Highburymark

Powermates are optically excellent - for £100 I would jump at it without hesitation. Only the very best barlows are as good, though I haven’t used the ES one you refer to.

Answer to the Delos question is largely ‘yes’. For some reason I didn’t find the shorter Delos as comfortable as 10mm and longer, but they are all optically excellent - pretty much indistinguishable from Delites. I hear good things about the ES though - hope it meets your expectations.

These are my favourite eyepieces. Tak TOE 3.3 and Leica HC Plan S pair in a binoviewer. They both raise the bar in areas where I do a lot of observing - lunar, planets and solar. Otherwise, Delites 7 and Pentax XW 5 are superb. And I still remember views of the double cluster with Ethos 13 before I made the dubious decision to sell it.

Sorry to hear that Jeremy, but you’ll be able to find ways around it. I believe that most Baader EPs can take dioptrx - basically any eyepiece used with a TeleVue TNVC adapter for night vision accepts dioptrx. So searching night vision on CN might reveal what others have used. I have a Hyperion 36 and BHZ (with an extra adapter from RAF Camera) I use for night vision, but I presume Morpheus might be possible too. However, don’t give up on training your left eye. I used to think I could only observe through one eye, but after experimenting with the other eye for a couple of hours and a bit of practice I found it was much easier than I had thought. I’m now just as happy using either. The other alternative is trying a binoviewer. Others can chip in on the implications for binoviewing if you have astigmatism in one eye, but the brain tends to compensate for vision weaknesses when you’re using both eyes. All this might require a different eyepiece strategy, but hopefully the quality of views needn’t be compromised.

It’s on their website at £199 and suggests they are in stock

80ED without a doubt. Those extra 20mms of aperture will open up so many objects for you. Well worth tolerating a little bit of false colour on bright stars and the Moon for.

Grovers sells replacement correctors for your scope - at £199 not cheap but for less than £200 you’ll have a new scope.

The ‘Exoplanet’ app is great for touring around the Milky Way, and with add-ons, out to our local groups of galaxies and beyond. It’s a lot more than just an exoplanet explorer.

If you’ve got a good Quark, and it sounds like you do, there are no guarantees that a new one would be as good - unless you can try it before buying. Consistency does seem to have improved, but each filter is different - and you might get one with a wider bandpass, resolving fewer surface details. Apols if you are already aware of this, but there’s always a risk buying solar Ha etalons, and if you have a really good Quark now, it could be an expensive disappointment.

They are mostly pretty good for astronomy. The Leica ASPH really broke through into astronomy because apart from excellent optics, it offered a wide field throughout the range of powers, and it was sold with adapters for 1.25” diagonals by APM and Starlight (with Starlight being by far the best, though pricey). I’ve read good things about Swarovski zooms in telescopes. The Pentax zooms were developed for spotting scopes, and although the XF zoom is poor for nighttime astronomy, the XL zoom is used by lots of stargazers. Other names like Kowa and Meopta sometimes crop up on astro forums. And of course it works the other way - the current Baader zoom is used a lot on spotting scopes. The biggest drawback with the Leica I found was its limited range (9-18mm roughly), yet adding a barlow for more magnification was a bit of a pain, and not something you wanted to do out at night. But it was a beautiful eyepiece, as Louis said keeping pace with Delos/XW.

The ST80 is a very fast telescope for a Quark. They work best with scopes of F/7.5 and slower, to see best surface detail.

Good post from Ricochet at the start of this thread. I’ve been testing all my eyepieces for edge of field star sharpness in an F/6 60ED refractor. The EPs tested included: TV Plossls - most of the range. TV Panoptics 27 and 24. TV Delites 18.2. 11, 7, 4, 3. Full set of Kasai orthos. Baader asph 36 and MkIV zoom. Leica and Zeiss microscope eyepieces. APM 100 degree 20. Pentax XW5. Tak TOEs full set. Interestingly, the only EPs that maintained sharpness across the FOV, controlling field curvature and astigmatism, without noticeable distortion, were the Delites (all superb, though a small bit of FC with the 18.2), the Pentax XW (superb, though with a touch of false colour at the edge), and the TOEs (all perfect in every way). Most of the Plossls and orthos were good, though not perfect, despite their limited AFOV. Good widefields like the Panoptics showed fuzzy stars at the edge, but they could be sharpened with a change in focus (proving that the problem was field curvature rather than astigmatism). However, they also show significant pin cushioning. Every eyepiece is a compromise. Doing these experiments proves once again that expensive eyepieces don’t necessarily perform well in all telescopes.

Takahashi morphs into Astro Physics.

There are a couple of repeated focal lengths among mine (pairs of 11mm Plossls and 11mm Delites, TOE 4mm/Delite 4mm, and three x 25mm microscope pairs), but every eyepiece gets regular use. That’s ultimately why I hang onto them all.

Binoviewing three different solar set-ups/night vision/and four different telescopes are my excuse. APM XWA 20mm and new pair of Leicas for binoviewing have joined (and Ultima 30s have gone) since this picture was taken a while ago. Still a long way short of Louis.

All the Chinese dielectrics (like your WO unit) are of similar (and very good) quality. However, if you want the best, then they are a) Baader BBHS mirror or b) Baader Zeiss prism, which will produce slightly brighter and sharper views than the Chinese dielectrics - in my F/7 and F/7.5 refractors they give equally pleasing results, though the BBHS mirror is supposedly preferred for faster scopes below F/7, and the prism for F/7 and above. See the William Pasolini reviews for more info. If you want the 2” versions however, they ain’t cheap. I just have the more affordable T2 versions which I then use with 2” (as in pic) or 1.25” clicklocks. The array of Baader diagonals is confusing for the uninitiated . There’s also the very nice white mirror 2” pictured above by Mr Spock, and standard mirrors and prisms. And amici versions.

Beautiful scope Jeremy. Guess you need a night of excellent seeing to really compare the planetary views with your TSA-120. Certainly I see more and crisper detail on Jupiter with my TSA than I ever did with an 8” SCT (C8 Edge), but if well collimated, surely the Mewlon 210 would win that contest.

Nice review - they look like excellent value. Lots of pincushion distortion but then TV Panoptics are no different, and it’s not a major problem for most astronomy applications.

Fantastic set up Nigella. And the 127 is a very nice addition to your solar arsenal. All looks a lot more professional than my solar observatory.

£419 for a Delos is a huge hike. With Pentax XWs still available at £279, at least there are more affordable options. Just seen the price of a 2” Lunt Herschel wedge - £565!! As much as a decent secondhand PST.

It’s also useful as an indoors eyepiece/optics tester, particularly if you have limited space!

Very nice! They are very capable little scopes in my view - CA control is excellent for an F/6 - inevitable field curvature however.

That’s what the D-ERF’s for over the front Jeremy. Prevents your eyes getting fried or microwaved.😎

My two Takahashis. An Epsilon 130d, F/3.3, used for night vision observing, and TSA-120, on solar duty.

I think anywhere along that coast away from the main developments will be great Jeremy. Beyond Binidali looks good if you can get there. Or even inland a bit to the south of the airport.