lawsio

I feel like the postman will be bringing me a new finder anyway before long, haven't used it properly yet but already don't like the one that's come with it! On the AZ5 package they swap out the red dot finder for this which I'm sure some people like but I prefer the simpler things, especially on a scope like this.

Oooh has the postman brought me a present today!

I have a 32mm Meade Super Plossl that I acquired many years ago, cant remember if it was an expensive one or not but it's my nicest low-power one in my slower scopes so suspect that will live in it for a while.

Thanks for that, makes sense! Still not a million miles out, will do me for now anyway whilst I decide what others to get!

Fair enough - that's what the AFOV is listed as online. What's a more accurate number to us?

This is what I've based the above comment on ^

Right then. Taking on board everyone's comments, I've ordered the scope but not the eyepieces yet. Was going to try and get them all together to save on postage but clearly this needs some thinking about and with the diagonal included it's going to be in the region of £300 extra I need to spend so want to get this right. In the meantime, I have a set of 1.25" Orion Sirius Plossl eyepieces, one of which is a 40mm and using the online calculator it looks like it gives me near as dammit the same FOV as the 2" SL UFF 30mm. I assume this will fall very much into the category of 'it's going to look hideous' on this scope but I'll persevere with it for a bit to ensure this is the right FOV im looking for and I'll appreciate the expensive one all the more for it down the line im sure! Thanks for your advice all, I'll come back to this when it's time to buy!

Thanks all, think the feedback on this EP is pretty conclusive! On more (quite fundamental!) question - I assume for the ST102 I'm going to need to upgrade the diagonal to take 2" EPs? Any advice here? Ben

So I've done a FOV comparison between a standard 32mm Plossl (This shows an Astro Essentials one - mine are Orion Sirius ones but for the purposes of this I'll assume they're about right) and the 30mm UFF EPs and the 2" obviously has a bigger view but it doesn't seem that much different. Does this comparison look right? This will be my first widefield scope so for the experienced observers - is that extra view worth nearly £200 more?

I'm not going to lie, I've not even considered it! Is there a method to this?

Thanks for this. I notice a few comments refer to the weight of it. I plan to use this mostly on the AZ5 Deluxe mount that comes with the ST, and potentially on the AZGti I already have. Is this going to be OK?

Yes you're right, I've edited the post, thanks!

Hi folks. So I've been dithering on a grab and go scope for a while but think I'm ready to order the F4.9 ST102 now. What im now pondering is eyepeices. I have no 2" eyepeices so far (Even though my Dob takes them too) so I'm thinking of investing in one to maximise the FOV on the ST. I know you can't mess about with cheap eyepeices on this scope but it's hard to tell what you can and can't do. So far I've had the StellaLyra 30mm UFF recommended following a chat in another thread but thought I'd ask in the area more people are to get any other feedback. Looking for something as entry level as I can get away with at this point! Thanks!

I've discovered Ed recently (Through his Dob size comparison videos as it happens) and have been watching his channel the last few days. Love the guy!

To answer the question properly, my worst purchase was a Sky-Water Skyhawk 1145p AZ GOTO. The reason being is that I had the Skyhawk EQ1 for several years and loved it, had a little toolbox on wheels it fit in so I could take it to dark sky spots and up hills to get the most of the sky. I decided after a while I wanted to step up my game and experiment with goto tech so for some reason I sold my whole setup and replaced with an identical OTA but on the GOTO mount instead, and I hated it. I thought it was clumsy, ugly, noisy, inconvenient, I hated the massive synscan keypad that came with it, it drove me mad trying to align it and in the end I sold it and have mostly been using the 8" dob (which may or may not be upgraded soon despite this cautionary tale!) ever since. It's only very recently that I've started to trust goto tech again with the AZGTi that came with my SkyMax. It's a long road to recovery for me though!