paulferris1964

The StellaLyra 8" looks very interesting, Michael - and affordable new. Anyone else have any thoughts, in addition to a C8 and a fast Newtonian?

Thanks Michael in Stannington. I've heard of, but know nothing about, Stella Lyra scopes. I assume your 8" is a Newtonian? At f/4, it looks like the tube length is quite manageable, so that's now got me thinking about fast Newts, too. I had an old Russian 4.5" Newtonian years ago, which gave great views, but despite it being built like a tank, it required frequent collimation. How's your Stella Lyra in that regard? Was the matching coma corrector expensive?

Many thanks, Michael in the Netherlands. Is your C8 an f/10? Does it have a specific model name? Not sure if it's true, but I've heard that some C8s are better than others. Very interested to hear that it keeps its collimation well, as that's a major attraction of my small Mak.

Got back into astronomy this year after a long absence, and have happily been using a Skymax 127 to view and image the planets and the moon over the last few months. Inevitably, aperture fever is beginning to take hold, and I am considering buying a secondhand second scope more suitable for deepsky objects. I don't really want a Dob, as the size of the tube is likely to present storage problems, and I would like to do some imaging. An SCT springs to mind, but again I don't want anything too large or heavy, as it will not be a permanent setup. Many years ago I had a 12" LX200 and that was a beast of a scope. So I guess I'm probably looing at something around 8", perhaps on an equatorial mount such as an HEQ5 Pro. I'm told Maks of 7" aperture take forever to cool down. Celestron seem to have manufactured many, many different versions of an 8" SCT, which is rather confusing, but they seem to be a good deal cheaper than Meade. Has anyone any recommendations in the 8" SCT category, or otherwise that might fit my (rather non-specific) needs? Not looking to spend the Earth, so I'm ruling out 'Edge' versions and similar. Thanks

Thanks, I'll follow that exactly. Confirm using Ascom 1.40 and latest synscan app.

Many, many thanks for taking the trouble to help me. I had thought that this was what I was doing, and I couldn't get it to connect.... then, hey presto! ....it suddenly decided to connect! It is, however, a rather flaky connection - sometimes deciding to connect, and sometimes not finding any device. Re-starting Ascon Device Hub a few times seems to fix that, but I'll continue trying to discover and fix the source of that instability.

Thanks. That's the same one I use. I would be VERY grateful if you could please check when you're at the PC, and let me know? Actually, noted you said that you 'start ASCOM'? It's been 15 years since I last used ASCOM! What is it that you 'start'? Thanks & BR

Thanks. It's not too different to what I have been doing, except that you are connecting to the PC before your mobile. I wil try that, but I can't see why that would make the difference. What settings are you using on the ASCOM synscan driver on the PC? I think that's where my problem might be.

I have a Sky-Watcher Skymax 127. I can connect using ASCOM to programs on my laptop using a USB cable through the hand controller, but I cannot connect to anything on the laptop using the Synscan WiFi app and dongle. The Synscan Wifi app works fine on my iPhone, and I can also connect to SkySafari on my android device, but I'm keen to try the auto-guiding feature in FireCapture. I haven't found many posts on the subject, and nearly all the ones I have found about configuring ASCOM refer to EQMOD (which isn't relevant to my Alt-Az mount). I've followed the advice from Sky-Watcher, ie: Connect the device that the Synscan Pro app is on (my iPhone, but I've also had it on my laptop, too) to the WiFi network creaated by the dongle. Align using the Synscan Pro app. Install the Synscan ASCOM driver on my laptop. Connect the laptop to the same WiFi network Connect the laptop program (eg, Cartes du Ciel) via the Synscan ASCOM driver, changing the IP address to look for the IP address of my iPhone, and the port to 11882. However, whatever program I try to connect to this way fails. There's a host of error messages, depending on the programme (and ASCOM's are impenetrable to me). Has anyone got this to work?

Thanks. I'll check those out.

Great idea! Do you also manage to get the tripod, or at least the mount, in your old Tamrac case? I haven't found a solution for that yet.

Thanks for the tips, Tiny Clanger. I already have the Skymax 127, which came with the old AZ GOTO mount. I was thinking about replacing it with the AZ GTi (which looks to be more stable), rather than the AZ5 arm, but you raise an interesting point about finderscope positioning that bears thinking about. I can't imagine why anyone would think about using any of these mounts with the centre column extended!

Just received a new (to me) Skymax 127 on the old AZ GOTO mount. An excellent little set up for portable observing. I was wondering about a case for the OTA to store and protect it, but I didn't fancy spending a lot. Fortunately, with the original end foam supports it is a perfect fit in this Stanley 19" toolbox. Currently available from the usual online retailers (eg, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stanley-1-92-066-192066-19-inch-Toolbox/dp/B0001IWAS6?th=1) for about £20. The model number is 1-92-066. Check that, because there are other 19" Stanley boxes with very similar numbers that may not fit. You are even left with a handy organiser tray (that won't fit the box with the scope in) for observing sessions.

Thinking of using my carbon fibre photography tripod with this mount for a Skymax 127. It's a Manfrotto 055CXPRO3, sturdy, and is rated to 9kg. It's fine for my medium format cameras. Any thoughts / experience on suitability?