angusb1

I use a pair of AE binoviewers which are chinese made and almost identical to the TS ones.  The thing to make sure of is that you get a set with the self centering diopters as these make it much easier to keep the EPs centred in the binoviewer.  Also worth considering is the length of the light path in the binoviewer and the clear aperture in it. I got a Siebert MultiMag OCA 1b from here http://www.siebertoptics.com/SiebertOptics-OCA.html#Ad 1b which allows me to reach focus in all of my scopes with a 1.25x magnification.  I use either Vixen SLV EPs or BST Explorers and the views on planetary and lunar objects are wonderful.  For lunar viewing in particular I always use the BVs.  I can see the full disk of the Moon with a pair of 18mm BSTs and my Orion Optics VX10L which has a focal length of 1600mm, and, depending on how good the seeing is, for higher powers I use either:

a pair of Meade 4000 9.7mm for 206x and a 1.2mm exit pupil

a pair of Vixen SLV 9mm for 222x and a 1.1mm exit pupil

a pair of BST Explorer 8mm for 250x and a 1.0mm exit pupil

I have a pair of Meade 4000 6.4mm EPs as well but I find it difficult to merge the images and the magnification is too high for the seeing at my house anyway most of the time. For high power viewing I probably use the 9mm SLVs the most and the BST 8mm the least.  The Siebert MultiMag OCA is better quality than the barlows I have used before I got it and I prefer the lower magnification it delivers although it can also give 2x or 3.5x in different configurations.  If I upgrade any part of this it will be to send the BVs off to Harry Siebert to get them supercharged so I can use EPs with a larger clear aperture for wider views.  I think the low mag OCA is worth having more than more expensive BVs as it means I can use any scope I like with the BVs as long as the focuser will cope with the weight and the chinese ones like the TS are light.  I would recommend reading through Harry Siebert's website.  Although the appearance of it is difficult sometimes, the info on there about binoviewing and binoviewers is excellent and helped me no end to choose what I wanted.

I hope this helps you with your choice.

My new (to me) Intes MN71

With any luck this could be the kick in the behind the Americans need to get on with their manned space programme again. Will we be looking at another space race?

These are really cool. I looked into getting one as a portable grab and go, apparently the optics are really excellent, they are very well built, and they have an interesting finder arrangement which uses a rotating secondary I think?. Looking forward to some 1st light reports!

An interesting page I found about them here

If as a scientist, I cannot reproduce observations of others, which concerns a claim running counter to scientific theory, and I cannot find a mechanism to support this (assuming a thorough search or prior knowledge), how can I do anything other than reject the claim?

You can't reject the claim unless you can falsify it. If the claim is not falsifiable in the first place it is a worthless statement. If someone asserts that a small aperture scope can show better views or more detail than a scope of larger aperture they need to specify under what conditions this can happen. That way a test of the scopes under the specified conditions can be carried out. Otherwise you will never be able to say that the claim is false because there could always be some set of conditions that haven't been tested yet where it could be true.

Personally I think the whole question is a very subjective one with regard to the enjoyment of the viewing experience. After all we're talking about an experience which one person considers more pleasant than another experience. The question of resolution is more objective and could be tested.

Funny thing isn't it, there's something about the view through an apochromat that is very pleasing. Best answer is to have an apo and a large reflector

I think the question the OP should be asking is not which scope to buy for planetary viewing, but which scope to buy for planetary viewing first.

And then there's SCTs......

Fair enough.

Maybe my ED120 is not a serious planetary scope then

But it still gives me darn fine views of them

Do you prefer it for planetary over your 10" reflector?

I use this:

Then focus using the lens focuser. Works pretty well. You need a barlow to get enough backfocus to use a diagonal though.

That is very cool. I have been thinking about how to build a binocular telescope but had thought it could use a reclining chair like a dentist's which was moved along with the scope on a rotating base. This is a much more elegant design. Looking over your shoulder whilst standing up makes it portable as opposed to having to be stationary in an observatory. Truly ingenious and some wonderful engineering.