Shimrod

Presumably both laptops will be on the same network, so couldn't you just transfer directly over that? It will most likely be quicker than using the hard drive even if you have bought an external SSD drive - just do the network transfer close to your router for maximum transfer speed. Keep the external drive as a backup device if you don't back up the laptops in any other way.

There is a thread on Cloudy Nights with pictures of how to change the battery and the specification required.

If you have an app like accuweather on your phone, it can tell you what the dew point is. If you are experiencing large temperature drops then in all likelihood dew is the culprit.

I don't currently use mine with any imaging software for autofocus. I control the mount using CPWI and use an xbox controller for mount and focuser controls.

How long are you spending setting up before you start imaging, and are you moving the camera straight from a warm environment to a cold environment? Your 'time to dew' seems very short so if it is dew it is likely to be already forming at the start of your imaging session. Can you get a cheap lens hood for the lens - it will cut out some stray light and give you a bit more time before dew forms. Try giving your camera sometime to acclimatise before you start using it outside. Ideally you could get a small dew heater, but I know some people use a small battery powered hair dryer to remove dew that has already formed.

If you fancy a bit of DIY you can make yourself a cheap, battery free focuser for around £10. It will help eliminate telescope shake and give you a finer focus control. DIY electric focuser

With a star you might get a bit more colour but that is about all - for an 'interesting' photograph you want to be aiming at a deep sky object such as a galaxy or nebula. There is a table Messier targets that gives a relative ease of observation of Messier targets - pick the easiest target that is still visible for you and aim for that. If you look at Hubble images on the Nasa website, you will see that outside of the imaged object, stars are just pinpricks of light. The second picture definitely shows a telescope that is out of focus. If you look at this image you will see what I mean - even with a bahtinov mask focus can be quite fiddly to get right as each touch of the focuser can send vibrations through the scope and you have to wait for it to settle.

Your second photo shows the star looking like a little doughnut which indicates that it is out of focus. When using the Bahtinov mask you need to get the spike right down the middle of the star. If you can connect even a small tablet to the camera you will find it much easier to do with a bigger screen than the one of the back of the camera (even when zoomed).

In most cases a single photograph of a star is not going to show much more detail. If you have a view of the Orion Nebula (which is an easy target), then 30-60s will give you a reasonable amount of detail. Oher targets to consider would be the M51 or M31 galaxies, although I think M31 at the moment sets before sunset - or at least it will be very low on the horizon. In terms of your camera, you should drop the ISO to 800 which is the recommended maximum for astro work - beyond that you introduce noise with no gain. As you have discovered, the moon is a nice, easy and bright target - short exposures of a fraction of a second are all that is needed to capture a nice level of detail. You might want to consider capturing a video of the moon and using something likel AutoStakkert to stack the resulting video. This is the same technique used for planets and caters for a 'wobbly' atmosphere, selecting only the best out of several thousand frames. Deep Sky Stacker (often referred to on here as DSS) is another free stacking tool that is used for deep sky objects like galaxies and nebula. For the Orion example above, you might try capturing and stacking 20 or 30 30second frames to bring out more detail. Some of the pictures on here can be made up of hours of image capture! You cannot change the aperture on your camera - this is done in a camera lens using electronics to open or close a diaphragm to restrict the amount of light through a lens. None of these electronics exist in the telescope so the aperture is that of the telescope. You can make a manual aperture mask and place it over the front of the telescope to change aperture, but you generally want to capture as much light as possible.

If you think you might get an asiair pro at some point in the future, get the ZWO focuser as the asiar does not support non-ZWO products. I have the Celestron focuser and am very happy with it - it was easy to fit and you do a one time calibration for the maximum and minimum focus range. There was a thread on here recently regarding the ZWO focuser not allowing travel across the full focuser range - you might want to follow up on that before you purchase. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/375231-zwo-eaf-limited-movement/?tab=comments#comment-4067858

The prices seem to roughly match what the corresponding ES eyepieces were selling for before the recent prices rises - and I have found a couple of older threads suggesting Opticstar and ES pricing has been more or less the same in the past. It might be worth picking some up while they are in stock, as newer stock may also come with a price rise!

