Lung

Thanks all. I think it's worth trying some dessicant I reckon, or trying to draw it out via capillary action (which I tried yesterday but not for very long). It's also some way from the middle of the lens so I can probably live with it for the time being while I learn the astronomy ropes.

I dismantled my Tal 25mm Plossl eyepiece to clean it as it was filthy, but some demin water seems to have got inside the front lens pair. Will it dry out over time, or can I split the lens to dry it out?

Is the accessory L bracket that it came with not a viable solution then? Does moving the mount from the side to the bottom mess up the coordinate system or something?

It's the Synscan Star Discovery, with handset rather than WiFi.

Thanks, I'll look for the stock diagonal on eBay or similar. It came with a red dot finder, plus the goto mount and tripod, although it's the wrong tube for the mount (I've put a post in the scopes forum about that). That's a lot of info, thanks for that! I had a quick look at the suggested eyepieces and the 24mm options are a bit pricey for now but the 32mm Plossl looks like a good option to start along with my Tal 25mm and 10mm. The scope came with a dewshield and red dot, so that's sorted. It also has the goto mount, skyscan handset and tripod.

A friend of mine died recently and left me his hardly used Skymax 127. His sister gave it to me yesterday and I've discovered the OTA is the wrong one for the mount. It came with the black Goto but with skyscan controller, but the OTA is the one you get if you buy it on its own. This means that if I fit the tube to the mount, the red dot finder is underneath the tube. There is an L accessory bracket that I can put on the mount, and then attach the tube to so that the dovetail is at the very bottom of the tube but I don't know if moving the mount 90 degrees will have any impact on using SkyScan etc. Is the L bracket sufficient to use the full setup properly, or do I need to do something else to get it working correctly?

Adapter looks to be present.

A friend of mine died recently and left me his hardly used Skymax 127. His sister very kindly gave it to me yesterday, but the diagonal, Barlow and eyepieces were missing. Rather than bothering her or his mum to find them for me, I wondered what replacements might be worth getting instead? I have a Tal M scope that I'm renovating that has a 25mm Plossl and 15mm Kelner eyepiece set that I think I could use if I bought a diagonal. Other than those, what would people recommend? Is it worth going for a 2" adapter and eyepieces instead?

I'm brand new to astronomy and bought a Tal M off Facebook for £50. It needs a bit of TLC so I've fully stripped it down and will slowly put it back together.

After everyone's fantastic input to my thread I thought I'd post a quick update. Just after my last post in here I was chatting to a friend about getting into astronomy and he offered to give me his scope as he'd bought it a year or two before but due to ill health had only used it once or twice then consigned it to a cupboard. He couldn't remember brand or type so promised to dig it out and have a look. A few days later he told me it was a Skymax 127 on AZ GTI mount. Perfect! Unfortunately, he had also had to go into a hospice due to his health, and a few days later died. I have no interest in bothering his family for his telescope so if they decide to give it to me later then great, but in the meantime I found a Tal M on Facebook and couldn't resist for £50. It came in the wooden box and all accessories were present, so it seemed a good idea. I've now stripped it fully and am in the process of refurbishing it. Some pics:

No objection, just wondering whether I can simply swap out the tripod in the Astro-Fi bundle for something more sturdy if I find the included one too wobbly,.but keep the Goto mount and OTA. I don't think the Astro Fi (or Synscan) will fit on that steel tripod as it has the flat topped connection with 3/8 bolt.

I'm having a quick look at tripod options for the Celestron Astro Fi 127, but the base of the mount seems to rule out everything. Can anyone suggest a tripod that would work with the mount, or a modification that could sort it?

I think the OTA varies by region. I've just checked 5 UK vendors and the OTA appears to be the same as supplied on the AZ GTI and EQ3-2 mounts at least, but i think in other markets the 127 OTA comes with 2" diagonal and eyepieces.

