Bridgehouse

Looks like we are both in it together then!

Every little helps I’d say. With top of the range eyepieces I’d say it’s about investment in something you’ll use for years to come and over time the cost becomes less of a factor

This trend coincides with me returning to the hobby after many years away. I am clearly some sort of Jonah and with this realisation I fully expect to be cast out by you all and told never to return. My sincerest apologies....

My first decent eyepiece was a TV Panoptic 24. It’s expensive. But when researching it was an eyepiece that kept cropping up as a staple in many peoples collections. It has been proven over time as a consistently useful and high performing eyepiece that hits just the right balance between AFOV, TFOV, size and weight, and it’s built to last a lifetime. Might be outside your budget but they come up used for a reasonable sum, and you are pretty much guaranteed that you’ll find it useful and keep using it.

Given that the maximum magnification you'll find useful will be different depending on the seeing conditions, I went for the Televue Nagler 3-6mm zoom. It's a tighter field of view (50deg) than the Ethos or Delos (or even the Delites) but you get a consistent 10mm eye relief which is better than you'll get on shorter FL orthos or plossls. However, the real key advantage of the 3-6mm zoom is you can set the magnification to match the seeing really easily just by twisting the barrel. There's 4 click stops for 3,4,5 and 6mm but you can also use intermediate settings. It's an option to consider as a useful and slightly more unique tool..

I must admit something like the 130P-DS does appeal - bit more aperture and a bit different to a small bore refractor for a change. If it works on the AZ GTI then that would be good - it wouldn’t work on the Gibraltar (lol!) The Celestron C5 is another good shout!

Interesting option! Will look out for that

Yes that looks good - they do an 80ED as well by the looks of it

Looks nice! Might be a bit heavy for me at over 5kg OTA.. wouldn’t be able to mount it on an AZ GTI for goto if I was feeling lazy, and I doubt it would squeeze on to the Gibraltar either!

I have an NP101is. I'm using it visually on a Gibraltar Mount at the moment. However, I'm putting together an imaging rig for next year - Losmandy GM811G on order, along with various other bits of kit. I'm going to use the NP101is for it's intended purpose and use it primarily for imaging. However, I'm beginning to think I might need a simpler, lighter, and ultimately cheaper second quick grab and go set up for quick looks whilst I'm imaging, or for much shorter sessions when there just isn't time to set up the main rig. In the future, I'm planning a garden dome observatory, and I suspect the NP101is will end up permanently set up in there.. Now, I could use the Gibraltar mount, but I'm also tempted by something like an AZ GTI and find a small lightweight refractor to put on it for a one-trip outside setup. Assume a limited budget (all the cash is going into imaging stuff at the moment!) and potentially buying used to save some money (but new isn't ruled out) - key criteria is lightweight, quick to set up, a slight preference for goto, and an irritating penchant for refractors. What should I be looking at?

Posted this in the "postman" thread, but a Nagler Zoom 3-6mm arrived in the post today. Cor, it's small isn't it? Lovely positive click stops on the zoom and looks to be great quality. Looking forward to trying it out with the NP as soon as there's some clear skies.

Just dropped off by DPD… Excited!

Now that’s interesting.. you see I’ve ordered a GM811G mount for the 101 to start down the imaging rabbit hole, and I keep looking at the Gibraltar mount and thinking “a nice little refractor would be great on there for grab and go whilst imaging” Naturally a nice old Ranger would be a great choice for that use case… I’ve looked at the TV60s and they look nice, but a Ranger just always looks so classy…

I distinctly remember wanting a 24Pan back when I first had my Pronto. Seemed like an obvious first choice for the 101 and it certainly hasn’t disappointed.

Do you mean the knob that controls the flashing/non-flashing red LED setting? If so, you've just made me go check that mine was still attached (It was)

Evening all. Thought I'd post the obligatory newbie thread. I was a keen astronomer back in the 90's and early 2000's, and for a variety of reasons I stopped - mostly it was moving to a flat in seriously light polluted skies. Anyway, I now live in the Fens, and the skies are pretty dark here - probably around Bortle 4/5, but more like 4, and a recent visit from an acquaintance re-kindled by desire to start up again. Said acquaintance is a member here @Stub Mandrel and I know him from a rather different forum.. However, I thought I'd dive in with both feet and do what every keen astronomer does and get the wallet out. My first scope was a Televue Pronto, and I loved that scope. It had it's limits, but for some reason I just kept going back to it for those quick looks and portability. Back in those days anything else from Televue's range was well out of budget. Anyway, I got to looking at the TV85, and eventually an NP101is came up used on Astromart at a price which was in budget and really rather a lot less than new. After a somewhat long journey to go and inspect and purchase, it came back with me, complete with new style case, clamshell ring, star beam finder, 2" Everbrite diagonal, Gibraltar Mount, and a few other accessories (including a really rather good Televue Equaliser 1.25" adapter). Picked up a Panoptic 24, and since then have been very happily surfing the evening skies on clear nights and being blown away by just how good it is. It really does feel like it's as close to one-scope-to-do-a-bit-of-everything as you can get. A quick pic: