cajen2

Two great images of my favourite galaxy! 👍

Hi Jerry and a warm welcome to the Lounge. Nice voyage of discovery for you when you get your first scope. Have you decided what to buy yet?

Because they're both red shifted - Doppler effect shows they're both moving away from us.

Likewise, great views with the Starfield and the Svbony zoom at 3mm. Sharp as a tack.

I've just been using my SF on the Moon, at a maximum mag of 239x. Vibrations were there when using the focuser or slo-mo controls, but with the Berlebach, they were only momentary, quickly dampened and were no hindrance at all.

Beautiful scope and so easy to set up. Jealous? Me? 😉

Well, it's the one I chose after extensive research....and I"ve never regretted it.

Hi. No, more preventative than reactive really. I hoped to be able to get back to Cwmdu but the timing made it fruitless.

I came for Friday but then had to hurry off home Saturday early for a family emergency. The brief time I had was good, despite the rain and 10/10ths cloud.

To scale and no doubt accurate too! 😂

+1 for the UFF 30mil - its quality matches that of your Morphs, making you more inclined to use it for widefield viewing as well as for finding stuff. It's an excellent EP.

I'd have to go for the Bresser too. I have the manual version of the Virtuoso and though it's excellent optically and very light to carry around, its helical focuser is a PITA for me. Either way, you'll need something light and very stable to put it on. I use a wooden three-legged stool, which does the job perfectly.

In your place, I'd be considering the Starfield or the StellaMira. I have the SF and it's an excellent scope optically, with great build quality and a very good focuser.

.....and a Starfield 102 ED.....😉

Easy question for me as I only have two scopes and use one of those 99% of the time! It's my Starfield 102ED.

Is the size of the FOV important to you? I ask because most zooms have a fairly narrow one, which gets worse at longer focal lengths. My Baader Hyperion IV is the best one I've tried. I've always found anything with a FOV of less than 70° to be rather claustrophobic. My favourite range is the Baader Morpheus and in that range, the 9mm might be ideal for you: 250x mag for an 8mm is not very often achievable for a clear image because of poor seeing. The 9mm would give you 222x, rather more useful imo. The only downside is price: a new one would be £229 from FLO but very much worth it if you can stretch to that - it's a great EP.

I have the Starfield and it's truly great.....but in your position, I'd get the StellaMira 125. It doesn't weigh much more and you get a whole 23mm more aperture.

Likewise: only two. Starfield 102ED F/7 SW Heritage 150p. I did have a StellaLyra 8" dob - superb scope - but sold it in order to buy the Starfield, which is much kinder on my back! The Heritage dob doesn't get much use these days as the focuser drives me insane after the smooth, two-speed one on the SF. So basically one scope.... luckily it's a great all-rounder.

Likewise. Mine carries a Starfield 102ED, weight about 5.3kg with all the trimmings, including a 2" diagonal, on a Berlebach Report tripod.

Well, a very pleasant weekend despite having zero chance to observe! Nice to see everyone again and thanks to Tony as usual for organising it.

Snap 2. I got mine as a prize in my primary school. I set myself the task of learning the Greek alphabet from it - can still recite it 60 years later....😂 There was something so enthralling about PM's enthusiasm.

Excellent. See you then.

Well, I'm here....😉 If anyone else comes early and wants to look me up, I'm on pitch 5.

Nothing earth-shattering for me: similar to Saganite with fewer targets. My whole view south is ruined by a street light a few yards from my garden, making Orion invisible at normal times until this time of year. Started with Jupiter but it had just started to be blocked by trees, so just used it to align the finder. So went over to M42, the Trap, etc. I can't get more than four stars in the Trap whatever the mag because of the verdammt street light but it's the first time I've been able to catch it properly since getting the Starfield 102. Then onto a couple of doubles: Mintaka and Alnitak. Easy split on both using my Morpheus 12.5mil for only 57x mag. I was gratified, as I'd got them many times before with my 8" dob and was worried that the drop in aperture would affect it. I needn't have concerned myself - didn't even need the big guns like the Svbony 3-8mm zoom. Had a glance at Sirius but it was doing its usual disco ball impression. Bit of cloud started coming over so packed up and came into the warm!

A bit noisy and frenetic towards the end for such an idyllic scene.... 😂