PatrickO

Has anyone tried this Celestron dew heater or similar? Do they work, any problems? Thanks, Patrick https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/celestron-dew-heater-ring-for-sct.html

Welcome! Great lunar images. Ask as many questions as you want. Lots of very knowledgeable people here.

I've never done any drawing before, but I'd like to sketch to enhance my visual observation. I'm thinking of an inexpensive A5 black paper sketch pad and a white pencil. Derwent white pencils get good reviews. Advice much appreciated on best paper and pencil. Also any other tips? Thanks, Patrick

I'll take a look. Thanks

Thanks. I've ordered one

I have a Meade LX90 8" SCT mounted on a Celestron 8se mount. I mainly plan to use it for solar system observation and imaging. I'd also like to do some purely visual DSO observation. What is the best way to maximise the FOV to observe some of the larger DSOs. I realise I'm not going to get M31 into the FOV, but wondering if I could get wide enough for Pleiades. I'm thinking 2" back and diagonal with wide field eyepiece?

Can anyone tell me what sort of finder will fit on this? I prefer a red dot finder. Thanks

Wonderful drawings. Very inspiring. Thank you.

I have a Meade LX90 SCT which came with a Losmandy bar, but I need a Vixen style dovetail for my mount. I bought a dovetail bar, but I'm not sure how to attach it to the OTA. There are risers of some sort which the Losmandy was attached to. Should I remove the risers and screw the dovetail directly to the tube or put screws through the risers into the tube? See pics

Those are wonderful sketches. Would be great if they were all gathered in one place

Looks good. I've just ordered it from eBay. Thanks

I'm planning my first Messier object viewing run. Does anyone know of a table of Messier objects which includes an image of what each looks like through an amateur telescope? I've seen several helpful tables which include beautiful astrophotography images. Also I can look up telescope images individually in my "Turn Left at Orion". It would be good to have it all in one place. This isn't a make or break thing, more of a nice to have.

I want a star tracker to take a 70-80mm refractor for purely visual observation. Which tracker has the easiest/simplest initial alignment? I've been spoiled by my Celestron Nexstar 4se mount which just asks you to point at any two or three bright stars. You don't even need to know what stars they are. Many thanks for any advice on which star tracker would be best.

Thanks for that. Good point. I've just checked and the 72ED OTA is slightly shorter than the 8se OTA

I'm looking for a reasonably priced OTA that I can put on my Celestron Nexstar 8se mount. This would be purely for visual observation, mainly of larger targets. The 8" SCT has a too narrow FOV for this. My research suggests the Sky-Watcher Evostar 72 ED would be a good choice, and I've been offered one with some useful extras for a good price. I'd be very grateful for your thoughts.

I'm deciding on a camera for high resolution lunar imaging. I'm going to be using an 8" SCT. I'm considering the ZWO ASI224MC and ASI120MM-S. As my lunar images are really grey scale anyway would I be better with the mono camera? Advice much appreciated.

Wow! Those are just so impressive. Thanks for sharing

Very nice image.

Excellent, especially with poor seeing. Thanks for sharing

Wonderful image. Thanks for sharing

Great set. Thanks for sharing

Excellent. May I ask what you use for processing.

Excellent, especially with the poor seeing. I really like this.

Can anyone tell me what model/age of 8" Celestron SCT this is. Is it different from recent models? I'm thinking of buying it for lunar/planetary imaging. Many thanks

Many thanks Knighty. Other than the sections on imaging the contents seem identical.