HollyHound

Great to see all these lovely images of the moon 👍 I finally got out last night for the first time in absolutely months (work!)... had a lovely hour just finding new and interesting stuff on the moon, with the faithful "grab and go" 76mm 😀 Hoping to get more time again soon 🤞

Thanks for taking the time to show this procedure Mike 👍 I have both Caloclean and Baader Wonder products and probably should give my DZ a clean sometime too, but always been very wary of going anywhere near refractor objectives 😬 This gives me some confidence to give it a go... very very carefully 🤞

Have to agree with @JeremyS here, as I own the first three of these scopes. They're all superb scopes. The FC-76DCU is my most used and grab and go scope... I could easily live with jus this scope if necessary 😃 However, the FOA-60Q is sublime for double stars and lunar... it just keep delivering magnification when required, far outweighing it's (small) aperture 😍 Good luck with your choice, there are loads of superb scopes out there 🤞

Haven’t used it in anger yet, but I’m impressed so far with the layout, clarity and of course it’s laminated too 👍

Got this superb Lunar atlas for Christmas, to add to my collection of Lunar books/atlases... really love this one 👍 Happy New Year everyone 😄

Congratulations, that's a beautiful set of scopes 😄 Noticeable size difference between the TSA120 and FS128 😮 Enjoy.... hope for clear skies soon 🤞

As mentioned in my post above, I have fitted a Dioptrx within the eyepiece of my XW40, which works perfectly. I’ve yet to try or need to do the same in my XW16.5, but will certainly try it when I get the XW23 🤔👍

Hi again @Louis D... I see that you and @Don Pensack did discuss this here... so I've linked it in case any use to anyone 👍

I don't currently observe with glasses, although that may be around the corner one day 🤞 I note that both the 16.5 and 20mm XWs have a quoted eye relief of 20mm (as per the other XWs), but also noted that usable eye relief is 12mm from the eyecup, so seems that might be an issue indeed. I do have some astigmatism, which shows itself on lower power eyepieces (20mm and up), but have solved that on my XW40, by installing a Dioptrx inside the eyecup of that eyepiece... quite an elegant solution, as I align the mark with the label on the eyepiece and just rotate it appropriately to set the correct position for correcting astigmatism 😀 More details here...

Hi John, I've had the 16.5mm since it was launched, and although time for astronomy for me this year has been very limited, for the times I have used it, I can say that this eyepiece has been a superb replacement for it's predecessor in my set (the XW 14mm) 👍 There is very little field curvature (the 14mm suffered from this), contrast is excellent and I find that (for me) 70-85 degrees is the sweet spot for being able to take in all the field comfortably and not feeling constricted. You have XWs in the lower focal lengths so you will also know how comfortable the view is on these eyepieces, and the 16.5mm continues with that same comfort. I always find my eye feels relaxed when using any of the XW eyepieces 😀 Ergonomics and comfort are also up there with the 75 degree versions. Being able to set and fix eye relief, plus the rubber tops make them very usable. In short, they continue the excellence of the original XWs, remove the FC issue from the 14 (and 20) and provide an additional useable field. Their only downside is cost, but then I would put them up against TeleVue anytime and these aren't exactly cheap either 😬 Now that I have a bit more time, and with darkness back again, I am about to order the matching 23mm this week, to complete the set again... which shows the confidence I have in these. Hope that's been of some help...

Glad it's arrived safely, and thanks for contacting me (I'd completely forgotten I had the sales post running still 😮). Hope it works well for you... I've got the 0.75 version now, which works perfectly for me now too 🤞 I'm also, at last getting some free nights back to start observing again, after many many months of hectic work, so hope to be out joining you all under the stars again very soon. Just had two weeks away cruising in the Caribbean, to ease myself into it, which was rather fun... especially seeing Orion at an almost horizontal angle against the horizon! Unfortunately, I only had my Nikon 8x30 binoculars, but got some good views of the moon, even though it was "challenging" keeping it in view with the ship moving around 🤣

Nice one @JeremyS, you'll love this one... I've had the 3.7mm and it was pretty awesome in my 10" Dob 😀

Lovely image... thanks for sharing 😃

Looks a great setup, and so glad you’re getting so much use with it… it’s a great scope 😀

I am always in awe of your sketching (and observing) skill @mikeDnight, this is an extraordinary image 😍 I've not been as active on here recently (work) and hadn't realised you've also got an FS-128 too... I have no doubt you'll make great use of it, and look forward to your observing notes/sketches 😃

Not 100% certain, as I no longer have my DC (which is very similar to the DF, apart from focuser), but the DZ might actually be significantly shorter, due to having a sliding dew shield... Of course the dew shield on the DC/DF can be unscrewed I believe 🤔 I found no perceptible difference in my usage between DC and DZ, however my observing skills are nowhere near that of @mikeDnight and likely needs exceptional seeing to notice much anyway 😬 Where the DZ is better is in ergonomics... that sliding dew shield and much better focuser 👍

They seem to have a good stock of a fair number of the Takahashi range again... good to see after the last few years of supply issues 👍

Wow, I hadn't fully comprehended how much bigger than the FC-100DC that FS128 really is 😮 I thought the Mewlon was big compared to my FC-76DCU and FS-60CB... but that thing is enormous 😍

That looks like it could be a really superb wide field scope... will be very interested to see how this pans out (no pun intended) 😃 This is of course normally used by imagers, so visual use could be awesome 🤞 Congratulations on the addition to your stable 👍

The StellaMira 80mm f/10 is a superb scope, and will give you superb lunar, planetary views... only thing to bear in mind (as has been mentioned), is that it is quite heavy for an 80mm scope... the FC-76DCU is much lighter 🤔 It does work on exactly the same setup as I posted earlier though 👍

It's as far as I would ever go, carrying scope/mount/tripod in one unit... the FC-100DZ always goes out (in it's bag) separately to the AZ-75 mount... no way I'm risking carrying that 😆 I am fortunate, in that I have literally only a single corridor, two doorways to go through and no obstructions 😬

Agreed, the FS-60CB is a superb little scope, and on a lightweight tripod it's super easy to carry out and about... however, I still think the FC-76DCU (especially given the it comes apart for packing) is a more versatile and (arguably) better "one scope" 🤔

Having (or had) all the scopes discussed - FS-60CB (with and without extender), FOA-60Q, FC-76DCU (with and without extender), FC-100D, FC-100DZ, and if you're looking for a truly versatile grab and go scope setup with absolutely minimal setup and pack away time... my suggestion is the FC-76DCU 👍 Here it is on the Berlebach Report 272 tripod, ScopeTech Zero mount, right angle finder and the APM 7.7 to 15.4mm SuperZoom... this setup has remained pretty much like this for almost three years now (minus the zoom), ready to go inside my home office, along with the Berlebach observing chair. The telescope/tripod can be carried out (one handed if needed) in 2mins, followed quickly by the observing chair, and I'm observing in minutes... reverse to put it away. It has been without a doubt, my most consistently used setup, even with 100m, 180mm and 254mm scopes available and is going nowhere 😃

No worries, I knew what you meant and just eager to show the advances in eVTOL (having been working quietly away on it for a few years now)... we all have had those "in a few years, we'll all be doing (or not doing) this"... then it rarely happens 😆 FWIW, I think visual astronomy will remain around for a good while, but might go the way of film camera and vinyl records... something that is done, partly for nostalgia. However, I absolutely love it and will hope to be doing this for however long I have left 🤞😃

I think EAA is the only type of "imaging" I would consider for the reasons you outline... great to hear it's working so well 😃