Louis D

Eventually most will once their orbit degrades enough. Those in very high orbits generally won't ever return to the Earth.

The Lacerta branded ED 30mm and 40mm are in stock around the European mainland. Perhaps @FLO could stock them locally to the UK for y'all.

50 degree Plossls used to be considered wide angle when Huygens, Ramsdens, and Kellners ruled astro catalogs; thus 65 to 70 degrees were Super Wide Angle (SWA). Then came Ultra Wide Angles (UWAs) around 80 degrees and Hyper Wide Angles (HWAs) around 100 degrees. I don't know what to classify the 9mm ES-120 as, however. Ludicrous Wide Angle (LWA)? The first 10 that came off the line were missing their internal field stop and actually have a 140 degree AFOV. Would that be Plaid Wide Angle (PWA)?

We had a Havanese that sounded like a much bigger dog when alerting and didn't yap at all (thankfully). Great family pet and guard dog. The only problem is how hard they are to get.

Absolutely top notch manufacturers. I have a lot of gear from all of them under various brand names and have been very satisfied with all of it.

Is StellMira your house brand for Long Perng products while StellaLyra is your house brand for GSO products? You've got to admit that using two such similar sounding names is a bit confusing. Did the two companies object to making products using the same branding, so you had to come up with two different brands?

So only up to 4 resells. Maybe not a big issue for Dobs, but if they can figure out a way to do this with eyepieces which tend to be resold a lot more, look out. I'm thinking of some sort of future electronic eyepiece that uses an app on your phone to complete its functionality.

Sounds a lot like how ebooks have killed the concept of right of first sale that used to allow people to freely resell used books. Celestron may have limited resellability with this new technology. Next, they'll be requiring payment of a monthly subscription fee and internet access each time you want to actually use the product (this is the route Adobe is going with their products). Good luck if you're observing in a remote area with no cell service if that comes to be. My wife works with the Navy, and they nearly dropped all Adobe products because subs go for months without internet access. Adobe had to issue a huge mea culpa for them and backtrack on their new licensing demands as a result.

And at a high price. I was watching a rerun of a 1970s game show where you had to guess the price of an item. An American made Oster blender cost $21 nearly 50 years ago. They're about $30 today. That 1970s blender would be about $160 in today's dollars, 7.5 times more expensive. This is in line with the American-Chinese wage and overhead differential minus the additional cross-Pacific transportation costs. How many Westerners would be willing to suffer a sudden 7x increase in the prices of low cost items to move production out of the Far East? Think about it, if car production had moved entirely to China, we'd probably be paying about $12,000 for a new car instead of $40k to $60k. Of course, they'd probably only run for 5 years at most. 😁 But hey, new car every 5 years! When I worked for a semiconductor foundry company, I asked an executive why our company wasn't building new fabs in the US. He pointed out that just the difference in utility costs between Taiwan and the US more than up for any additional costs in shipping from there to here. If Taiwan has cheap electricity relative to the US, I've got to think China's is even cheaper. Brandon eyepieces are entirely American made from the optics to the barrels to the assembly. These four element eyepieces cost $280. Imagine what a 21mm Ethos would cost to make in the US instead of Taiwan (let alone China, which they aren't). Look back at how basic eyepieces and Newtonians cost about the same in 1970s astro catalogs as today. Astronomy would only be for the well heeled.

@Don Pensack Can really steep light cones in super fast designs cause issues with dielectric diagonals or dielectric coated secondary/tertiary mirrors? I've read that dielectric narrow band filters have to be reformulated for super fast telescopes.

I like to use cheaper 60 degree wide fields that perform perfectly at f/18 with a Barlow element operating at 3x to keep down weight and bulk. I can't get my nose between pairs of Delos or Morpheus. That, and the combined weight of two Delos and binoviewer is just too much for most of my scopes.

If you can replace the 2" focus adapter that comes with the Skywatcher with the ES CC, it shouldn't be an issue.

That's ridiculously bright. We've got one street light every second street on the main street that our side streets hang off of. There are no street lights on the side streets.

45 degree bins: 90 degree bins:

No problem. I just wanted to make sure you weren't overlooking a possible medical condition. What I see looks like a lightning bolt inside my eye. My optometrist said it's how the eye expresses pain since there are no pain sensors in there. A field flash could have come from a passing airplane just outside the field of view if there was a significant amount of haze in the air. I've seen a similar effect, and it can be startling. I'll then look up from the eyepiece and confirm a plane just went close by my object of study.

Believe that if you want, but you might go blind someday as a result. I've had it happen, and it's scary to think of the possible consequences. For the rest of us believers, read up on this: Vitreous Detachment

If flashing continues, you've got a detached vitreous humor; and you should have it checked by an eye doctor.

I always wear eyeglasses at the eyepiece due to strong astigmatism. That may be why I've never had fogging issues with any eyepiece even in winter; although Texas winters are normally pretty mild. I have a big enough schnoz that it seems to act like a directed exhaust vent in that moist air being breathed out is directed well away from the eyepiece at right angles. I could see where wearing a balaclava or other face covering would be completely detrimental to preventing fogging. Even my eyeglasses fog when wearing them in winter up north (not in Texas 🤣). I think you might be on to something there. My Dob has a cardboard Sonotube instead of a metal one, so that may contribute to it never dewing as well.

Here in the US, both are $269 apiece before taxes.

Was this with the XW eye cup all the way down or extended somewhat upward? I could totally see the XW's eye cup protecting the eye lens better when extended upward. However, all the way down, I can't imagine how it would help prevent dewing. Perhaps the sheer thermal mass of the XW relative to the lighter DeLite could explain the discrepancy? I'm in a near swamp-like environment here in Texas with dewpoints in the mid to upper 70s F during the summer, and I've never had dewing issues with any eyepiece. Maybe if I observed in the early morning when everything dews up I might. Perhaps the UK runs closer to 100% humidity all night long?

Maybe you could look into a harmonic drive mount? That way, you'd save yourself the effort of carrying around and installing counterweights. The mounts themselves are fairly lightweight while still having a relatively high load capacity.

If it wasn't near optics, I'd recommend CRC 5-56 penetrating oil to loosen those corroded threads. I've used it successfully to loosen fully rusted bolts inside my gas grill after soaking for a day.

My 10mm Delos bought in the first year of availability is very good. Even in my f/6 Dob without a CC, it appears perfect. I swapped the CC in and out several times and could not see a difference even at the very edge on bright stars. I find my 9mm Morpheus is just about as good. Maybe it has a tiny bit of edge astigmatism, but I can't confirm it consistently. Otherwise, it complements the 10mm Delos very well.

The 14mm and 20mm versions have some FC, along with the 40mm.

I would also keep an eye out for used Pentax XLs. I have the 5.2mm XL and have never felt a need to change to a 5mm XW. I like my 10mm Delos a smidge more than my 7mm XW and 9mm Morpheus for star tightness and contrast across the field, but not by a wide margin at all. I have yet to try the DeLites, but they are reputed to be at least as good as the Delos, so I don't think you could wrong buying them. You'll be giving up a bit of field over the XWs, but that's about all.