Franklin

Sad news. Mr Lukehurst, as you all know, was famous for supplying hand-made dobsonian telescopes but I had to laugh when I met him a few years ago. He hand delivered a 6" refractor to me, which turned out to be his own private telescope. When I quizzed him in regard to his choice of a 6" F8 achromatic refractor over one of his own larger, dobsonian mounted reflectors he replied "They're just so sharp".

I reckon the current lull in used equipment purchase is due to the aftermath of the "covid lockdown period spending spree" phenomenon. Everyone has come to their senses now and have realized they have too much kit and are basically skint!

Roll the scope in a camping/yoga mat before putting it centrally in a rucksack. I only use refractors and like to keep them "objective up" to avoid the risk of dust/foreign bodies falling onto the rear lens element from the eyepiece end.

Opening the curtains this morning well before sunrise and I was greeted with a clear South-Western horizon, for a change. Venus was bright in SSE and a very slender crescent waning Moon below it and to the East. I couldn't see illusive Mercury with the naked eye, probably my aging eyes! But scanning with the binoculars revealed this tiny world, still further East and slightly higher than the Moon. The Romans called this little world Mercury, the Greeks Hermes and the Egyptians Thoth, I call it a faint dot of light on the threshold of visibility. Still, it's nice to see the Suns closest neighbour.

Best place to be IMO, visual observing can be magical. Even with just a deckchair and a pair 7x50's, the night-sky will never cease to amaze and impress.

Astro-spares, is that new? not seen that before. The ED103S F7.7 came out in 2005 and later changed its name to the current SD103S. Not a bad price provided it's all in order.

I had a similar problem when using a pair of zooms in the binoviewers, changing the power on them would also turn the eyepiece diopter focuser.

Agree- Don't overtighten your clicklocks!

Eyepiece collecting, now that's a great indoor hobby😁.

I am indeed and it's now mounted on an SXP2 which is out of this world! Just need this deluge to stop so I can get set up and give it all a spin.

It's a fabulous telescope and I'm confident you will be very impressed with it. The reason for the sale was I have the Vixen SD115 and am hopefully moving in the New Year so need to lighten my load.

Boo hoo, it's gone now. Thanks for starting this thread Dave, how much commission do I owe you?😁

21 at the moment I think which is way more than I need but I have two setups and I use all 1.25" with one and 2" with the other. A set of SSW's, a set of HR's, a set of LVW's and a few SLV's. I could move on the set of LVW's and just stick to 1.25" really but it's more of a collectors thing I think. The HR1.6 and HR2.0 don't get much use but again, there's 4 in the set! It may be cheaper if I started collecting stamps or dead moths or something😁.

Wrong time of the year to be selling, everyone's skint from Xmas😁.

Spot on Dave, this actual scope is from 2003/4 and there are not many of them around. The ED102S F9 and its shorter sibling the ED102SS F6.5 were supplied by Vixen in the 90's but they came with the vintage Vixen hammered green livery. 2003 saw a revamp of Vixen products, to keep them in line with the then new Sphinx range of mounts and so Vixen scopes became white and blue, known as the "wt" range. In 2005 the ED103S F7.7 was introduced which was the precursor of the current SD103S F7.7 and so this 20 year old ED102Swt F9 was only produced for a couple of years which makes it rather scarce. Putting the history aside, judged on it's performance it can hold it's own against any of the higher tier 4" refractors I've had the pleasure of observing through. ps. Thanks for the plug👍.

Try loosening the RA motor bracket just a very small amount, not so it's loose, just so it's held rather than tightened right up. Small differences in the gears can cause this binding as the tolerances on these kind of mounts is not great. I doubt it's the grease but if you do want to strip, clean and regrease, use lithium grease.

Wow, some nice kit on there! Keep putting the lotto on😁.

Snap! I did exactly the same thing and the damp must have caused the wood to swell up. Brought it indoors to dry out and shrink and gave it a light rub down with some sandpaper and all is back to how it should be.

I have a Lynx Astro strap for 5" scopes, it works great on my 4.5", 4" and 3" refractors. Best to get the next size up rather than having a tight fit, as you can always overlap them.

Of the 88 constellations we know today some are quite modern, especially in the Southern skies but the majority go back to ancient times and are of Arabic and Greek origin. However, looking at the extent of the ancient Egyptian pantheon it wouldn't be a surprise if these peoples had different names and recognized other patterns in the skies to mark their Gods in the heavens. I suppose if the great library at Alexandria had never been destroyed by fire we would know a lot more about it.

The Hippo is "Taweret" the Egyptian Goddess of birth and fertility and in the image appears to be making an offering of a bull to "Horus" the hawk headed God, presumably to gain protection and wellbeing for the child at her feet. I've read that the Egyptians saw "Taweret" in the Northern sky where we see Ursa Major. Orion, as we know it, is one of the most prominent constellations in the sky and it would have been the same for the ancient Egyptians, their name for Orion the Hunter was "Sah" and was associated with the God "Osiris". The stars you have made an arrow out of are Capella, the stars of Perseus and the Pleiades.

I've noticed this off-axis colour in my ED doublets and I think it's from the eyepiece/diagonal.

SLV 12mm

On a Takahashi. Don't let @JeremyS see this!

Excellent tripods! ps. if you need a 1/2 pillar for it, pm me.