Chris

Very nice! I didn't even know Tak did a 70mm. I wouldn't say know to a Tak76 some day.

Thanks Alan, I'd say it's a bit more compact than the ED80 but about the same weight. The ED70 f/6 is quite substantially built, I always remember the ED80's to be surprisingly light weight for what it is.

I think they're both very similar fpl51 glass at the very least. A good budget semi apo ED

Picked up this little Altair ED70 for grab and go last week. I really wanted the new WO61 for a long time, but by the time you add the WO RDF, diagonal etc it's cracking on for £550 so just couldn't justify that for a 60mm scope in the end. A quick first light last night and it was nice to see pin prick stars again, M45 looked great. I'll have to get another grab and go mount for it though, short tubes are a bit awkward to wield with the EQ3 for visual, I'll just reserve the eq3 for casual imaging I think.

lol Yes we will, you get it today don't you I'm one of the many who's looking forward to seeing pics and hearing your thoughts!

The Borg doesn't come with a lens cap?

Looks really good, great job you've done with that tripod

Ah yes, I can see now I'm zoomed in lol Looks like F major 7 as she's not barring the top E. Indeed! I've always fancied a nice Ibanez with a low flat action for shredding Steve Vai scales

Wow Peter, what a frac! I do believe that's a c chord your grand daughter is playing. Show us your guitar sounds fun too lol

400x sounds almost like fiction, but of course it isn't with a LZOS APM 130 Apo and good seeing. I don't think I've managed to get a sharp image with any of my scopes above about 280x? Glad you've got a good night for it John, enjoy!

Oh Yeah, looking on the Opticstar site; the ARC range seem to be Bresser clones, but the AR**s range are indeed something different, so Starsky like you say. They no longer appear to stock the AR90s by the looks of things? I can only see an 80mm f/7.5, and a 90mm f/8.8 in that range. Opticstar's Apo range seem to be re-badged Meade 5000's badged Ascension. They look bonkers good value for a triplet Apo - £850 for a 102mm f/7 Triplet with Strehl >0.9 and optical report!

Speaking as a health professional who works in A&E, I appreciate you being well rested behind the wheel, Jules It seems that every time I have a night shift the sky is crystal clear, otherwise it's usually cloudy...what's with that!?

I wondered how you were getting on with it. go on, get a pic up, like John says it might kick start things. I've been looking at the Opticstar site myself and have to say the scopes and mounts look excellent value for money assuming the optics are reasonable good? I'm pretty much sure it's all Bresser/Meade clones but only even cheaper (that's saying something considering how good value Bresser's are).

There is a lot to like with your setup, Steve, it's portable and quality. Looking at your kit, I'm betting this scope gets used the most?

I'd forgotten how huge the Vixen is! A beast of a setup you have there Kerry

Wow they're stunning, congratulations! Very Moonrakeresque which I'm a fan of.

+1 for the above I think you'll get more help if you start a thread entitled something like " help needed with Skywatcher AZ GTI mount issue". I wish I could help but I only have experience with Synscan goto's. Weird how you're still getting the Moon location issue using the Synscan controller though, I thought it must have been a bug in the tablet/phone software something?

Curious? Have you slewed to the Moon? In which case did the scope actually point 15 degrees below? I think I know the answer but worth a shot.

Nice haul you have there, Dave

The WO61 is fpl53 synthetic fluorite. This would be my choice for the SA due to optical quality, weight, and focal length. The 71 is fpl51 so semi apo.

Hi Marcin, the tripod that comes as standard seems to be the weak point with these mounts. From some of the reports I've heard, I would say the C6 would be too much unless the the tripod was upgraded. The mount head itself does look fantastic, so it might be worth the upgrade? but It would be interesting to hear what actual owners think of mounting a C6 on the AZ-gti?

Stars are lovely through these scopes, but yeah maybe M27 might be too much for it depending on your skies. Maybe have a crack at splitting the double double near Vega and You'll love the Moon with it!

Stunning, Dave. How are you finding the views so far?

That's class! Love the mount, and is that a stock OO UK focuser? I've seen that V shaped cutout on some of the newer William Optic scopes focusers.

Hi Mark, that sounds about right to me, other than you might need two or three alignment stars for accurate Goto's. (I say this as someone who's used Goto's, but not a Wifi app controlled goto)