Tiny Clanger

Gneiss, with maybe some striations caused by glacial transportation would be my guess . Fits with the location.

http://alanchuhk.com/Moonbook_3v5.pdf is not bad for background info.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-morpheus-eyepiece-t-adaptor-m43-t.html The description sounds to me like what you want ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer®-Photographic-SandBag-Manfrotto-Universal/dp/B01E5350TI/ref=sr_1_11?crid=1FWXP7WZL9TG2&keywords=tripod+stone+bag&qid=1648074223&s=electronics&sprefix=tripod+stone+bag%2Celectronics%2C316&sr=1-11 A couple of tough triangular hammocks for £13, very handy for holding caps and oddments.

First , and absolutely vital with a maksutov, because of its closed tube , you need to leave the 'scope outside to cool down for at least half an hour before it will give a decent view. Until then , air currents within the tube will make the view poor, and the more you magnify your view, the more you magnify your view of the air currents ... Check your BST , is there a smear or fingerprint on the lens ? Is there a rattle if you give it a gentle shake ? Did you buy it new, or could a previous owner have taken it apart ? Eyepieces are, physically, relatively simple things, there's not much to go wrong , so once the above factors are eliminated, I'd be looking elsewhere in the setup to find the problem, it may be there is a weakness which the 8mm is simply showing up . I've no experience (and can't find much about) that particular 'scope and mount, but I can tell you on a decently steady night (and after at least 30 minutes cooling) I get a good view of the gas giant planets and the Moon at 187.5x with my BST 8mm in my 127 skywatcher mak, which has a slightly longer (1500mm) focal length than yours, but it is a bigger 'scope, and on a very sturdy AZ5 mount. I'd suggest if your eyepiece has no obvious defects , first check that the diagonal is properly and firmly seated , the skywatcher one which came with my mak was pretty flimsy and I didn't trust it . If that seems OK, maybe checking the collimation of the mak with a star test can confirm if the internal optics are out of whack . The starquest may not have the ability to be collimated, I don't know , if it does you should see 2 sets of 3 screws on the back plate , they are definitely not things to mess with casually though. How to do a star test to check collimation https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/how-to-star-test-a-telescope/ If you try a star test, and it appears the 'scope is out of collimation, as it is fairly new I'd contact FLO rather than mess with it myself, even if there are the screws there to adjust it, it should have arrived in decent condition , and they will, I'm sure, help. Same if it turns out the BST was a rogue one that slipped through QC (assuming you bought it from them). I'd not buy another eyepiece before tracking down what is going on here. You don't say whereabouts you are, maybe a quick and easy way to get to the bottom of this would be to find an astro soc or helpful local who can have a look and has the experience to say if the view falls below what the instrument ought to give. Heather

No, virtuoso is a package . But the mounts are swappable, i.e if you went for a viruoso with a mak on it at some time in the future , you could swap the mak out and the dob in .... Go for the 150 over the 130, otherwise you will forever be wondering if you'd see more with the bigger mirror ...

I promise to treat your (adopted) baby well 🙂 I saw a tiny cloud gap earlier, and dashed out for a quick squint at the Moon with the grab & go 102mm /600 'frac and 10mm NLV, I only had a handful of minutes before that gap closed up, and then there was an even briefer cloud free Auriga, so I got a few moment's look at M38 the Starfish Cluster before I had to accept defeat, but the NLV was easy to use, and gave a really nice crisp image and was parfocal with my BST 12mm which is a bonus. I look forward to giving it some proper use asap. 🙂 Heather

Yep, in geological terms, a youngster . The single term Tertiary officially gave way to the two Paleogene and Neogene periods as far as some official (officious? ) Commission was concerned about a decade ago, maybe the members all had shares in textbook publishers ? I'm happy with everything but MpH in metric, but it will always be K-T boundary to me, the brain can only take so much change ... https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Geoscientist/Archive/August-2010/Tertiary-to-do

It does indeed, all clean and shiny and obviously very well cared for . It has a classic look to my mind, somehow it reminds me of 1980's cameras, in a good way 🙂 . I'm grateful you didn't want all three ! Heather

I have far smaller ammonites, and once found one the size of a wheelbarrow wheel (but didn't keep that one , it took 3 of us to carry it ... ) so , especially on here, I think it's more that the eyepiece is used for the scale of the prehistoric creature 🙂 Heather By the way, you thought the Vixens were Japan made ? That's what the sticker on the box said 🙂

Yep, I was actually browsing 9 & 10mm possibilities, and had reached the conclusion that I didn't want to go for a new TMB clone (£40 ish) , and the only course to get something worthwhile was to wait for something nice to come up second hand, when Mr S. put the ad up. Mine or the ammonite's ? It's a Hoploscaphites, from the very top of the Cretaceous, right up by the K-T boundary (which I'm supposed to call K-Pg boundary now, but fail) just before the dino killer meteorite hit , so 70 million years or thereabouts. I confess I didn't find it myself, it was a gift from a fellow geology nerd, a proper pro palaeontologist, a Canadian who was working in the states, it's from Dakota. Beautiful thing, it still has some iridescent nacreous shell on it ! Heather

