Pixies

Yep. There was an 8mm BST in the classifieds earlier. You won't be able to access it just yet, as you need a certain number of posts before you can. But it's also up on AB&S(UK) - https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=179440 We can vouch for @azrabella - it'll be in excellent nick and it's a bargain price. If you don't like it, you can sell it without losing anything. But you'll like it!

The planets will look small. Even in a powerful scope with a long focal length, they are never as big as you would imagine from the pictures you see. You should see it clearer and sharper but much smaller than that picture (atmosphere permitting). Have a read of this sticky thread:

The open clusters in Auriga are coming into the winter sky now. M36, 37 and 38. M37 is the best I think - looking more like a globular cluster You can see them as blurry blobs in binoculars but get a scope with x75 on them. M37: (image from wikipedia) Nearby is NGC1664 - the "Kite Cluster". My favourite OC. I think it looks like a stingray: (image from the sky live) and not forgetting the Christmas Tree cluster (NGC 2264): (from Twitter. it's really hard to find an image without all the nebulosity from astrophotography)

I have 0.5 astigmatism and don't bother with specs. I see a little distortion with exit pupils > 4mm and it's slightly distracting at 5mm. I'll use my specs with my 30mm and 35mm EPs if I want better views across the whole field of view of a large starfield. But at that power I'm usually looking at (or trying to find) large nebulae with a filter, so the distortion is not noticeable and I'll dump the specs. With 0.25 I'd think you'd be absolutely fine without specs for pretty much anything.

Are you using both eyepiece adapters at the same time? Could you show a quick pic of how you set up the focuser with one of the Eps? Cheers.

The Squid Game? or something to do with diffraction slits?

Is it this? Meade DS-2130ATE https://jjmaden.tripod.com/meadeds2130ate/index.html https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/707703-just-joined-the-meade-fleet-ds2130ate-long-tube/

Speaking as an 8" dob owner, who likes nothing better than lugging it about in a car to a dark site. If that was my only option, living under the worse light pollution, it'll soon lose its appeal. I'd suggest a small, light and portable setup that can be loaded, unloaded and set up in minutes. There's not much worse than facing packing everything up at 1am when you're cold and tired. So: alu tripod, small alt-az mount (or AZ GTi) and a fast 4" refractor (no collimation even after lots of car journeys).

With my 8" dob, I find I use x150 most regularly for planetary work. Occasionally x200 for Saturn, but often the seeing is too poor for anything higher, especially as it's low. Last month I had Jupiter at x300 on a rare night of exceptional seeing. Normally I save that magnification for trying to split really tight stars. Lots of nudging involved at that magnification, too.

@clean - have a search for a podcast called "Actual Astronomy". A couple of Canadian visual astronomers (Regina-based I think), releasing 2 podcasts a week. Will be some really useful info in there - although you probably don't have as cold weather! Also - as I don't recall anyone posting a link to this yet:

There's a 1.25" SW dielectric just gone up in the For Sale section

Do you want a 2" or 1.25" diagonal?

If you are coming down from Inverness to Edinburgh, there's Mills Observatory in Dundee, but I don't think the scopes are available for public use just yet.

I wouldn't touch that even with someone else's barge-pole! You can find "Maxvision" gear on AliExpress, which is often surplus kit left over from a manufacturing run for a bigger name manufacturer (it's mostly all made in China except the real high-end stuff), but the Angeleyes stuff looks like rip-offs. I could be wrong though - so someone please correct me if I am.

I've been finding Clear Outside very pessimistic, recently. But as you get nearer to individual nights, they start to turn orange/green. I'll bet that it doesn't say like that all week! (Mr Optimistic)

I was never really taken with my little 90 Skymax. OK for lunar and planetary, but next to my 8" dob, the resolution was poor. It was light and quick to cool down though, so great when I was rushing about trying to observe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn last year. But the stellar views were dark and lacked the tight views of a refractor. Splitting doubles with it was more a chore than a pleasure (for me). If you wanted a terrestrial option, I think it would be good, though. Also - having recently observed with the slightly bigger 102, I'd say the extra 12mm of diameter makes a considerable improvement!

The Baader T2 diagonal looks interesting, and not as big as I thought initially. One thing I'm concerned about is how long the optical path might get - as the original 0.96" diagonal was obviously pretty short. I could try and find an adapter so the T2 diagonal could screw directly to the M43 female thread at the end of the Vixen draw tube (although I'd lose the ability to put a filter on that side of the diagonal).

I have both a 7mm University Optics (Circle-T) ortho and an 8mm Vixen LVW The latter is a great eyepiece, comfy to use and a relatively wide view. As I don't use driven mounts, this is a real benefit. However, there have been times that the ortho shows some feature that the LVW didn't - and I don't think it was down to magnification. A little different in size though.

I think I might have to see one in the flesh. Look at the teeny-tiny Vixen 0.96" diagonal!

Ah - not worried about that. I have a 1.25" visual back that fits the Vixen draw tube, using 1.25" EPs. So I've been using an Astro tech 1.25" mirror diagonal (shared with the ST80). But I'm wanting a separate diagonal now, so I can have both scopes set up simultaneously. So really wanting a neat 1.25" prism diagonal. The Vixen ones have a single little clamp screw, but I'd prefer either a compression ring or a twist lock. The Tak seems perfect.

This is initially for the Vixen 80 (f11). Was hoping for something not too big - the original diagonal is a 0.96" one (very dinky). The Baader looks nice and with so many fitting, I could probably connect it direct to the visual back. But I think the Tak might be more appropriate.

https://www.bresseruk.com/By-manufacturer/Explore-Scientific/EXPLORE-SCIENTIFIC-Two-Room-Pop-UP-Observatory-Tent-Weather-protection-for-telescopes.html

I'm still a refractor newbie and when hearing the term "prism diagonal", have thought about the cheap starter-kit erecting prism diagonals. Therefore, in my mind, a decent mirror diagonal was better than a prism. Anyway, turns out my assumption is wrong - especially after seeing the prices of some higher-end prism diagonals. So - a few quick questions from me: Are all prism diagonals correct image, or are the high-end ones the same as a mirror? Fast scopes - mirror best, but slow scopes - prism better? At what prices do decent prism diagonals start ? Say compared to reasonable mirror diagonals starting around £70? Happy Friday, everyone 🥳

Apologies of this has been posted already. https://appgdarkskies.co.uk/policy-plan and also a link to the PDF: https://appgdarkskies.co.uk/s/APPG-for-Dark-Skies-10-dark-sky-policies.pdf

The Trapezium. There are more than the 4 main stars (A, B, C & D). Stars E and F are harder to see and depend on very good seeing. Some info here: