Zeta Reticulan

It might be worth contacting Sky-Watcher about the size of the focuser screw. In my experience the only focusers that lock properly without affecting collimation are high end aftermarket ones like the MoonLite.

SvB do the whole range, but without the twist-up eyeguards. The coatings look different to the Vixen, but I don't see any difference in use. I'd say they are both made by the same manufacturer.

I bought the 14mm Morpheus some years ago (when they were cheaper lol) and it's one of my favourite EP's. As the 'Titchy Sixty' 60mm Altair doublet is, well, titchy, I only take a couple of EP's out with it. One is a 19mm Panoptic and a 2x Barlow. This gives 3mm and 1.5mm exit pupils. The other is 6mm, so with the Barlow 1mm and 0.5mm exit pupils. If they made a 6mm Panoptic I'd be really happy lol. A 6mm Delos is way too heavy.

Gerald North's 'Observing the Moon' is good. He does tend to get a bit 'jackanory'.

I'd go with a small refractor. Or get smaller dogs.

I looked at that Morpheus but it's a tad heavy for my 60 EDF and it isn't exactly 6mm.

I just wanted to compare it to an 8mm NPL.

SvBony have a version. They claim a 68° AFOV (naturally). SvBony also claim seven lenses in five groups. It's a possibility it has been redesigned, although I doubt it. FWIW I thought the eye placement was slightly better than with the Orion. Although it's probably my imagination.

I used to use a 1.25" Baader BBHS Amici a lot, except I didn't know it was BBHS as Baader were initially reluctant to claim they were silver coated, possibly as silver at one time had a reputation for tarnishing. I couldn't understand why the GRS was so 'red'. Now I do lol.

Use a BBHS prism and it really does look red.

I think it has to be sideloaded.

Good choice.

Oh right, stereopsis by another name lol. Yeah, I'm not totally sold on these theories. I believe binoviewing with a telescope is not true stereopsis. There are many arguments constructive discussions about this. I'm not sold on those either.

Refractors and reflectors are different animals. I think where most people go wrong is thinking that a 60mm refractor isn't much different from using a 50mm finder scope. I'm not familiar with the 'summation rule' but Patrick Moore once stated that a 4" refractor was roughly equivalent to a 6" reflector. Obviously the larger aperture has greater resolution, but I see what he meant. I have a 150mm Newtonian and a 102mm ED doublet (FPL-53/lanthanum). Although I seriously doubt a 40mm reflector would match a 60mm ED doublet or triplet. Admittedly a 60mm refractor has its limitations. The sheer portability makes up for many of them though. Plus, a 60mm short tube ED refractor is great fun.

Which is why my original response depended on what the OP meant by portable. I'm consistently surprised just how much I can see with a 60mm refractor.

I doubt 10x50 binoculars would show the Cassini Division, Galilean shadow transits, M27, or split many double stars. Let alone show surface albedo features on Mars.

You'd be surprised what you can see with a 60mm ED refractor.

Depends what you mean by portable.

That's the thing, we only know about Earth. There could be other 'Earths' of course. As a species humans are around 200 000 years old. The evidence for the oldest life on Earth is about 3.7 billion years. The probability that anything else evolved elsewhere within about 4 billion years is the intriguing bit.

I've not used any of them so it's difficult to comment. What I do like about the Baader is that I can use it with a 2" skirt in a 2" diagonal. It sits lower in the diagonal like this. I had one of these briefly, but it got returned due to visible debris in the field.

Difficult to say. I believe it's a Bird-Jones type. I'd see what it's like when you receive it.

I've got a feeling the 8-24 is the same as the Altair Lightwave Premium. I think these are JOC and possibly have lanthanum glass.

It's the probably that is the uncertainty. The universe is about 14 billion years old I believe. Earth is about 4.5 billion, the Sun being about 4.6 billion. It may have taken more than 10 billion years for stars to form that produce complex elements. If this is the case life on Earth could well be among the first life to emerge (if not the first).

There may be life inside our universe. Although I'm not optimistic. There may even be life outside our universe, if there is an outside. I'm with Fermi, I'm not convinced yet that there's life (apart from on Earth) inside our galaxy.

I think a lot of it boils down to what you do with the zoom. The BHZ and Pentax XL are probably the best for general observing. But some of the others on the market are more than adequate for planetary viewing or splitting doubles IMO. I have a collection of zooms, some expensive, some not so, they all get used.