John

The Tele Vue Apollo 11 is not the only commemorative piece of kit celebrating the lunar missions though. Hasselblad have one and for just under £7,000 you can have one too

As I said earlier in this thread, I've found that my simple cheshire eyepiece delivers results that check out when the scope is star tested (the acid test for me) so thats what I stick with now.

Sorry I missed this comment. I was specifically asked to replace the worm bearings on both axes by Rowan Astronomy and followed their instructions when I did so. Otherwise I am resisting the temptation to tweak and adjust the mount. I don't want any of my ham fisted efforts to impact the performance one way or another ! While on the subject of performance, poor weather conditions have meant that I've simply not been able to get out and observe at all with the AZ100 over the past couple of weeks. In fact a quick dash out with binoculars is all that I've been able to do astronomy-wise generally Just one good clear session of 2-3 hours would be great - I'm crossing my fingers and toes !

When you check that the laser collimator is itself collimated, 10m is a good distance and the laser unit needs to be rotated just around it's long axis with no other motion. A simple "V block" can help with this. Something like this will do the job: https://www.thingiverse.com/make:334814 Assuming that the laser is now collimated accurately itself, if the laser spot is missing the central mark on the primary this means that the tilt of the secondary mirror needs to be adjusted. Once you have done that and the laser spot is right in the centre of the primary mirror, you then move on to see if the returning laser is striking the centre of the 90 degree target built into the laser collimator. If it is not then primary tilt adjustments are needed to get it central. It's important to do the secondary tilt first followed by the primary tilt. Then star test when you get a clear night. Edit: trying to get different collimating tools to agree with each other can be a thankless task !. I tend to stick with the method that results in an accurate star test and stay with that. For me that has been a cheshire eyepiece but a laser collimator can do a good job if properly collimated and if the correct order of steps is followed.

For the last transit we had solid cloud but I popped a scope out just in case and it did clear for just a few minutes so that at least I can say that I saw Mercury crossing the Sun. If I get any views around 1st and 2nd contact plus something when the planet is crossing the disk, I'll be pleased. Certainly not expecting long clear spells !

Maybe your dust is more stubborn than mine ?

I find the hand held "hurricane blower" is very effective. I would not use anything that involves propellant in case anything other than air finds it's way onto the optical surface. My hand held and operated blower provides a lot of air force up to a few cm from the nozzle and keeps every thing portable and simple. I've used this for years on refractor objectives, mirrors and eyepieces and it's 100% safe and successful.

I reckon one of the main points of a product like this is that it gets people talking about the company. There is this thread here and a couple of long and active ones on Cloudynights and I expect similar threads running on Ice in Space and other forums around the world. The profits on the sale of the 300 units (thanks for the correction ) will be relatively "small beer" I suspect.

I think they could have charged more and still sold them. For some that sort of money is more or less loose change. A couple of new tyres on a Lamborghini or a Ferrari for example.

Hello and welcome to the forum ! That looks similar to my situation at home. If you pick your targets and plan your sessions (use Cartes du Ciel or Stellarium) and wait for targets to get well above the horizon and into the more stable areas of seeing and / or lower light pollution you can still have a lot of fun. With the major planets so low currently I've found scopes on taller tripods (ie: refractors) easier to use because it's simply easier to point such scopes at low lying targets and refractors seem to cut through the poor seeing closer to the horizon better. For most other targets my 12 inch dob has done a great job as usual, despite the compromises of my observing location. I've always kept my scopes to a size which can be moved around fairly easily during a session to make the best of the views that I do have.

Nothing is ever 10x as good as anything else IMHO. Take a Skywatcher 102mm F/9.8 achro refractor and a Tak FC-100DL - 10x the price difference easily but is the Tak 10x better (whatever that might mean) ?. Zeiss ZAO 10mm orthos go for around £400 or more each these days on the used market. Are they 10x better than a Baader Classic 10mm ?. I sincerely doubt it. The Apollo 11 will sell because it's a limited edition and is thought to be iconic of a very well respected family company and of Al Nagler who did have a role in the Apollo programme. Many won't come out of their packaging much I suspect. The market for them will be very limited worldwide but there are only 500 eyepieces so supply will probably match demand in the end.

I'm sure they will sell well despite the price I'll be very happy to try one out if FLO would like me to

That mirror looks in good condition to me. Obviously it's optical accuracy cannot be determined until it is used. Many folks like a central spot / ring in the centre of their mirror to aid collimatiobn but that can be added later.

Yet another cloudy night here ......

You will need to budget for a suitable secondary as well then. The size of secondary you need will depend on the focal ratio of the primary mirror. You will notice if the coatings are in need of replacement. Holding the mirror up to the sky and viewing from behind it will reveal if the coatings have holes etc in them. Ideally there should be no light coming though the mirror although one or two pin hooles are OK. The top surface should look evenly bright with no flaking, odd patchas, stains etc. Often coatings start to deteriorate from the outer edges first so those are worth examining. Can the seller post you some photos of the mirror ? - you could post them on here then.

For a commercial mirror (Skywatcher, GSO, Meade, Orion Optics etc) assuming that it and it's coatings are in reasonable condition and that it has no scratches / damage, that would be a very good price. If it needs re-coating before it can be used that will add as much £100 to the cost. For a DIY mirror of undefined quality that would be about the going rate. Does that include the seconady mirror ?. They are often sold as a set.

I'm aiming to be mobile on the 11th of November with white light solar setup in the boot of the car and a tankfull of petrol ready to seek out somewhere clear. Currently the forecast here for the 11th is very mixed so I suspect being mobile and flexible is going to be key to getting any views. Just now the forecasts look slightly better further south so I'd be heading down to Devon I reckon.

Maybe the other X and L as well ?

The Meade 114 EQ1 B seems to use a mount which is a clone of the Skywatcher EQ1. Right ascension drive motors are still available for the EQ1: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SkyWatcher-R-A-Economy-Motor-Drive-For-EQ1-Mount-UK-Stock/333169557122?hash=item4d9273fe82:g:agQAAOSwrSpdIm3y

Our Yaris has a facility where the rear seats slide forwards to create a much larger boot area. With this feature I guess that a Flextube 12 would just about fit in.

Thats pretty much what I found when I owned an Intes 6 inch maksutov-newtonan and my ED120 refractor. I was able to try them side by side on a number of occasions and found their performance very similar indeed. The additional aperture of the mak-newt showed deep sky objects a little better although the contrast of the refractor helped get it pretty close on these targets. On double stars, the planets and the moon the two scopes were pretty much neck and neck. In the end I kept the ED120 because it cooled down quite a bit quicker and was easier to mount steadilly. I'm not sure that a 6 inch SCT would have quite kept up with these two though

These were pretty good scopes as long as they were not made in the run up to the Halleys Comet return in 1986. Meade and Celestron relaxed their quality control to get scopes out in the run up to Halley. You will need a dew shield if you don't already have one. SCT's are "dew magnets" with all that glass up the front end. Celestron went through a number of patterns for the secondary screw heads - those hex ones being one of them. They may well be an imperial size. The other thing to check for with those older SCTs is mirror flop where the mirror moves slightly as the scope moves around, affecting the collimation.

A couple of thick washers on either side of the motor frame resting on that "ledge" on the mounting platform might do the trick insead of the spanner I guess ? Moving the gear along the axle to match that of the mount is normal and I had to do that when I fitted the Skywatcher dual drive set to my Vixen GP.

Lovely ! It's good to have these reminders from foreign parts of what these astro favourites look like - I'm beginning to forget with all the cloud and rain here

Depends on the size of your rucksack ........