Ruud

Your friend could try this: With the tube of the Newtonian pointing horizontally at his target, and with the eyepiece pointing up, he should stand with his back to the target while he looks through the eyepiece. (He'd be standing next to the telescope, looking at what is behind him). That way the scene looks upright.

Most erecting prisms just rotate the scene 180°. In Newtonians you get all sorts of strange angles. Though I'm sure 'any-angle rotation' solutions could exist, I've never seen them.

Often there's just a bit of dust, so I only use a blower, but when necessary I use a blower and remove any stains with a cotton ball moistened with alcohol. Then I fog the lens with my breath and wipe it dry with a kleenex regular tissue. Then the blower to remove lint left by the tissue and the lens is as new.

The eye lens of a Morpheus is very accessible and I find them just about the easiest eyepieces to clean.

Thanks for sharing, Martyn. It's an awesome image.

When I went to pick up my new William Optics ZS 73 I brought a bright flashlight  and +3 reading glasses for a thorough inspection. The lens was beautifully clean.

Fortunately I have two dealers nearby, Robtics at 12 km from home and Ganymedes at 40 km. I always get to see what I buy.

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I'm happy for you, @Rich1980. It may take a bit longer, but at least you will have a beautiful new telescope!

20 hours ago, Rich1980 said:

No, there wasn't any stock at FLO. Nor many places really, did drop on this one at another known retailer though. 

It wasn't FLO.

Look at this video. Your retailer was obviously less than honest to you: the Esprit ED normally has a perfectly clean triplet lens.

Please send it back as soon as you can and buy a good one from a decent dealer. Good luck, I hope that you soon have a telescope that you can be truly happy with.

I feel you have stumbled upon a retailer that we should all be warned against buying from.

The spaces between the lenses should be clean. I would return this for a refund.

I assume the 2" model gives a larger fully illuminated image circle. That might be worth something if you use a full frame photo camera on the Moon.

That makes sense. Better 70mm binoculars, like the 16x Helios LightQuest-HR 70mm would be a major improvement over your current model,

while 20x80 binoculars would have to be really expensive to outperform your 80 mm telescope!

That's a lovely sketch!

I suggest you buy at least one Morpheus: the 17.5mm. It beats Delos.

Don't forget that a parabolic mirrors produces coma which becomes more obvious with increasing afov (apparent field of view of the eyepiece). Invest in a coma corrector if you want 80°-plus views and not see any coma.

Yes, "Polar Scope Align will calculate the position of Polaris or σ Octantis in your Polar Scope reticle "

see here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/polar-scope-align-pro/id970161373

That's great!

      Hi Junare ,

We are proud that we now have a member of  Antigua! I Checked on Google and it a beautiful island. You must have some nice dark skies too.

Enjoy.

I too have a 32 mm GSO Plössl. Of my eyepieces giving the largest possible true field in 1.25", it is the lightest. It isn't bad at all, and it certainly is good value.

That's a good review! Thanks.

Clear skies to you.

Well done! It's a wonderful image.

Well processed too! The amount of contrast is amazing.

Congratulations Dave, on now having two 17.5 mm Morpheus eyepieces. That squares the pleasure!

        Hi Jeff,

Maybe you can find a nice dark spot here:
http://www.lichtverschmutzung.de/seiten/karten_en.php

What puzzles me is that your binoculars don't cause you any problems while everything else does. 

Your binoculars have an exit pupil of 3mm. Could you please try an eyepiece-telescope combination that has the same exit pupil? Does your experience with your binoculars change if you look through one  tube only, or if you stop the objective lenses down to 12mm so that they give you  a 1 mm exit pupil?

How does panning look through the binoculars with the image stabilisation turned off? Do you see any of the strange effects you get from your other instrument? How does your experience with your binoculars change if you look through one  tube only?

Have you cleaned your binoculars yet? Could you upload a photo of the eye lenses of your ethos 21 and your binoculars next to each other?

Your experience with your binoculars might indicate that your eyes and optical cortex aren't the source of the problems, but it is important that you rule out any health issues with your visual system. Discuss the matter with your GP.

About your proven inability to clean your eyepieces: How have you been cleaning them?

One standard method is 
-  blow off any particles with a blower
-  push loose any remaining particles with a soft brush
-  clean the lens with some cotton, moistened with a solvent like alcohol
-  wipe dry with very soft tissue paper (kleenex regular is recommended)
-  streaks are removed by fogging the glass with your breath and wiping it dry with a tissue
-  blow off any lint left by the tissue paper

Small optical elements are relatively impervious to heat stress and can be coated at high temperatures, resulting in hard, scratch resistant coatings. Eyepieces are  made with cleaning in mind and the outer coatings are quite durable.

ES suggest that you clean their eyepieces by holding them under running water or give them a bath like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG9ywpAZOao The relevant section starts after about 16 minutes.

It is the strangest thing!

Seems the lens lets more light through in the grey patch. Could it be a hole in a green protective coating that they forgot to remove? 

Hi LC,

I really like quickmap, although I mostly use the Google Earth Moon map to identifying features I see through the telescope. (For the sheer beauty of its paint brushed maps.) The map is here:
          Menu: View > Explore > Moon
          Sidebar: Moon gallery: Historical maps > Topographic charts.
Many years ago Times published the same charts that Google Earth uses in The Times Atlas of the Moon, my all time favourite Moon atlas. You can download Google Earth Pro for free.

Quickmap stays the best though for its depth of detail. Its 3D globe is absolutely amazing too. (see here).  It has a fly-around-a-feature option. To activate it click on the  middle tool button at the right hand side of the window, then double click somewhere on the globe. Use the mouse wheel to zoom, and for different views drag and shift-drag the map. Here is an example.)

About Mars: a few moths back I got a Mova Mars globe (the link is to a short video). It's a small but detailed globe and the way it spins looks totally miraculous. There are no labels on it though, so I've been looking for a good Mars map. I would really like it if the university of Arizona also made a Mars quickmap!  Right now I am again using Google Earth for its Mars maps:
            Menu: View > Explore > Mars
            Sidebar: Global maps > Viking
Again historic but very useful. From the global Mars maps I also like the Colourised Terrain.

If anyone know a better tool for Mars I'd be much obliged!

It's wonderful, Chris!