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PS Or should I save money and get a Mewlon 180? Somewhere in the future. Magnus A.

Intressting thread. I am very intressted to purchase a GSO CC8 f12.  Partly because it`s an open tube which maybe reduces cooldowntime and the problem with dew. I also like the eypiece is always easy to reach comparing to my 8" f/6  Newtonian. I can get one CC8 second hand which has only been set up 3 times but hardly used since the seller purchased it in 2021. The price is also attractive   -1/2 the money vs the cost new. Furthermore the seller has let me loan it before actually buying it. Very kind. I have had it out for 2 nights. They where a bit hazy but I could see brighter stars. It was  a bit out of collimation. I have never collimated a CC but it looks as I got right by using a 4mm hexwrench (?) on the secondary. Only tiny movements. I did not touch the primary. I noted some SA in startest but not more than one can expect on a massproduced telescope. No astigmatism, TDE or pinched optics. The seeing was rather mediocre so I was not able to determing the snap focus exactly. I used one 2" extension ring + a 2"diagonal (WO). Mag I used were 100X, 185X, 267X, 300X ,343X and 400X for testing. Delta Cyg was sweet and well sep at 185X and 267X. Lot`s of black space between A-B. The OTA is rather heavy vs my C8, close to 9-10kg is my guess (20lbs) Still my VixenGP+Celestron 2" steeltripodlegs held very solid for visual observing. And yes I am 100% visual. Damping time was ~3 sec after a light hit on the tube at 400X. On my C8 it`s  ~1sec. What do I want to use this scope for? Well mainly multiple stars, planets,open clusters, globular clusters and planetary nebulas. I would be happy to here opinions regarding my thinking on this 8"CC scope from you out there..... Yes I know I have too many scopes. But I am very curious on this CC and the price is good? I  would not have considered I new one for full price! Maybe.......   Clear Skies! Magnus A.  

In a land far, far away, Cumbria to be exact, there is a pristine clear sky. I'm not there to witness it, but the Paulsky Camera is! While flicking through the images, I spotted a nice meteor. So here is that frame. It'll be lost as a sub-second flash in the overnight time-lapse. Cloud and moonlight have been blighting the Allsky Camera recently but it's improving again, maybe a window of opportunity before the all-night-twilight sets in. The Great Glowing Cheesball is just starting  to affect the camera now. So, it's downhill for the rest of the night...   In other news, emboldened by @Skipper Billy's Allsky camera linked to above, I've ordered a lens that will fit the whole image circle on the ASI 178 sensor. So a full 180deg view. That and I've ordered a much bigger dome. Again, Skipper Billy suggested that on his website as it allows ventilation holes to be drilled around the camera, allowing the very warm air from the RasPi to circulate in the dome, hopefully keeping it condensation free. There is a newly released firmware (EEPROM) for the Raspi, which allows even greater overclocking. I can't dream of taking the enclosed Pi to the max but I still had the original firmware on my Pi 4B which limited the CPU to 1.5 MHz, I've now set it to 2.0 Mhz. It might, and probably will cook in the summer. So I'll likely stop recording daytime images and just let it idle in the heat of the day. I'm looking to swap the Pi4 for my Pi5 to limit some of the issues with image handling. I tried at the weekend but it balked at boot-up, complaining of voltage drop. Thinking about it, the PoE splitter is only rated at 2A, so I've got a higher rated one on order. The PoE injector is a big 8 channel PoE switch rated at 85w total load. It is also running 2 x PoE surveillance cameras, but I'm confident that total load will be compliant. That'll be an ongoing project into the summer, due to my limited opportunities to get up there once the parts arrive.

So, my imaging rig to date has been using refractors, Evostar 100ED DS Pro, Evostar 80ED DSO Pro & WO Zenith 73 III, which has been alright but the number of clear nights seems to be getting fewer and the West Coast of Scotland isn't renounced for it's temperate rain forests because it's very dry!  So that I can try to get the most out of the clear nights we do get, I would like to upgrade to a faster scope and I'm thinking about the RASA 8, which should suit my ASI294MC Pro but I'm not too sure about the weight on the HEQ5. My HEQ5 is about 3 years old, has the Rowan belt conversion fitted and is mounted on a solid concrete pier (see my Obsy build thread for details).  With the RASA 8, ASI294MC Pro, dew shield & guide scope & camera (I would rather have guiding than not) then it's getting very close to the maximum imaging payload for the HEQ5. I know it could really do with the EQ6-R or similar, but I can't justify changing the mount & scope, and there's no point just changing the mount and sticking with the scopes I already have. So, has anyone got or used a RASA 8 on the HEQ5 and how did it handle? Any issues balancing the rig and did you use a guide scope or not? Thanks for any advise.

The Deep Sky Stack feature built into the SS is a great little utility, its enjoyable just to play around with, this is one from last nite that I stacked with it today. I am not sure if I can do a before / after, I will give it a look but I have a couple of things to do first.