Saganite

The sky here is clearing now, the scope is ready and the Moon is steady at 104x.

My goodness Peter, Superb !

A few changes since my cases were last posted, but mostly the same. The Orthoscopics box will not change anymore. The bino pairs will only change if I can double up the 7mm and 16mm Naglers, and very possibly with a second Morpheus 9mm. The last box has a change periodically, most notably with the addition of the 30mm Pentax, a definite keeper, but all the others are favourites, so not likely to go anywhere.

Hi Dom, Not my first scope by a long way, but the first four years of use of my 5" f15 refractor was done without GOTO. So long as it has a decent finder which is perfectly aligned with the scope, star hopping is Ok...

Welcome Andy....

A very nice session by any measure Stu, lovely targets, all ......

It was pretty good seeing wasn't it Chris, though for me, the transparency was not great. I also did most of the doubles in Orion and saw the E&F stars very solidly with my Dob, but I could not split Sirius and I spent a good part of the 3 hour session trying. Still, as you say, just good to be out with a scope.

I have the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, an excellent interesting book, and your post gave me a bit of a spur to try your suggestions but the transparency was not good. I can normally see the 'eyes' of the Owl Nebula ( M97 ) from my location, Bortle 4 , but this time I could not , even with averted vision, and M108 was dimmer than normal. The seeing was very good, but I failed to split Sirius with the 12".

Great session John. The hourly forecast here shows clear through until 5 am and -6 deg so I intend to put the 5" on the pier and have a crack at Sirius at some stage. I think I will put the Dob out as well.

I share the same views Ant, and the pair of Meade 4000 26mm smoothie 5 element units which I have owned and used for a good few years now, are quite superb.

That is a classy sight Dale, very nice. I have had the 13 Ethos and the 22 Nagler in the past, both excellent.

Very interesting Rob and very nice. I had the 15 Pans but sold them to Gary as I was not using them very much. They were good though. How do you like the 15 mm APM flat fields. They look similar in size to 24mm Pans, perfect size for a bino ...

Hi John, I think I did the same so I just took the dovetail clamp off, rotated it through 90 deg and that made it easier.

You already have the Nexus, I believe, Alan.

Just in case you still have doubts John, Wood....

Hi Gary, Just to clarify what I said, the 60mm extension goes onto the nosepiece of the WO bino and is therefore extra in travel. On both the Skywatcher and the Lightbridge on which I used the WO bino , you could wind the focuser fully in, ie max in focus and it did not reach the focal plane unless 60 mm extension was added to the nosepiece. The Denks I have now have this extension tube supplied with it.

Yay !....

Do you mean a Vixen ED103 Al ?......

So True.

Congratulations with the pair of zooms. As you know my bino's are the Denk II with power switch and they work perfectly on my f15 & f7.7 refractors and f5.3 Dob. Bino's attached to my 12" dob give simply jaw dropping views so I would recommend trying yours asap. I had the WO bino several years ago and it worked perfectly on my 12" dob at that time but I had to put 60mm of tube extension between the nosepiece and the 1.6x lens to reach focus..... Beware, low flying over the surface of the Moon is very addictive ..

It is true that binoviewers are not for everyone, but for me, on Moon and planets mostly, there is no other way.

I have used an Orion VX12L with a research grade mirror for the past few years and it is quite excellent, certainly the best of the three different makes that I have experience of.

It is worth the trip just to see Orion upside down...

A superb find Dave , in beautiful condition !! I have tried all in that range except the 4.7mm. All really great eyepieces, but my biggest regret is selling the pair of 6.7's that I had, totally stupid. That's a really 'tasty' line up of eyepieces BTW.

Were it not for the chance to buy the 5" refractor that I have, I intended to and would have bought the Skywatcher ED120. A very fine and capable all rounder for not too much money.