iPeace

Glad to mention now that I managed to get a filter properly screwed on the Pan 24 tonight, so it definitely was just me.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of view offered by a very cheerfully-priced 6" f/6 from GSO. It set me on the Newt Path (the fracs are staying, of course...).

That's an absolute steal - and a GSO mirror is already excellent value. Glad you have a light bucket to swing around when appropriate.

PM incoming

Hm...nice handle...and I've got the same family of rings on my own custom carbon newt. Where's the handle from?

I looked up the item number; if correct, it's unexpected...

Sound advice here; my own (current) main set for the 200mm f/6 Newt is as follows: 42mm, 65 deg AFOV, 28x (newly acquired, yet to be tested) 22mm, 65 deg, 54x 10mm, 70 deg, 120x 7mm, 70 deg, 170x 5mm, 70 deg, 240x 3.5mm, 70 deg, 340x Auxiliary items somehow occasionally tag along, as well: 8mm-24mm Zoom (can't resist keeping this in the bag) for splitting tight double stars: a 3mm-6mm Zoom or even - but this is going a bit nuts - a 2mm-4mm Zoom Jupiter gets either the 7mm or the 5mm, depending on the conditions. I'm still pondering a dedicated 6mm (200x), but haven't truly missed it so far with this scope. The Moon is the 5mm or the 3.5mm, the latter obviously for more detail and conditions have to be pretty horrible not to allow this. The 10mm makes having a look at stuff worthwhile no matter what the conditions; sometimes you just need to accept them, take a step back and enjoy what you've got. I'm also conducting a long-term shoot-out between two contenders at 12mm / 12.5mm (100x -ish), but I find I don't really use that magnification all that often with this scope - this may be a personal thing. Good luck with your quest, and enjoy!

That's great to read! Most encouraging.

With many thanks to @Piero and @Saganite , this arrived in great condition. Arguably a gamble for an 8" f/6 Newt (too fast?), the FOV is promising and the exit pupil may be advantageous when filtered. It's so nice and light, too...having used a 41mm Panoptic, a 31mm Nagler and a 21mm Ethos, this feels weightless! I certainly like the look and feel of it. Hope to try it soon.

Roman at http://r-sky.org/en sent me two of these, just the ticket.

I'm visual only, so no guide scopes per se. I use it in whatever is serving as finder scope in order to get the main scope exactly pointed at the observing target. This means I can leave the high mag eyepiece in the main scope when switching targets - I don't need to start with a wider field each time.

This won't help - but you started it. I've got the full set of Nagler T6 and keep coming back to them. Nothing else gives this big a field in so small a package with a view this nice. It may be a personal thing, but eye placement is "right there" as well, effortless, like coming home. They travel so well, easily stowing away wherever there's space in the bag. They're not the newest or the widest or the cheapest or the (very) smallest - but by Herschel, they are compelling! Regardless of what else I use, I'm keeping the T6's.

Glad to read. My Panoptics are likely of widely varying ages; I haven't sat them down together to see which one takes a filter best. I can get it to stay on, but can't turn it far enough to get it flush to the nosepiece.

Filters...I've got the obligatory ones, but I never seem to get around to using them. Not dark enough, not enough aperture in use, whatever the excuse, it hardly ever seems to happen. Recently though, I did finally point my 8" newt at The Veil with an O-III filter in place and it was certainly worth it. So on this clear, dark night away from Starbase Newt, I was ready to go all-out with the filters and see just what was possible with the 71mm Borg. I did also take the time to check in with the planetary procession, visiting with Jupiter, Saturn, and...Mars. That big, bright, sharp orange globe...if only the dust storm would cease - but that's been covered, so moving on. Filters are fiddly. I'm bound to drop one in the dark some night during an eyepiece change. It hasn't happened yet, but it's just a matter of time. I thought I'd get around this by just screwing it into the diagonal scope-side, but...no threads seemed to be there. Hm. I settled on putting the 1.25" filter on the Baader Zoom, while using a 24mm Panoptic to find the target area before the switch. Worked quite well. Started off with the UHC and these are the highlights: Lagoon Trifid Omega Eagle Ring Switched to the O-III to try for the Veil, and it was surprisingly good. I would have preferred to use the 24mm Panoptic with its wider field, but sadly its threads don't seem to match those of the filter - or maybe I'm just faffing about, but in any case, the narrower field of the Baader Zoom meant I had to do the Veil in sections, but this was most worthwhile and I could use the zoom to get a darker background. It wasn't all nebulae, though - I left the filters out to check on M22 and M28, both of which showed up nicely. One of my favourite bits of sky remains the starry bit where the Sagittarius Star Cloud is said to be - whatever cloud there may or may not be there, the arrangement of stars, cluster or not, to be seen there is just so nice, always uplifting. The ISS came shooting over, and I managed to track it for a good few seconds, and even zoom in a bit. A very satisfying haul with just 71mm. Aperture wins, but, all things being equal, a dark sky makes the most difference.

You clearly like yours - been going on about it for a while now - and can be trusted to have really tried to find what's not to like. And this is such an unexpected thing, contrary to so much I've read and come to assume about eyepieces - even if it eventually doesn't work as well for me, it's still too much fun to pass up.