Toltec

Knew I'd seen the clothes peg somewhere Peter, just after I had ordered the Svbony focusser iirc. That focusser does not rotate so the diagonal stays where it should. I've just swapped from an Allview to a AZ-EQ5GT and I'll admit it does still wobble when focussing, it settles within a couple of seconds even with an 8mm eyepiece though and it isn't like the wobble is large. If looking at Trapezium in Orion the wobble is 1/4 to a 1/3 of the diameter of the cluster on my setup. I still like your lowcost solution though, minimal and elegant.

I put one of these on mine- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Svbony-Finderscope-Astronomical-Photography-Observation/dp/B0852TP9R5 I had the older version of the mak so had to get an adaptor to take the thread to the sct one - https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-mak-sct-thread-adaptor.html The focus locking screw makes a good index guide to allow you to make fine adjustments around a position. I wind it about half way out focus with the normal mak adjuster then tweak with the helical focusser. You can of course add a handle to the normal focus knob, I think some people have used something as simple as a clip that looks like a large clothes line clip.

Hi from Orpington, Kent I started up again late October early November so I've been through the same process, from looking at £5k+ of kit to the used Skymax 127 and Allview I actually bought used for under £300. Of course I then bought more eyepieces, dew mask, a 102mm refractor and last weekend a new (used) mount. My approach ended up as- Decided to go with visual and leave imaging etc. alone - for a while at least. Something easily portable, I'm in a Bortle 7 with restricted field of view so going for a drive to a darker bit of countryside or taking on holiday is a definite need. Mak or refractor as no collimation and low F not needed for visual. Goto so I could learn the sky without getting frustrated trying to find things - also read lazy! If I really enjoyed it buy more kit as I worked I what I wanted - that can prove expensive Check astrobuysell and ebay for used setups. Do you have a local astronomy society? Mine has monthly observing evenings and are happy for new people to come along and see what it is all about, look through some telescopes and chat about what they might want to buy. Or indeed bring their new telescope down and get some setup advice.

That might be a bit heavy for the Az-Gti, there is very little headroom and a 2" eyepiece could make it struggle. I have an Allview and with a similar weight 102mm/F7 and an Axiom 23mm (fair enough it is a bit of a grenade) I had to rebalance after aligning with a 1.25" reticle to keep it happy. Having said that I'm newish to astronomy and maybe others know if the Az-Gti can handle over the stated limit or I'm mad for using an eyepiece like that anyway.

I found those after asking my original noob question thanks I'd like a bit more flexibility in what mass I use and didn't like the idea of a threaded rod stuck out from the telecope ready to catch an unwary knuckle. I have ordered one of these- https://www.philipharris.co.uk/product/lab-equipment/balances/weights-and-accessories/hanging-slotted-masses-steel-1kg-9-x-100g-masses-and-hanger/b8a73088 plus a vixen rail and clamp. I will hopefully be able to cut down the hanger, put a thread on to the shaft and file two flats about 3mm up from the base to allow weights to be added and removed by simply unscrewing it a few turns. I'll make up something to cover the thread that projects through a suspension arm when there are only a few weights attached or put an internally threaded bar on the inside of the arm to screw the hanger into.

I found that thread and video, I had noticed that having a heavy 2" eyepiece on a diagonal meant the cog was no longer co-axial with the OTA and therefore the stable balance becomes with the eyepiece facing down. It means there is a small torque on the alt axis at any other position really. I don't have enough experience to know how important that is though, I'm only visual for now so it is less to do with tracking smoothness and more about what it means for the mount mechanics. I've ordered a long vixen rail and a clamp from FLO and a set of slotted 100g disc weights from an educational supplier, I can make up an arm and drill/tap as needed. I may be overthinking this of course!

I think I've worked it out. Get a long Vixen type dovetail, a dovetail clamp and make up an arm and weight to connect to the clamp. I can then move that to rebalance as needed.

Only about 340g so that is no where near enough I'm afraid. Just looking at the ADM counterweight kits, maybe if I put an extra rail on the tube rings I could add a weight to that as needed.

