cajen2

I'm with Bosun 21, except I'd go for the 150p but either is a great scope.

Well, if you will buy these cheap and nasty Japanese telescopes, Michael....😆

Weird that you have to do so much faffing about to get your eye position right. We observe very differently: all the eyecups on my EPs are rolled down and I 'hover' my eye over the EP. This has always been my way and I'm used to it. It does mean that changing EPs is quick and easy.

A cow?

As mentioned above, an 8" dobsonian gives by far the best value for money results and is good for all the brighter targets. Two words of warning, though: - it's a big, awkward thing to carry around and you'll need to make two trips (the scope and the base). Don't underestimate how cumbersome such a scope is if you have to get it up and down stairs or far from the storage area to your chosen observing place. - sooner or later, you'll need to learn how to collimate it (i.e. to align the mirrors). This is not usually a difficult job and gets easier with practice - view a few YouTube videos for tips. I started with a tabletop 6" dobsonian and can highly recommend one if you think an 8" might be too awkward. Again, as above, a decent refractor, Mak or SCT would also give good results but you need to factor in a good mount and tripod. The dob is a very good all-rounder and is the easiest to set up.

Oh well. I'll make sure I'm fully stocked beforehand then! Which pitch are you on? Perhaps I can book one not too far away.

Ok, Richard, I've checked it and I can actually make it. We can sit in the pouring rain together....😆. Is there a pub nearby?

I'd be interested but I don't know if it's possible yet. Also, looking at the succession of low pressures following each other over the Atlantic......it'll.be a dark sky all right just because of the cloud! 😆

The really popular StellaLyra UFF 30mm 2" and all the other clones will not vignette in the WO and all its clones. The UFF has a "physical field stop" of 30.4mm and a "virtual field stop" of 36mm. Mine is the Celestron Ultima Edge. No sign of vignetting.

It depends on what eyepieces you have or are likely to buy. It also depends whether you need to be ultra weight conscious. If you can and don't need to worry about weight, get the 2" and a 1.25" adaptor. It works better than the other way around. Or if course you could buy one of each size, like me....😆 I have the Williams Optics 2" di-electric and it's superb but heavy. I also have a Takahashi 1.25" prism diagonal - also very good. Just don't buy the cheapest available: a good diagonal will help give you excellent views. The StellaLyra range look good but I can't recommend them as I've never tried one.

@Zermelo FLO still has one 4.5 Morpheus in stock....

I have the 5mil XW too. You wouldn't have thought the difference in mag between that and the 4.5 Morpheus would be significant but the extra 16x, plus the 6° wider FOV, can make all the difference.

You're right, Z. I find the twist lock on the Tak sometimes needs just one whole turn and with other EPs, several. I suppose I'll get used to this, but it'll never be as good as a Clicklock.

Oh, forgot to mention that the moons of Jupiter were also pin sharp, clearly different in apparent size and I was able to watch one (I haven't bothered to work out which) approaching the limb and then starting a transit. All easy to see.

Recently, I've bought a Takahashi 1.25" diagonal and a Baader Morpheus 4.5mm EP. Tonight was my first chance to try them out. Optically, the Tak prism was excellent, giving very sharp views. I had just two targets as my garden is very heavily light polluted, with street lights all over the place. So I started on the half moon. I was so eager to try out the new stuff that I didn't even give my poor Starfield 102 time to cool down, so I expected mushy views at best at the outset. Quite the contrary: the terminator was sharp and clear with only slight wavering. All this was in anticipation of Jupiter rounding the corner of next door's house and after a while, it appeared. By then, the scope was nice and cool. I'd always had a problem getting an ideal view of the planet as my 9 and 6.5mm Morphs gave very sharp views but too small to see a lot of detail. My Long Perng 80° 4mil made the planet bigger and bands more visible but I've always found it ever so slightly soft in comparison with the Morphs. So in went the new 4.5mil Morpheus. A Goldilocks moment, both pin sharp and large enough to see great detail. I'd always been slightly sceptical when reading reports of fine detail on Jupiter through a medium-sized frac but now I could see it for myself. I counted five darker bands and in moments of good seeing, signs of more. For anyone with a Starfield 102 ED F/7, just try the Morph. It's a match made in heaven! As to the Tak diagonal, as I said, optically it's excellent, though it seemed slightly more prone to light scatter from the planet when it was just out of the FOV than my WO 2" dielectric diagonal. Not enough to worry me but there you are. My only other beef was with the twist lock (one of the reasons I bought the Tak). It was smooth enough but needed a lot of turns when releasing or tightening up an EP, increasing the risk of jogging the scope, irritating at high mags. Takahashi need to take a long look at a Baader Clicklock to see how it should be done! All in all, however, an excellent night and I'm VERY pleased with both bits of gear.

I realise the 'alien green' is their USP, but I find it an acquired taste. Not sure I'd want it on my quiet, dignified-looking Starfield 102! 😂

They do a couple of high-quality (well, quite expensive, anyway) APO fracs too, which come with inspection certificates.

Additional: the Marvels are currently even cheaper than the SLs at £159. That's amazing value for quality EPs, especially the 14 and 20mm 2" ones.

I think their 'Marvel' EP range are clones of the StellaLyra 80° LER/UWAs, which are made by Long Perng. Don't know about the diagonal.

The Plossl will give you a rather narrow field of view, which doesn't help (usually 50° or even less). At higher mags, planets will seem to whisk across the field of view in very short order. One solution is to look at eyepieces with wider views: I mainly use the Baader Morpheus range (76°) but ES, or StellaLyra LER/UWA (80°) for example, will be good too. It's all a matter of finance....😉. You'll also slowly get more used to 'nudging' a dob to keep the target in view. This is a very handy skill to develop! Oh, by the way, a 2" EP isn't intrinsically a wider field of view. Many 1.25" EPs are just as wide.

Most of my EPs are Baader Morpheus, which have 'safety kerfs' and don't tend to get hung up. Yes, I was surprised at how 'cheap' it was, too: only £3 more than a WO one.

Oh, no, I'm a Tak owner! I wanted a 1.25" quality diagonal with a twist lock fitting, mainly to save some weight over my otherwise excellent WO 2" one. The only one I could find was a Takahashi prism diagonal, so here it is. Slight difference in size and weight! (WO: 430g, Tak 132g). It makes sense as 10 out of 12 of my EPs are 1.25".

Both dobs are very good quality for the price. For me, the SL edges it because of the accessories, particularly the two-way focuser and RACI finder.

FLO has only one left, Z! I'll let you know as soon as I can use it, but with Storm Whatsisname on the way, that might be a little while...

The latest (and probably last) addition to my Baader Morpheus collection - a 4.5mm. With all the usual excellent Baader packaging and extras: The only one I haven't got now is the 14mil: I already have a Pentax XW 14. I used all my Morphs at the SWAG star party under clear, dark skies and they were all superb.