cajen2

If the poor guy could afford a mount and tripod, he could afford the Heritage. Come on folks, be real here and help him out without his having to spend more. There's nothing wrong with the Heritage and its mount.

I have a small wooden three-legged stool (more stable than four legs). Other people use storage boxes, water butt stands, all sorts. It just needs to be 100% stable. To me, the difference is that the 150p makes an ideal grab & go scope, while the 8" can quite possibly be all the scope that I'd want. I have no chance to store anything larger.

Blurry? No, not at all. For planetary viewing, the only difference is that you need shorter focal length eyepieces to give a similar magnification to the 8" (or a good Barlow). So both scopes give excellent images. The 8" will give you more at extreme faintness, so a faint nebula/galaxy in the 8" may be hardly visible in the 6". However, the headline stuff like the Orion nebulae, Pleiades, etc are wonderful in both.

You always were weird, Mike! 😉😄😄 Any number of manufacturers use the same system: it gives fine control of the eye relief.

Perhaps I can help, as I own both types of scope: the Heritage 150p and the equivalent of your 8" dob, a StellaLyra 8". I completely understand your problems with the larger dob in a small car. I bought an Oplong carrying bag to protect it while transporting it but it's in a van. I use the 150p for exactly this reason: it's small and portable enough to carry in one hand (so it would sit on your passenger seat with its seatbelt quite happily). Optically, it's excellent but of course you are losing some aperture and thus some light-gathering capacity. Any chance you could buy both scopes? The 8" for the best possible views from home and the 6" for easy transport. That's what I do....

The eye relief is 20mm. Even taking the slight recess of the top lens into account (which EP manufacturers strangely often don't 😉) it's well long enough even for glasses wearers - I estimate about 17mil. The 'screw on end cap' is a normal screw up and down eyecap, which Mike doesn't like for some reason!🤣

These EPs have been replaced by the Luminos range, I believe? Are they as good? Anyone wanting a wide FOV 20ish mm 2" EP should also consider the StellaLyra (= Orion = Long Perng) 80°LER/UWA . I have one and it's one of my favourite EPs. Because it's 80°, it has almost exactly the same FOV as my 30mm Vixen NPL - the EP I used to start every session as a finder. Of course, the SL has more mag and is thus more versatile. Stars are pinpoints across the whole field and contrast is excellent.

My Pentax XWs (14 and 5mm) are very very good. My Morpheus are excellent! If anyone out there isn't getting on with their Morphs and want to do a straight swap, I'd do it in a heartbeat (14 and 4.5mm).

Pentax £279, Morpheus £237, Delos £349.

Hmm. Pentax prices especially are much higher here.

It depends how you compare them. I have two Pentax XWs, which are fine EPs, but my Morphs are better and cheaper.

Don't have that problem! 😄

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The Morpheus range has a 2" barrel as well as the 1.25" so you wouldn't even need an adaptor.

Your mount and OTA alone cost much more than my 8" dob....and I think I know what I prefer! 😉😄

So much for simple, cheap grab & go....🙄

Yes, I wasn't factoring in barlows, EPs, etc as I already have those.

Yes, that's what I calculated. I suppose the mount for something that small needn't be huge, but as you say, it all adds up.

Indeed. Mine makes a great grab & go scope: I can pick up the whole thing (including mount) in one hand, it's so easy to store and the optics are much better than you.might suppose. I had debated getting a (say) 80 mil frac on a lightweight mount but I honestly can't think of any advantage to that. Once you've sorted the focuser, it's a cracker.

Mmm, I've often considered an 80mil refractor on a lightweight go-to mount for grab & go but it would set me back about £1k all up, so it's not happening. My SW Heritage Flextube 150p is very light and portable, so it'll do me.

I almost bankrupted myself buying two scopes and six good-quality EPs (plus a couple of average ones).. The difference is that they are used all the time.

I wish I could say the same. Underused top-quality EPs? I should be so lucky! 😄

I"m quite happy it's flying over the Atlantic well south of us. Wouldn't want that dropping on my head....🤣 Boeing....Boeing....Bong!

Really don't think you'd be sorry.... YMMV.

I've never heard a word said against it....😉 Yes, there are EPs with larger fields of view but I've found the Morph one to be ideal.