No idea, it's brand new from a photography store. From what I can see it's the identical scope to the Skymax, just with a different mount and tripod and almost half the price. It's the one I'm very close to pulling the trigger on as I can buy the AZ GTI later and still be on the same total cost as the Skymax with GTI but I'll have the Astro Fi mount too.

No love for the Astro Fi at such a low price? Poor little Celestron 😆

I'm back to deciding which Mak to buy. It feels like the main options are: Celestron Astro Fi 127 at £300 Skymax 127 EQ3-2 at £440 Skymax 127 AZ GTI at £550 I'm including the EQ3-2 mount because if I do want to go down the photography route it will need an EQ mount, so either adding a wedge and counterweight to the AZGTI or the GTI to the EQ3-2. The price ends up very close either route, but the EQ3-2 mount looks better than the adventurer wedge + weight. The Celestron is so cheap that adding the GTI and wedge plus weights comes to the same price again, so ultimately all 3 options will ultimately end up at the same price point. The question therefore becomes which option to go for as the entry route? The cheapest which has WiFi but zero manual option, the middle with no WiFi or altaz option but a more substantial mount, or the expensive option which has WiFi and manual control?

With the astro cameras you then need either a laptop plugged into it (and therefore you stood next to it) or a mini PC/Pi strapped to the setup with all the extra bits that entails too. Svbony also do the SC311 which is an astro-focused wifi camera, and a quick google suggests many other options too. Thinking a bit more suggests you'd also need some way to run the focuser remotely, adding yet more complexity and cost. As is usual for me, i tend to go down rabbitholes when looking into new subjects to the point i forget why I started looking in the first place. Time to park the EAA for now i think.

Here's a review of the SC001 which looks decent https://www.svbony.com/blog/sc001-camera-capturing-the-moon-and-more/

You're correct, it's was just the first example I could find, although the "test certificate" they have an image of lists it as an Astronomy camera https://www.svbony.com/sc001-wifi-spotting-scope-camera/#&gid=1&pid=5

Svbony make the SC001 camera which has it's own WiFi hotspot and should allow video capture remotely. I'm guessing there are other similar cameras.

It feels like it shouldn't be too hard take a cheap Goto-enabled base (eg £300 Astro-Fi 127) and turn it into a DIY smart scope. If it already has some form of goto software for controlling it remotely, wouldn't it just need a camera/smartphone setup to output the image to a PC for turning the raw footage into images that can be processed? That would give a rig that can be used for visual or auto imaging depending on what circumstances allowed that night.

I watched a couple of videos on the S50 by Cuiv and he states it's absolutely not for planetary astronomy (can see Saturn's rings but barely, Jupiter and it's moons but no red spot or storms belts), but it's great for solar, lunar and DSOs.

I had discounted the Seestar due to its small aperture, and was hoping a similar kind of setup might be achievable via a WiFi mount on a 127 and streaming an image via a smartphone. I'll watch some videos of the S50.

My original post was talking about mounted binoculars but maybe that wasn't clear enough. If it was just me I'd get some 10x50s or 15x70s and spend a few months learning the sky before buying anything else. My son in particular would lose interest rapidly with that I fear. Being able to see the rings of Saturn, even if tiny, might be just the ticket but I guess either way it's a bit of a punt. This was another reason for heading down the tech route, as we could set up a mobile phone to take video and they could control the scope from indoors, on a screen instead of the eyepiece. The £300 Astro Fi 127 gives room in the budget for some 10x50 Opticon Adventurer bins with tripod, so we could try both options, see which (if either) stick, and go from there.

Thanks very much for this post. To your points: 1. Nope, zero telescope experience (I have almsot 2 decades of microscope experience though!) 2. DSOs are largely out of the equation for the time being due to light pollution. 3. Various people in this thread (and elsewhere online) suggested binos were not the best way to go for kids, particularly as my 6yo son is a hardcore planet fan. I do have a local astronomy club, so i'll be looking to go along to a meet when they start up again in the new year.