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Does anyone have an (Excel) example for accurately calculating the equation of time value through a whole year? Less accurate example attacheed. Thanks! Anton (www.astronomy-morsels.ch) Equation of Time V1.0.xlsx

Hi all. Just a quick question. I have a skywatcher AZ-GTi that I have converted for use in EQ mode using the Skywatcher wedge. However it really isn’t great. Any suggestions on a decent replacement without spending a vast amount. Looked at the WO but costs the same as the mount so that’s out. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Dave. It's difficult to do a direct comparison between Paramount's and 10 Micron regarding reliability because the service model for Software Bisque provides support only via the user forum, it's virtually impossible to get support for Paramount problems that are away from the public gaze. For 10 Micron mounts the user forum is primarily a talking space for users and a repository for information and software etc. Support for hardware problems is direct via email to Baader, or eventually 10u themselves if Baader can't resolve the problem, so you will not be able to compare reliability as we don't know the failure rate for 10u products. There is also a volume bias. There must be thousands of Paramounts sold and in use around the world while the large price differential that previously existed between Paramounts and 10u means the volume of 10 Micron mounts in use worldwide will be much smaller. 10u has only recently gained a foothold in the US market which has been dominated by Software Bisque and Astro-Physics for premium mounts for many years. Now that Software Bisque products have seen a large price hike over the last year we might expect to see many more 10u mounts sold worldwide. While not going into boring detail I did spend almost half as much again on spares and repairs for my Paramount MX Classic over the ten+ years that I owned it as the mount cost me when I bought it new in 2012. HTH William.

Many people are asking why I didn't post photos of iOptron mounts. I intended to, but iOptron didn't have a stall at NEAIC, and the two times I visited their stall at NEAF, they were busy. Next year, I'll contact them beforehand to arrange a time. Sorry ☺️

Would you say you prefer your apm to the morpheus 12.5?

Most of those videos reveal a lot that was announced at NEAF (SW HD mount details, ioptron new mounts, ZWO new products etc), worth watching. ZWO also announced the 2600MM Duo and a square sensor planetary camera the 676MC.

That is good to hear 🙂

Probably best that I do not comment on another retailer's sales spiel 😇 Some manufacturers include a Strehl report, but I wish they wouldn't. I don't like the way they are used for marketing. A Zygo is intended for use during the manufacturing process. And, let's face it, you don't have to search far on this or any other large astronomy forum to find telescopes that don't match their included report. FWIW, we have two optical benches and a Shack Hartmann. We use them when appropriate. HTH, Steve

There was also the 2600MM Duo and a square sensor planetary camera the 676MC announced.

Here is my Nerd Test v2.0 Test result.

Me too! Right now working on an unboxing / overview video which I will put out in a week or so, but the detailed review will be few months from now, to ensure I get some experience/feelings by using the telescope over a range of targets.

Who'd have thought it, Seestar S50 captures 'Pillars of Creation' in M16. I only noticed it a couple of days ago when reading about M16 in the Cambridge Messier Atlas and saw the two pics attached below underneath the pic I took on April 17th. My pic was taken at 2.58am, with M16 only being at 6.5deg altitude when I started the 26 minute exposure. On top of that the conditions were quite poor when I took it, m3 limiting mag. OK, my pic is hardly the best (😅) , but I still think its pretty cool.

I love them. When I decided to buy the 12" , I bought and got the wheels first . I am never dragging another DOB base without these on it , especially not a 12" Base

Enjoy! Those little wheels on the dob base look neat!

As far as I know flats won't help with the newton rings, you need a tilt adjuster. Not familiar with Lunt, are filters contained within the diagonal as that will dictate whether you can image straight through without the diagonal, that would allow you to fit spacers and a tilt adjuster. I believe you can take flats whenever as long as you don't alter the train at all (focus, camera orientation etc).

The "noticeable resistance" in the slow motion controls with the motors powered off is relative to the no resistance at all without the motor kit installed however that noticeable reststance is as smooth as butter and does not bother me in the least and in the context of a slow motion control being used to move the mount only a little at a time it is fine. When using the mount manually with slow motion controls my AZ100 is powered off completely.

Two things come to mind - first is to check for off axis coma and second is to get Ronchi eyepiece: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/specialist/gerd-neumann-ronchi-eyepiece.html

Thank you, I will have try and find it somewhere on catch up to watch. Hope your ok. Clear skies Lee

Is it me you're looking for?

If I happened to stumble across an old newt with the idea of messing around with collimation *just for the lulz* is there an easy way to tell if it has a spherical mirror?

Its interesting that none of these products are mentioned on their website, so absolute cutting edge 🙂

What a lovely report, very heart-warming, and a nice photo. I think Sarah and I have bought about 25 items made by Tele Vue, and they've all been flawless, as far as I can recall. My favourite Tele Vue item is tough. It's between the Tele Vue-60 telescope, which I've used for quite a few solar sessions in particular, and is so tiny and portable and made me no longer hate helical focusers, and the Ethos 21 mm eyepiece, which is admittedly not that tiny and portable! I'll go with the Ethos 21 mm. It's the eyepiece I use the most in my 10 inch dob, and sometimes it's the only eyepiece I use for the session, if I'm feeling lazy. And my biggest Tele Vue regret is selling the 13 mm T6 Nagler, which was a cracking, small and light eyepiece. Sarah didn't take to it, alas, I think because she prefers longer eye relief, and is these days very happy with the Delos eyepieces, with their 20 mm eye relief, I think? Orange County, Jaffa Cakes... Surely not a coincidence?

No problem, had to do it a few times myself

I'm quite amazed by this, Ty. If I could focus it decently it could be a decent travel scope option. I did also use it for like 40 mins on the flame nebula. I got an image, but it was rough but it was recognisable. Perhaps I've been too harsh on it.

This is incredibly good considering the data you had. I might try fettle it's secondary mirror if I can adjust it. It could make a really handy travel to dark skies scope. Maybe.