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Thanks josefk for your kind feedback. Yeas the CC8 won`t bring new optical capability to my scope family but it might bring me a better ergonomical scope than the 8" Newt. I don`t have to stand, I sit and relax for reaching the eypiece and turn the ota for comfortable view in the eypiece is not needed and I don`t have to rebalacing the scope when looking at new objects. Maybe a good alt-az mount like Rowan or Losmandy AZ8 will make things easier but that will cost Money!! My C8 and Intes MK66 are dewmagnets even with dewshields on. Indeed there are other ways to fight dew such as "dewbands" to put on the tube. But they need a battery and cables and I don`t want to mess in the dark with such things if I can get a fairly short tube were the optics are resonably protected from dew and the eypiece is as comfortable to use as in an SCT, Mak or refractor. Still it hurts to stop using my excellent (?) 8" Newtonian. Just sell it you might say? Not easy to ship this. In my country the intresst in visual scopes is almost 0. People intressted in astronomy observing just don`t observe, they are imagening. So the demand for shortfocus apo:s is much higher. This might not be the truth -it`s just my experience! I have a small balcony were my C8 (1973) and MK66 are perfect. Yeas I do have the sad light-pollution but those two scopes work perfectly there on my Vixen GP +a Vixen light aluminum tripod. No dew thanks to the roof above my balcony. Still pretty good view of the E and S skies. So there you have it why I want an easy to use scope with little dew problems and a comfortable to reach eypiece. I think CC8 could be the answer. I am 71 years now and I don`t want to give up observational astronomy yet out in the dark nature. My Equinox 120ED is also an instrument I want to use more in the dark sky. With a longer dewshield than the original. Sorry for the long rambling..... And yeas you are correct: my Intes MK66 Mak is a beautiful scope. Very nice views. Pinpoint stars up to ca 360X. Nice planetary views. My 1973 C8 is not so aestetecly nice in good seeing but still it resolvs tighter binaries and shows more and distinct details on Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. An amazing 50+ years orange SCT C8 scope. I have deforked it and put a Vixenrail on instead so I can use it on my eq-mounts. Once again sorry for the rambling. All the best, Magnus A. PS Is the Tak Mewlon 180 worth 2200€?

I created a spreadsheet to support finding interesting objects (RA, Dec, Visual Magnitude). It includes with cross references: - brightest stars; - nearest stars; - planets; - Messier objects; - Planetary Nebulae; - Herschel 400 Catalogue; - Caldwell List. You can find the list here: https://www.astronomy-morsels.ch/morsels, also attached. Enjoy! Anton Object Data (Stars, Planets, Nebulae, ...) V1.0.xlsx

So, apparently, I need to take into account Kepler's 1st (elliptical orbit) and 2nd (equal areas, varying velocity) into account. So, I modelled actually all 3 laws (including the 3rd: distance vs. speed). All fun, happy with the outcome! You can find the result here, feedback welcomed! Anton Kepler's Laws V1.1.xlsx

Only recently got back into solar imaging after an 8-9 year gap. Have a complete new set up now. First image not great and was getting horrid newtons rings. Have afew things to try to get rid of them. But have to start somewhere to get back into it. Amazed how improved the capture and stacking software has become since.

Promising development Paul, even if it is a bit nail biting! I'm sure you will buff it into shape, but I guess as always you need plentiful opportunities to hone the skills. Hope we get them. Ian

This last pic in particular is really making me want to try this. At some point in distant future. Really nice image

Has anyone 3D-printed a dew shield for their scope? I have one of the floppy adjustable ones and I'd prefer something a little more secure with a consistent/repeatable fit. I don't have any 3D printing equipment myself but if anyone has the file I know someone who could do the printing for me. Thanks!

I want to join this club Jeremy ... The TV club that is , looks like it's another expensive time ahead .

Thanks, Wim. I suspect there will be some trial and probably quite a lot of error while getting to grips with this. On the positive side my 190MN has proved remarkably stable as far as collimation goes, must be all those nice baffles and the corrector plate keeping everything in position 🙂so once an accurate collimation is dialled in it should hold it for a while.