What is the best way to compensate for the change in balance when changing eyepieces? On a 102mm/F7 weighing 4kg the difference in balance point between a 109g 1.25" eyepice and a 925g 2" eyepiece is quite significant. To add more complexity I have just aquired a AZ-EQ5 GT and want to dual mount so this also affects the azimuth balance, though this likely has more leeway? Using a diagonal and heavy 2" eyepiece already creates a torque on the altitude axis as the altitude changes as the cog is off the axis of the ota even if there is a static horizontal balance. Should I be trying to balance with the heaviest setup then add weights to compensate when using lighter eyepieces? As this mount has encoders it should be possible to release the clutch to check the balance without losing alignment. Am I just overthinking this?

Arrived today, my wife has taken it surprisingly well The Altair version does not have the focusser rotator, otherwise is is very much the same, there is a serial number on the objective ring, mine is 0063. I had about an hour last night that was clear enough to do a bit of binocular viewing, but it looks like it is going to be cloudy for a week now.

Starting out myself and added a Svbony helical focuser, this has an SCT adaptor which then screws on to a mak to sct adaptor. While using it can cause some shake the locking screw acts as an index so you can feel how much you have rotated the focusser. This is a double helix so the diagonal/eypiece does not rotate. No one had a desiccant cap in stock so I made one up from a 1.25 to T2 nose, a T2 dustcap, a cheap 1.25 filter with the glass removed and replaced by a bit of aluminium mesh, and an o-ring to give a nice fit to the focusser. The case is a Challeger 5014 from Trifibre.

Ordered one from Altair this morning. Slight mission creep, started looking at binoculars, then decided a cheap 100mm achro might be better and ended up with one of these...

Got out this evening and had a look at M42, Uranus, 32 Eridani (nice and sharp with clear separation) and Beta Monocerotis (could just about see it was a triple). Alighnment is still a bit out, but only by just under half the view at 24mm. I used a 23mm illuminated reticule eyepiece I picked up from RVO last week which has helped a bit. I could see from Gemini around to the south/south/west and Sirius was just above the tree line by half eleven. I have added a Svbony helical focuser using a mak to sct adapter and that proved really useful to get a finer focus, particularly on the doubles, you cannot see as you adjust due to shake, but the focus locking screw makes a nice lever and position guide so I could make incremental changes to get a sharp focus. I had a look around with an old pair of Zeiss 10x50 binocolars as well, I think I found Andromeda, but it was more of a fuzzy patch than anything else. Need to crack on and relearn the sky and what objects work well in the mak 127. I think the bug haswell and truly bitten again, there is a local club/group so I think I'll make contact with them.

Thank you for all of your welcome messages and advice.

Good point about the voltage, I'm using a power tank that came with the scope. The seller threw it in as a freebie as they said it was well used. The battery charges, but the low level indicator comes on pretty much straight away. I've already opened it up to check the battery size and I'll get it replaced and hopefully that may help. I picked up a second hand Baader MKIV on Monday. I did wonder about changing the zoom to centre, but thought that might be worse to change between stars. Dropped into RVO today and bought a crosshair eyepiece anyway. And a dew shield.

Thanks, I did wonder if defocussing would be better, going on what Vega looked like earlier I need to tweak the collimation as well. I noticed a 10" goto dob on astrobuysell, I managed to resist because it is miles away and my wife would not be too happy if I kept it in the dining room. Maybe give it a month or two first.

I had an interest in astronomy in my teens and through to mid twenties, even studied it as an elective at university, life however intervened and that was three decades ago. The plan was always to take another look when we eventually had a chance to move out of the city, but that always seems to be a few years away so after accidentally catching a few youtube videos I decided, why wait? Quite a few videos and lots of reading later I picked up a used Skymax 127 on an Allview mount with goto. It didn't have any eyepieces so I picked up a few cheap used ones to get going and work out what I wanted, these have duly been used to take a look at the Moon, Jupiter and Pleiades. Had several goes at setting up the alignment, might need to get an eyepiece with reticle as the goto gets close, but not quite close enough to get objects into a 25mm eyepiece. Is that pretty normal? Watched lots of astrophotography videos and looked at far too many expensive otas and mounts, need to learn to walk first though and I plan to stick with visual for a while. Off up to the East Yorkshire coast this week and hoping to be inspired with what I can see compared to the murk that qualifies as a clear sky inside the M25. That is why I chose the Mak to begin with btw, portability, that and the simplicity of the optical design just calls to me. TL:DR Used to do astronomy, stopped, forgotten most of what I knew and the rest is likely out of date, want to start again.