jetstream

Excellent video Chris, now an upcoming experiment for the grand kids!

Nice choice, from what I've seen this design should be capable of very sharp, contrasted views- eagerly waiting reports!

Buy one of these or similar, we have a Celestron version and use the saved cash for some nice high power eyepieces IMHO. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/astro-essentials-cheshire-collimating-eyepiece.html

Every single person who has looked at the moon (here) through the H130 has commented on how sharp it looks or "is it ever clear" etc etc. Crank the views up around 225x-270x and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with its rings show very well. Dobs do not give sub par views IMHO, they give some of the very best views available.

My 15" Astrosystems truss dob is easy to track over 700x on the moon. OOUK VX10 handles 400x no problem and the H130 goes way over 200x just fine. My AZEQ6, which is a very stable beast takes a comparatively long time to set up, mount scope and align. It is a very good mount though. It is never used for quick observations.

My grand daughter and her buddy had her H130 out 2 weeks ago and saw very sharp lunar views. Jupiter revealed its bands nicely with some striations coming in and with great reddish brown colour. After the kids went in I had a great session with it. I checked collimation and no adjustment needed for the third session in a row. The secondary has never needed adjusting from new and its got to be 4 years old or so. This scope is highly recommended. ps- a parent could help with the primary collimation if needed-our has never been far off. We use a cheap, plastic and deadly accurate refractor collimator. Oh yeah, with a proper filter objects like the North American nebula are very easy in this scope from dark skies.

If you bring your scope inside from the cold it can dew up- I leave my dobs in an unheated sea can with a small bulb on in the winter near the primaries. Refractors can have fits from the cold so I use an insulated case to bring them in which prevents dew. I live in an area of extreme climate in northern ontario though so maybe your circumstances are different.

Yes and frost in the winter.

Depends whats on it- organic material and dew can cause etching of the coatings. My 7 yr old dob has a small spot being etched from this despite cleaning. Tree pollen, bugs whatever should be cleaned off. Because of my conditions here I clean often, on advice from the mirror maker

Jupiter is a prime example of a target that can easily lose contrast if it appears too "bright" in the eyepiece. One technique I use is to observe it right at dusk, where the sky background is not completely dark as it seems to enhance planetary "contrast" at times. A Baader single polarizer can be super effective just before dusk as well. Sometimes highish eye illumination combined with certain skies- super clear +avg or worse seeing can wash out detail (reduce contrast). However dimming the object with high mag, low exit pupils with appropriate mag (right scope) can really pull out detail sometimes IMHO. Another trick is to use binoviewers as the beamsplitter naturally dims which can really pull detail out of Jupiter and Saturn. This in combination with aspects of binocular summation really can work. So reflectors... many dobs have scatter issues- and not just the mirrors- the whole thing can scatter and blow light all over. They really need attention to detail to have them work properly. My 15" Astrosystems is a good example of a low scatter/low stray light scope- from the mirror cell to the secondary cage, all is controlled, including a must have focuser baffle. Your superb Mewlon will have stray light well controlled and should give very high contrast lunar/planetary views, obstruction and all. Sorry if I didn't define "washed out" well, but many reflector users seems to report the issue- too bright, no detail etc. There are many tricks to getting good views, regardless of seeing. I eagerly wait reports!

Can't help but bring something up you most likely already know. Mag vs image brightness in the EP and the telescope. Some might say reflectors give a washed out view.... well they can under certain circumstances. Refractors guys inadvertently (?) get around this on here- simple really- they are dimming the object, say Jupiter while getting the mag in the strike zone. The old exit pupil deal again. Most reflectors are faster than the fracs- yours is not- and this is a good thing for you- but you might still need seeing that supports over 300x to get the effect. ie my TSA120 gets 225x at a dimming .5mmish exit pupil. Your Mewlon goes 360x to get the same dimming .5mm exit. I think @mikeDnight uses this very effectively when there is light cloud and aerosols etc in the atmosphere causing washed out appearances. Have you experienced this Andrew?

Great scope!

Yes its fun, it might be wise to choose the most marketable scope for re sale. The Tak 100's have an extremely good reputation. My 90mm APO is a very capable lunar/planetary/doubles scope with little or no scatter. I think its a re branded Long Perng- something like FLOS StellaMira? Their scope is most likely a step up from mine. Have fun! Eagerly waiting to see what you buy!

I love experimenting too! and have done a pile: my 90mm Stellarvue APO triplet is VG, going around 80x aperture or so, my SW 120ED beats the SV on faint nebs (the 90mm is so so) but doesn't go really high mag and has (had) a poor focuser (now Moonlight). My TSA 120 beats both in every aspect- very faint nebula (high throughput), lunar, planets ( it really good) and everything else. It also works with a prism diag where the SW120ED does not. My sample of the SW120ED may not be typical? who knows. All I'm gonna relate is the money I spent on these 2 scopes plus the focuser could have bought the TSA120 right off the bat or pretty close. Experimenting is fun, but costly IME.

Tak

20mm APM 100 deg,13mm Ethos or a 12mm Delos and some Delites for planetary. Also a Televue OIII, the new one.

Last night we observed the moon using a few simple eyepieces, among them a razor sharp 12.5mm ortho. Hard to beat really. There were Circle T's, Taks, Fujis and the 10 BCO out- all vg.

I think your in a pocket of darkness John, being able to see it no filter indicates this. I dislike the Bortle scale...

Can you see the Veil with no filter John?

For info- under dark skies this image represents how I see the Veil in an 8" 0r 10" scope under dark skies and with the right OIII. It points out the value of travelling to dark skies. ps not my image- its Knisely's

Ok, I'm a hillbilly canuck whos not sure what marmite means lol! I use it at times on the planets but my best luck is with Baader single polarizer for viewing the planets/moon right at dusk which is a super time to view for various reasons. This filter does work under the described condition.

Filters, any filters do not help in seeing galaxies, including my Baader Neodymium.

My highly recommended Orion Ultrablock earned the nickname Ultra JUNK... worst filter ever. I threw it out. With filters other than the former Lumicon, current Astronomik and the new Televue the issue is huge sample to sample variation IMHO. Totally a crap shoot- actually craps has better odds than getting a good off brand filter IMHO.

I've heard the Baader OIII provides a very tight (one line) filter and with largely varying transmission levels. For some reason I find that filters need high transmission levels and is really noticeable eventhough the math and physics guys say the levels of differences involved can't make much difference. Capturing the second OIII line with a tight FWHM filter gives superiors views given high transmission IMHO.

Thank you David, I too have a weakness for good glass.