jetstream

These are actually good eyepieces, mine shows the Horse Head readily under dark skies. As for the 10mm MA...these are not so good, thats the bad news, the good news is that there are many reasonably priced ones out there. Having a few high transmission eyepieces is well worth the while and in your f6 scope a 12.5mm ortho fits the bill, narrow field and all. It has about 10mm eye relief. As a point of reference for you plossls have about .7 x focal length ER and orthos .8x focal length. Great observing btw.

My very best view of Mars was with my 10" f4.8 at 400x last time it was positioned good. Under the best of conditions Saturn will go this high too. At this mag the planets are stunning...

I would source Bryan Greers knowledge on fan ie micro blur.https://www.fpi-protostar.com/bgreer/sep2000st.htm My very best views using the 15" are with no fan, it will go over 1000x on the moon using the barlowed 2.4mm HR. My fan reduces this ability considerably. You might find a bit more opening on the bottom to be a benefit...

Congrats! Wait until you get this one on Mars once its close and up high.

I see no benefit to the 6.7mm if the barlowed 14mm is working.

The inside of the rocker box also needs a coat of the black paint...stray light needs to be absorbed here. Espc the bottom.

I have a 20mm SW LET that offers vg views and also a 25mm Super Plossl same views. The main thing is to try different things to see what works and from doing this patterns will emerge. In your case even high mag could provide benefit, something around 12mm-16mm might provide even more contrasted views on galaxies. The SW 100mm f9 ED scopes are excellent, great light throughput. I use cheap but VG Circle T orthos that knock right at the Delos door...

Great report and success! Out of curiousity what 20mm eyepiece were you using?

Great report Stephan, pursuing these galaxies is a challenging and rewarding aspect of astronomy. Your report highlights this cluster and it is now on my list- thanks for this.We've had a few snow flurries the past couple of days intermixed with brief clear skies. Hopefully I can try this one out this season. The Abell clusters are very rewarding, seeing so many galaxies in one spot.

You know, one of my favorite eyepieces is the 25mm Televue plossl, great on everything and its coming out tonight. A 20mm would be great in your scope- these high transmission,low scatter eyepieces can make a bit of a difference compared to many widefields.

Thanks Mark, I'm just trying to figure out if there will be any static "holes" in the grid to observe through. A bit dense here- an image or illustration would be great. What do you mean each satellite will be 5.45deg? This is each ones size in the sky?

I presume these things will form a grid eventually- anyone figure out the grid square size in degrees yet? thoughts?

Just in from splitting wood, ready for next winter now. It was -6c this morning and the sky is crystal clear atm, I hope it holds- I'll drag out the 24" if so. Kudos for trying the 10 BCO out, they are very good eventhough a purist might scoff at the FOV...its not an Abbe in the strict sense. Yes colour! more to come for you on M57... try it on the Eskimo with your 20", 2 toned green with fine radial filaments and a broken bright annular ring appears.

In general this is a vg range, some take more some less. Last night I took one EP out for the 15"- the17.3 Delos @ 105x and 3.6mm exit pupil. More mag would have been a benefit but this works so well on M101 and M81, pulling out the fickle spirals. Try 3mm ish exit pupil in a wide or hyperwide IMHO. Yes, it can- ie stars should take mag up to the limits of the scopes optical specs but don't- a great example is E and F in the trap, more mag is usually not good, there is a sweet spot. Faint galaxy cores are also seeing sensitive. Low scatter EP's are a benefit on stars.

Yeah, they're just wood boxes... and very nice ones at that. This Canuck is gonna get one

Excellent, I'm getting one, thanks for posting this.

It might be a means to an end- for going to Mars?

100% agree Mark and I don't think its going to be an asset for DSO observing either. I read there could be 20,000 of these things buzzing around. If these things are continuously in the eyepiece I might be throwing in the towel over here. I love the night sky in all its grandeur and its too bad more don't worldwide.

I don't think I like all these satellites...saw a big string of them last night.

