RayD

Good to see you, Carole. Hopefully you'll enjoy having a play with the 80mm Photoline. As I mentioned and, as noted by @gorann, you won't find much wrong with the Esprit 100 and it has the ring mounting rather than the foot mount which you want. If you have any questions about the TS just shout.

My one which Carole is going to try out is the f/6, same as Vlaiv's, and it is actually not bad at all. However, I definitely tend to agree with @ollypenrice and think TS are pushing it to provide a quality and reliable instrument under this at this price range. They work well at f/6 but I'm not sure I would want to try anything quicker from them.

I have a TS80 Photoline that I use very rarely which you are more than welcome to use for a while Carole to see if you get on with it.

Thanks, Kev. To be honest, it is the 6 hours of astro dark that I am most looking forward to (although the clear skies with it are a bonus)

My favourite flower. I love having lillies in the house, I think they smell gorgeous.

At the moment we have just secured another return flight for the day after the one that was cancelled, so we are back on. Fingers crossed it is much of the same when I'm there

I'm not so sure that anything with cabling apertures can be classed as light tight. I did a short video here showing the issues with light leak even on a fully screwed SX arrangement. I have the EFW2 and 3 also, like Adam, and I'm not certain I would suggest any of them as (daytime) light tight, albeit for night time imaging they are absolutely fine.

Thanks, Gina

Great result there @PhotoGav and aside from the sat trails the results are looking excellent. I had a good heart to heart with myself in Spain a couple of years ago when having a bit of a bad session with them. I balanced the pain of them in my images against the benefits of having them there, and the benefits came out on top. I was sitting 700m up a mountain with satellite broadband, mobile phone, satellite TV and using a GPS dongle on my mount. I came to the conclusion that they have become a necessary evil for the way I live my life. Fingers crossed the worst of them, Starlink, doesn't get out of hand and become impossible to process out! Great thread.

They do a dual type which will work on either. Handy to have if you swap over OTA's.

You can put on a longer dovetail plate and put a weight on the front to help. This is what I do with mine and it works well. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-counterweight-kits/adm-dovetail-counterweight-kit-dual-v-and-d-series.html Depending how far out you are, you may only need the longer dovetail and shift the whole lot forward a bit.

They are definitely pretty close. I've had about 5 sets in all, and still have 2, and whilst not absolutely par focal, for my focal ratio all have been as good as is necessary.

Sorry Carole, I wasn't clear. Yes I meant the night time forecast in Spain, which is looking very good. However, return flight has just been cancelled so it's all up in the air again at the minute

That's pretty challenging stuff, Carole, and so sorry to hear your friends news Hopefully the 'corridors' being established mean they can all now start getting back to where they need to be. On a brighter note, fortunately the night time forecast is looking excellent, so I am bursting at the seams to get everything fired up there and get some good imaging time under dark skies.

As much as I was never really a prolific reader, I did and do love a book occasionally but I still prefer print to screen, generally printing out manuals and instructions so I can read them in physical form.