paul schofield

I have owned Celestron, Skywatcher and now own a Bresser Messier nt 203 reflectors and can safely say the Bresser knocks the other two out of the park in quality, mine is on an exos 2 goto mount and of course I wouldn't say easily portable. The Bresser to me holds collimation extremely well. Is a joy to use and just looks and feels better quality all round. Just my 2 pennies worth.

Thank you for your help guys. I generally collimate or at least check collimation prior to a session. Will do with the new scope too. Fingers crossed for perfect collimation and clear skies. Thanks again.

Hi Todd and welcome to SGL.

I have a 7 foot tall plastic shed that resembles a sentry box. For all my astro gear. Alarmed of course. With waterproof air vents, so cool down time is halved. My other half also didn't really enjoy my kit being indoors.

Good evening all. So I have ordered my new telescope from R.V.O.. and am soon to be the proud owner of a Bresser Messier nt-203 exos 2 goto scope. I have been hitting Google pretty hard trying to find out the correct size collimation thumb screws I will need for not my primary and secondary mirrors. I don't really want to spend silly money on Bob's knobs. If anybody can advise that would be great. I have also checked the online manual to no avail. I think, but a not 100% sure I may need M4 thread x 30mm size for the secondary mirror ?? Does anybody own this scope. I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks all.

Just saying hi again. I have been away from Stargazers Lounge for the past 5 years. I've not been away from my telescope though. I remember you guys n girls helping me out with advice and putting up with my constant questions. I took a break due to my daughter being born and she is almost 5 now, so back to the lounge I go. I have been using my 200 dob as and when and am soon to upgrade scope to a 200p explorer on HEQ5 mount, so the questions shall flow once more. Glad to be back. And I look forward to returning fully to this great hobby, interest, way of life. Regards all. Paul.

Welcome back Orion nebula, excellent. Does this mean winter's a comin ?

Lovely image, wow.

Mix and match for sure, I had a 10mm teleview ethos eyepiece, never really worked for me, might be my eyes, don't think so though. my teleview 10mm plossl out performs it by a long shot. I suppose everyone's eyes are different, that's what makes us human I suppose. Try before you buy is a great idea, although I have spent copious amounts of money on eyepieces recommended by others, only to find they just don't do it ft or me. I don't think the eyepieces I love would be perfect for everyone else. Wouldn't it be great to buy 10 ep's and return the ones that don't do it for you ? I own 36 eyepieces and my absolute favourite is my skywatcher 2 inch Ed 25mm by a long shot. Moonshane makes a great point, used ep's along with research is probably the way to go. I have always avoided eyepiece sets and zooms and have been quite happy with my choices, or subsequently eBay sales. Good luck to you, hope you find your perfect optics.

Stand back and leave that baby alone. Unless your scope becomes unusablly filthy, it really is not worth pulling it to bits to clean, believe me, I've done it & it just isn't worth the hassle' I had. My previous telescope mirrors were shockingly dirty, cleaned them, made no difference. If anything, it came out a lot worse. The mirror on my small 130 scope is in a terrible dirty, pre owned unloved state, and when collimated correctly still works like a dream. I used to think if my mirror had dust on it, it would not work so well (ocd' n all that) but that's just not the case. If one of my scopes becomes so bad (never happened) I would be inclined to buy again rather than clean mirrors etc. In my opinion, it ain't worth it. ........I'm gonna get member blasted now.

The back yard astronomy guide, TLAO, and Exploring the universe with binoculars are three of my faves at the moment. Oh and Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait.

The back yard astronomy guide, TLAO, and Exploring the universe with binoculars are three of my faves at the moment. Oh and Bad Astronomy by Phil Plait.

Thanks all for your valued opinions, in the end I have gone for Helios Naturesport plus 10x50's. I know they should be an improvement on my Meades. It was the sky at night review that swayed it. Thanks all. Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Hi happy kat, I have adjust my bins and they are not perfect, but improved from how the they were. I now use them at work as they work really well still for close observation purposes. I just want to step up a little from my £30.00 Meade 10x50's. They are great budget binoculars, but I feel I could do better with a spend of £100 - £200 ish.

Thanks for your views chap's. I will settle on a new set of 10x50's. As you suggest, I think anything above 10x would sacrifice a steady view, etc. Mmm Bushnel, Helios naturesport, the research continues. I am not expecting top of the range views from a £100 set of bins, just a step up from my Meade 10x50's. I am kind of wondering if anyone knows of any bad points, niggles etc on the bins in my first post ?? Or indeed are they all produced the same way, same factory in China, hope not. Thanks for any advice, ronin I can only imagine the excellence of a view through some Leica's, but I shall hold off for now.