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To the naked eye we could barely see it from our bortle 7 skies. It was so faint I almost dismissed it. But when our neighbour to a photo with his phone we all stood back in amazement. I really should have got in a car and driven somewhere darker.

Nothing on the South Coast tonight. Pretty crummy night all round.

I was only looking at these today on Aliexpress. Their offer of the day. Look nice. I bought my son the SVBony 18mm and 24mm UFF eyepieces. We were so impressed with those. Maybe one of these at 14mm to compliment the other two.

I have made myself up a small travel setup for when we use the family home on the Isle of Wight. Initially it was a Starwave 70, much like yours but also wanted more aperture to make the most of the much better skies. A dob, even a 6", was out of the question. Not enough room in the car and the flat isn't big enough to leave a scope behind, we share it with my sister's, so there is an agreement to always leave it empty. So I went with the Orion ST120. Really didn't care about CA, only doing widefield and DSO visual. The ST120 sits nicely on the Vixen Porta. All slots in the car without annoying Emma. And the views are what I want. It's my ninth ST120 since 2003. I love it but always seem to go looking for something else and then end up back at the ST120.

Great review. It is one of the best value eyepieces on sale. I wouldn't swap mine for anything. I've sold all my high power eyepieces.

That looks great Rob

Amazing images.

Just seen this here and on You Tube. Total shock. Only watched his comet update last weekend. Very much miss his You Tube videos. My sincere condolences to his friends and family

Also remember, what ever you decide to go with, it will be the wrong choice. It's a given. A couple of months or year down the road, you're start getting niggling doubts that you should have taken a different route. Then it starts all over again. It happens to us all.

For visual with lightweight accessories the original focuser is fine. But for 2" accessories it need swapping out. I just put the Astro Essentials focuser on mine and love it. As for a mount, the ED120 Pro is not heavy. If I can't be bothered lugging out the NEQ6, I'll use the CG5 and it works well for visual. In fact, I really do not know why I bother using the NEQ6 with the ED120. The ED120 Pro with rings, dovetail, diagonal and eyepiece, weighs in at 5.5kg. Very comfortably in the operating range for EQ5. And an absolute breeze for HEQ5. NEQ6 total over kill.

If it was me, definitely the ED120 if the price is similar. I'm sure the optics are very nice in the Starfield 102 but I know for a fact they are great in the 120 as I use one as my main scope. Detail on Jupiter this past season, when conditions allow, has been superb. Doubles are extremely nice.

I have a few (ED80, ED120, C6, OO 10") but really, really fancy a C11 ota. My goal to find one for the summer and next planetary season.

I second all of this. The Baader Orthos are superb and the SVBony 3-8mm zoom is my outright fav eyepiece, trumping the TV DeLite and Pentax XW in my collection. For all my planetary views in 2023 and my single only view in 2024, I reach for the SVBony over all else. So much so, that there was no place in the collection for the 6.5mm Morpheus and 9mm Delite. Also a shout out for the Baader 8-24 zoom but its just not as special as the SVBony. Baader has a variable AFOV, which is annoying and the build is not is the same league as the SVBony.

That looks awesome, hope it's a cracking shower for you. That was my plan too and the forecast was holding up and then suddenly yesterday all the forecasts changed and now wall to wall cloud until Wednesday next week.😭

That sums it up for me too.

The blurp sounds good and I did enjoy my LE 5mm and 12.5mm. Just not sure I want another straw like afov.

The Starbase link is all Japanese and not much cop.

Here are the specs: TPL-12.5 Focal length: 12.5mm Eye relief: 9mm Apparent field of view: 48° Lens construction: 4 elements in 2 groups Size: φ39 x 51mm Weight: 90g TPL-18 Focal length: 18mm Eye relief: 13mm Apparent field of view: 48° Lens construction: 4 elements in 2 groups Size: φ39×60mm Weight: 110g TPL-25 Focal length: 25mm Eye relief: 18mm Apparent field of view; 48° Lens construction: 4 elements in 2 groups Size: φ39×71mm Mass: 140g

The more automated and high tech AP has become, the more I don't want to do it. And that's how i felt in 2008 But I really get the appeal to those that love their tech. It looks absolutely awesome.

I feel your pain as well. I have a railway goods yard at the bottom of the garden. They have a hundred of those lamps. Creates a massive light dome brighter than a full moon. I just limit myself to moon and planets mainly. Our neighbour has also taken to growing huge tree like shrubs all down the fence line. They are currently 10-12ft tall and block my entire North East to South East horizon. I think he has done it to spite me knowing I go out with the scope. Lotto win is the answer. House with no neighbours in a bortle 2 sky.

Very nice Rob

That's a shame John. The forecast was a bit off that night. I set the alarm for 2:30am and woke up to total cloud cover. Was supposed to be 100% clear.

Wow I bet that's stunning to look through.

New plan. Can't stay awake. So getting back up for the planets and the moon. Spend Saturday recovering.