Zeta Reticulan

I think you're probably correct in this. I believe they were two companies based in the ROC who sourced primarily from the PRC. I'm not totally sure but 'Barsta' (BST) was probably a portmanteau of the names of the two major distributors.

They were originally made by Barsta. They have been marketed with several brand names. I'm not sure who actually manufactures them now. The Barsta site has disappeared.

Renaissance? Purportedly he wasn't much of a drummer.

It was marsh gas exploding and reflecting off clouds in the vicinity of Venus, obviously ...

Aeroplane landing light?

Probably Jupiter, it's been mistaken for Zeta Reticulan scoutships for decades!

Yeah, it works fine threaded directly into the Orion 7-21mm zoom. Its threads are not compatible with some other zooms. Although it will thread into most of my other eyepieces. I use it a fair bit threaded into a 6mm Vixen SLV, effectively making it 2.6mm.

Oh right, thanks. So there could be many systems similar to ours whose gas giants are less easily detected? I thought the 'early solar system calamity' scenario was looking more plausible these days.

I'm pretty sure these are made by KUO and sold under a variety of names and liveries. Mine is an 'Altair Ultraflat'. I'm not over keen on the eyeguard, although it can be rolled down. I like its light weight and smallness, it's very much like a 19mm Panoptic. Mine doesn't get out as much as it should do, something I plan to soon rectify. In use I find it has a satisfyingly flat field with excellent acuity and colour separation. I believe APM first distributed these eyepieces. I'm pretty sure there is an SvBony version as well. Either way, s'all good!

Isn't the solar system a bit anomalous in having gas giants far away from the Goldilocks Zone? I thought that the majority of known gas giant exoplanets were much nearer their respective stars. In which case the explanation for the placement of the solar system giants would be indicative of some distant calamitous event. This event created the gradual migration of the planets to their present orbits. The event may be responsible for why Uranus lies on its side. Or not.

The biggest advantage is that I don't have to carry it out with my astro gear. lol

Yeah, I think it is a matter of being less 'box office' than he would have been back in the day. In some respects he reminded me of Arthur Koestler. Who also tended to be outside of the orthodoxy and who regularly seemed to challenge the prevailing scientific paradigm. Especially his support for Lamarckian evolution. Although with Koestler it was probably more a case of deliberate figurative cats among metaphorical (and possibly imaginary) pigeons. Not that evolutionary theory is done and dusted. I've always liked the Gaia hypothesis as it probably appeals to my inner hippy. Well, that, and I've probably read far too much Jung and Joseph Campbell.

They work well together. I usually use my BHZ with its 2" skirt as it sits lower in a diagonal. As a consequence I tend to use the Barlow with other eyepieces.

Well, I'm definitely a DeLite fanboy. They're basically a 62 degree 'orthoscopic' IMO.

Depends on the 70mm scope I reckon. You can see a lot with a 70mm refractor. Again, depends on what Celestron eyepieces you mean. The X-Cel LX series are very good, although I don't know who actually makes them. Celestron Plossls could be made by anyone. A lot of Plossls, regardless of what brand it states on the housing, are all made in the same Chinese factories. In my experience these are as good as anything.

I like a white plastic garden chair. I can leave it in the garden, and being white it's easier to see in the dark so I don't fall over it so often.

I never expected much, so everything I see is exciting. And I regularly use a 60mm doublet scarcely bigger than many finderscopes.

I’ve been experimenting with the stand-alone SvBony ‘F9125A’ element. This Barlow element magnifies by about 1.6x when threaded directly into an eyepiece. Which I assume it was originally designed to do. It is lightweight, well baffled, and with filter threads that are compatible with everything that I’ve tried in it. SvBony claim that the element has a diffraction coating. It may be an achromatic doublet although the only information I can glean from the SvBony site is that it is constructed from a 'pure optical glass lens'. In use it has a high transmission with very good acuity and colour separation. It dawned on me that it might be a good replacement for a standard Barlow element. So I swapped the stock element threaded into my SvBony T-thread, which has a standard twenty two millimetre barrel. The F9125A is lighter than the stock T-thread element and has the advantage of a filter thread. SvBony claim it weighs twelve grams with a height of twenty two millimetres and a fine thread M28.5*0.6 pitch interface. First impressions with this as a conventional Barlow were promising. I easily split all three elements of Alkalurops with a 60mm doublet. It was as effective on other doubles. Lunar and planetary observations were equally satisfying. Whilst viewing Saturn with my Sky-Watcher 80ED Evostar I did get occasional hints of false colour as Saturn approached the eyepiece field stop. This rapidly disappeared as I moved more on-axis. So I’m not totally sure what was causing this. I was using a 7.5mm Takahashi LE eyepiece for 160x. Atmospheric problems with Saturn being at a fairly low altitude may have been the culprit. The overall images produced with this hybrid Barlow were incredibly good, even when directly compared with my 2x Tele Vue Barlow. In fact, the F9125A displayed a brighter image, although I perceived the Tele Vue to have very slightly more contrast. Both Barlows displayed equally sharp images. I’m quite impressed with the F9125A, it’s definitely a keeper.

Looks superb. Although technically I think it's a Cassegrain as there's no meniscus lens. Have fun.

Achromats can be effective for lunar/planetary observing depending on focal ratio.

A lot of ROC companies source from the mainland. The Takahashi distributed 'Starbase' eyepieces are made by the Kubota Optical Corporation (Hanamaki). For retro volcano tops with a single coating they're fine. I'd rather have a set of Chinese made Vixen NPL's with proper multi coatings though. As a rule I tend to deliberately only buy Chinese made astronomical products. There are exceptions of course.

I have the Altair equivalent and find that a Vixen Porta II and TL-130 combination works if I stick to 1.25" accessories. For heavier eyepieces/diagonals I mount the Porta on a HAL-130 with the Vixen Half-Pillar.

I like QuickMap. SkySafari Pro is good as well.

Hmmm ... an 'all-rounder' is a bit of a Holy Grail IMO. I have a modified ST102 (aftermarket focuser) and it's difficult to beat for a portable rich field scope. I also have a 127mm Mak' on an alt-az. Either are hardly what I'd call an all-rounder though. Most would probably recommend a 16" Dob' as this is the usual response to any telescope purchasing advice on most forums. I'm not a fan of Dob's though. I have at least four all-rounders and they are all ED doublets ranging between 60mm to 102mm. So, I'd recommend an ED80 DS Pro combined with an AZ5 Deluxe. I have both of these. Although my 80ED (now with a Long Perng focuser) usually gets out on my Porta II/TL-130 as seen above with the 127mm Maksutov. Altogether the ensemble will be under a grand. The 80ED might not be large enough for the 'Dob Mob' but it is a capable scope with good glass. At f/7.5 it is still good for deep sky and rich field, yet also good for lunar/planetary. It is well balanced on the AZ5 and comes bundled with some accessories. The dielectric is fine, the straight through finder works and the 28mm EP is much better than it looks. My guess is that it's some form of Konig rather than a reversed Kellner as it is better edge corrected than I expected. Plus, it's probably indestructible.

A lot of Altair and TS Newtonians are literally rebadged GSO.