Louis D

I took images through the APM UFF and ST80 combination with two different phone cameras (Galaxy S7 and LG G5 UWA). The second one is the ultra wide angle one that really exposed any SAEP if it exists. I can't see any shadows or beaning in either, just edge blurriness due to severe field curvature in the ST80:

I dug out my ST80 from ~2000 and put my APM UFF 24mm in it during the daytime and looked for kidney-beaning. I couldn't see any at all. I did notice that if I took my eyeglasses off, it is quite easy to get inside the exit pupil and watch the field of view shrink. However, it was very well behaved in that it shrunk from the field stop inward. I then screwed the Baader M43 eye cup extender onto the top of the APM UFF after peeling off the eye cup. It threaded all the way down and looked OEM. However, I could not get the APM eye cup to fit onto the extender because it expects a threaded lip with undercut below it, not a complete threaded cylinder. Thus, you'd have to get the Baader Morpheus threaded foldable eye cup to fit onto the Baader extender. With both, you would definitely avoid blackouts when not wearing eyeglasses.

I'm no soothsayer, but I'd guess "go up" over the next 12 months.

In that case, it's cheaper to just buy them locally in the UK for £249. I'm still seeing quite a few places selling Morphs over here for $259.

Sounds like cross importing the Pentax XWs from the US might save some serious money, although I think your prices include VAT which Don's do not.

To refocus the thread back to your question, you'll see a 76 (or slightly more) degree apparent field of view (AFOV) in the Morpheus versus a 60 degree AFOV in the BST Starguider. The usable eye relief of the Baader is about 18mm to 20mm while the BST has only about 12mm. Thus, if you wear eyeglasses due to astigmatism, you'll see even less than 60 degrees in the BST, but should be able to see all 76+ degrees of the Morpheus. The Morpheus will probably be sharper out the edge than the BST in faster scopes and may also have better contrast and stray light control preventing ghost images better. The Morpheus is significantly larger and may pose a problem for binoviewing with a pair as compared to a BST pair.

Kind of high priced on your side of the pond. They're $109.99 on ebay over here with free shipping. Assuming 8.25% sales tax as I have to pay in my part of Texas, that would come out to $119.06. £117 comes out to about $160 in the US. That's 34% more expensive.

That's also not going to work for older lasers without a side port cutout like my AstroSystems one.

SVBONY is now marketing a whole range of astro products. They seem to be curating their offerings more carefully than some of the predecessor Chinese/HK brands like Vite. None of their offerings are junk, just low cost. I have their solar finder and their 68° Ultra Wide Angle 20mm: They've been repackaging some existing designs to make them more attractive, like the 68° Ultra Wide Angle line. It's basically the same as the older 66° Ultra Wide Angle Expanse line, just more handsomely packaged.

Try to characterize the aberrations more by moving Jupiter around the field of view (edge to edge as a start) to see how they appear to change. Also, try different eyepieces to see if the effects change. Of course, repeat all this without the R/C. You're likely seeing internal reflections from the baffle tubes, rear port, visual back, and/or the reducer or eyepiece.

Or, if you are short of spare time, or your scope didn't come with a focuser dust cap, pick up a Rigel Systems Aline for under $10.

Search for "knurled knob thumb cap head screws stainless steel" or similar and you should get lots of alternative hits. As @banjaxed says above, most astro screws are M3/M4 and even M5 occasionally. Just check the width of the knob/cap to ensure they won't interfere with each other.

Try A/B testing by viewing both with and without the optical window on low contrast targets like Jupiter. Look to see if faint features become more difficult to make out either way.

Nah, time for another case! 😉

I've been using the 1990s version of the AstroSystems laser collimator that was both 1.25" and 2" compatible. It seems to have held its collimation just fine over the years.

I would bring over some of my starter gear and see how it performs in the new scope sometime. That which works well could be loaned to them until they can buy (or be gifted) their own. I remember loaning a cheap 2x Barlow I had laying around to a coworker. It was so bad (it added chroma and blur to the image), he returned it to me 6 months later despite me having forgotten all about it. I guess what I'm saying is, don't go too cheap on a 2x Barlow. 😁

I like the look of the Z114's spider veins. Four nice and thin supports rather than a single thick and chunky support like so many beginner scopes have these days: Let us know how it works out for all involved.

I bought an ST80 back in 2000 when they first came out. After having used 8" and 15" Dobs for a few years before it, it was a huge let down. All sorts of chromatic and spherical aberrations vastly limited contrast and ability to magnify the image. It didn't even make a decent spotting scope. Everything looked hazy. It has sat at the bottom back of the closet unused for the majority of the past 20 years. 13 years later, I thought I'd give small fracs a second try with a 72ED and fell in love with it. Sharp and color free at low to mid powers, high contrast, and the ability to use 2" eyepieces to get down to binocular level fields of view. It's a great scope to complement a larger reflector. However, I would never get a small frac of any quality level first. Views of planets, planetary nebula, and globular clusters are just so lacking in resolution compared to a decently sized reflector. The small frac excels at large open clusters and large nebula under dark skies that are out of reach of most large reflectors. However, are they alone enough to keep a beginner interested? Yes, you can make out Jupiter's moons and possibly some banding along with Saturn's rings, but not much more. You can also view the moon and the sun (with a solar filter) fairly well with a small frac. However, picking out Mercury during the most recent transit was a real challenge with the ST80 compared to the 8" Dob. I couldn't get off work that day, so I had to bring a scope to work and use it in the parking lot on breaks. I wasn't comfortable bringing my better gear to work because I work near a high crime area, so the ST80 was my choice for the day since it was stowed in the car between uses. Basically, I skew heavily toward decently sized reflectors for beginners because they're more likely to keep them hooked on the hobby, but YMMV.

Well, I wasn't able to photograph any significant SAEP in my 24mm APM UFF (see the fourth row, second column) in my 127 Mak. Black or gray rings or shadows correspond to SAEP. It's even less noticeable in my 72ED. I also have never noticed any blackout issues under any visual conditions with it. It does have a lot of eye relief; and if you don't wear eyeglasses, it may prove tricky to deal with it. Since there is a thread under the eye cup, it may be possible to add an extension ring Morpheus style. I believe both are M43 threaded.

Since the 102 Mak starts out well over $200 without mount, I left it out.

I just leave a Rigel Aline in the 2" to 1.25" adapter during transport. I point the scope at a bright light or light wall (or use a flashlight shining into the tube) and look to see that the center mark ring is centered around the peephole reflection.

The illuminator sticking out to the side may limit the use of the negative profile adapters.

A Skywatcher Heritage 130, AWB OneSky, Orion SkyScanner 100mm, and Orion Starblast 4.5 would all be reflector possibilities.

You could go @John's route as below using a Skywatcher Hyperflex 7.2-21.5mm zoom with a Baader Q-Turret 2.25x Barlow to get a 9.55mm to 3.2mm zoom if funds are tight:

I have a white textured plastic wall board on the ground board of my Dob with large rectangular teflon pads riding on it for the azimuth bearing. The white board looks similar to below: The large teflon pads smooth out the roughness, and the bumpy surface greatly reduces friction over a gloss surface. The result is that I've had a maintenance-free azimuth bearing for the last 23 years that never sticks but still holds its position well.