jjohnson3803

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.

That looks quite similar to my Innorel RT90C which has become my main tripod. Quite light and portable. My heaviest scope was about 5.5kg and I used an SW AZ5 with it before switching to mainly using a ScopeTech Zero (and selling that scope 😏). FWIW.

I've shied away from Dobs due to size and weigth, but I might have to reconsider after seeing your new acquisition.

My 72ED refractor is a bit stern heavy with the stock 2-speed focuser. Anybody successfully use wrist or ankle weight bands around their OTA to balance better? I see some on AMZ for about $20 US. Or should I just look for a much longer Vixen rail and bolt something to that if need be?

Among other scopes, I have the Meade version of the ST80. It's pretty light and portable for camping. I did upgrade the focuser which added a couple pounds to it. Also, since it was only about $US 100, I don't worry much about anything happening to it. I've used it on a photo tripod, but prefer a light weight alt-az mount. It does ok on the moon if I stop down the aperture, but I wouldn't recommend it for planets. YMMV. If your budget allows, you might want to look into some fast ED doublets - better glass and still not overly heavy or long. I have an AT72EDii which I love, but the vendor doesn't ship outside the US / Canada AFAIK. BTW, Kerr and Schwarzschild? Very clever! 😊

These are sold under several different brand names. I have Agena and Astrotech branded ones (about $US 60) and I feel they're good quality for the money. You can always sell them to recover some of the cost if you want to upgrade later. I particularly like Vixen SLVs (about $US 175). If you go to the Cloudy Nights eyepieces forum, user Starman1 posts an Excel sheet that lists specs for a boatload of EPs. Actually, he might have posted around here as well.

Very nice! I live in such heavy LP that M37 and M38 are often difficult to find with my smaller scopes.

Sounds like an excellent back-up plan.

I have mobility problems tilting my head back, so my bino viewing is limited in altitude. Lying on my back doesn't help much due to the weight of my binos, so I have looked at monos. The best I've seen are 10x40s and I'd like a little more aperture than that. I have a couple scopes that are compact and travel easily with a lightweight mount and tripod - a converted 50mm RACI finder that accepts different EPs and a 72ED refractor that's about 12 inches long with the dew shield retracted. Either are superior to binos for me since I'm either looking down or horizontally. The 72 has some astrophotgraphy features if I ever go that route. Also, if you don't have a steady hand, a scope on a mount eliminates the shakes. YMMV. Good luck! Add: If you don't mind ordering from the US, Stellavue has some very nice 50/60/80mm RACI finders with helical focusers that could be used visually for travel.

My ScopeTech Zero works well with my 72ED, but it's a rather compact f6. The Zero has been discontinued, but the Sightron mount looks like a twin. I should mention I chose the Zero for its light weight and portability less than maximum load considerations.

Yes, I should have been more clear. I often randomly scan around with a low power EP and stumble across interesting asterisms and double stars whose identity I don't know at the time. It would be convenient to engage tracking to keep the scope centered on the (unknown) target like using an old-style RA clock drive.