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It'll mean you're scope is then giving quite a Lever action on the mount as the weight will not be on axis. I doubt it would work but just guessing.

I had the TMB Supermoncentric 5mm for a while. Superb high power eyepiece but with a ~30 degree AFoV and around 3.5mm of eye relief, challenging to use with my undriven scopes. The University Optics HD 5mm ortho that I also had at that time was as good under moderate to normal skies but the TMB SM showed just a little more under better skies, which means around 15% of the time. These days I'm happy to sacrifice a little in performance for comfort 🙄

This is weird. Somebody just told me Amazon is stating delivery June to November again and indeed that’s what it’s telling me too. Maybe supply issues.

Singular photos take little to no space, a few Mb each. If you're going to do it properly via lucky imaging you'll take thousands of photos per session, in the case with your device record video then use Autostakkert to sift through the good frames, then stack them. In this case it wouldn't take much space as I don't believe you can record uncompressed video on a Pixel so little trouble. To give you an idea, when I do planetary lucky imaging usually a 20 minute session taking high FPS RAW (uncompressed) images I record around 15-20Gb worth. You won't do anything near this recording video on a Pixel, even less (much much less) if taking singular images.

that is a good one but if its for beginners and there is one for beginners can you search for one that a maybe more expensive and better with max 1200 euros

Came today. So much better. Thanks.

Thank you - appreciated. I do love a good shed or barn in the foreground. Envious of those in the Yorkshire Dales or Lake District who have loads to choose from!!

I’m not sure exactly how Google phones work but I assume it’s the similar to Apple. I have an iPhone with 128GB of storage. Photos and videos are stored in the Cloud. There are recent photos & videos completely stored on the phone, the rest are stored on the phone as thumbnails, only viewed and downloaded in full resolution/size when needed. In practice, and as long as you have an internet connection, you don’t really notice that they are in the Cloud. All my videos are at full resolution. I also have a lot of RAW images. Currently I have 1300 videos and nearly 30,000 images. But as they are in the Cloud it’s doesn’t really have an impact on my iPhone storage which has had approximately 42GB free since I bought it 18 months ago. Most of my local storage is taken up by apps, not images/video. Basically I think you’ll be fine, but maybe someone with a similar phone can confirm.

I can recommend "An Introduction to Modern Cosmology" by Andrew Liddle. It should provide the background you need. Regards Andrew

The Mrs recently had a job offer in a private hospital in Brisbane and I've been looking at the whole southern hemisphere gig. Darkness never too far away, great weather and a MW core at Zenith! Unfortunately due to a rapidly developing health condition she has had to turn the job down, and my astro hopes and dreams have had to follow

Let me start by saying I've never taken an astrophotograph in my life. However I like the idea of taking some lunar and solar photos. The solar ones would be through my 72mm ED on a Solarquest tracking mount, the lunar ones through the 72mm ED or my 10 inch Dob, possibly on my equatorial platform. What's prompted this is that I've just ordered a Google Pixel 8 Pro. However I wonder if I've dropped a clanger by buying the model with just 128gB of storage. The operating system and my apps already take up almost half of this. I assume I'll be doing some lucky imaging with the video camera and then uploading the results to Google Photos. Would a little over 64gB of working storage be enough for the videos?

Really a strange topic, the ΛCDM Model ... The Lambda-CDM, Lambda cold dark matter, or ΛCDM model is a mathematical model of the Big Bang theory with three major components: 1. a cosmological constant denoted by lambda (Λ) associated with dark energy; 2. the postulated cold dark matter denoted by CDM; 3. ordinary matter. Standard ΛCDM requires only 6 independent parameters to completely specify the cosmological model. I am trying to understand this model in detail, but not too successful so far. Any inputs here? Thanks in advance! Anton ΛCDM Model V0.1.xlsx

I have recently purchased GTiX for my Lunt 60 Ha and 102 Omni plus Herschel wedge. Big thanks to FLO for express and smooth shopping experience ! I had only chance to test the mount "dry" inside my flat looking thru the window and I must say it is much smoother and much more precise then my GTI or Solar Quest But what I a m thinking about is possibility of using DIY bracket and join both saddles aligned parallel and pointed upwards. Bracket would be built from two vertical dovetails joined at the ends by one horizsontal which would create base for third saddle on the top of the mount exactly in the middle. This would allow to attach up to 10kg in one point as if properly balanced would distribute half of the weight to each of the sides. I can't see it not working from the physics point of view .... it is the same weight but different distribution ?