Arrived today, from @Mr Spock a rather nice 10mm Vixen NLV, thanks @Ags for saving me the bother of deciding between this one and the 9mm by buying that one 🙂 I took the pic on that bookshelf next to the ammonite because on another thread someone speculated that I must have some interesting bits of geology , around the place, and this is one of my best ! Heather

Right, time to wield the tape measure : The 150s circular rotating base has a diameter of 36cm There are 3 small protrusions beyond the circular base (it's the rounded triangle actual base, with 3 plastic feet which rests on the table/ground/whatever) The protrusions are about 1.5cm each. The actual 'wooden' white base on its own is 44cm tall The 'scope mounts on a dovetail (aka vixen type) rail , and you can slide the 'scope along the rail then tighten the knob to lock it in place where it balances well with whatever accessories you use. You can lower the 'scope , mirror end down, to make it as compact as possible , which would make the whole thing 53cm tall , but with mine correctly balanced ready for deployment mine is 57cm tall. The tube itself is at the most 19cm in outer diameter when measured at the front, where there is a thick plastic collar housing the secondary. There are the 2 rods the front extends on, and the clamps too, and the focus tube which protrudes by about 6cm, but they are well within the imaginary cylinder you can project up from the circular base. Hope that helps , if there's any useful detail I've missed, let me know. I don't own bathroom scales so can't confirm the weight, except to say , not too heavy for me to pick up in one go (complete with the sturdy low triangular, metal legged table I made for it ) and carry the whole thing out into the garden. And I'm a weedy girlie . I'm pretty sure the 130 base is smaller, because ages ago I mentioned to someone on here that I'd read on the cloudy nights thread for the AWB OneSky newt. of the 130 being neatly mounted on a bargain Ikea 3 legged stool (something like 'Kyrre' ?) and they checked the dimensions and said the stool top was too small for the heritage base. Heather

I can't help with the 130 dimensions, but I'll measure my 150 'parked' in about an hour and give you the dimensions , bit busy just now ! H

Great stuff 🙂 Its such an easy 'scope to use. love it. First thing I saw with mine was Saturn, accidentally spotted through the spare bedroom window when I went up to dump the box up there the day I got the 'scope. Too tired to take the dob outside, I carried it up, plonked it on top of the box, and had my first ever , slightly wobbly (from the box) view of the planets rings through a grubby window , and with the included 10mm eyepiece. Magic ! Interesting that you had the exact opposite problem to the usual focuser annoyance , perhaps they've reduced the slop on purpose (or just by accident ) Spend some time in daylight lining up the RDF on something distant, and get the clamp fixed at the correct balance point with your eyepiece in place so the tube tends to stay put when you loosen the altitude knob ( you will need to re do that after fitting a shroud , and maybe after upgrading your eyepieces too) Hang on to the 25mm ep, it is worth using , also simple 32mm plossl will give you a decent low mag. for finding targets for £30 or so. Looking forward to hearing how you get on ! Heather

Yep, Pleiades are visible from my light polluted garden with the naked eye, and are just lovely in a wide field 'scope , that's one of the times when you want a big FOV. Try your binos on them , you will love the view, when the Pleiades are up I often finish an observing session by looking at them, doubt I'll ever tire of the sight. 🙂 And yes, that does sound like a Taurid meteor 🙂 There's a vast range of info online, some favourites for me are the desktop downloadable stellarium program , which gives you a date, time and place specific zoomable sky map with labels, also available as a website and an app for android . There are many similar apps available for both major flavours of 'phone . What's going on in the UK in the coming month is very nicely set out here http://www.whitby-astronomers.com/sky-notes and https://binocularsky.com/newsletter/BinoSkyNL.pdf This is an interesting read too : https://in-the-sky.org/newsindex.php And while I'm here, link to Binocular Sky's informative page about supporting binos https://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php

As you realise, unfortunately £120 is a pretty low budget for a whole set up. Do you by any chance own a photographic tripod ? Needn't be a particularly wonderful one, and if you can sit to observe (which is a good idea anyway) it won't need to go very high . You can attach an ST80 like the £120 ish startravel https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-80-ota.html to a standard photo tripod screw ( the screw which usually holds a camera) with an adapter like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html . That is a rather expensive one at £40, I suspect you could find something similar but cheaper on ebay, I'm linking to that one because I know it does the job, as I have an ST80 on a photo tripod using that clamp myself. If you don't have a tripod, I'd suggest you do a few things : first, mention that you need a tripod to friends & family , lots of folk have one they don't really want tucked away somewhere. Worth looking in the widows of any 'cash converters' type shops too . Second, put a wanted message on here asking for an ST80 , someone may have one they'd sell you, the usual price is around £70 or £80, and they are not too big to be posted . You might strike lucky , there may even be someone with a suitable mount/tripod they don't need. Third, if people never know what to get you for Christmas, ask for a voucher you can use here https://www.firstlightoptics.com/first-light-optics-gift-vouchers/first-light-optics-gift-voucher.html Heather

