Louis D

You could look into the TMB Planetary clones. I picked up a 2.5mm for $35 off of ebay last year (2022), and it is surprisingly well corrected for the price and power. There's a 3.2mm as well, but sometimes it's actually a 2.5mm instead. There's also 4mm and 4.5mm versions you could try. Here's a post with my findings about it followed by one with a comparison image taken through it:

Considering even professional observatories missed Jupiter's rings for centuries, that is quite an achievement. Well done!

I had thought about recommending that, but I was unsure what magnification factor a Barlow would yield in 1.25" mode given that the SZ's focal plane is 32mm above the 1.25" shoulder. By my way of thinking, it would be larger than the rated magnification. Thus, if used with a 2x Barlow, you would skip some of the 6mm to 8mm range in all likelihood. I thought about buying one of Don's SZ's at his closeout pricing as a Christmas present, but I just didn't think it would have enough eye relief for me and my eyeglasses.

After a few years of taking a few crappy snaps, I realized that I'm more than happy looking at the hundreds to thousands of images being churned out by amateurs worldwide on a weekly to monthly basis. I let them spend their money and time on capturing and processing them.

I've had an ST80 for 20+ years, and never really cared for it. I came across a used KUO 152mm f/5.9 under the Astro Telescopes brand recently for a decent price, so I bought it to see if 6" of unobstructed aperture could make up for its enormous amount of false color at both ends of the spectrum and some SA. So far, I'd say no. My 6" f/5 GSO Newt and 90mm TS APO FPL-53 Triplet both walk circles around it. I haven't given up on it, though. Thus, my tinkering with various filter combinations. See some of my experimentation starting at the post below:

Try doing that in a fast achromat. I've found with my 6" f/5.9 achromat that I need to filter everything below about 470nm to above about 625nm to get a reasonably sharp image. Basically, a yellow-blue/green filter. The problem is, no one makes such a beast for unknown reasons, so I've been assembling my own by stacking various shortpass and longpass dielectric filters to determine the widest passband possible at the best image sharpness. When using an APO, Mak, or Newt, I would agree about going unfiltered, but I would add using binoviewers helps to really bring out details.

For travel compactness, you might consider getting the APM Superzoom as it would cover 7.7mm to 15.4mm with better correction and wider field at the long end than the BHZ. At the short end, the Svbony 3-8mm might work for you despite its short eye relief. Just some more options for you to consider.

Check ebay for low cost 1.25" filters, such as variable polarizing sets. Again, the low cost Moon & Skyglow filters from ebay are basically the same as the BN filter for less than 10% of the cost: Any of the mid-strength blue filters (#80C, #80B or #80A) work well on Jupiter. Unfortunately, I've only been able to find #80C and #80B in 2" (48mm photographic) size. The #80A is readily available in 1.25" size, but a bit dark for my taste.

Look into getting an ultra to hyper wide angle 9mm eyepiece to give you more dwell time between nudges.

Why not just get a really large duffle bag and wrap the tube in yoga or camping mats? Even closed cell foam sheets would work well. Worst case, 12" Dobs are pretty tough, and minor dents won't affect their optical abilities.

I thought the Baader ClickLock system used a torque mechanism preventing over tightening. I thought that was the point of the clicking. Once you reach that point, it won't tighten any further. I've never actually used one, so I'm totally guessing here based on my experience with torque wrenches.

The Delites have neither the SAEP nor the coffee tone of the Radians. They are basically a scaled down version of the Delos which are basically a scaled down version of the Ethos themselves. Paul Dellechiaie did all three designs. I've read that rare earth glasses were avoided due to their prohibitive cost. They also are the most likely cause of the coffee tone found in many older Tele Vue designs. If you like the Delos, but find they are too bulky, the Delites are probably for you.

Would pairing a UHC filter that doesn't cut IR with a UV/IR cut filter help reduce star bloat with EAA? Would you get weird reflections between the two filters causing issues of their own?

