Stu

Perhaps if you look like this.....

When does it arrive then Mike?

Which telescope are you talking about Daniel?

Nope, too tempting

Still showing as in stock, wonder if they have more ex demo units?

The simple answer is.... 'it depends' Basics here, Magnification = Focal length of Scope/Focal Length of Eyepiece. Fundamentally a 100mm scope will have a certain resolution so will cope with a certain level of magnification, let's say x200 ish. The focal length will define which eyepiece will give you max magnification. In many cases, the shorter the focal length of the eyepiece, the shorter the eye relief which means it is less comfortable to observe. In this case, the longer f/l scope let's you use longer f/l eyepieces to achieve the same mag, so therefore more comfortable. Exceptions to this are more expensive eyepiece designs which have consistent eye relief across the range. Coming back to different focal lengths scopes, depending on the type of scope, a faster focal ratio ( focal ratio = focal length of scope/aperture or scope) can result in certain abberations becoming more visible. In an achromatic refractor, you will see more chromatic abberations (false colour) and most likely more Spherical abberation which makes things softer at higher powers. That means that the f10 scope 'may' produce better higher power images than the f7. ED doublets and triplet apo objectives are used to over come these issues in faster scopes. With a Newt, coma becomes more and more pronounced as you get to faster focal ratios, say below f5 or so. This is the effect where stars appear to become little comets towards the edge of the eyepiece with their tails pointing away from the centre, rather than being points of light.

Yes, it's all rather silly and pointless. I've had wonderful view through fracs, SCTs and Dobs. The common theme about the best nights has been being under a nice dark sky. Seeing the whole Veil in a widefield frac is something you can't do with a dob, just as seeing Markarian's Chain in detail or spiral arms in M101 or M51 is something you would struggle to do with a small frac. 'Orses for courses as they say

I know, dreadful little pea shooters they are, don't know why anyone bothers looking through them

Yummy

Very nice Avtar, welcome to the club

Fairy nuff

I wonder if it could also be a 'Lunar Quest'? Phases make the auto tracking a bit more difficult but still a simple plonk down, self align to the moon would be great for outreach.

What a fun piece of kit, it's really good to see a bit of new tech being brought into these mounts to liven things up a bit. Question.... I assume the mount it doesn't actually level itself but detects if it is not level and makes sure the scope starts from a level position, and tracks accurately?

Lovely scope Dave, and in beautiful 'as new' condition by the looks of it. Looking forward to hearing about the views, should be cracking.

Great news about the chip Dave, and I don't think that's a bad price including the mount. It looks really nice hope it performs well.

Great app Kerry, thanks for that. Installed

Cool, we are agreed then, that's one more off the list.

Well sticky friction sounds quite logical so no need for embarrassment

Shame, that does look like a chip. Won't affect performance at all but it will affect resale value so don't pay too much for it!

I think, dredging my brain for old physics lessons, sticktion is possibly referring to Static Friction, rather than Dynamic Friction ie the difference between the starting friction and that when it is moving.

Looks great, thanks for that. I still don't think that makes it totally clear, would you say the orange oval is correct?