Ok I'm pumped here! Just got in from a great session under great skies. The SQM-L went a solid 21.9 tonight- what a difference no snow makes! I lose about 1/2 magnitude on the SQM from reflected starlight in the winter, which is a pile. Inspired by @Nyctimene I tried some more Leo galaxies- confirming NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 again and plucking off 2 more in the area- NGC 3626 and NGC 3686, the latter pretty faint. The surface brightness sure makes a big difference in viewability. Over near M81/M82 NGC 3077 was such an easy target tonight and a fantastic, in the same field view of M108 and the Owl M97 were had- the Owl was easy no filter in this little scope! M82 showed some nice mottling at 81x. Another no challenge view of NGC 2403 was had along with so many over in Virgo. M101 so distinct, M51 at 81x superb for this aperture. What a difference truly dark, transparent skies make. I finished off laying in the lawnchair gazing up in amazement.

Excellent observing Stephan! Getting that mag 12 galaxy is excellent, last night I managed the nice pair of NGC 3607 and NGC 3608 somewhere around 11 mag with the H130 and a 12.5mm Circle T ortho at about 52x, in direct vision. I must up the mag next time. Eagerly waiting more H130 reports!

Hi Mark, we are well and thank you. I hope everything is going good for you and yours too. I can tell one thing here, my inexperience is showing up in the results with the binoculars. If I can make them work they will be perfect for ultra quick views when those unexpected clear sky moments open up.The plan is to practise stability more than anything right now with the 10x50's. Over the past few years I've heard the Helios Apollos were VG and I wanted some confirmation on this. Practise, practise-I'll see how stable I can get and then make the decision. Stay safe Mark, Gerry

Tonight the temp was -12c with a -16c wind chill and very clear. Out I go with the Heritage 130 to try to nail down a focal length for galaxies. The 24 ES 68 is just made for this scope so first explorations were with it. Up first were M81/M82, 2 very nice bright streaks and not surprisingly they responded to an 8mm over the 10mm. Ngc 2403 seemed to like the 10mm and M51 the 10mm. M51 was very contrasted with faint hints of small short brighter streaks where the arms glow was. I could see the 2 galaxies connected but not with a distinct bridge, just a diffuse glow. A real surprise was M101! The 24 ES 68 showed a small, easy in direct vision cotton ball but more mag killed it in this scope. Can't believe it showed this well at such low mag. Auriga... I had to take a quick galaxy break so over to the Flaming Star I go. With no filter a very faint, light and delicate liquid grey shade difference was seen around the pattern stars. Back into the house for the DGM NPB- and yes there it was, showing its small V shape in this scope, a real treat and again the 24mm came through. It sure helps to have observed this object hundreds of times before. Well, embarrassing to say, I got lost in the stars looking for Leo lol! My first attempt at the Leo triplet was a failure. Of course I had to move the scope off the generator to the ground to get past the pines but still. Standing up and retreating a bit I found Leo... Once found the triplet fell into the 24mm, all in easy direct vision. The 12.5mm Tak ortho was best on this set. To finish the evening Markarians Chain was pursued and with great success! Back on the ground to observe revealed 5 easy ones in the chain and a possible 6th. The 12.5mm Tak was used and I didn't try more mag as I was getting cold and the EPs were a ways away. Very pleased to get some of the chain with this diminutive but excellent telescope. So, the EP's- it seems that overall the 12.5mm was the best performing focal length across the board in general. Higher mag was better on some things but I'm thinking the Morpheus 12.5mm will be a great addition if and when i can get my hands on one. The main thing,however, is dark transparent skies to observe from, like the one I was blessed to have tonight.

Its worth a try Robert, all to gain and nothing to lose. Side note- for an undriven frac or SCT mount I think the Diskmount or possibly the AYO is the way to go, used with encoders and DSC. The surface its sitting on is crucial too, my best is compacted gravel.

Sorry for my ignorance here Robert but your scope is driven? gears or direct? If so then yes, there must either gears and a brake (motor maybe) or direct with a brake (motor?) I would try what I do with the AZ EQ6- do your alignment with very narrow FOV eyepieces and slew in the same direction to do so. Then try an object slewing in that same direction again, I'm very curious about the results.