If you have a tall monopod , it makes a good support to keep binos steady, many pairs have a standard threaded socket at the front, and you can get simple L shaped brackets . Add a cheap ball head and it makes viewing much steadier. Have a look in the binocular section on here, especially content from BinocularSky, and his excellent monthly newsletter and website. Good news by the way (you could do with some I think 🙂 ) most alt/az heads at non-stratospheric prices use a standard 3/8" tripod leg to head type screw, (note that 'most' though, I've not looked at them all !) , so the flimsy tripod most 'scopes get bundled with can be improved with something photographic and beefier. For instance, my 127 mak and AZ5 are on a manfrotto 55 I've owned for decades, and it is very secure there. So, if you insist on not getting the 130 heritage as you should , at least you ought to be equipped to swerve the rubbish bundled tripod problem, altho' you might not reduce the cost much by buying separate mount & OTA rather than a mount/PTA/tripod package.

Mine is the 102 S. 600mm , the hexafoc . is really nice, and it is indeed a tidy looking 'scope. I had it on a £130 ish alt az head from teleskop-expres in Germany, which the 4kg mass of the 'scope was pushing the limits of . It is much happier on the Berlebach Castor I managed to pounce on on here , which would have cost me somewhere around £250+ new .

Simul-post 🙂 Heather

Are you thinking of the 102 xs Stu ? There are three now four ! (they've added a 1000mm one I don't recall seeing before ) versions of the 102, the 102xs, which is the tiny short one with (reputedly) different glass, a 460mm focal length https://www.bresseruk.com/BRESSER-Messier-AR-102xs-460-Hexafoc-Optical-Tube.html?listtype=search&searchparam=102 xs the one I have, the 102s at 600mm focal length https://www.bresseruk.com/BRESSER-Messier-AR-102s-600-Hexafoc-OTA.html the 102/1000 , 1000mm focal length ( you guessed that, didn't you 🙂 ) https://www.bresseruk.com/BRESSER-Messier-AR-102-1000-Hexafoc-Optical-Tube-assembly.html?listtype=search&searchparam=messier ar and the 102L which is 1350mm focal length https://www.bresseruk.com/BRESSER-Messier-AR-102L-1350-Hexafoc-Optical-Tube-assembly.html?listtype=search&searchparam=messier ar OP might wonder why the weird different lengths , answer is ( briefly) longer tube acrhros control CA better. However, as I said, there is always a trade off ... the longer the tube, the harder and more expensive it is to mount properly, and obviously the more cumbersome it is .

I bought the 102mm achro as a speedy set up grab and go to take advantage of brief cloud gaps in my garden , it's OK for wide field but , to my eyes hopeless at high magnifications because of the C.A. , so I don't use it for planets. Other folk seem to notice CA less (on another similar thread, there;'s someone who finds the ST80 acceptable for planetary use , I cannot unsee the ST80 violet fringe though ! ) , maybe it's an eyesight thing, maybe it's that I've been a photographer (both pro and am) for longer than I care to mention 🙂 and notice this sort of thing more. I didn't suggest the 102 to you, because I don't think it is a good first 'scope choice. It is fine for what I wanted it for (mostly as a test of if it is a convenient size of instrument for me , both in terms of aperture and portability, and a worthwhile increase over an 80mm ) but it isn't wonderful . I expect to sell it on in the next year or so when I can afford a better 102mm.

Don't worry about the f number, it is only really relevant in telescopes when thinking about the 'scope's requirements in eyepiece upgrade quality . Nothing like as important as the photographic lens focal ratio. The difference in light collecting isn't negligible between a 90mm aperture and a 102mm aperture though : a circle of 90mm diameter has an area of 63.6 cm2 , while a circle of 102mm diameter has an area of 81.7 cm2 That is quite an increase in light gathering potential, which is good for viewing faint objects, However, (there's always a caveat in astro kit ) bigger aperture means a bigger , heavier 'scope , which means less portable and you absolutely have to have a heftier , steadier mount and tripod., or it is essentially useless. For instance, my cheap 102mm refractor (one of these https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bresser-telescopes/bresser-messier-ar-102s-600-refractor-ota.html https://www.bresseruk.com/BRESSER-Messier-AR-102s-600-Hexafoc-OTA.html) is nice for wide field views, but it is longer than the height of my 62l rucsac, weighs 4kg and requires (to be steady) a heavy tripod and mount at least as heavy again.

At the end of my first post on this thread, I said the same, "For something genuinely portable , with decent quality instruments available well within your price range, I'd suggest some 10/50 binoculars and a monopod / ball or trigger head are the logical choices. " and still think it is the only sensible rucsac friendly option.

Now might be a good moment to point you to this excellent post :