jetstream

My 24" uses one roller bearing and one PTFE pad for each bearing. This scope can easily track a Pn in less than .25deg TFOV. Highly recommended.

A rain washed sky gave some astounding views last night. The Milky Way was razor sharp which I studied as I dark adapted. A new (to me) observation was a nebulous like faint swooping connection between the spur (between Cyg and Cass) and the big hole just off Cass. This connection was a welcome addition to my MW observations. NELM, who cares lol! SQM? in the house. Bortle? forget that scale.The Milky Way is my guide for sky conditions now. A very good report by @Nyctimene had me wanting to explore an area I previously had not realized offered so much potential- the NGC 507 (ARP 229) group. What a rich, rich area to observe galaxies! The 15"/21E/10Delos provided great views- heres the list as I see it. I counted 8 galaxies seen but did not up the mag with the orthos to pull out more- this was just a fun session vacuuming up many targets, So: NGC 504, NGC 507, NGC 508/ NGC 495,NGC 496, NGC 499/ NGC 515, NGC 517. All were direct vision in the 10 Delos. Off for more! The Catseye nebula, NGC 6543 was its usual beautiful coloured self- did I see hints of its outer structure? The long lost friend, the Lobster Claw grabbed my attention immediately. SH2-157 showed more nebulosity in the area than ever before, there is a whole pile of it in this area, including the Bubble. More and more seen last night but I won't bore with them! The night was finished with a nice lawnchair observation of the Milky Way, a good night to it if you will.

Once the manufacturer's get a handle on consistent optical quality with the large 18"+ mirrors it just might put a dent in the custom dob market. It sounds like 12" and less mirrors are for sure under control quality wise IMHO. I was thinking of building some largish dobs but there will be no way to compete with these guys in the future possibly.

I figured the optics were good and the build quality does look good in the pictures. My VX10 also goes about 400x on the moon. 40x/inch is nothing to sneeze at thats for sure.

The 21E is one of the best eyepieces made IMHO.

These look very good, I too love the bearings. I might have asked before but I'll ask again- who makes the mirrors and are they of good quality? How much mag will your bigger version of this scope take? If I was in the market for a dob these would be given serious consideration, if the optics performed well.

I didn't notice!🥴 I just assumed you always would be for some reason, thanks for the info John.

Those Mewlons are "pretty good" I hear!

This place might have a Sky Watcher dob here in Canada. It might have free shipping to you. They are easy to collimate. https://focusscientific.com/shipping.php @John question: is it within the COC for me to post these vendor links? I was never sure.

I take the position that repeated exposure to different areas of science can kindle the fire...even if it takes a bit. She might find other interest's but she will always remember her Dad showing her the night sky- keep up the good work Robert!

Very very nice glass Jeremy! Question: are you going to stay with Tak for the 140mm-160mm frac? I too have pondered this question.

This is very good that you are promoting astronomy to your daughter Robert. She might take a few looks here and a few looks there which is all good. I do the same with the eldest G kid, who owns the H130. And what do you know? one day she had friends over for a sleep over and said "Papa can we look through my telescope?". The kids were amazed actually and my grandaughter was very proud of the whole deal. I'm glad you are doing this for your daughter Robert!

These will be good for some galaxies- this is a typical range I use on many of them. I still think that for the Veil ( and other nebs) the 40mm EP will be the ticket along with a quality OIII. I'm not sure if the C5 works with 2" eyepieces.

Perfect! Well a good general place to be for some galaxies would be a 25mm eyepiece and for a view of the Veil etc a 40mmish eyepiece with a good OIII will work well. We have good luck with the 24mm ES 68 but a plossl will work well too. For the 1.25" 40mm ish I'm not sure. Which eyepieces do you have now?

Welcome! What scope are you taking to the mountains?

I also think who's doing the manufacturing plays a role- I wonder who Lumicons manufacturer was and is?

It looks like a very good scope and won't let stray light bounce around- the spider secondary, everything has excellent attention to detail.

Nice looking scope- what is it exactly?

Refractors are easier to baffle because of the design, newts are not typically baffled as well ie focuser baffle etc. It is amazing what a low obstruction newt can do when stray light is controlled. There are not many dobs out there that have stray light well under control IMHO- from the mirror cell to the focuser. Bottom line- a vg scope "grabs the attention" and takes seemingly limitless mag IMHO.

And... lol! I might build a few truss dobs, well see.

The way things are going I think I'll keep love and cherish my six telescopes Edit- oops 7 scopes👍

We must all be aware of nominal specs- IMHO.

I had our Heritage 130 out while back and M33 was very bright in it using the ES 24m 68. There were more galaxies that show.... Point this scope in the right place and from dark skies and you will be surprised indeed!

I like my cheap Celestron cheshire- a set of cross hairs and no confusing "cross" cut out of the reflective face,,, just saying

Not sure if it is an official name but it is a common one, that is the Butterfly nebula in IC1318 from wiki: The Sadr Region (also known as IC 1318 or the Gamma Cygni Nebula) is the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr (γ Cygni) at the center of Cygnus's cross. The Sadr Region is one of the surrounding nebulous regions; others include the Butterfly Nebula and the Crescent Nebula. It contains many dark nebulae in addition to the emission diffuse nebulae. Sadr itself has approximately a magnitude of 2.2. The nebulous regions around the region are also fairly bright." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadr_Region