Shimrod

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

Thanks, I have some on order! Can I ask what firmware you are using? I managed to get out with the mount for the first time last night and did polar alignment using Sharpcap. My go to seemed reasonably accurate (I am using my ASI533 and a light lens which seems ok without a counterweight) except for one target that should have been high in the southern sky was pointing about 20 degrees down. I had location,date,time correct otherwise none of the other go to would have worked. I am on firmware 3.26 which I have read has some issues with Dec tracking - I don't know whether to downgrade to 3.20 or carry out some further testing.

The dovetail that came with my Skywatcher Wedge is smooth (the same as shown in the pictures on the FLO website. The single bolt fastens securely into the AZ GTI, and the dovetail has a small 'catch pin' that stops it sliding all the way through the saddle. There's absolutely no movement in mine and it feels very secure.

I've just received by star adventurer counterweight kit to use with my AZ GTI. I have an m8 to m12 thread converter on order from Amazon, but having a closer look at the mount I am pretty certain it is not going to fit - the converter is a 'nut' style coupler like this coupler The only thread 'insert' style I can find seem to come in packs of 20 which cost nearly the same as the counterweight! What have other people used? If you can suggest something I can pick up from B&Q or Screwfix that would be even better - the forecast is clear patches for tonight so I can hopefully try out t he mount.

The last filter you'll ever need!

Maybe this should have been the astronomers anonymous thread.

I can imagine stacks of telescopes next to the stacks of toilet rolls....

I've done my end of year financial review, and to my shame since the start of lockdown I have placed: 9 orders with FLO 11 (astro) related orders with Amazon 2 orders with Altair Astro In my defence I was only started getting back into the hobby in 2019 after a gap of several years, so there was an element of upgrade and replacement. The Amazon orders were mostly smaller items (e.g. 2" to 1.25" adapters and cables) where it did not make sense to incur postage for a single item.

I'm pretty certain I would not have any kit left by morning if I did that! I'm not so sure the insurance company would be willing to pay out on something left unattended and unsecured in the garden. Worth checking your cover first.

It sounds like you are trying to slide the OTA down the mount. There is a straight side and beveled side on the mount. You should slot the dove tail into the beveled side. This user review (on this website) shows what I mean - the bit in question is at 11.40 if you want to skip ahead. Starquest review

Ebay can help with past pricing, although there has only been one sold with an EQ3 mount since the start of the year and that was £400 in January ebay sold prices That was from a dealer (and went via auction), so I would expect a lower price for an individual sale. The dealer did have it on at a 'buy it now' price of £325 so it seems like the market is willing to pay a premium at the moment. As we head towards spring and summer and the nights get shorter that may soften prices a bit at the 'casual' or beginner end of the market with a drop in demand.

I find the ethical debate about what price to sell interesting, as it only ever seems to be applied to the seller. If there had been a massive price drop, no one would be suggesting a buyer should pay 70% of the old, higher price. My advice for @Venster would be to try selling on Ebay (when they have a £1 selling fees option) or some other site that will give a wider, local audience. With no boxes, you will be reliant on collection or local delivery - you would not want to risk sending the scope through the post without proper packaging - and it is not easy to get parcel insurance that would cover breakages in transit on a telescope. On Ebay you could either go with an auction and let the market decide what it wants to pay, or use a 'buy it now', with the price you like, and if you don't get any offers then you can always drop the price.

I suspect the price rise as over 1 day rather than three months - but checking past prices on Amazon, the average price of the CPC 925 all the way back to 2017 was only £2649, so that is between 3 and 4 years with no price increases. There may well just be no more margin available to absorb cost increases.

It looks like an odd price increase, as the advanced vx + Edge 8" is only £2249, making the AVX mount a bargain in that package (£1749 + £899 if bought separately).

You should remove the mount head, turn it around and slide it back on to the saddle. Then you can use the scale on the other side (the one that goes to 60) to set it to the right latitude (page 10 of the online manual has a couple of pictures if what I have written doesn't make sense!).

I'm going to suggest an impact with something hard, but blunt. The shockwave has been transferred through the lens to cause the fracture inside. Think Newton's cradle.

I bought one of these (in white) for my ASI533. It's a USB-C connector so I did not have to use an adapter between my laptop and original cable. I have light coloured cables to make them easier to see in the dark and avoid accidents!

I've got a slightly bigger sensor (ASI533), but after aligment I find that I can get the target in the field of view of the camera on a EdgeHD 8". Assuming you are using an EQ mount, I did find that I was less accurate when I did an ASPA than when I just took the polar alignment as given by my ipolar.

I've read that the Skyportal would work with the advanced GT (although not officially a supported mount) if you connect it to the hand controller port - but it would be cheaper to buy a replacement controller.

I use my AVX with either an 8" EdgeHD and an 80ed. The mount is happy with either. I've never seen any reference to a minimum payload being an issue, and if you look around the forum you will seem images of people with an EQ6 and 60/70mm refrractors for widefield imaging.

I'm not sure I follow what you are doing. Are you using both APT and the handcontroller (for Starsense) when doing the alignment - I don't se APT so I'm not clear whether you are doing all these actions from APT or not. I haven't had the issues you are describing - I use the (free) Celestron CPWI software to control my AVX mount and have found Starsense to be pretty accurate. You do the Starsense calibration first then do the alignment - as you are using a PC already it might be worth trying CPWI as it is much easier to use than the hand controller - see if you get a different result.

I have mine as Tripod and mount (AVX), and telescope. It would be too heavy and awkward to carry out into the garden fully set up - I will also swap between one of two OTA depending on what I want to do

5th Surprise -the original focuser will fetch around £80 if you sell on here or ebay - I had put mine to one side thinking it was not really worth anything I also had a 6th surprise - the screws holding the orignal focuser where so tight I stripped the heads and had to drill them out - not an uncommon problem. It's amazing how quickly a £250 focuser becomes a £350 focuser - but I wouldn't swap mine back.