Voxish

I assume the same could be said for scopes, yet my frac has a made in the USA sticker on it.

Well if the clouds ever disappear I will definitely throw the scope in the car and head out for a view. I always view Mercury as an evening target and had some decent (for Mercury) last year.

Oh that went years ago. The only thing wrong with it was it was a Newtonian. I foolishly bought one new later on as a second scope when I ran into OO’s legendary customer service

Exactly 👍

Well I have to confess that none of my gear is made in China, not a thing. That’s entirely coincidental though. I honestly couldn’t give a hoot where anything is made as long as it works as expected. Without the Chinese literally thousands of people would never have the chance to own a telescope. I don’t own a reflector, but there are not too many which aren’t Chinese and I for one would rather deal with FLO to buy a SW dob than go anywhere near OO.

I couldn’t agree more

Yeah lots of other great suggestions all of which I ummmed and Arrrrhed about and that’s without thinking about Mars and Venus. The ice giants and Mercury are a little more challenging to locate and patience is definitely required here, especially as they, like the majority of classic targets are not circumpolar

There you go then, tis true. Thanks Don.

I thought that was odd too. However I notice on the other channel some comments about Chinese made gear which made me feel uncomfortable, heading towards racism I thought, but perhaps I am being over sensitive. Certainly some seem far more comfortable by from Taiwan rather than mainland China.

Yeah that’s the one

Oh and if you have not already done so you should grab a copy of Turn Left at Orion

It kind of depends what time of year you’re observing, the top 10 varies during the year. Your scope and interests also come into play. However the following are easy to find and worth the time and effort to observe. The Moon Saturn Jupiter Bodes and Cigar galaxies Andromeda The Double Cluster Ring Nebular Dumbell Nebular Orion Nebular Alberio Have fun.

I read somewhere that ES eyepieces wreck Baader click-locks over time. I don’t know if anyone can confirm that or not

I completed it too and also asked for undercuts to be removed, not for myself you understand, I have never had any problems with them at all, not once, but I know other people do. I only use Everbrite diagonals with my eyepieces set so perhaps that is why. I once read that TV gear, a bit like Apple works best within its own ecosystem, that’s my experience anyway.

That’s my take on it John. We like what we like, but all prone to peer pressure and group think when buying gear and sometimes buy the gear we are ‘supposed’ to like. It’s funny really since none of us really know how anyone really sees or perceives anything, we only see the images our brains 🧠 and eyes 👀 present for us.

Interesting. I have both Radians and Delites. I can not see any of the coffee tone some on the other channel seem obsessed with (several threads on the topic). The same thing is often said about TV plossls, a warm or coffee tone that is. Personally I prefer Radians to Delites, they are just a little more comfortable and the build quality is better, in my opinion anyway. Panoptics for me were horrible kidney bean enducing things. I bought two together years ago and sold them together a few weeks later, I just didn’t enjoy the experience or views with the 24 mm so I bought a 32 mm TV plossl and added a eye extender. I have used Radian for years, I almost have a full set but can’t find the outstanding 6 mm. Never ever had any kidney beaning like I had with panoptics, but there you. Very, very personal things eyepieces aren’t they. BTW if you still have a 6mm Radian then I am absolutely a player.

I had an excellent season last year, this year has been very poor. All in all the weather to me appears more cloudy year on year and definitely moving in the wrong direction

Exactly, see above

I use this one: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-observing-chairs/berlebach-nix-ii-observers-chair.html It’s expensive, but safe and endlessly adjustable very quickly. The reason I say safe is I had a nasty accident a few years ago with the traditional ironing chair lots of us use. The zenith is never an easy spot to observe (M31) and the short version of the story has be going over backwards falling heavily on the bolted on seat and breaking 3 ribs. Very, very painful and incredibly inconvenient as I had just started a new job at the university and really couldn’t take the time off with a ton of students relying on me. Anyway that was the last time I used a dobsonian or an ironing board chair.

It’s not that bad, we’ve all seen worse

I couldn’t agree with you more. Hard to see what we can do about, especially as we usually have a queue waiting for a glimpse

Very true. I often wonder how Lunt and co stay in business during a minimum

Absolutely. People spend too little time at the eyepiece observing specific targets and dash between them too much. The more time you spend at the eyepiece and the more comfortable and relaxed you are the more you will see. Just a couple of other things to think about, clothes (you need to be toasty warm) and a comfortable adjustable and safe observing chair. A good chair will keep you at the eyepiece longer

Good call

Anyway, I bought a Powermate