Moonlit Night

2 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

x220 will be good for Mars 👍

That’s kinda my thinking too. 

10 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

if you don't want to be ridiculed for paying TV prices.

I only ever buy second hand gear. Good for the wallet, married life and most importantly our home planet. Buying anything from new should be avoided at all costs in my book. 

Just now, mikeDnight said:

Your scope will play happily at 220X and over on a night with good seeing, so I'd say grab yourself a 4mm. 

Many thanks Mike

Hello. I use a TeleVue 102. I already have really good 5 mm and 6 mm eyepieces. I don’t like zooms, especially with a 50 degree fov with an un-driven mount. I use a Gibraltar HD4, a lovely thing and without doubt the most solid mount I ever used. 
 

But I am guessing perhaps a 4 mm is the way to go? 

I have 5 eyepieces. A mixture of Radians and Delites (No Radian bashing please) with a 32mm TV Plossl. They range from 5mm, 6mm, 8mm, 13mm and 32mm. The 32mm gives me x27 and the 13mm gives me x67.

 I am considering buying a 6th eyepiece (although I am questioning if I actually need one) The I question is do I buy a 18/20mm eyepiece or go for a 4mm for a little more power for planetary. 4mm would give me x220.

Thanks for your replies in advance.

I have to confess, I have tried that recently (no one was watching) and found it works, but not every time. I was thinking of using one of those little battery powered hand held fans.

Anyone else tried one?

It works extremely well on the rock solid and extremely economical AZ4 btw

I have owned the Altair badged Starwave 102 ED-R for around three years now. I have owned quite a number of refractors over the years (Tal 100R, Vixen SP, SW ED100 and ED 120. The Starwave is by far the better of them. Wonderful build quality and excellent sharp colour free optics. I have no desire to or interest in replacing this scope in either the short nor long term and expect it will see me out.