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All and any tips are more than welcome! This is a great little bit of advice, especially to someone as new to this as me. Also ending a session on something familiar is a good idea. It is something that I am going to stick to. One thing I am particularly looking forward to finding is M104. It never occurred to me that I could actually see this galaxy with my own telescope! I have got so much to learn 🤯
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Watching another YouTube video & he flocked opposite the focuser & around its edge. I have seen others that flock the entire tube. Flocking 6-8 inches above the primary mirror is a good idea, although I would still have to remove the primary mirror (😬). I will have the odd bit of stray light when out in the garden. Only if I go right down the garden will it be totally light free. I need to find a space down there to be able to set my telescope up first. Great advice about not doing all this before I use the scope! I want to see what it is like on its own before doing the modifications. Absolutely. I concur. Ha haa, I'm worried about setting stuff up correctly. The first thing I will change is the finderscope. I've bought this already along with a Telrad & may mount that at the same time. I'm going to take all of this advice on board. The finderscope is not such a big mod and will make viewing through it easier as its right angled. All of the other bits & pieces I've got or want, I will add as time goes on. Seeing what the telescope does before them will give me a good baseline on how it performs & how the mods perform. Honestly, I can't thank you guys enough for all of the help & advice. I'm so glad I came here to SGL. I have no doubt I will be a regular question asker from now on!!!
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From watching several YouTube videos, the thicker the foam the better. It increases stability and helps with insulation. I'm going for 10mm which looks a similar thickness to @900SL dew shield. One video suggested if the mat is ribbed, to put them on the inside to help disperse any stray light. Not too sure that this will make a difference, but I'm going to try it anyway.
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I have a Samsung S22. It's really suspectable to the magnetic wallet case it's in. When I take the phone out of the case there's a massive difference. I first thought there was an issue with the phone until I looked online. The taxi magnets are a good idea. I was thinking about hanging some weights from the bottom of the OTA and they would work fine. That looks spot on. I like how you've stuck the edges together, it's very neat. I am going to use @PeterStudz idea of putting veneer around the foam, but I'm going to try some sticky back plastic vinyl or wallpaper instead of the veneer as it's quite a bit cheaper. In my case, I usually measure 3 or 4 times 😉
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I've looked into dew shields since asking you, as with so many other bits/things/zooms/eyepieces...…!🙃 My head hurts, in a good way, sort of. I've ordered a black 10mm thick yoga mat already. I really like the look of your shields. They look smart & also don't appear to sag, which is something I was worried about. Putting thin veneer on is a great idea. I realised after asking about the phone mount my dob doesn't have a handle on it like yours. I've bought a cheap gel phone case which I'm going to stick some Velcro to the back of. I've also got some Velcro straps to go around the OTA. I will stick the gel case to those straps, hopefully. I thought about using magnets, but my phone seems to be quite sensitive to magnets which affects the phones compass. Also found myself a similar adjustable stool. I think I have nearly spent as much on extra bits as the scope cost me. I have tried to be frugal and have nowhere near bought the expensive stuff. I had absolutely no idea how much everything cost & there's quite a bit of stuff I haven't even got yet 😬 I am going to make a counterbalance from some tiny dumbbells and neodymium magnets wrapped in a microfibre cloth. Might not be the prettiest of things but it serves a purpose. Got the idea from Reflactor on YouTube: Thank goodness for Google & YouTube! This is why I'm making a counterbalance.
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Brilliant, I'll order one. There's so many things I didn't factor in to all of this. I was contemplating getting a 12" dob at first. I got lots of advice on SGL with my first post. Really glad I didn't get the 12" for a few reasons. One of those is the amount of other stuff I need for my scope that I just didn't consider or to be more precise, just didn't know about.
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Wow 1kg! I didn't even know they could weigh that much. I'm finding out lots of stuff I didn't know! I've been reading another post https://astro.catshill.com/finding-and-finder-scopes/ not read it all yet. It mentions: "Do bear in mind that adding a RACI (480g), Telrad (308g) and a smartphone plus bracket will move the centre of balance. A counterweight on the opposite side (I use a magnet) will help especially when the OTA is near horizontal." This seems a good idea?
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I have looked at the StellaLyra 8x 50. I chose the Sky-Watcher due to the it being only £6 more & the reviews were better. I have been advised by 'Second Time Around' to get a cheap SSE scope & mount the phone bracket on my Dob. Now I've seen Louis phone mount I am now thinking I could use one with AstroHopper on it instead? The right angle will save my creaking back a bit, I hope.