Unbelievable, new scope AND clear skies....

[alfingido]

This has never happened to me before. Had my Skywatcher Allview mount and Evostar 80ED DS PRO delivered this afternoon and the skies are clear tonight!

I've already set it up and as it was getting dark had some great views of Venus Jupiter and the moon. Everything is sharp as a pin, can't wait till it gets a bit darker, then I need to learn how it works!

So, it's sitting outside with my LX90, looking forward to some nice wide field views.

First impressions of the scope are good, the mount, not so, I already posted a question about the mount not working properly. It also feels a bit flimsy, but I will be in a better position to judge how it performs later.

Allan

[smith-the-dog]

I'm jealous. ..

But clear skies I have..only with my binoculars.

Happy gazing.

[alfingido]

Well, I am so impressed with the ED80. Lovely sharp contrasty views, the moon was superb with so much detail. My highest mag eyepiece is an 8mm Meade 5000 HD60 and I am sure it could easily take a higher magnification. The bands on Jupiter were easy to see and pleiedes looked like a collection of jewels on a black velvet cloth.

Unfortunately, the mount couldn't compete. Its goto accuracy was terrible and tracking even worse. Something is wrong somewhere.

It was such a pleasure to have my LX90 out as well, goto was absolutely spot on ( as usual) and it tracked everything perfectly keeping everything right in the centre of the ep.

I'm waiting for a call from the retailer to see if they can shed any light on why the Allview handset doesn't work properly ( no photography option) Maybe with that sorted, goto accuracy might improve.

Allan

[griz11]

Excellent I'm enjoying my new goto system under some beautiful sky tonight myself. My scope will be here next Wed. Rain in the forecast though

Griz

[estwing]

Congrats!

[damnut]

Congrats on the new scope, would have needed scaffolding here to keep the mount steady!!

[rowan46]

Send it back it's obviously faulty or incomplete cloud is mandatory with new scopes

[alfingido]

Loads of cloud wind and rain now, back to normal weather for new equipment!

I had another couple of clear nights to try it all out, still impressed with the scope but not the mount.

I found the handset had the wrong software so downloaded and installed the new Allview version and now it gives me the correct modes.

Goto accuracy is still off, in fact it is unusable. It still points up to 10 degrees off in RA and an increasing amount out in dec the further I go round the sky.

I have checked time and coordinates are entered correctly on more than a lot of occasions, so this mount is being returned. I have lost confidence in it, first, wrong software then no goto. Not a good start.

So, I will start looking for a new easily portable goto mount next week......

Allan

[rowan46]

Loads of cloud wind and rain now, back to normal weather for new equipment!

I had another couple of clear nights to try it all out, still impressed with the scope but not the mount.

I found the handset had the wrong software so downloaded and installed the new Allview version and now it gives me the correct modes.

Goto accuracy is still off, in fact it is unusable. It still points up to 10 degrees off in RA and an increasing amount out in dec the further I go round the sky.

I have checked time and coordinates are entered correctly on more than a lot of occasions, so this mount is being returned. I have lost confidence in it, first, wrong software then no goto. Not a good start.

So, I will start looking for a new easily portable goto mount next week......

Allan

Told you it was faulty. The clear skies were a giveaway you only get them with faulty new equipment