And lots of interesting things in the area. I’m really liking the idea of going there.

Thanks for the tip Varavall, I really didn’t know anything about conditions in Catalonia. Nothing beats an Astro night on a high pass 😀 Richard

If we're going to play this game I'd say for me 30s to take the setup from upstairs to the garden. If it's already downstairs then half that time.

Thanks Olly, good idea. There seems to be one parking area on the ridge along from the observatories where it is allowed to stay overnight - with no lights. We will be looping down around your way during this summer - our first trip through the French alps. With a couple of scopes in the back of course. When our winter nights are good they are awesome but I’m very envious of anyone with “very good winters”. Richard

The owners are very nice and helpful. They turned off an objectionable light which was reflecting off out motorhome. We and a friend had south-facing pitches so could image east to west.

I haven't owned a Quattro but have upgraded the focuser on several Newtonians and the Baader Steeltrack is great upgrade to the stock focusers supplied with the scopes. They are not quite a Feather touch and don't have the price tag either. However they are a solid and well trusted unit which works very well.

That is a good choice. If you are being baffled by the varied advice offered, you could buy the Celestron Nexstar 5 SE. My first GoTo scope, and my first serious astro scope, was the Celestron Nexstar 127 Mak - same aperture, same Nexstar operating system, also an alt-azimuth GoTo. and with an even longer focal length. The field of view is not huge, but if you are not concerned about not being to get a few famous star clusters all in the field of view, that really will not be a problem. People tend to exaggerate the problems of long focal length scopes. If your interest is in looking at the Moon, planets, double stars, globular clusters, and suchlike small things, it will work just fine. It's not very suitable for imaging things, with the exception of planets or the Moon. As for imaging, I suggest you leave that alone until you have gained some experience with a visual scope. Before you ask, there is no scope or mount that is equally good for visual use and for imaging. Or buy a Seestar S50, which is very affordable and gives you a complete imaging outfit and software in one small box. If you like what the Seestar does and want bigger and better, then you can buy a bigger and better (and far more expensive) outfit.

If you're unsure see if you have anyone local to you with scopes or a club. Don't trust the word of typical retailers, this forums sponsor FLO have a telescope buyers guide on their site. I think you'd do well with a 6 inch or 8 inch Newtonian (therefore dobsonian because the rocker box mount will be more stable than mounting onto a tripod and mount head, it will cost considerably more to get a stable tripod and mount to hold an 8 inch Newtonian well, and listen when I say this, your setups NEEDS to be reasonably stable, vibration is one of the worst things that can happen when you're viewing (also when imaging, probably even more important when imaging)). A Newtonian however can suffer more from vibration from mild breezes due to the box volume size of the scope, even more reason to consider the dobsonian type mount, so consider your weather too, unless if you can shield around you whilst using it (IE a building, wall etc). But, if you need to carry it, a smaller setup like those suggested herein will be better, you'll use it more the less hassle it is to setup and use trust me. If you're holding out for that "best scope" you'll be waiting all your life, everyone has their own preference. Id suggest as an alternative maybe get a decent brand used scope, less initial outlay, if you don't like it there's minimal loss. But buy from someone who's passionate and been doing astro for a while. There's a Euro classifieds section on here once you've contributed to the forum discussions for a bit, it doesn't take long at all to gain access if you participate.

I would have thought binning post imaging will achieve similar to using a camera with larger pixels. I'd err caution with the 294MC due to some models causing a random red/green swirl pattern across the images due to the sensor glass, a lot of people don't stretch their images enough to see the issue, a histogram stretch preview shows it up straight away in my experience. The 533 is a decent camera though you suffer a similar issue to the 485, the 485 is 16:9 aspect ratio so you feel you miss out on the height, the 533 is 1:1 square so you feel like you miss out on the width, even though a square is technically the right shape to maximise area within an imaging circle in the absence of circular imaging sensors.

Thanks for the detailed input. It's an interesting alternative to, with more reach than the WO Redcat.

Mare Humorum and Gassendi crater. Sky Watcher 200p reflector and Zwo 462mc with x2.5 Televue zoom lens and IR pass filter. 5000frames with firecapture. Best 15% stacked in autostakkert and then processed in Registax, finished in Photoshop CS.

Thank you Ann. Camping Puro Alentejo in particular looks great, we did some birding trips in Alentejo several years ago , would make a nice combination.