dweller25

12mm Reticle eyepiece now sold.

Antares Barlow Sold - thank you

Hello @ukuleledaveey That’s all OK I have replied to your PM

Some items still for sale.....

Update - bought the Baader helical focuser and it worked perfectly

@Stu I try not to run the fan on my 715 as the internals dew up quickly. I have had massive success with dew prevention with a C6 - I wrapped two layers of silver reflectix around the OTA to insulate the warmer air in the OTA from the colder external air. I have yet to try it on the 715 but would expect the same success - the reflectix costs around £15 from B&Q so it’s a fairly cheap solution and can be undone

@Icesheet Hi Chris, You could try Telescope Service, Baader Planetarium or APM. Best of luck....

A smaller sharper image is better than a larger blurred image. As a guideline - when the planets are high is the sky I use the following magnifications in my 5" refractor :- Saturn x200 Jupiter x180 Mars x250 Hope that helps

With Mars what you see depends on where the planet is in it's rotation. You also need to ensure good collimation and cool down. Try to plan observing when Syrtis Major is face on - even then at the moment it will appear only as a subtle darkening on the planet surface. The phase is now fairly obvious and you may just glimpse the polar cap - which will only look like an area that is a bit brighter than the surface. I have only had one good viewing session this time around through a 5" Refractor when the seeing was unusually good given the low altitude of Mars. This image by @orion25 shows how it almost looked......

@TareqPhoto Sounds like you want a Tak 106 on a Mesu 200 - nice setup ollypenrice save you some great info

Here is what I do... 1. Rough collimation on a centered star at x200 - aim is to get the out of focus doughnuts symmetrical. 2. Better collimation on a centered star at x200 - this time just out of focus. 2. Best collimation on a centered star at x400 plus - this time at perfect focus.

Excellent captures showing how quickly Mars reduces in size - and good detail considering it's altitude

Takahashi, TEC, Astro Physics, APM and others all make excellent telescopes, BUT perhaps it would make more sense to tailor your scope choice to want you want to look at and how good your skies are rather than focusing (pun intended) on a brand name ?

Hello Franck, Welcome back That’s a great set of images showing Saturns tilt over the years I remember you upgrading from the TSA102 to the 120 - hard to believe it’s 10 years ago

I have tried coloured planetary filters on the planets and in my opinion they don’t bring anything to the party. I did find a Baader Neodymium filter added contrast to planetary views and use it a lot Cannot comment on deep sky object filters as my skies are too light polluted to observe them