russ

Don't image but will still look forward to it.

Ditto me too. Took a 7 year break and really loving it again now.

Those are two beautiful images Neil. Processing is stunning, so clean. And detail amazing to look at. Beautiful work.

I agree. I have a C6 and C8, both hold collimation incredibly well. Where as my newt needs a tweak more often. Getting back on track. I have SCT's as the newt is a massive pain to use on an EQ and I seriously have to be in the right mood for it. The refractor I love but it's aperture challenged. And while it's lunar, planetary and double star prowess are great, it deep sky much less so. The SCT is a dream to use, collects enough light for deep sky and does well on the other stuff too. It's not all roses though. Cool down is a nightmare and dew an even bigger one. A dew shield doesn't work, active dew control is a must. The refractor I throw on the mount, give it 30mins and it's good to go. And while it will eventually dew over, I am usually done by then anyway. No scope is perfect, SCT has its place.

Many thanks, pleased you both enjoyed it.

Forecast is looking great right up to and into the weekend. Definitely need to make the best of it. Who knows what's in store weatherwise.

That's a great report. Mars is a real surprise at the moment. I have a #25 filter and never thought to use it the other morning but will do on the next session.

Last couple of nights I have found very little difference between the 4" refractor and the 10" Newt on Saturn and Mars. The refractor did equally well this morning pulling surface markings from Mars as the Newt did the previous night. And I think the nights were pretty much the same. I observed Saturn early on 11:00pm and it was simply too low and not great. Some banding and Cassini, in fleeting moments of good seeing. Both scopes gave an equal view, atmosphere looked to be the limiting factor. On Jupiter the newt was decidedly better than the refractor. It was pulling crazy amounts of detail. In isolation the 4" was good. Anyway, superb read.

Great read, really enjoyed that.

Yep south is bad all the time. The airport, the town centre and Southampton beyond. We go out to the New Forest sometimes. Up to Turf Hill, on the Fordingbridge road. Better skies and clearer horizons. I can let you know next time we go. Its better in numbers.

Mars was a real surprise Rob. To already be picking out surface markings now with it so small. Going to be epic later in the year.

Thanks Stu. Things were really steady by 3am. Not quite as good this morning but not bad.

Yes all from the back garden. I'm actually Eastleigh rather Southampton. I just put Southampton as no one has ever heard of Eastleigh LP from our garden can be really bad, to the point of not bothering with anything other than the moon and planets. It all depends on the railway and the sidings yard. If they have their floodlights on its game over. Fortunately this was one of those nights they didn't M31 was really impressive. It was again this morning in the 4" refractor. Obviously not as good as getting out into the New Forest or something even better.

I have the 18.2mm, 13mm and 11mm DeLite's. I thought of doing the same, expanding the collection for higher powers. Especially with the 10" newt and 4" refractor. But after reading positive comments on Cloudynights about how well the DeLite takes a barlow, I decided to go that route. Plus it saves a lot of money too. So bought a used TV 3x barlow for £70. After last nights planet extravaganza I can confirm the DeLite loves being barlowed. The 18.2mm DeLite in the TV 3x for 200x, was a sight to behold. Possibly one of my best ever views of Jupiter. And then the 11mm DeLite with the TV 3x for 305x on Mars. Just brilliant. The view was totally unaffected by the barlow, as if it wasn't there. Anyway, worth a thought. Your 9mm would become a 3mm and possibly quite cheaply too.