I used to worry a lot about tilt, eggy stars, and how to fix it, and then BlurXT2 came along and I stopped worrying😅

Thanks, Piero, for the piccies of scopes on wheels. I'm going to have a think if I can do something with wheels. I had been thinking that they won't work for me at the mo, but perhaps I can figure something out. The shed, which is where we store our 10 inch dob, has an awkward lip and might be too shallow for a ramp to get over it, and anyway, it's then onto a slate chippings path, which I think the wheels are not going to like. And if we store the big dob indoors, it's got to go in the cupboard under the stairs, so it has to be not a solid tube. And currently I don't think a ramp works too well through the back door either. I'll have a ponder whether we can make either storage option more wheel-friendly. I did see someone post a piccy of their new 12 inch dob just with castor wheels screwed directly into the dob base, which looked pretty neat. John, I like your ambitious thinking outside the (mirror) box, I had a crazy idea too. I like my RC cars, and I must admit, I wondered if I could get something like this to tow the telescope if I can get it on wheels:

My Edge8 with reducer platesolves at 1456mm. That's at the specified 105mm back focus and I could do to put a 1mm spacer in I reckon. Depends on the mirror position and no two are ever the same. My guiding is anywhere from 0.6 -1.0 (CGEM DX). I've just updated the OAG guidecam to a 174MM Mini, a massive gamechanger for me as I could hardly use my QHY5L-II with it. Was lucky to get one decent guide star even then the SNR was poor despite binning and noise reduction, so I resorted to using a standard 50\200 guidescope. It guided ok with decent figures but I was throwing a lot of subs due to mirror flop\flexture\you name it. Now I'm able to multi-star guide through the OAG with a nice field of stars, although obviously some targets are OAG unfriendly. It's a challenge using an SCT but when everything clicks into place it makes it worthwhile.

Nice haul Wookie! I really need to go through Bootes doubles again to get reacquainted. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

On the main screen of the controller web page there is a button (red/green) to switch motors on/off - no big deal at all and useful during alignment. There is also a screen joystick to use, instead of the manual slow motions, if you prefer for small alignment moves. (The logic behind the warning is that the motors will be tracking already and you would be fighting against them by using manual slow motions, which the motors are already driving through a belt. However since the mount also has friction clutches and encoders you can always 'nudge' or push the scope in any direction any time you like even when it is tracking/motors running and it wont lose it's sky position. This is not like a conventional geared goto mount)

Thanks for the info. Yes, I can see that plane lights could be an issue. The ASICap software from ZWO that I use has a meteor capture mode but I haven't tried it yet because I've missed all the well known meteor showers due to cloud. Maybe I should just point it at the sky the next clear night and see what it makes of aircraft or satellite trails.

There are a few ingenious and well made carriages in this thread but I'm slightly surprised that nobody's laid down any rail tracks yet and moved the telescope in and out of the shed that way. I'm thinking of this sort of thing: Bonus points if it's hauled by a steam locomotive

One Celestron Starsense Explorer 130mm Smart Phone Enabled Table Top Dobsonian. Ex Demo Open box / ex demo. Excellent condition, complete. Scruffy outer boxes. Full manufacturers warranty. £379.00 £322.15 (saving £56.85)

One Sharpstar SCA260 Aspherical Cassegrain Astrograph V2. Open Box Open box / ex demo. Excellent condition. Complete. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £4,289.00 £3,860.00 (saving £429.00)

Thanks for watching! Hope the script helps out too! TBH I didn't know how the community would even react to any of my videos. I was expecting a lot of people just saying "you're doing it all wrong!" hahaha! Glad it is helping!! I think I got my digital signatures for my repository all squared away with this latest CPD update from PixInsight as well! This should take care of not having to say "yes install anyways" and should ensure the script will be available in the future with the next core updates to PixInsight.

One Celestron Starsense Explorer 114mm Smart Phone Enabled Table Top Dobsonian. Open Box Open box, ex demo. Complete in excellent condition. Scruffy outer box. Full manufacturers warranty. £284.00 £241.40 (saving £42.60)

Gonna have to read/research this a lot more, but it sounds like very good advice. When I keep my sky too dark it does look odd/oily as you say.

One Vortex Optics Crossfire HD 50mm Binoculars 10x50. Customer Return Didn't suit customers expectations. Tested and A-OK. Complete, in good condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £179.00 £161.00 (saving £18.00)

I'll check those links. My scope is already in storage because I want to avoid birch pollen. Regarding orientation, if you rotate the mask such that the inner grid aligns with the collimation screws, the diffraction spikes are aligned with the screws. In the end, you'll probably need to test which is which anyway.

One Astro Essentials v2 2" Dual-Speed Low-Profile Crayford Focuser for Newtonian Telescopes. Customer Return Arrived with a dodgy bearing - subsequently replaced / repaired in our workshop and now A-OK. Open box, good condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £189.00 £170.00 (saving £19.00)

Everything with two surfaces can have tilt. In theory you'd first make sure that the camera itself doesn't have tilt. The link in @almcl's latest post is a thread here on sgl about a cheap rig and laser for that. ZWO cameras have a tilt adjutment plate. Second is tilt in the focuser. Then misalignment in the optical system. If you think about this too much, your brain will hurt.