Laurie61

Hi Appleblossom, in terms of using correctly you will get better views if mounted on a camera tripod when operating at higher magnifications. Folks will more often go for fixed magnification bino's as they tend to perform better, £ for £, as there are less moving parts to keep collimated accurately. I have a pair of 8x40's for general observation and am very happy with them.

I have 5 and 7.5 kg spur/barbell weights on my mk 111

My 100 mm Strathspey, set up for solar, Helios 8x40 w.a. and a Samsung b-7x25 n (mostly bird watching)

My XLT 120, have to admit this was a bit of an impulse buy but mates rates and a nice field test persuaded me On a night where only Jupiter and the Moon were visible, due to thin high cloud, it provided some nice high contrast views albeit with some expected colour fringing at about 170x.

Hi all, I think there is a bit of confusion as to the scope type ? I am assuming it's the 200 pds in your sig that your talking about which is a Newtonian scope. These have a secondary held centrally in the front of the tube by a spider( four thin vanes) To stop these dewing you can use a hair drier and blow warm air to remove dew, as and when required, or fit a heater to the back of the mirror. An SCT uses a heater band wrapped around the tube, this warms the front corrector plate and the secondary which is protected inside the closed tube. An SCT type dew tape will not stop the Newtonian secondary from dewing up as the heat generated is not being applied to the mirror. This is a Newtonian secondary heating unit - https://www.astrosystems.biz/dewgrd.htm

Hi, if you want to protect the secondary on a newt the dew heater has to go on the secondary. The larger dew tapes are for SCT design scopes which do go around the front of the tube.

Hi, I would think you could get a solar eclipse of one of the inner moons by one of the outer. I had a look at http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi and Io is visible above and to the left of Ganymede's shadow at about the same time as your image.

Yes, they look like the ones I received mine bundled with my big bino's and they are OK performers. Biggest problem I find with them is no eye cups to reduce stray light. So I made some and whilst I was at It one for the BGO as well. They are made from plastic tube and flocking material.

Yes, the Meade is a 4000 series. It performs very well but is edged out by the big TV. Although the Meade is 56 mm versus 55 mm for the TV the field of view is slightly larger in the TV. The Meade is sharp across the field but is let down a bit by its coatings I think. The view in the TV shows better contrast.

I would say around 40 dg afov, I have had it so long I can't remember the original spec's or even if fuller's quoted one.

The fullerscope ortho's are super EP's and mine are used regularly

The Meade is the better of the two, the swan is not sharp out to the field stop. It was originally bought for the f6 newt as a wide field/finder EP, it does cope a bit better in f10 scopes. After using for a while my brother made a new field stop for it and turned it into a 2" 50 dg unit. The coatings and general build quality are good for the money, light throughput is OK and I have not noticed any ghosting.

My eyepieces out in the daylight Ortho collection - My old fullerscopes 25/40 mm, 5/6/9 mm VT's and BGO 18 mm TV's, these are all plossls 11/15/20/25/32/40/55 mm and the 20/25/32 mm are pair's + 6 mm delos. Also a Meade 56 mm, Swan 40 mm, SPL 6 mm and a pair of unidentified 20 mm plossls.

Very nice review, I think if I was putting together a selection of eyepieces today these would figure prominently on my list to try.

Like the idea of the re used microscope box I still have my original fullerscope ortho's from the late 70's and the zoom barlow, would not part with them. Here they are alongside my latest acquisition for scale.

Yes, that's what I did, see pic's above When I ordered my f6 Dob from OO I asked for an extra set of rings and blocks and then looked for the longest, most robust losmandy bar which at the time was an ADM.

What 'F' is the scope ? the OO scopes are quite light for there size. The heq5 has a 15 kg visual weight capacity.You can use the OO rings and attach to a dovetail but you also need the radius blocks which go between the two. This is my losmandy bar, OO rings and blocks.

I must admit to weakening and buying another EP, although it is for my birthday took advantage of the 10% off at Tele-House and ordered a 6 mm Delos. It will replace a 6 mm williams optic spl. A bit of a departure for me as I have been mainly a TV plossl and, a selection of, ortho's user up until now, the spl being the only long eye relief EP in the case.