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Hi, germany has not yet been locked down completely - no curfew yet, but I suspect it will happen soon. Non-essential shops are closed already, restaurants too in some states, most office workers work from home. Large factories have closed down completely. The economical impact of the measures...

Hi, the Kite backpack sure is nice but was not available when I bought my german mulepack clone a few years ago... https://orniwelt.de/optik/fernglaeser/zubehoer/358/mulipack-stativtragesystem It seems the Kite offering is quite a bit larger (no way to put multiple big water bottles into the...

Hi, the stuff is not truly airborne like measles or chicken pox but rather propagated via droplet infection after coughing and smear infection on surfaces. So even if your aircon was not switched to circulation, it would be fine until an infectious person coughs right into your car's air...

Hi, nice that the backpack trick now works for you... maybe use not iron weights but plastic water bottles - less likely to ruin the scope, keep you hydrated and you can empty them when you're done digiscoping... As for field optics - they're probably not a favorite here due to their strong...

Hi, you can attach the Baader Hyperion Zoom Mk IV to the Diascope either through the normal Diascope astro adapter or with a special adapter ring only for the Hyperion zoom: https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/adapter-mark-iv-zoom-zeiss-m45x05.html?___from_store=de The latter offers more...

Hi, my favorite head for a full size scope is a 500AH. Long rail to properly balance the scope (and even longer ones available), counterbalance (a mechanism which will keep a scope or camera which was balanced while horizontal from moving on its own when it is set up non-horizontally -...

Hi Ian, any dirt, bubbles, whatever far from the focal plane will not visible and just generate a tiny bit of light loss and/or stray light. For visual impairment of the image you need an astonishing amount of grime on an objective lens or mirror. For something to be in focus it either needs...

Hi, if you can focus on the dust or bubbles (as Scott obviously can), they can't be in the objective lens. Joachim

Hi, quite frankly, if you can take pictures like the sparrow ones through your scope at 60x, you can't complain about the optics. Regarding the black stuff in the first blackbird image - was this taken at a lower magnification then, because you said it was only visible at around 20x... If it...

Hi, the depth of field of a fast instrument at high magnification can get very shallow... just think about that nifty fifty f1.2 bokeh monster you have for your camera... not so high magnification there but super fast. As for the tripod, try the following before getting another one. Take a...

Hi, sorry, a star test with an instrument not in thermal equilibrium and thus tube currents will always be erratic. But one side better pronounced than the other kinda points to some amount of SA. Stig is usually visible on both sides of focus. But you should just wait for another clear day...

Hi, first of all, please don't panic about a few specks of dust or a tiny scratch. They will not diminish the perfomance! Keep the visit to Zeiss for when there is really some defect. Weight of the diascope body is 1.5kg, so the 3.9 pound was probably with EP. The 055 should be ok...

Hi, seems you got a good deal - congratulations. The images look sharp enough at 60x. Let us know how the star test looks like. The images look about as yellow as I remember the one example I tried. On the other hand you can correct it in images and while observing the brain tends to adapt...

Hi, well, since you bit the bullet, we only can hope for the best -I'll certainly keep my fingers crossed for you to get a good example. Please let us know how it turned out - if you have experience with astro kit, you might know about star testing... Joachim

Hi, I only remember one Diascope which was only ok. But it was a very old version and didn't have the Zeiss zoom but an adapted Baader astro EP. Was reasonably sharp but quite yellow. In general with used spotting scopes - try before you buy - exactly the example you are going to buy. Either...