Zermelo

I may have missed it, John, but have you yet tried for the Pup with the Svbony planetary zoom? Light scatter was the main focus when I was comparing mine with other EPs, and I'm still undecided about how much was inherent and how much down to external factors.

I believe it's not that difficult to create this sort of geodata mashup these days, using services exposed on websites. Then there's a similar function built into SkySafari, and possibly other apps, that let's you share your observing session with others. I've not felt the need so far, and I imagine some won't want to share their locations, but it would be interesting to have a map showing in real time the locations where some active observing is taking place.

If you particularly want a comparable 10mm, you could get a Svbony SV190 10mm UFF (apparently measured as more like 10.5mm). They have the same 60 degree field as the Starguiders, they're sharp and have a flat field. The current Amazon price is just under £50, but it's about half that on Aliexpress for the next few days, if you're comfortable going there (that price may not include tax).

To close this off - and apologies for the slight diversion of the original thread - my Dob arrived today. The advertised price online was what I ended up paying, i.e. VAT was already included, postage was free, and I didn't need to pay any import duties. I've just checked eBay again, and the price is unchanged, but it's now showing as out of stock.

DHL delivered the Bresser 10" that I bought on sale: I'm glad I didn't go for a 12" ! This will be quite enough to handle. I've not used a Dob before, but I'm quite happy with the build and finish of this one, in the lounge at least. I'll be replacing the Bresser finder shoes with some Synta-type ones that I have already. I'll be using one of my RACIs instead of the supplied finder, and I need to decide whether to pair it with a red dot or fit a Telrad base. I already have a magnetic inclinometer, and I'll investigate some sort of printed setting circles. The Hexafoc focuser is decent enough, and will probably be sufficient, but I might swap in the fine focus kit from my Bresser frac.

Mine arrived today, very pleased with it. Thanks again to @GasGiant

A trip of a lifetime, and a fascinating read. Thank you for posting.

I like the M82 in particular.

Mine has just landed, apparently.

Yes, it's happening everywhere BBC News - Supermarket favourites victims of shrinkflation, consumer group Which? says https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68040610rt56. N0

It was an odd evening, conditions seemed to be in flux all the time. High cloud appeared, then vanished, to be replaced by low cloud from the SW. While doubles were difficult at the start, I finished the session by splitting 52 Ori (just), yet when I turned to Jupiter for a second look, it was horribly mushy. Some of it could have been local. The Svbony 9-27mm and 7-21mm zooms both performed very well again, the former matching my 9mm Morpheus for detail on the moon. One interesting point: when I looked at Clavius, I saw what looked like two rills on the crater floor, close together and making an angle of about 15 degrees. I've never seen these before - does anyone know what they are?

The seeing is very average here, and doubles are difficult, but the moon is surprisingly good at around x160. The central peaks of Eratosthenes and Tycho are both picked out in the shadow, and Rupes Recta is prominent.

I managed to miss the last two nights due to other commitments, and tonight looks like being the last clear one for a while (according to a consensus of websites, though CO is currently flitting back and forth). So the Mak is out cooling, and we'll see what's happening after tea.

Inside, I can star hop from the wall light to the waste paper bin every time. I don't know why I use goto outside.

I'm sure the Geordies were out observing in their T-shirts last night.

There are a couple in the For Sale section, but I think OP might not have enough posts to be able to see it.

Also discussing here.

An update on this. I just received a proper invoice from Bresser by email. It looks like they do this only after the order has shipped. So, the price on eBay is inclusive of VAT at 20%. I'm not yet sure how much import duty will be payable on landing. On gov.uk, the "third country duty" section for telescopes says 4%, but there's also a section for EU that says 0%. Possibly that is down to HMG still not imposing reciprocal duties following B*****.

It damps down in 2-3 seconds with my Skymax 127, if I've tightened everything up. I'm not sure about the Vixen, perhaps someone else will have used one with an AZ-GTi.

Cloudy here at the moment, though some of the forecasts say clearing up in a couple of hours.

So you will be using goto. As already mentioned, you may find a red dot finder useful during alignment - sometimes the first star can be outside of a reticle eyepiece field, depending on how accurate your setup was. In my case, if that happens, I swap in a 30mm plossl and roughly centre it with that, before switching back to the reticle. I used to use a Telrad as the first stage in target acquisition, but now I find that goto will easily put the scope within the field of an optical finder. I switched from 8x30 to 9x50 to get the extra depth.

No, I didn't see that message when I ordered. I just now checked the order details on my phone eBay app, and it doesn't say that taxes are payable, however it does say "to view the tax invoice associated with this order, visit the order details on desktop". But the order details on the desktop eBay do not seem to mention any tax invoice. I just repeated the order as far as the first payment screen, and I do see the message that (FLO) Steve posted. But if you then click on the "learn more", you just get taken to a generic information page, with nothing specific to your order. Of note in that information page, it says "If additional tax is applicable on your eBay purchase, you'll see this indicated on the listing page and the tax amount will be shown on the checkout page before you pay", neither of which was the case with my order. The info page also says "you can view and download a tax invoice from the Order details page in your Purchase history" which, as I said, doesn't appear to be there. In the section "Items delivered to the UK", it says "prices on eBay.co.uk are shown inclusive of VAT", but there is also a section "Goods shipped to the UK from abroad" (is that different?), which suggests that VAT on items exceeding £135 is not collected by eBay, so I'm none the wiser. I've hardly ever bought stuff of this value from abroad before. Anyway, the estimated delivery date is last week of Jan, so I'll let you all know.

Exquisite.

Perhaps if enough people own up to this, the manufacturers will start making kit with built-in flavours. Strawberry: Mint: Blueberry: Tangerine: Pistachio:

Ah, I've just seen that you have asked about this in a separate thread, which will complicate your responses. Someone there is thinking that your collimation screws are missing, whereas I thought they were just difficult to see in your photo. If they are missing for whatever reason, then I agree with the other comment, try to get some thumbscrews and then you won't need to use a key.