Louis D

Well, I went to lean forward one night to better peer into an eyepiece, and BAM!, one side of the stool collapses. Basically, the asymmetric load sheared off some of the load bearing tabs around the periphery of the upper rings under the side I leaned toward. See my write-up below: Basically garbage now. I'd say I got 2 or 3 good nights of use out of it. I'd consider it a disposable stool at this rate.

I agree with your experiences. The 25mm is a slight improvement from the 15mm and 18mm units, but it is certainly no 24mm APM UFF. See my write-up versus the Meade HD-60s: I recall someone on CN also commenting that the 3.2mm has off-axis issues. I didn't pick one up because it wasn't part of the used package I bought, and I saw no reason to complete the set based on these shaky reviews. Besides, I rarely use my 3.5mm Pentax XW, so the 3.2mm BST/Paradigm would have just about zero utility for me.

OMG, got the mental image of neighbors tossing recyclables into your observatory. 🤣

Has anyone tried this Barlow with any other eyepieces or zooms? Is it a one trick pony in that it only works well with the BHZ?

Nice detailed review on the technical side of things. Based on all the feedback so far, it seems like a 7.7mm-14mm design stretched to 15.4mm to make it a 2x range. That reminds me of comments on the BHZ not showing any more true field beyond 20mm. From there to 24mm, it just shrinks the AFOV and magnification proportionally to keep TFOV constant, so not a particularly useful range. Again, the design was stretched to make it a 3x range. It definitely sounds like a good Christmas present to me from the wife. It's not something I desperately need, but it would be a nice item to have at my disposal. I could see it being useful for travel. Right now, I use a Celestron Regal 8-24mm zoom for travel.

I believe that was a Vanslyke Instruments 2" turret. His stuff was way over-designed and overbuilt. I wouldn't fret it.

It is a Mini-Max 17.7. Below are pictures of it. I did a brief write-up 2.5 years ago here: Open with its box to the side: Open but tilted over after I sat on it (notice newly broken tabs around it): View of the broken rings underneath the top: Sat on it again, and it broke further: Completely broken in two now: Box label and broken tabs: Basically, it's a piece of junk. What a waste of $40. Worst astro accessory I've ever bought by far.

The plastic tabs sheared off on several of the plastic rings on mine when I leaned forward toward the eyepiece and put excess pressure on one side instead of evenly around the whole circumference. Great idea, poor execution. It needs to be made from a stronger material that is more shear resistant.

It could have been seeing conditions breaking up the airy disk. Make sure to pick a semi-bright star near zenith to minimize seeing conditions. Also, the star must be centered or the star test won't tell you much about collimation.

Patios and decks in the US are usually right up against the back of the house which seems like a terrible place for an observatory. You haven't exactly said where your patio is in relation to the house, shed, trees, shrubs, etc. Why would your wife be willing to give up the patio? Mine would dead set against it since she likes to sit out on the patio in the evening sometimes. This would be difficult with an observatory plunked down on top of it. Most folks in the US put their observatory toward the back edge of their backyard to get it far away from the house and neighboring houses.

I like CCD-Freak's overmounting example below: That's an AT60ED up top.

OMG, that's a hilarious saying. I've never heard it here in the states.

Because a lot of big, heavy eyepieces are 2" only as I pointed out above. For instance, all of the ES-100 and ES-92 eyepieces are 2" only.

