Chris

Hi, here is an initial review of the new StarQuest by Skywatcher. Thanks @FLO for loaning me the scope to review, much appreciated! There will be more to come once I've had a few night out with it of course. Maybe just bear in mind that these reviews are aimed at beginners as well as the more experienced, so I'm still working on the 'best' lingo balance for this.

If you had access to the money, it would have been rude not to at that price!

Really good for a single sub, lots going on too.

The standard C14 XLT is around 6.5k new, so your Meade was a good buy at 3k!

Wow! just stunning! Love the wood RDF, engraving, the workmanship and attention to detail. Really is a thing of beauty.

Other than the above great image, I'm impressed that so many of you have 14" SCT's! These are literally what we had at University back in the day, and it was the pride and joy of the department. Now people have them in their gardens!

Great result Gorann!

15min subs at that focal length and weight, your EQ8 is a beast! Fab first image too. Obviously there is a bit of waste with the oversampling but I'm sure there are ways around this. I would be delighted with this, worth the very late night

Hey! What about planetary and Lunar imaging I know it's not DSO's but still

The thing about very large SCT's is the larger you go, the more mirror flop you get! and I'm confinced the flop on the mirror effects both corners and collimation. At 14" I think you would need to check collimation after every big slew to a different part of the sky. Not sure if the Meade has mirror locks like the Celestron Edge? If so this will help. No doubt CA is coming from something added to the optical path, I've owned a bunch of SCT's and there isn't any CA typically. Here is a good guide for collimation:

Worth a shot for 20 quid, although I don't know if it's worth trying to shim the bayonet with a couple of layers of paper or thin card to see if it makes a difference? You'd probably get a light leak, but hopefully not enough to mask the corner stars?

Good project. Weird how it's soft only in one corner (tilt?) Fingers crossed you get the weather you need, it looks promising but I dare not say anymore than that.

Nice report! the ST80 is such a handy scope to have. When you upgrade to a larger scope you can still use it as a super finder or guide scope, as well as a grab n go!

Read my mind! I have two 5 five year olds, so plenty of play sand laying about in the garden

Looks really good Jock Good point regarding vibrations also, I'm going to need a 1.3 metre pier tube if I pick up a long refractor! I think I'd better go for the mild steel and just give it a couple of good coats of Hammerite to protect it.

Thanks, it needs to be 102mm 4" to fit the EQ mount puck, but I was looking at the 4" mild steel tube. A vote for mild steel over Ali then, cheers

Hi, I picked up a very industrial looking Meade Pillar mount which sits low down for carrying large Newtonians. However I would like the option to use it with a large achromat or SCT so looking for 4" OD tubing with around 2mm wall thickness for a taller pier. I found Metals4U online and they have lots of choice in terms of material for 101.6mm Tube - Ali, mild steel, Stainless, Galvanized etc I'm not sure which to choose? Leaning towards Ali, but I would like to keep it as solid as possible. It's going to be obsy based and I'm likely to stick a large refractor on it at some point. Any thoughts? https://www.metals4u.co.uk/aluminium/c1/tube/c22/101.6mm-x-1.6mm-(-4-od-x-16swg-)/p2814 https://www.metals4u.co.uk/mild-steel/c6/tube/c2239/tube/c56/101.6mm-x-1.6mm-(4-x-16-swg)/p2353

Looking good charl.

My background - Started with non modded DLSR's, then modded a bunch of DLSR's, then moved to small sensor CCD's both mono and colour, and now I'm back to DLSR for the time being. I kind of depends on budget, but if you like Nebula I would recommend buying a second modded DLSR as this will give you a large sensor and increased Ha sensitivity for not much money, and you're already familiar with how your DLSR works. Then I would keep the modded DLSR as they are always handy and buy a mono camera for planetary nebulae and galaxies.

I pretty much solely shop with FLO when buying new astronomy kit. Here are just a few reasons why -Fast friendly responses to any questions, super fast delivery of items in stock, they only stock items they believe in, and they sort out any problems efficiently and with no fuss or arguing. Here are some reasons that make them shine - Years ago on a thread regarding a FLO bought Vixen bino telescope I mentioned that my wife and I had just had twins. FLO out the blue sent us some baby grows and towels and a card! More recently they've started loaning me beginner scopes to review for my YT channel, and I know they have done the same for another SGL members channel. All for the good of the astro community! As you can imagine I have a lot of respect for them.

Stunning craftsmanship Pete, such a pretty scope! I might pass on the Quality Street though

Good thoughts Ed, and yes indeed, I'll post back here with pics as I make any changes

Yes, a lovely little detached house with much more open views and a garage! A few street light scattered about as anywhere in suburbia, but I'll take that over the all round obstructions of our last place You can get LP filters but brick and tree filters are yet to hit the market Thanks! Me too, It's been a while and I've had to sit on my hands for a fair few clear nights over the last few months.

Well I have lifted the Beacon Hill OTA a few times already and I can tell you you're not wrong! It's right on the limit of what I can manage so I'm looking at ways of making it easier - I might put some handles on it, and some wheels on the base so I can wheel it around. I initially only wanted the mount for future obsy purposes, but got ideas of sticking the BH 12" on the Meade pedestal mount as it's at least as heavy duty as an EQ6 if not more so (1" steel shafts, 4" steel tubing, and proper bearings). I think I'll do this as an intial obsy setup if I'm happy enough with the optics? other wise I'll raise the mount up on a higher pier and put a great big dirty 6" Achro on it, or a lighter Newt.

lol You've sussed me out, Alan Yes, I bought these two items off Jim, he was selling them on behalf of his club (your club as well?). It was very nice chatting with Jim, he's a very knowledgeable man and wow he has some great kit!