄

Wonderful scopes in wonderful locations Matthew 🙂 Do you still have the LZOS 130 F/9 ?

Me too, where a very light rig is needed. My 70mm F/6 plus mount plus tripod plus diagonal etc comes in at a touch under 5kg all up. Even a weakling like me has no trouble picking this up with one hand !