John

Got this one and Panstarrs again tonight with the 12 inch dob. Panstarrs is still currently brighter and larger I reckon. Neither spectacular by any means but comets are always worth having a look at

I'm going to be doing the front and back ends of Leo (and between the Lions legs too !), Ursa Major and, if I stay up later the "bowl" of Virgo and Coma Berenices. There are simply loads of galaxies around those areas. The easier ones in Leo are M65, M66, M105, M96 and at the "snout end" NGC 2903 is quite bright.

Yes, single bolt. It seems sturdy enough for the 4 inch Vixens but they are quite light. I've seen them used on Tak 100's. If I put something on my ED120 and 130 triplet it will be bolted at both ends I think !

Thanks Baz. I reckon the transparency will be quite good but the seeing not so steady. It's a bit blustery here so I'm going to be sticking to low to medium magnifications anyway. A better DSO night than a high power observing one perhaps ? Now I've said that it will probably turn out to be quite the opposite

I use the Vixen handle on my, er, Vixen It may well fit on the Skywatcher tube rings as well.

My 12 is out as well. It has been a nice sunny day so I'm hoping for a nice clear night to match

The Synta focusers do work Louis. They are not the best but they do work. My 12 inch dob came with one of those GSO crayfords fitted to it. It was OK but nothing special either. I've replaced it with a Moonlite now. I would like to see the two eyepiece adapter approach that Synta use changed though. That confuses so many folks judging by the number of questions we get on this on here.

If your skies are dark and transparent, you may well get suggestions of where they are. Certainly the face of the nebulous disk will show some contrast variations. M97 is a particularly good O-III target I feel.

The EQ3 is quite different from the HEQ5 that Astro Baby describes in that link. I came across this thread on this forum which relates to the EQ3-2 mount which I think is pretty much the same as the EQ3 Pro:

Excellent sketch ! An O-III filter makes M97 pop into view quite a bit easier but thats at the expense of M108 which all but disappears so if you want to see both in the view, unfiltered is better.

The BST Starguiders make a good upgrade over the stock eyepieces. They have a good reputation on this forum https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html Personally I think a 2 inch eyepiece with a focal length of 30 mm or so is worth having as well but they do tend to cost a bit more to get decent performance.

Actually, on 2nd thoughts, flying birds are not suitable targets !

As long as its a good way off the target does not matter.

Getting the finder scope aligned with what the main scope is observing is really important. It will be very difficult to find things without this having been done fairly accurately. You can use a distant object in daylight to do this. Something like a TV mast or a chimney around 1km or more away as an alignment target. The Seben 8-24 zoom is quite good for its price. The field of view is quite narrow at the 24mm end though.

Longer focal length eyepieces with wide fields of view (the degrees figure) are for low power, wide field observing. With your scope 30mm - 32mm is around the longest focal length eyepiece that is effective. The 2 inch size eyepieces give you an even larger view but the low cost 2 inch wide angle eyepieces dont work that will with the F/4.7 focal ratio of the 250mm dobsonian - you tend to get distortions in the outer parts of the field of view. The 25mm BST Starguider will show nearly as wide a field as a 1.25 inch eyepiece can in a scope so there is not a lot of point in getting anything with a longer focal length unless you move to the 2 inch fitting.

The 3x barlow would give you too much magnification to be much use. Stick with a 2x.

I've packed up for tonight Kerry. It was nice to just get some views of the starry sky though

Not a good night here really for observing anything but there were one or two stars showing so I stuck the Tak 100mm refractor out anyway. It's cold and windy as well as pretty cloudy so I've just stuck to favourite double stars just to be observing something. My thanks to Algieba, Castor, Mizar and Theta Auriga for putting a smile on my face in these rather grim times Algieba (Gamma Leonis) is a lovely golden and slightly unequal brightness pair which was the first double star that I ever observed with a telescope - my old Tasco 60mm refractor about 40 years ago !. It looks very nice with the Tak too of course

If you want something that improves on what came with the scope but does not cost a fortune the BST Starguiders are well thought of on this forum https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html For planets I would suggest the 8mm or 5mm focal lengths or alternatively the 12mm which you could use with your 2x barlow lens to give a 6mm equivalent.

I don't know why either Louis

Those are 3 element eyepieces. They get you started and the 25mm is better than the 10mm.

Usually they are modified achromats which are similar to kellners. 3 elements in 2 groups. Occasionally the scopes are shipped with plossls but they are marked as such.

The manual is not really clear on how to use that adapter which is why some folks have got into difficulties by putting both the 1.25 inch and 2 inch adapters in the scope at the same time and then finding that 1.25 inch eyepieces will not come to focus. Its a quirk that many Skywatcher scopes seem to have. Other brands come with a true 2 inch focuser drawtube that you just need to use a 1.25" adapter with which seems more sensible to me.

I've not observed Merope with the 40mm Aero ED for sometime Gerry - hopefully we have some better skies forecast for the coming week so I will try it. I agree that the 17.3 Delos is excellent The 24mm Panoptic is the only one from that series that I own or have used. I guess because I like to have a "widest field" 1.25 inch eyepiece. I also rather like it's cute mushroom shape !

It is the 2 inch eyepiece adapter. You use it in place of (not as well as) the 1.25 inch eyepiece adapter when you want to use 2 inch eyepieces. This one has faded to that colour due to exposure to sun light for a long period. Normally they are black.