I look at cloud cover and direction of movement on https://meteoradar.co.uk/satellite-rainradar You do have to look before it gets dark as as nighttime arrives it no longer shows any cloud images.

Is there a grub screw under the red mount holding it together (or maybe just clamping the unit too tight to unscrew). According to the Altair website the hypercam adapter should unscrew for you to fit your filter, and you can buy alternative adapters for the different Altair camera.

I can't help on the Altair one, but I have recently bought one of these from FLO which works perfectly and certainly takes a 1.25" filter. I can check tomorrow but I with the 1.25" insert removed, I assume it will take a 2" filter as well. You might need to get a spacer or two, but given the price difference (assuming you can return the Altair version) you will also have some money left over.

I use one of these K&F tripods for my 20x80 - it's very stable and provides some flexibility in positioning the binoculars as well. This is the tallest tripod they make, there is a review of a similar model here.

I think your options are limited with the P530 as it is a bridge camera and does not have any filter threads. You could get an adapter kit like this or this and then use some step down rings to attach a 1.25" or 2" nosepiece. Alternatively if you have Hyperion eyepieces you could get the kit to attach to them instead of using a noisepiece. I am not sure though with the P530 you would be able to achieve focus - the macro mode has a closest focus point of 10cm, and standard focus is 50cm.

I'm using the star adventurer counterweight kit and an m8-m12 thread adapter - it provides a very secure fit with no wobble at all in my case.

Have a look for a monoblock tap spanner in the right size - they are normally quite thing and very long - example

Some of the issues can be addressed without too much spend and accepting some compromises (along with a bit of patience). Some stability can be added to the set up by hanging a heavy weight (5kg bag of spuds?) below the mount. With a Lumix camera, Sharpcap and the Lumix ascom driver can be used to improve polar alignment, which would help with some of the exposure lengths. Moving to widefield astrophotography with the camera, lens and the mount is another way to improve exposure times and counter some of the smaller issues with tracking. The compromise here is a different selection of targets. I agree none of these are perfect solutions but they they provide a cheaper option to increase the success rate for a beginner and to me make a bit more sense for someone who is dabbling and does not or cannot spend £1000 on a new mount.

Yes, I've got four spares as well now! Given my knack for losing small items I'm sure they'll come in handy!

I recently bought an AZ-GTI after going through the same 'versus star adventurer' debate. You get added flexibility with the AZ-GTI - if you decide to image on one mount you can still use the other as an AZ mount for a quick observing session (made quicker with the goto). You don't really lose anything in portability but you do gain in features and payloads are about the same. Could I ask what method you are using for polar alignment? I have just started using Sharpcap, but would be interested to know if you are using anything different.

I asked this question a few days ago, and then found my own answer! Canon EF-S lenses have an extra protrusion to stop them being used in EF mount cameras (where the mirror would hit the lens). This protrusion is generally not found on third-party EF-S lenses, so you can use a clip-in filter fine with them. There is a short video here showing someone converting an 18-135mm lens .

You don't mention what camera you have, but it might be worth checking if there are Ascom drivers available for it - I have seen there are some available for the lumix. If you can find some drivers, you could use Sharpcap (£10) to improve your polar alignment - the free version will allow you test whether your camera works with any driver you find and show you how good (or bad) your alignment is, but not guide you to improving it. The alternative as mentioned is to get a skyguider or star adventurer and do some widefield astrophotography with your existing camera and lens. It is possible to do astrophotography on a budget, but what you save in cost you will have to make up for with patience! If you could mention your budget it would help people give better suggestions - I see some of the above are already at £1000!

For anyone who comes across this thread later, the coupler I linked to in my first post was too wide to fit the mount, so I am now waiting on the thread inserts as recommended by @ScouseSpaceCadet

I've just checked my mount - I bought one of the Astro Essentials dovetails from the FLO - the 18cm version and it has the same 'catch pin' on the dovetail although it is not shown in the images. I use it on the AZ GTI to hold my camera and lens. The lens is firmly bolted onto the dovetail. dovetail