Highburymark

Thank you sir - shame that my OCD doesn't really extend beyond eyepiece cases.....

Nice case. I have had a slight feeling of indulgence every time I've added a new EP over the past year, but after spending the previous 15 years with nothing more exotic than a few Meade plossls, I've learnt to get over that hurdle. It hasn't been cheap, but then if you are committed to the hobby and you are able to acquire decent kit, you may as well do it now and enjoy it for longer.

I wonder if sales of eyepieces and accessories go up when we have a prolonged period of bad weather? They certainly do in my neck of the woods. As the cloudy days have turned into cloudy weeks and months, the only things that have kept me sane have been SGL, and completing the eyepiece project I started ten months ago. Today I added the Ethos 13 - the final piece of the jigsaw - and although the chances of me being able to use it at the moment are practically nil, I can at least look forward to some fantastic views if ever the skies clear.

They're excellent eyepieces - adaptable, competitively priced, and superb in slower scopes.

Drat.I was afraid someone would say that. :-)

Thanks - and maybe it is blasphemy to the astronomy gods to only have one eyepiece for a 2" diagonal....

With thanks for the recent advice, yesterday I added a 2" WO diagonal and TV Panoptic 35 to the arsenal. Worryingly, I'm moving dangerously close to the point when I can say I have all the eyepieces I need.

Am waiting for someone to post a pic of their powermate/ES 120 degree combo.....

Is it obvious from the above that it's a cloudy Sunday afternoon/evening here in London?

And the Nikon 17mm/Powermate combo just outweighs the TV60 as the Ethos is about 80g heavier than the Nikon.

By my (notoriously untrustworthy) calculations, the powermate/Ethos 21 combo outweighs your TV60 by about 100g.

Not the first person to say this but what an excellent report John. A lot of work but the number of views this thread has attracted shows how much it's appreciated.

My first (night viewing) refractor

The front etalon surface lens needs to be 180 - 270 degrees offset to the rest of my set up to really bring it all out. I have read much info on this since you pointed out the 'clocking' technique to me. Thanks ! I want to try and come up with an elegant solution to buffer the slop which occurs when backing off the filter. I have some ideas and if they ever come to a reality I will let you know. The other option is to get it machined from scratch but its going to be around £120 Wow - I'm impressed. This really is the telescope that never stops giving - as long as you have the curiosity and patience to never stop looking

Oh and I forgot to ask, how is the new focuser performing?

Jabeoo - brillant the new filter is delivering the results you'd hoped for. I haven't had a single clear non-work day since we last swapped reports, but had wondered how you were getting on. Are you still using TeleVue plossls mainly - at what magnification? And have you had any success with turning the filter to alter the sweet spot?

I'd noticed that the Docter zoom had gone from the APM website too - nice looking eyepiece but FOV was relatively narrow - 46-56 I think. interesting there's just one fixed EP - which Bill Paolini in his book says is "considered by some experienced observers to be the best EP of its focal length ever made and without peer" . So what they're like in a binoviewer on a clear night is mind boggling.

Wow - that looks incredible Steve. And as you say, very versatile with a Powermate. Look forward to hearing all about it.

Or for even more top class flexibility, the Leica ASPH zoom is now £430 (or 599 euros) on Dutch website Photospecialist.

Agree Peter. The head cloth was an important accessory in single stack. With the extra filter it becomes the most important accessory of all - getting your eyes accustomed to the slightly dimmer image is paramount. Like Jabeoo, I have been through a big learning curve with the Lunt - documented elsewhere on this site - it took several weeks and lots of experimenting to get the most out of single stack, but my expectations have been exceeded with DS since the unit arrived last week. From the start it delivered greater contrast and detail on the solar surface, and stunning depth to filaments, which now look like egg white floating in hot water. Active regions are transformed, although as yet the sun hasn't been particularly active. All this while retaining the same clarity of proms provided by SS. The sweet spot for me is larger with the extra filter, though not by much. These are only early impressions. Who knows, with jabeoo's suggestions above there may be even more performance to squeeze out of these wonderful scopes. I'm looking forward to some clear skies this weekend - will also be my first chance to test the Leica zoom on the Lunt and see how it compares to the excellent Pentax.

Is this cheating?

Going to stick to my promise to not review the double stack system before you Jabeoo, but I have say this: you are going to LOVE it.

Thanks - in that case....... I did in fact manage to have a very brief session with the new LS50C yesterday. Maybe four of five very short views when clouds decided to part. I was standing in an uncomfortable position, and the sun was just starting to disappear behind a tree - so it was about the most unpromising way to christen the new filter. It also meant I didn't have time to play around with the tuning or sweet spots. But the sun looked gorgeous - immediate improvement in detail and contrast. Slightly dimmer image - but that was no problem at all. Proms didn't seem to suffer in brightness or clarity. But it was an active regions and filaments that really stood out. As we've discovered, using these wonderful telescopes is a learning experience - I wasn't expecting it to blow my socks off - but based on this very limited start, i think it's going to meet all my expectations and then some. It just left me wanting MORE. And the great thing was - when I checked out the latest sun images on Gong afterwards, I was surprised that they were largely featureless. I thought I'd been looking at a fairly active sun, but in reality it was a below average day. Anyway - I will now leave the next report to you jabeoo- and I'll respond with a more thorough road test after that. And to answer your question - I'm just an observer - I've just got the B400 blocking filter.

Had been monitoring UK retailers for the LS50C for a while - then saw 365 had a couple in stock last week, so put in an order and took delivery yesterday. Not expecting to really put it to the test for at least a couple of weeks - combination of unhelpful weather forecasts and travelling on business - so won't pre-empt your report jabeoo. Very interested to see how your new set up performs.