PeterW

The APM angled binocular can allow you to use Naglers (Type6 work well, but have some distortions), the 12.5mm morpheus and 12.5mm APM ultrawide are well though if. Once you hit 75degrees or so the benefits get smaller, You can’t focus on the side edges as when your pupils move they offset from the exit pupils resulting in blackouts. Looking mainly into the field centre and not being bothered by the field stop is quite fun, day or night. The trouble is that for lower powers the 1.25” eyepiece limitation means you’re stuck with 24mm panoptic/APM UFF/ES 68degree. The APM run around 30x with those very wide fields. The only 2” model is the 150 which is costly, you then need to find 2” ultrawide that fit your Pupil spacing... though someone did machine the body of some ethos down a bit on a lathe!!! If you *have* to have the widest then the solution is the Nikon WX, amazing width and sharp at the edge, heavy brutes though. I’ve looked through one once..... wah!! there are many 70+ degree old 7x35 Porros, some pretty good, the edges aren’t amazing and the eye relief can be quite short, but the views are nice,; zeiss and Swarovski are only now providing AFOV now and they’re not cheap! feel free to ask more questions, I like my AFOV and use old Porros and an APM70. peter

Have you seen how small and complex those cameras are... no way to disassemble/mod them! Peter

A flexible tilty/angled/rotatey tripod mounty thing. Designed for imagers to flexibly point and align their camera and trackers.adjust and then lock in place. I’m playing with it for binocular mounting.... post to come. Peter

-20C T-shirt weather for Canadians! Not enough Romario you going for your lunchtime jog. Peter

I run an AZ-GTi off USB powerbank with a cheap USB-12v widget I found online, enough welly for tracking, fast motion and even allows for running it with a handset. Not sure how well it would handle the EQ mounts.... definitely not enough for an EQ6z Peter

The original “Telrad tape” they shipped with was pretty amazing, once stuck it just stayed that was forever, never worried about adding screws or zip ties. Of course I didn’t store the scope with the telrad attached so it wasn’t loaded too often. I am sure 3M do something even better now Peter

3D tool free... I always go measure my STL in case I’ve botched my openSCAD.... saves embarrassment. Peter

How good are your skies? From really dark skies they might it be possible, but not overwhelming, possibly be fitting from some filtration. In the same list would be the monkeyhead, california and rosetta nebulae. There are many big hydrogen nebulae out there that can be hinted at with binoculars, but they need special kit to really show much better.... big dobs ain’t the best option either as jet have smaller fields of view. Binoculars are best for rich starfields and clusters and shine best when their views can be stabilised as well as possible, then they can show lots of tiny stars. Peter

Found, rinsed and drying on the radiator :-)) Peter

I got the lower/power shorter dew strips and a usb to phono adapter, so I can power mine from a dual 2.4A USB power bank. Dewheater.com With a cheap usb to 12v adapter I can similarly drive an AZ-Gti for in field operation. Peter PS if I can clean the inside of my blower I mig save me a few pennies! (Where have I put it?!)

I got some powered dew strips for the front elements, but not the eyepieces. I had a generic squeeze dust blower but I used it to blow dust from some holes I was filling in the wall and it sucked up (and then blew out) some dust.... not much use! I probably ought to get another one for both uses! Peter

Eye lens misting is a pain, I did try to mock up a small fan to blow air across the eyepieces, hard to do and dries your eyes up.... so no real solution apart from avoiding breathing in their direction. Peter

I’ve made pairs for my 50mm bins, even an adapter ring so one set of shields can be used with two slightly different sized binoculars.... printing tall shields is time consuming. Mine are lined in Wilko flock to keep out the streetlights! Made some winged eyecups too for the other end. Just need imagination of what you want/need to make! peter

Be nice to understand what this means for scope sales as there are a number of German companies I’ve bought from. If there is a risk of paying “VAT” twice plus tariff plus handling fee then I’ll be spending my money on beer instead! Peter

Use it find darker spots. Of course large scale council relighting may have altered things a bit. The actual darkness depends on various factors like the atmospheric condition. I find SQM values more use for brighter sites, bortle values depend on visual detecrion of certain features, best for separating already pretty dark sites. peter

?surprised, the Hotech comes collimated and any adjustment screws and well buried and not easily adjusted, worked out the box just fine on my f4. Peter

Many of the Sharpless nebulae would fit this list as would a few more from the Integrated Flux lists, but certainly not as observable. ”The North America nebula is a monster”... I can attest that it certainly isn’t, there are a number that are bigger. If you want big then Orion cloaked in Barnards loop with the angelfish nebula on his shoulders takes some beating and makes a memorable sight. @GavStar got a good image Always been meaning to get another one with someone in an artistic pose in the foreground! I’ll need to make a note of the hand/scale image, good to keep in mind, I’ve tried to visualise M31 when looking at Andromeda. Peter

What do your bunnies look like, the link shows blurry doughnuts for the window (I get them on my old imaging source camera, but never then tiny black (on the chip) ones. Quick wipe or blow sorts them, though if I manually track the sun the bunnies move about and so Autostakkert averages them away, only a problem if I use the tracking mount! Peter

The smaller and darker the closer to the chip though it depends on the f-ratio of your scope. I’d give the window a clean before I tried to remove the window. Shine a brig tonight on the window, dust should be quite easy to see. I would hope why would have sealed their cameras in a clean place to minimise dust appearing. Peter

Muck arctic sport with a thick pair of socks, I also use them as slip-one for popping to the shops.... Peter

I had to recently get my own warm jacket as I was getting “too much” use out of the wife’s.... mine is lighter and warmer! You could also try the “lighter fluid” powered heaters... eg by peacock https://www.anglersnet.co.uk/reviews/tackle-and-bait-reviews/peacock-pocket-warmer-review/ or other similar ones. When fired up they can get very toasty and last for a long time too... new gloves are working good so far, but they’re in the cupboard in case of emergencies. Peter

My trousers are US ECWCS level 7, like wearing a sleeping bag... good reason they’re called “marshmallow pants”..... no pockets though 😞 Peter

Insulated rubber boots (I have muck arctic sport), insulated trousers (US mil surplus), fleece hat, down jacket (a recent revelation, hardly need any under layers with it). For hands I have some extreme mitts, with some thin glove liners (with conductive thread in the finger tips for touch screen ability), keep the cold off until I get the mitts back on. I went for a short walk recently and seriously overheated. PEter

Good to see you get great results with the narrower filter, I’m still hoping to try some of Gavs filters, see how my old unit could handle them. For big Nebulae, NV works quite nicely with small scopes... people seem to like refractors. Scale the aperture/focal length to the field of view you want. You can see some of these nebulae at 3x.... though they’re a bit wee! Peter

Would expect that Protopasta might do the same, though I’ve got some reels of their material unused, so should he OK for a while. Peter