Pixies

Nothing, at night, is as scary as a camel! They can creep up at you silently with their soft hooves, then make the most loud and disturbing snorting noise. (well, nothing without sharp teeth)

With a reflector, with an exit pupil > your dilated pupil, then the shadow of the secondary starts to make up a much greater proportion of the image entering your eye, so it starts to dim. With a refractor, it's just a case of wasted light. So yes - I'd say 25mm would be the longest focal length you would use in an eyepiece. In which case, go for a 25mm EP with the widest apparent FOV you find comfortable.

or try a slightly oversized torx driver bit and tap it in, then unscrew.

Yes and yes. Perhaps not 'a must' for everyone. However, if you are not proficient at yoga, it does help when finding objects near the zenith! Getting a 2" wide field EP was an eye opener (excuse the pun). Get the lowest powered EP you can, that gives you an exit pupil of 5-7mm depending on your age.

I received a MkIV Baader zoom last week, along with the matching zoom barlow. I wasn't intending on buying the latter, but rather the Classic-Q model, but it came together as part of a Astro Buy & Sell ad, hardly used. In fact the barlow was unused. I didn't even try mounting it on the 1.25" fitting, but went straight to the 2" adapter. It's appears much more secure. The zoom-barlow can't be used like a classic barlow design, as it is made to fit the zoom and/or camera T-piece. A £70 adapter is available though to allow you to insert an EP with a 1.25" nosepiece. One can, of course, remove the barlow lens section and thread it onto an EP nosepiece to get the 2.25x magnification. My intention was only to use this with the zoom anyway. I was disappointed that it isn't parfocal across the zoom range, like a camera zoom lens. It's not a disaster, but a pain when you are trying to find the point a double-star splits.

Hi, Just like to say that this thread from the original post has been an absolute mine of information for me and I've shared it far and wide to beginners (as I was/am) looking for info on EPs. Thanks for that. Sorry to hear about your health, but glad you're OK.

First ortho with some green writing. Thanks to Saganite

I agree. I was wondering why the double star observing forum was under the 'Science' section.

I think you might be putting a little too much faith in the tolerances involved in the manufacture of the secondary assembly! Also, are you certain the adjuster screws are EXACTLY level?

Yes. A wee bit out.

Looks OK to me:

Let's see if it's worth the fuss. 3 green squares for tonight - so a prime time to test it out this evening.

Will do. Our garage has a workshop and there's this very old 70s style electric heater in it. I've never used it in the 20 years we've lived here. I don't think I'll start now, it'll probably burn the place down.

My RACI has a dew shield built in - but I might make up a longer foam one. Luckily the EP is removable, so I can keep it in my pocket. However, as someone else has said, you can just keep the end caps on when you're not using it. I'm going to go for a dew shield for the dob and keep my fingers crossed I don't need heaters. I can also keep my EPs inside if I need to - although I'm sure there will be complaints if I keep going and going with the doors open in the cold. As for the Telrad, I might knock up a quick heater/resistor.

Perhaps you could replace one of the screws with a longer bolt and use that for extra leverage? How about standing it up on the adapter end, stuffing it full of kitchen towels, then gently applying a little Plus-Gas to the joint? Leave it for a few hours then try again. Obviously you need to be careful about where the stuff goes. Also - if it starts to get to the desperate stage, is the adapter sacrificial? You could hold it in a bench vice and then use the strap wrench to turn the body.

That has made it to the select list of my Astronomy bookmarked links!

Hello to west Edinburgh from east Edinburgh

Ah - I don't have the 8mm. Just the 12 and 18

I find that it you raise the eye-cup as far as it goes, then rest the underside of your eyebrow against the eye-cup, it's a good distance.

They didn't appear to do much at first try. Then I took one out and had a look down the threaded hole and can see what looks like a pale plastic/nylon bung. If you tighten them both up a bit, you can feel some resistance in the focuser. I would guess that you could lock it up with a bit more pressure, but don't fancy tightening them up much more.

This pic is still labelling them 14a:

Fixing screws apparently:

I used this lot: https://www.efoam.co.uk/packaging-foam.php And chose "packaging foam cut to size".

A very popular and often recommended option are the Skywatcher Heritage dobsonians: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html The latter has quite a waiting list, though.

Had a shot myself. I think in future I will use a much MUCH sharper knife. I have some spare foam so I can re-do that layer if my fussy-side gets the better of me. The case was a perfect size, off eBay from a seller getting rid of the boxes that some stage lighting originally came in. I might try that pluck foam for the upcoming EP case.