Vernonscope Brandons are 100% American made from glass melt to figuring to barrel to assembly. These are the only consumer-grade eyepieces the US military are allowed to procure. All Tele Vue eyepieces are US designed and are made in either Japan or Taiwan with no Chinese made content. All Pentax eyepieces are assembled in the Philippines, most likely from Japanese glass. Pre-Ricoh buyout ones are 100% Japanese made. All Nikon astro eyepieces are made in Japan (I think). All Takahashi eyepieces are made in Japan (almost certain on this). Noblex are made in Europe (might still be Germany, they're going through a rough patch right now). All GSO eyepieces are made in Taiwan, although it's not clear if they have Chinese made components. They tend to be sold under various brand names as well. Long Perng eyepieces are also made in Taiwan (I believe, and again with possible Chinese components) and sold under various brand names worldwide. APM labels their eyepieces as Germany, but they are made in China. Baader is a German company, but their manufacturing is in China. A lot of vintage (pre-2000) Orion USA, University Optics, Vixen, Meade and Celestron eyepieces were made in Japan or Taiwan. They will be marked as such on the chrome or black barrel or have a circled letter maker's mark (definitely Japanese then). Sometimes, only the original box mentions the country of origin on lower end eyepieces. Many premium spotting scope and microscope eyepieces (both new and vintage) that can be adapted to astro use are (were) made in Europe or Japan (Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski, Meopta, Nikon, Olympus, etc.). Ask here or on Cloudy Nights for confirmation on specific models. Truly vintage American Optical and Bausch & Lomb microscope eyepieces are 100% American made but will require adapters for astro usage. I'm sure I missed a company or two in there, but this list will at least get you started.

Unless you're strictly using the TV APO straight through, you already have a 2" diagonal, so I don't understand the comment about buying a 2" diagonal. They don't have to be expensive, though, if you want to keep one with the SCT. I picked up 3 used GSO 2" 99% dielectric diagonals from Cloudy Nights classifieds to keep with various scopes for about $70 each. You will need a 2" visual back if the SCT doesn't come with one. They're about $25 to $35. I would try the 2" eyepieces because there are some fine 2"ers at shorter focal lengths as well the longer widest field ones. The 12mm and 17mm ES-92s are two I can think of right off the bat. The 21mm Ethos also comes to mind.

$80 isn't too bad of a price, but you'd need to check out the mechanics of everything. I'd also check the optics; but barring physical damage or fungus, they're probably okay. In general, though, I've found sellers of entry-level scopes tend to overprice their scopes and accessories. Given the slim market for used entry-level scopes (who wants to give their kid a used scope on Christmas morning?), they stay on the message boards for months. On the other hand, higher end scopes and accessories are usually great to purchase used. They are generally built to last in the first place. Their owners generally take astronomy seriously and thus take good care of their equipment. Less than 25% of my equipment was bought new. Many advanced amateurs have much deeper pockets than mine and are always on the upgrade treadmill to my wallet's advantage.

I think you're overstating that a bit. I would think any of the higher end EQ mounts would have no problem at all with it. However, who wants to drop $5000 to $20000 on a mount for a $700 telescope? That's an AP Starfire 160 on an AP1200 mount above, so I would think it would handle a Bresser Messier 152/1200 just fine. Software Bisque also makes some good mounts that should have no issues with the 152, either:

Good point. If you take out the eyepiece and look at the image of the moon directly down the focuser tube by pulling your head back a bit, does it look upright and non-inverted? I'll have to check next time I'm out with mine.

Despite living in a relatively higher crime area (not awful, just not super low), home break-ins seem rather rare. Cars, yes; sheds, yes; homes, no. I sometimes wonder if its because burglars know that about 30% of the homeowners/renters are armed to the teeth and are not afraid to shoot first and ask questions later since our Castle Doctrine totally backs them up on home break-ins.

Another advantage of short, fast fracs over long slow versions. Of course, cost skyrockets to make them as color free.

On my Astro-Tech 72ED, I have an 8" long dovetail mounted the opposite direction so I can balance heavy 2" eyepieces and 2" diagonal. Then the problem becomes that the focuser tube slips out no matter how much tension I put on the focuser pinion. Even on my TS-Optics 90mm Triplet APO, the load can make the R&P focuser unwind! I have to keep a finger lightly on a focuser wheel to prevent it from happening. Who designs a focuser that allows that to happen? There are ways to design helical R&Ps to prevent this.

I guess it depends if you already have a beefy mount. If you need to spend an additional $800 or more on a beefier mount, then you could apply that toward a shorter FPL-53 doublet or triplet of the same aperture.

I save homeowners insurance claims mostly for storm or water damage from sewer backups (dang neighbor tree roots). These claims often exceed $5000 each.

If they're in stock in the fall time frame, I may ask Santa to bring me one for Christmas. I would have to stay off the naughty list for the rest of the year, though. 😇

Pretty substantially sized, isn't it? Thanks for the early report.