Small aperture APO for visual

[badhex]

I'm visiting my future house location this weekend and the current skies here are dark, clear and still as anything. Orion looked stunning naked eye as did Jupiter and the moon just hanging out together.Obviously I don't have a scope with me! 😭

 

[Roy Challen]

8 hours ago, Ags said:

Did that with my ZS66 tonight!

Me too! A glorious sight in my FS60 and 26mm eyepiece.

[SwiMatt]

41 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Me too! A glorious sight in my FS60 and 26mm eyepiece.

Delightful shot!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

So.  Have you bought a small refractor yet?

[SwiMatt]

20 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

So.  Have you bought a small refractor yet?

Have you bought a 4" apo yet?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

18 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Have you bought a 4" apo yet?

This will entirely co-incide with me being single!

[SwiMatt]

Just now, GrumpiusMaximus said:

This will entirely co-incide with me being single!

Incidentally I and so many others have similar issues 😂 it's quite a pickle to be in!

[RobertI]

11 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

After this whole thread and all the envy you caused me, it was especially painful to observe the Moon and Jupiter within 2° and not being able to put them in the same field of view 

I managed to get both in the same field of view last night with my 102ED and massive Panaview 38mm eyepiece (giving 3.7 degrees), again showing how flexible a 4” can be, but the Panaview is not a quality eyepiece and there was some colouration and distortion on both objects away from the centre, I suspect the view through my 66mm APO and better quality ES 24mm eyepiece (4.2 degrees FOV) would have been even nicer. 

Edited January 19 by RobertI

[Merak]

Have you had a look at the StellaMira 80mm f/6.25 from FLO?   At 15" with the dewshield retracted it would fit in a reasonable sized backpack.  I'm sure there must be someone on the forum who has used one?

In any case, there are a few options out there.  I guess if you're taking it out in a backpack, a smaller lighter scope would be handy because you could use a smaller and lighter mount + tripod.

Mark