@Manoah, are you saying that you can't see Jupiter's bands visually? It's just a bright white blob? It could be that a variable polarizing filter could be used to dial down the overwhelming brightness to a level allowing your eye to perceive the low contrast details. If that doesn't help, try using a green #56 filter to cut out the poorly focused red and blue ends of the spectrum due to either your scope being an achromat (I'm not sure what type you have) or due to atmospheric dispersion.

Given that cordless electric drill chucks have a really reliable, centering action that releases every time, why can't that same mechanical action be scaled up for eyepiece holders?

According to @Tiago Ferreira, the Baader Click-Lock does not center the eyepiece/camera/etc. See video below queued up to about 3:00 where he demonstrates it pushes in from only one side. Basically, it sounds like an eccentric cam was used to achieve the clamping effect rather than using a true collet action.

Those old eyepieces are pretty easy to disassemble with a lens wrench/spanner. Once apart, you could try soaking the fungal coated elements in bleach or mildew remover to see if you can kill the fungus and then start cleaning the elements. If it's between lens element in the cement, it would require a lot more work to loosen the lens cement to separate the lens elements to get at the fungus. Of course, any lens coatings are probably etched beyond hope by the fungus. I'm just tossing out ideas to make lemonade out of lemons.

Santa brought several filter wallets for my ever growing filter collection, and 1.25" and 2" 650nm shortpass (light cyan) filters to experiment with to cut unfocused red light in my achromats. Sorry, no photos yet.

Just a heads up, I had to swap in a higher amperage (same voltage) power supply for a similar seat heater several years ago. The one it came with was just too anemic to do much heating.

Wrong way round for that adapter. That one is for using 1.25" eyepieces in an 0.965" focuser. This is the adapter needed for these eyepieces.

Wide True FOV or TFOV is generally associated with longer FL eyepieces. Apparent FOV or AFOV is eyepiece design dependent.

I would forget about galaxies except for M31 and its satellite galaxies. Under those skies, you're just seeing the cores of the very brightest ones, and then only dimly. Star clusters should still look good IF you can find them in the murk and pump up the power to decrease the background sky brightness. Planets, lunar, and solar observing are not really affected by sky brightness, so they're really good targets for urban astronomers. Nebula can be seen with a narrowband OIII filter. The slightly wider passbands of UHC filters might show some details. The Orion Nebula, being the brightest nebula in the sky, is good even from urban skies if you pump up the power. Planetary nebula, at least the brightest and most compact ones, are visible from urban skies if you pump up the power. The largest and brightest globular clusters don't quite resolve in a 6" scope. It's close, and the outer fringes start to resolve. They're still worth trying to observe from an urban site IF you can find them in the murk and pump up the power. I highly recommend getting familiar with planetarium software like Stellarium to learn where things are in the night sky at different times of the year at different times of the night. Also, some planetarium apps like SkEye will allow you to turn your scope into push-to to get you into the general vicinity of objects when no guide stars are visible. You just need to work out a way to mount it to your scope, but not so close to the metal tube as to throw off the compass. Having lived near NYC for 6 years, your greatest nemesis can be smog that can obscure even the sun on a clear day. If a front or storm clears out the sky of pollutants, your Bortle number can suddenly drop a notch or two for one or two nights because nothing but clean air is scattering light pollution leading to less sky glow. You'll learn to plan for those conditions.

Then you just squeaked in with that purchase. Don's retiring for a second time at the end of the month/year and will close his store. From what I've read, he plans to continue astro observing and participating on the various astro forums.

Certainly not the best if you need to transport them any significant distance, especially if walking or biking. In that case, a suitcase/travel Dob would be more appropriate, but you have to build them yourself as Reiner Vogel has done many times over. I don't understand why no manufacturer has stepped up to make these commercially. They would make recommending Dobs even easier.

I wasn't a fan of the Radians' SAEP on bright objects (lunar and solar), so I went with Pentax XLs back in the late 90s. The XLs also seemed to have more eye relief than their LVW counterparts, which was important to me as an astigmatic eyeglasses wearer.