jjohnson3803

Amazing. The forum *does* need a "Wow!" emoji.

Absolutely. I was very, very close to joining the stampede, but held back for some reason. I think it's probably a fine device for what it does, but what exactly does it do, given my location, lack of enthusiasm for post-processing, and so on.

I'm in a B7-8 or thereabouts and I'll second the comment on doubles. I used to think of them as somewhat boring until rather recently, but there's something quite satisfying when I split a close pair. Enjoy!

Spectacular! Sigma Orionis is one of my favorite visual targets.

Beast! Beast! Beast! Beast! 😃

This is about 12-in long with dewshield retracted and weighs around 5 pounds and I believe was designed more for photography although I use mine for visual: 72ED It's a decent little portable scope and I'd be quite surprised if it's not sold under different brand names in the UK / Europe. Couple it with a lightweight mount and carbon fiber tripod and it's airliner friendly. (I use a ScopeTech Zero and Innorel RT90C tripod.) Just one possible option.

I'm a confirmed refractor fan so I am biased, but a 127mm triplet should show you some very nice views. Visual won't ever be able to match what you can do with long exposures, stackers, etc., but it's very relaxing compared to futzing with uncooperative technology.

I had a sunken patio at my former house, but it never flooded. I figured they either put in a bunch of drain tiles when it was built or maybe the thing was poured over a meter or so of gravel.

It can help if you have an indoor hobby to spend time on until the clouds move out. I've decided to dig my HO trains out of storage - it's been cloudy here since before Christmas...

Binos are light, portable, and (can be) relatively cheap. But, as mentioned, they can be hard to hold steady and it can be difficult to view objects high in the sky without lying on your back. Some people do use filters in them, but you need binos that accept filters or you'd have to kludge up some filter holders or something. Although I have several small to medium refractors, I've been surprised at how well a 50mm finder scope works on a lightweight photo tripod. The finder I use for casual observing has a helical focuser and can accept different eyepieces, so I can change the magnification when I choose. Plus it's f5, so it's short and super easy to pack for travel. I'm thinking of maybe trying this one just to see what it can do: 60mm RACI And it can always be used as a finder if it doesn't work out as a "real" scope. Just another option you might want to consider. Conventional wisdom says the best tool to deal with light pollution is a tank of gasoline / petrol to drive to darker skies. If you do try EAA, the Seestar 50 has been getting very good reviews and it's relatively inexpensive.

I waffle. I live in bad LP, so a S* could certainly reveal objects (like most galaxies) that I have no hope of seeing from home. OTOH, while the pics straight from the system look ok, it seems many people post-process their images to get "decent" images. Do I want to mess with that? Not sure. I do need an indoor hobby though to occupy me while I sit under the winter cloud deck here.

Clouds. Again. 😒

Looks like it's worth exploring. 👍

3 Vixen SLVs, 2 Paradigm / Starguider / Mooga-dooga / Whatever, 1 AT PF, 1 BST planetary flat or something, an ancient University Optics 12mm Plossl, and an equally ancient Celestron 40mm Kellner. I'm thinking of replacing the Paradigms with SLVs. The others might get donated to my club's annual used equipment auction since it's probably not worth the effort to try and sell them.

I don't know the answer to the OP's question of why so few 6mm, but I've been quite happy with my 6mm Vixen SLV.

I have an RT90C and have been quite happy with it. Much easier to transport than my former Manfrotto 475B, although I do miss the geared center column at times. IIRC, the bowl thing was an available option but I passed on it and got the basic plate. It's firmly held in place with a latch on the side. I've used it with 50mm to 102ED to ST120 refractors. If anything, I'd say the weak link was the mount, not the RT90C when using heavier scopes. The Stella does look virtually identical to the Innorel.

About a mag +2 orange point source in the bowl of the Little Dipper last year - reminded me of a bright Mars. No movement that I could see, just faded away after about 2-3 minutes. I have more. 😄

A boatload (literally?) must have shipped from ZWO - I've gotten emails from three different US vendors that SS50s are in stock now. I was about to order one, but decided to wait for a bit. No real reason...

Thinking of my grandchildren, I'd be inclined to go with a right angle correct image finder of 50mm or 60mm with a helical focuser like a StellarVue so you can use different EPs without crosshairs. These are small. inexpensive, lightweight, and require mimimal futzing. They can be mounted on a lightweight phototripod. And since they're correct image, they'll match moon and sky maps to minimize confusion with flipping, inverting, etc. Also, they can be sold easily if interest wanes or be used on a larger scope as a finder when and if the day comes. Aperture is small but they can still show a lot of nice targets. FWIW.

Took out the 72ED for a little moon time this morning. Earthshine was quite pronounced. Then a bit of a glitch. There was a moderate south wind blowing and a gust blew one of my lightcurtain stancions right off my deck rail. I lost about 10 minutes of observing while I retrieved it from the rose bushes and set it back up. Finished up by splitting Porrima with a 4mm EP. With the wind, the seeing was not that great - the stars would split and then merge.

I pulled the M10 center rod out of my ES Twilight-1 tripod and replaced it with a 3/8 from my local hardware store. You might be able to do the same if you want to skip an adapter.

I use CI diagonals in all my scopes so no need to flip, invert, etc., but I do use the FOV circles in SkySafari. I set one up for my most used EP and most used refractor. It's very handy for hopping and the FOV isn't horribly far off for my other scopes, depending on what EP I use. Enjoy!

I sold it awhile back, but my classic (circa 1982) C8 was a very good scope IMO. With the EQ wedge and stock tripod it was a bit of a pig to move around, but I do miss that simple clock drive and usable setting circles. No electronics to burn out, no buggy software, etc.

Here's an Astrotech family portrait that might help give an idea of relative sizes. AT doesn't sell outside the US, but I assume the same scopes are sold under different brand names elsewhere. I initially bought a 102ED (red arrow) but it was quite a chunk. Great optics, but it was really bigger / bulkier that what I wanted. It was the same length as my ST120 and a bit heavier. I was leaning toward an 80ED (purple arrow), but its size is nearing the 102, so I ruled that out and bought a 72ED (green bar) which is about 5 pounds and 12 inches long with dew shield retracted. The 72ED is roughly half the weight of the 80ED IIRC and I only gave up 8mm of aperture. (If you're curious, the short, stout fellow on the far right is a 90mm triplet which has been discontinued. That one was heavy and beyond my astro budget.)

I did ok handholding my 15x70s for brief periods since they were quite light, but a tripod was a big improvement for keeping them steady. Things might have changed, but the 15x70 Skymasters were notorious for poor quality control. My first pair arrived with a baffle flopping around in a barrel and I was never able to collimate the replacement pair very well, so I eventually binned them. Here's one example (not me) from another forum: I ordered them in Canada from Amazon.ca on the half price sale. Got them in three days. Returned them the next day (today). If those were true Celestron then their quality control has made darned sure I won't ever order Celestron again. But others have had better luck.