John

2 hours ago, Frostak said:

Thanks for the reply, I've read the review.  I was checking them out at FLO's site.
From your review I gather that the 25mm might not be a good idea. Would you be able to suggest an alternative for lower power eyepiece (this is the eyepiece I need to replace the most) in similar price point (at around 50 eur).

A friend of mine who has the same scope that you do uses a Vixen NPL 30mm as his lowest power eyepiece and likes it a lot. It is currently £35.00 from First Light Optics:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-npl-eyepieces.html

I got this supernova again tonight. Similar observing conditions and the same scope. It seems a touch easier to pick up but that might just be because I now know where to look and what to look for.

The SN is still a touch fainter than the magnitude 13.55 star just to the S of it so still around mag 14 I'd say.

265x (Ethos 6mm) is doing the best job tonight. Nice wide field of view despite the high power.

If you saw Venus looking like this (below) then that is what it usually looks like just now. Seeing any details on the planet is very challenging and it takes experienced eyes to pick them out.

I think all scopes of a similar type and budget are made in China or Taiwan so will also be subject to such supply restrictions currently.

Orion Optics in the UK make an 8 inch dobsonian but they are much more expensive.

Have you thought about buying a used one ?

If you can see the outline of the mirror supports you are not in focus.

Keep adjusting the focus until you have the target (Venus in this case) looking it's smallest as DaveL59 says. Then you should see it is around 50% illuminated - like a tiny version of the Moon.

What were you trying to focus on and what eyepiece were you using ?

Or has this been the case with a number of targets and eyepieces ?

46 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

... What EP’s have you coupled the with?

I notice that you have the 18mm and 8mm BST Starguiders arriving shortly ?

These will work pretty well with a 250mm F/5 dobsonian.

It does not change the position of the optics so focus should not be affected. It does change the position of the eye in relation to the top lens of the eyepiece. The purpose is to allow different people to find a position where they can see the exit pupil of the eyepiece easily. People who wear glasses when observing usually find that having the eyecup in the lower position works best whereas those who don't wear glasses often find a higher position works for them.

13 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Just looking at the 250 weights:

SW: OTA 19kg, Box 25kg = 44kg

Bresser: OTA 11.5kg, Box 16.4kg = 27.9kg

The SW is 63% heavier = Wow!

Quite a difference. What I potentially could gain in slightly reduced storage room, I'll lose out to with a slipped disc. I'll look at that storage! There's a tenner difference between them and the best focuser and bearings means a big thing. One review of the 250 SW flex tube suggested the alt bearings weren't great.

Not sure about the total weight of the Skywatcher you have there. I've seen figures of 25kg and 27kg for the Skyliner 250PX solid tube. I used to own one and I don't think it was that heavy

My old Meade Lightbridge 12 inch dob weighed around 40 kg all up - that one was a beast !

I'm not an imager so I can't help you there but you have got an amazing bargain. The scope alone of worth the price you paid. You got the mount for free

The William Optics eyepiece (is it a SWAN ?) is worth £50 if its in good nick as well.

The eyepiece is missing it's silver barrel - is should look like this:

Nice report Mark

We both know how well 6 inch scopes can do under dark skies from that great night at Lucksall a few years back.

I feel that I have a gap in my scopes around the 6-8 inch aperture so I might see if I can find a suitable OTA to fill that

Good idea about the club Keith - there are some good ones around that are very helpful.

Think I managed to get SN2020ftl tonight:

Panstarrs is better than Y4 Atlas now. Larger as well.

It's rather dim and hard to find tonight as well:

To align the finder with the scope eyepiece, yes you do it that way. That should be a one-off adjustment which you can do in daylight using a distant target.

Then, when you are using the scope at night, you do it the other way around and what you point the dot in your finder at, should then be in the eyepiece.

Nice dark night here. Got the 12 inch dob out.

My first target tonight was to be comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas which is in Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). I noticed from Cartes du Ciel that comet C/2107 T2 Panstarrs was in the same constellation tonight (not often you get two comets in the same constellation) so I also targeted that one.

Despite being reported as more or less similar in brightness to T2 Panstarrs, I found Y4 Atlas quite hard to pick out. Got it in the end - rather dim, small but elongated patch of light. Needed 199x to pull it out clearly.

T2 Panstarrs on the other hand was much easier to find, somewhat more extensive (75x was fine to see it well) and more condensed towards it's centre. A better comet to observe than Y4 Atlas by quite a margin tonight IMHO. Can't quite believe that it is no brighter than Y4 Atlas - it certainly looks brighter

I also noticed that comet C/2019 Y1 Atlas was not far away in Cassiopeia (the Queen). That one was dimmer than Panstarrs but still a better looking patch of light than Y4 Atlas. Also tonight it's right alongside the lovely open cluster NGC 225 and they make a great pair in the 75x field of view of my Ethos 21mm eyepiece.

So three comets thus far and clear dark skies forecast for the night. Happy bunny here

I use a 7.2 - 21.5 zoom mostly for nighttime and occasionally when I do solar white light. I've been quite impressed by it. A touch narrow at the 21.5mm end (<40 degrees) but it does widen out to around 55 degrees at the other end.

Mine seems to be a clone of the Hyperflex and Lunt zooms. Here I have the Baader 2.25x barlow attached which makes it a useful 9.4mm - 3.2mm high power zoom:

11 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Vixen NPL any good 

They are pretty good plossls.

2 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Any party sizes ?? Recommend 

I've added some to my post above.

Eyepiece choice can be even more complicated than scope choice !

You might want to start a new topic on this.

15 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

 the 8se and 6se come with a 25mm EP ..should I get an extra one to get the best form either scope ? 

You are going to need 3 or 4 eyepieces to get the best from a scope. The 25mm is a low(ish) power eyepiece. Something around 15mm and also 10mm or 8mm will be very useful indeed.

The BST Starguiders are well thought of for £50 apiece. Decent plossls would also be OK and can be had for around £30 each.

The red dot does not show in the eyepiece of the scope.

You align the scope so that the red dot viewed through the finder is lined up to exactly match (as far as possible) what is in the centre of the eyepiece. So using a distant object (needs to be a few hundred metres away) helps to do this alignment (a one-off process) before attempting to use the scope at night.