With wall to wall clear skies forecast I setup the scope early evening, once the daytime heat had started to subside. Decided on the Orion Optics 10" newt. Not used this scope for a couple of months and first time using it with the planets. All previous sessions this year have been with the 4" refractor or one of the SCT's. Also eager to try out my revised and much slimmer eyepiece collection. Now only 4 eyepieces and 2 barlows. Observing started at 11pm with Saturn. Low down in the South East, framed by trees. Only have a 20minute observing window. It wasn't great. Serious heat haze meant Cassini was hard to spot. Best magnification was 109x using the Tele Vue DeLite 11mm. There were some brief moments where the banding was clear and a hint of Cassini. Not a good start to the night. Switched to DSO's for 30minutes and then went to bed. Decided it would be better to get 3 hours kip and then get stuck into Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Venus. So back out at 3am. Now seriously torn between DSO and Planets. Sky was so transparent, one of the best I've had from the garden. It almost felt criminal to ignore the deep sky stuff. Decided with M31 riding high it would be rude not to look. And it looked epic. As did M45, Double Cluster, M15, M33....... After a 30minute diversion we were back on track. First up, Jupiter. Straight in with the 11mm DeLite. Pin sharp, beautiful banding and instantly see the GRS. Next up the 8mm TV Plossl. Now more detail in the bands, my eye was getting adjusted. It was definitely my best view of the year. Better to come. Now the 18.2mm DeLite with the TV 3x barlow. WOW. Not just the best view of 2022 but possibly one of my views ever. It was so steady. 200x was no problem at all. Details in the cloud belts and around the GRS were so good. Small festoons and swirls. I don't think i have ever seen this much detail, not even with the Intes M603. Next up was Uranus. Not much to say really other than it was a featureless small blue disk. I did try 305x but its tiny. Moving onto Mars. Wasn't expecting much more than Uranus as I knew Mars is tiny at the moment. But to my amazement Mars just kept on taking the power. Settled on the same 305x used for Uranus. No problem at all seeing some dark markings on the planets surface and a hint of the polar cap. Caught Venus in the dawn sky, very low down. A boiling mess. And almost a full phase. Looked better naked eye against the pre-dawn sky. Highlight of the night was of course Jupiter at 200x showing all that detail. Just amazing. And what a difference it makes with the planets finally getting some decent altitude. After years of them scraping the horizon. Going to be a great couple of years.

I also don't usually take a scope on holiday but we stayed in Snowdonia last year and after getting clearance from the boss, I packed my son's SLT mount and Celestron C6 ota. Been amazed how well this combo works and it has now become my full time easy setup kit.

Love the ED100 but only as a visual scope.

I have fond memories of Meade too, so great to see Orion US are giving them another chance. My de-forked ETX 90 and LX90 10" were awesome scopes. As someone else said further up the thread, the mounts and electronics let them down. Having bought the LX90 and then finding I needed a cork mod kit to actually make it usable was disappointing.

Congrats on your first scope. The 10" Flex is a great scope. I had a few years back and loved it. My own recommendation would be the Nirvana series of eyepieces. OVL Nirvana-ES UWA-82º Ultrawide Eyepieces | First Light Optics They are an 82deg ultra wide design. This is a good news for a dob (or any scope with no tracking). As it means it will take longer for the object to pass across the field, and thus more time for you to enjoy it before having nudge the scope again. Plus having owned the ES52, BST Explorer, Hyperion and the Nirvana, the Nirvana (in my opinion) is optically the best sub £100 eyepiece as well. It simply ticks so many boxes for so little money.

I have no affiliation to them and no contacts there but perhaps he could contact Hampshire Astro Group, I think they possibly have the best observatory facilities on the South. Multiple observatories, buildings etc. Virtual Tour - Hampshire Astronomical Group (HAG) - Clanfield Observatory (hantsastro.org.uk)

I swear I searched for ages last night and turned up nothing worthwhile but looked on Ebay and thought I would checkout Skies Unlimited, lo and behold, they are there too: 1.25" & 2" telescope eyepiece endcaps / end caps | eBay

Yes I found those too on my travels. 30 mins well spent searching FLO.

Awesome - thank you. Will grab some when they come back into stock.

Haha found them now....awesome

Do you know, I searched FLO and couldn't anything for the eyepieces but did find a rather nice dust cap for the 10" OO newt. I'll go back and try the FLO website again. Many thanks.