cajen2

At very high mags (especially on Saturn), it only takes a couple of seconds for the planet to move through the FOV, so nudging becomes a necessary skill. Luckily my StellaLyra (8") has a very smooth azimuth motion. I'd second the idea of an EQ platform, if you can find one.

I could just keep the twist lock for 2" and the Baader for 1.25", no?

Ouch! Thanks for that: I thought the CL I bought for my dob would fit (2"-1.25" adapter).

Look forward to it.....as long as it's totally objective, that should be really interesting.

Aha! My plan too, as I already have one.

Anyway, getting back to the Starfield 😉, I note that no-one's had anything at all negative to say. Really? On SGL? 🤣 My tentative plan is for a go-to alt/az mount. My garden suffers from extreme nearby light pollution so finding stuff is a nightmare. I'm a dob man with no ambitions for AP, so alt/az makes more sense to me. I initially thought of a SW GTi but its load max of 5kg seems a bit short. My second choice is for the GTiX, which has an extra kilo of weight tolerance plus the ability to counterbalance the scope with another.....All this to be mounted on a Berlebach Report tripod. Any comments?

A similar-sized Tak (i.e. FC-100)? I considered one, but wondered whether spending so much more would give me 2 1/2 times the quality over the Starfield....remember, you have to add the cost of tube rings / clamshell, dovetail, etc.

(or Altair / TS Optics equivalent with FPL-53 glass). I'm seriously considering getting one of these and using it as my everyday scope, plus I hope it's light / small enough to be ok to lug around to star parties, etc. Any comments from owners, pluses and minuses?

Ah, additional. I forgot I left a metal parfocal ring on it, so 608g without.

I like it. None of my other EPs have orange rings, so it's easy to identify.

Yes, I've weighed it. 619g. Perhaps the official figure includes end caps.

Interesting. The SL is supposed to be the same EP as the CUE, but seems substantially lighter.

A lighter alternative? You could try a Celestron Ultima Edge 2" 30mm (or its APM / StellaLyra UFF equivalents). There's a tendency for people to suppose that if an EP is cheaper and lighter, it'll be worse. My CUE is one of the best EPs I own and it's only 619g.

Er.......nobody? It might be a stupid question or an obvious answer, but I've always been a dob bloke and have no idea about mounts. I'm considering getting a frac soon and was very attracted to the GTiX.

I'm a pretty low-tech kind of bloke, so I'll only know low-tech solutions! 😉

We can read your sig just fine on a phone: just turn it round to landscape view.

Well, that didn't go as planned! After a nice warm afternoon sitting in the sun, the sky clouded over and there was rain at nightfall. I got up several times during the night but solid cloud. Thanks, Tony, for organising it and get well soon!

Oh, one I forgot: if you've been patiently waiting for a piece of gear to come up in the classifieds, it will only happen when you're particularly skint (though this is my default setting) and/or the item is collection only from the other end of the country.

Had a great time (well, I'm still here and having a great time!) - good food and beer at the pub and some very convivial company. Mark @mdstuart was a real star: finding DSOs amongst the clouds and doing some serious work on my dob's collimation. Thanks once again, Mark. I'll test it out tonight and let you know how it goes. Hope to see.lots.of you at Cymdu.

I'm now here too - pitch 4. Drop by and say hi.

And if it IS the same EP as the StellaLyra 20mm LER/UWA, it'd be in the same league as Pentax XWs and Morpheus - at least mine is.

Or use Lego...better and more accurate than nailing bits of wood together: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/400843-collimate-your-collimator-the-easy-way/#comment-4297466

One more question, Vevvo, do you use glasses to observe? If so, avoid any EPs with low eye relief (the distance between the lens and your eye - should be quoted in the specs of an EP). The Nirvanas, though great value for money, have only 12mm.

....or not.....

Agreed.....IF you get on with zoom EPs (not everyone does), the Baader Mk IV is great. At lower mags you do lose some FOV, though. An alternative to the Hyperion 34 would be a StellaLyra 30mm UFF, which is better corrected and with a good FOV and up-to-the-edge sharpness. The thing is, Vevvo's scope comes with a 2" 30mm EP, which, although not wonderful, will do him quite well for now. Missing focal lengths will be more important for him, I think.