honest

I'm looking for some accessories for my new astro setup but I'm not sure what to get and I'd love to hear your advice My current setup: Star Adventurer 2i pro and Canon Rebel T3i with a 18-55 kit lens I was thinking of powering the whole rig from an external power source but I've been told some power banks auto shut off if there is not enough current through it. Do you have any recommendations? Which power banks will do the job and won't cost a fortune? I only want to power the mount and the DSLR camera, maybe a due heater too at one point so 3-4 USB ports should do I'm also looking for a solid ball head but there are tons of them out there and I'm not quite sure which one should I get And lastly, to automate my sessions I'd either need an intervalometer or a shutter release cable to control my camera through the mounts app. Which one would you recommend more? Do you use the Star Adventurer Console app at all? Thanks !!!

Thanks again for your help guys I had a very successful session last night, the Moon looked absolutely stunning! Once an object was in the center of my field of view, it was surprisingly easy to follow it on the night sky - I guess I got the polar alignment right without a polar scope The RA axis was still a bit too stiff comparing to Dec axis but didn't really cause any issues. And I didn't even use the RA setting circle so that wasn't an issue either

Thanks Laurieast, I'll defo check this software! Yes I do have the remaining parts, just forgot to put it all together before recording. Your setting circles look solid, mine RA setting circle is kinda loose and wobbly even with the highlighted screw locked. And there is a quite substantial gap between RA setting circle and date circle

I'm preparing my rig for the very first night session today but there are a few things I'm not quite sure about in terms of my mount - it's a EQ3-2 First one is the stiffness in RA axis which makes it very difficult to balance the scope. I tried to follow steps from this topic and loosen the aluminium ring behind the RA setting circle but I couldn't even unscrew those three grub screws which hold the ring in place. It felt like the screws are not there or maybe I just used wrong hex keys (I used two different sizes but non of them worked). Any suggestions how to make it smoother? The second issue I've got is the RA setting circle itself. When I turn the RA axis, the RA setting circle doesn't usually follow it. Sometimes it does but sometimes it stops in random places which makes using it useless. I don't tighten the thumb screw but even if I do, it gives the same result Is it still doable to polar align the mount without a polar scope? Here's a couple of videos I made of the mount to highlight the issues Thanks! VID_20220608_124233.mp4 VID_20220608_124634.mp4

Thanks. I bought it last week, just finishing 'Stargazing beginners guide to astronomy'

Hi there! I'm just about to order my first scope from FLO. I did some research and I think I finally made my mind up in terms of the 2 main components - Evostar 72ed + AZ GTI I have zero experience with night sky and observing night sky objects so I'll be using this setup mostly to get myself familiar with it first. I've chosen this rig cos it's very lightweight and quite versatile as far as I'm aware. This is fairly important to me as I will be soon living full time in a camper and because I'll most likely find myself in quite remote places, I'd like to try astrophotography as well in the near future. I believe both the telescope and the mount with a firmware update (EQ mode) are fully capable of doing so (unlike me at the moment). Due to limited space and budget I'd rather have one portable setup than two. Do you think it's a right setup and a right way to go? How about 80ed? Would longer focal length and higher aperture be any better? It only weights slightly more than 72ed so AZ GTI should handle it pretty well too. Plus with all add-ons FLO offers now it actually seats in the same price range as 72ed Which brings me to my second question - accessories. Obviously the scope and the mount is not enough so before I place the order I'd like to ask you about some necessary accessories. What do I need to start with? For visual, do I need anything more than just a diagonal and an eyepiece? Which of them would you recommend? I see there are quite a few diagonals in FLO's offer, not sure what to look at when choosing one. Then eyepiece, would 28mm be ok? It'd give me 15x magnification on 72ed or 21x on 80ed. And lastly, barlow lenses and finder scope? Are they needed? For astrophotography, well it's more complicated I believe. I've already got a Canon Rebel T3i which I heard might be used as a main camera. Do I need a field flattener for it or a camera adapter? Or maybe both? Another thing is a dew heater. Is it necessary to have one of this as well? Do they really improve the quality in cold days by keeping the lens warmer? I could get one for around £20 so it's not that expensive. Another one is intervalometer (is this one ok?). As I will be doing all post processing on my Mac, I thought instead of buying a intervalometer I could control the mount and the camera from my laptop. Seems like Macs are not that well supported in terms of software compatibility but I heard running Astroberry on Raspberry Pi is a cheap and good way to do it and I've got a few of them from my old projects. As my macbook will only talk to RPi, I guess the mount and the camera must be somehow connected to it. Is it just as simple as using one of this RJ12 control cables for AZ GTI? What about the camera? I don't want to overcomplicate the setup so I don't even think about getting a guide scope or dedicated astro cameras at this stage Last two components I'm not entire sure about are, a tripod and a wedge. AZ GTI comes with or without a tripod. It's another £75 so not a lot comparing to other tripods like skywatcher 3/8" stainless steel one but this one looks way more heavy. And lastly, does it make any difference which wedge I'll go for? Star Adventurer is the one I'm leaning towards but I'm open for suggestions My last concern is the weight limit of the GTI mount. The website says it's rated for payload up to 5kg so theoretically it should handle both setups (for visual and for astrophotography). The OTA itself weights less than 2kg. A diagonal and an eyepiece are probably less than 0.5kg so that should be ok. My DSLR (body) weight 0.5kg + any adapters, flattener, dew heater and cables shouldn't add more than a 1kg or 1.5kg so still maxing out around 4kg. Is my math correct? If the total weight stays below the 5kg threshold, do I still need to consider a counterweight? Thanks for all your help and advice