Ruud

Hi John, avoid zoom binoculars. Regular ones usually are much better!

Hi Sterrenland, Sterrenland sounds Dutch. Are you? I hope you'll soon find those upgrades you're looking for.

Thank you Alexander!

Magnificent work Mike!

🤔 Makes sense, if the missing ring would hold this black part in place everything would be fixed. EDIT In Dave's pictures the focuser drawtube is threaded at the top, but yours isn't. Maybe the black part (the eyepiece holder) is supposed to be held in the draw tube by friction or glue?

I think the thumb screw (or the ring that it is attached to) that fixes the eyepiece in place blocks it when you try to insert the eyepiece. Which is why the eyepiece doesn't sink in deep enough and falls out too.

The Morpheus eyepieces above have a 1.25" barrel but can also be used directly in a 2" focuser. There's little point in doing this however as they sink in unusually deep. Using a 2" to 1.25" adapter works better. +1 for the notion that a Barlow is most useful in combination with mid and short focal length eyepieces, which tend to be 1.25". I have four 1.25" Barlows. The newer 2x and 3x get the most use, but the older 1.8x and 2.5x are also quite nice and just too difficult to part with. I do not own any eyepieces with focal lengths under 4.5 mm, but with the Barlows and my 4.5, 6.5, 8 and 12mm eyepieces I have a wide range of high to very high magnifications to choose from using my f/5 refractor.

Hi, have you tried a video or two? It is difficult to explain in the form of an essay.

That was a fine report, a pleasure to read. I'm glad that you got in some nice observations on your first night. That meteor you saw, I think that may have been a satellite. Meteors tend to last only very briefly. Thanks for sharing!

Well done Miguel, keep it up!

Awesome! Thanks, Achim, for sharing. It's a welcome new look for solar sketches.

For terrestrial observations amici prisms are OK. This is because these observations are limited mostly by looking horizontally through thick atmosphere, when magnifications over 80x are hardly usable anyway. On a good night however, allowing high magnifications, the amici prism becomes the weak link and a noticeable source of image degradation.

Hi, welcome, I'd go for two eyepieces and a Barlow. You'd not only get four magnifications, but every additional 1.25" eyepieces you add later on will provide two more magnifications. Of course you must plan well to avoid overlap. A Barlow has the added advantage that it "slows down" your f/5 scope to f/10, which makes just about every eyepiece shine. (I exaggerate, a few eyepieces are bad at any focal ratio)

Hi Nocos. Great work with a bonus in the form of a bird. Wonderful! Thanks.

That was a wonderful read, Stu. The Zeiss may have won, but it's not the most handsome tube. It sits on some gorgeous legs though. How are the slow motion control and the stability of the Unitron mount?

Hi Nick, it's good to have you back.

Awesome images, Avani. Saturn's colours are truly captivating. The Storm is visible indeed and Thetis and Enceladus are a definite bonus. Very impressive work, as always. Thanks!

I love these side views. It's wonderful how the core is visible under the dust lanes. Or is that a star? I do hope it's the core because that would make it awesomely compact and bright. Great shot!

You found something new and unexpected in the hair of Berenice. It looks like a small crown of bogies. Nah, kidding. It's really pretty.

Hi Alexander, Thank you for the new version. I went for the beta v0.20.0.17814. It runs fine. Again, I get the best result on my 4K monitor and NVIDIA 1060 in ANGLE Direct 3D 11 mode. I tried the others, but in ANGLE the fonts and lines still look perfect and in the rest not. I just installed today and will let you know if I come across any issues. I am very grateful to you and the others of the Stellarium team.

You inadvertently photographed the wrong Moon. A lucky mistake though, this is the rare April Ochre Super Moon.

Mike it's magnificent.

Impressive work! It's a beautiful sketch in every respect.

Hi Russ, glad you like the eyepiece. Have you tried the extra ring to lift the eye cup? This may take away too much eye relief, but you get some back if you fold down the rubber sleeve.

Following John's expample. The first screenshot is from the Moon's North pole, looking straight up, the second from its South pole. (Note that on the North pole, the cardinal directions are all South. Stellarium is perfect!)