Louis D

You can always create an aperture mask to mask off the edge to see if there is any change in the view.

Because @Nicola Hannah Butterfield proved me wrong that Venus can never be seen at midnight under the right circumstances. I was only thinking of my own circumstances in Texas where that can never happen. I then wanted to head off someone else trying to disprove my supposition that Venus would never be visible on the meridian at midnight from anywhere on earth by claiming that if space-time were bent sufficiently, it could be visible there. Sorry for adding to the confusion.

Because it's just as often in the eastern sky before sunrise, but many fewer people are up and about that early to notice it compared to its evening appearances.

I'm an OCD hoarder, so everything is organized by type in dedicated cases. I think 7 at last count.

Not quite, but I do tend to get out different eyepieces and telescopes on successive nights to "spice" things up.

Quite the contrary. I've gotten several more since these photos were taken and at least one more is on the way. You should see my still and video camera and lens collection stored away in 10 or 15 Tamrac cases and assorted boxes. When I die, my wife and kids won't know what to make of any of it.

Here's my mismatched collection as of last fall. Zooms are repeated at each tested focal length. Someday I'll have to figure out how to get them all in one group shot.

I have no experience with Orthos below 25mm due to their limited eye relief for eyeglass users having strong astigmatism. However, the 18mm BST Starguider is rather weak toward the edges. I suppose it's fine in the center, yielding as much sharp area as a good plossl, but it is not as well corrected across the field as the 8mm BST, so it's best to temper your expectations. It is better corrected at f/6 than a traditional Konig design as you can see below.

I have no idea why the 5mm BST gets no love. It views very close to my 5.2mm Pentax XL and 5-8mm SW Zoom at 5mm, just narrower and with a bit less contrast. There's very little center to edge sharpness difference between them and the 4.5mm HD-60 as seen below in my test images taken at f/6 through an AT72ED.

I've read that diehard Japanese observers regularly eschew diagonals in search of the best possible view regardless of ergonomics.

Is this a common problem with the Baader Clicklock? Up until now, I've only read glowing praise of the BC.

That tube is exceptionally long for a 10" scope (close to 6 feet). If your hatchback has rear and passenger fold-down seats, it might fit front to back on that side. The tube appears to just lift off the rocker box. That could ride behind the driver.

My QF mounting plate has been stuck down to my Dob's tube for well over a decade now and shows no signs of coming off, so I guess it just depends. As far as adapting the ES finder shoe to a Synta/Vixen mount, there is this option and this one. There are also adapters from ES to QF and Synta/Vixen to QF. You don't need to drill new holes if you have the money to buy adapters.

If you can get all the way south to Jad Al Jamal, you might have decently dark skies, especially to the south, which is the best direction to have consistently dark skies.

I use a TSFLAT2 visually in my AT72ED and TS-Optics 90mm APO Triplet. It works wonders to flatten the field without changing the focal length. It does have a pretty long back focal distance to accommodate either a 2" diagonal or a filter wheel or an off axis guider. It comes with a M48 thread on each end. Here's a couple of photos taken with it on their webpage:

You're never going to see galaxies from a heavily light polluted area. If your night skies are washed out and relatively few stars are visible, solar system objects and some star clusters and double stars will be your main targets. An 80mm f/5 refractor is generally referred to as an ST80 meaning a Short Tube 80mm. They have loads of chromatic aberration and spherical aberration. They're only useful up to about 60x, so that rules out using them for solar system objects aside from the moon. These are fine for travel, spotting scope duty, and low power scanning of star fields. I have had one for 20 years and rarely use it because it doesn't do anything particularly well except white light solar with a proper front mounted solar filter. An 80mm f/11.2 refractor would be much better for general astronomy. Much less chromatic aberration and practically no spherical aberration. The computerized mount might come in handy in light polluted skies to find dim objects, assuming you can see enough bright stars to align it in the first place. The 900mm focal length is just about ideal for beginner astronomy as well.

Having had a look at the 12mm to 15mm eyepieces at those shops, the 12mm BST Starguider (Paradigm, etc) would probably be your best bet for usability and quality at your price point. Most of the rest are either Plossl or even simpler designs or are Konig/Erfle variants which don't do well at f/5. Prices in general are definitely higher than in the US. Part of it is 20% VAT is included in the advertised prices whereas US state/local sales taxes are added in later. I noticed some don't remove the VAT when shipping to the US which is incorrect.

As long as that's an X-Cel LX and not the original X-Cel, you should be okay. The LX is similar to the Meade HD-60 while the X-Cel have loads of spherical aberration of the exit pupil (SAEP). Eye relief is going to get tight with a 12mm Plossl at around 8mm if the eye lens is mounted near the top, less if recessed. What are your preferred astro vendors in Slovakia? It would help to know what is available at a reasonable cost to you. Below are my 12mm to 15mm eyepieces to give you some idea of the range of options available if your budget permits.

You could go with a dual axis equatorial platform to put under a Dob later for basic astrophotography.

The Orion Sirius is single coated, at least the late 90s vintage I have. It just reflects a pale purple indicative of MgF2. The GSO are beautifully multicoated resulting in all sorts of deeply saturated color reflections more in line with premium eyepieces like Pentax XWs and Vixen SLVs. The GSO gives nice dark backgrounds, low scatter, saturated star colors, etc. I'd say the GSO is better corrected to the edge. Notice in my photo how the Sirius at the top gets less distinct toward the edges while the GSO directly below it remains pretty much sharp to the edge. Color saturation is stronger as well in the GSO. It has a distinct and sharp field stop despite the fuzziness on the left that was most likely due to a slight misalignment of the camera lens with the eyepiece exit pupil. The GSO is definitely worth the 10€ upcharge. The 25mm BST and the 32mm Plossl will yield roughly the same true field of view (TFOV) on the sky owing to the former's wider apparent field of view (AFOV). The Plossl will look sharper across the field while the BST will get fuzzy in the outer 50%. Personally, I prefer a sharper, lower power image to a fuzzier, higher power image.

The 32mm GSO/Revelation Plossl is also very good as a lowest power 1.25" eyepiece as well as being fairly inexpensive. It's the second one below.

I did a comparative review of the BSTs (Paradigms) vs Meade HD-60s. They're good, especially the shorter focal lengths. The 25mm would be the one most likely to suffer at f/5 since it's already struggling at f/6. Don't forget that our site sponsor, FLO, offers a 10% discount on 2, 15% discount on 4, and 20% discount on 7 BST Starguiders. I have no experience with the BST Barlow. I would watch for a used Meade 140 2x Barlow to come up for about $40. They are a Japanese made triplet design of the 1990s that perform just as well as the Televue 2x Barlow (which I also have).

Then it has a parabolic mirror and is a standard Newtonian design, so it should perform optically pretty well.

Oh, I think I see now. The reticle etching isn't in the same plane as the field stop/focal plane. I agree that it sounds like the factory installed the reticle upside-down.

Do you need to wear eyeglasses? Perhaps try focusing the crosshairs while wearing glasses to see if you've reached the diopter limit of it's built-in focuser.