crashtestdummy

Yes I will update my blog in the next week.i still have a slight middle problem but not as bad as before but I'm back to the tile tool again doing short w strokes as I have my edge turned down.was good to see you again fella and glad of the new flag to grind on.hopefully retest my mirror end of next week to see if the edge has improved

You could try and see if all the pieces are screwed together as that can throw of focus if one part is unscrewed a turn or two.

the difference between f4.9 and f4.7 could be the difference between no coma and lots of coma though.ive never really heard any bad reports of the 12" on eyepieces but lots of the 4.7 so its make your own mind up time

from my time(best part of a year) with a 12" flextube I would say that's it pretty portable for people of average build as im 5'7" and 11 stone.the main tube is a good 20kg(maybe a bit more) so its not exactly featherweight and the base is a similar weight but I personally don't class either as unportable although the base wont stand up in most low booted cars it fits nicely on its side.a friend manages to get the whole thing in the boot of a mk4 golf.

the flextube is a fair bit heavier than the solid tube as there's much more metal there

the orion optics 1/10 should be better than the skywatcher mirror,its 3 times the price!!!!!!!

I personally would either get the 8" or the 12",the 10" is too much of an imbetween and the skywatcher 250 is hard on cheap eyepieces.

I originally ordered a 4ch dew controller from the their eBay shop and was so impressed that I ordered 4 dew heater straps a week later.these arrived in 1 day but I had ordered one of the tapes too long.after a quick email I was told to send it back and I recd a replacement straight away foc.great service and a surplier I will use again and again

It takes me all my time to use 4

Those crappy trainers are goretex asics cross country running trainers and cost as much as the Barlow

Wish you have way too want eyepieces,I've got 4 and it seems enough

had first light with all 3 tonight but not enough time before the clouds rolled in to give an oppinion but they do seem easy enough on the eyes although i had to take one of the spacer blocks off my moonlite to get focus with the 20mm.if you like your 20mm you will like the 14mm but will give a better review when i get some decent dark skies

updated case

realised my case isnt big enough to store everything now so will get another smaller one for my hotech laser,torch,tools etc and keep this just for eyepieces

Ordered a hotech collimator and recd it next day.have used first light several timesand never had anything but great service

A great loss to the astro community,my thoughts go to his loved ones.hope someone continues with his legacy of the sky at night

I recently sent the primary and secondary mirrors from my skywatcher 300p off to ORION OPTICS for their hilux coatings as i hadnt headed warnings and had attempted to clean them myself and in the process of this i had scratched the coating on the primary.The scratches on the primary were only light,you literally had to look for them,they werent at all apparent but i knew they were there so decided on a recoat.I did some web based research and decided on ORION OPTICS and after a few emails back and forth explaining that i had damaged the coatings and getting various info and pricing decided to pay extra for their HILUX coatings.So i took the plunge,packed my mirrors up(after getting advice off here) and sent them next day to be recoated.They arrived at ORION OPTICS last tueday morning and i got a call on Thursday morning first thing to say they were ready to collect.I had decided to collect them to avoid trust white van man breaking my mirrors after spending £250 having them coated.I picked them up saturday morning and had a chat with two of the people there about my next step being either a 16" or a 20" and various options,they even warned me about the mirrors used by one of the custom dob makers which took me back a bit as i dont like suppliers slagging each other off.Anyway i did the 200mile round trip but didnt have time to open the package until Sunday night.I was greeted by a mirror that was covered in scratches that were far worse than the mirror i had sent off and also some blemishes and what looked like a rub mark.As you can imagine i was very annoyed at this so sent an email off to ORION OPTICS with a photo assuming that the scratches had either happened in transit or the caoting hadnt hardened properly.I was horrified to be told that my primary mirror wasnt in good condition and had been recoated several times in the past,likely at the skywatcher factory and had the scratches underneath the coating and that the hilux coating was exagerating the scratches.I asked why i hadnt been told about the mirror having a flaw before they had carried out an expensive recoating job and they said that because i stated that the mirror had scratches that they assumed i knew.The mirror to my knowledge didnt have scratches,the coating did and i stated that when i asked for the price.They have come back and stated than on their site it states that recoating will not cover up any blemishes the mirror may have on the glass surface but as far as i knew there werent any as they werent visible before recoating.I argued with them that they should have informed me especially as its states this(Re-coating your mirror will not cover up any blemishes the mirror may have on it's glass surface. If we consider any blemishes we detect significant enough to detract from the mirror's performance, we will endeavour to contact you and offer advice) on their site for recoating.They have told me that the fault lies with the mirror and that they will redo the coatings but will charge me if the scratches are still there but tbh im not willing to risk having to pay again.If they had advised me that the mirror was flawed i would have had it sorted out rather than waste hundreds of pounds on an expensive recoating process.I did say that i would pay to have the mirror refigured and polished to remove these flaws if they redid the coatings for free as a goodwill gesture but they have refused this.Also,my secondary mirror has two missing sections of coating where the mirror has been clamped for coating(this is what ive been told by others who have had the same process done there) but tbh im not fussed about that as it wont affect the mirror.

All in all i dont rate ORION OPTICS customer service,they failed to contact me when necessary about my optics instead carrying out the process anyway at my cost and they have failed to take any responsability.Im now left with a telescope that will be worthless secondhand when i come to sell it on and ive spent nearly £200 on a primary mirror that hasnt been done to the standards i expected.

Im currently trying to go through trading standards to see where i stand legally.

Anyone considering using ORION OPTICS please make sure you are aware of what you are paying for and make sure you ask them to notify you if there is any extra work that needs doing so you dont suffer the same problems i have gone through.

I have posted a picture of the mirrors current state.When i sent the mirror off i couldnt get the scratches to show up in a photograph.

These comments are my own and are not the views of stargazerlounge in any way

A great write up.i have never used a goto as i wanted to get to know the sky and wanted to complete the messiers without any goto.i would however get a goto if i were to start imaging.

theres nearly as much glass as an average house,if i still had the 200p as it would be upside down without about 3kg of ballast!!

my new eyepieces arrived today so ive used an old case that cost me nothing and some foam from work and an hour of my evening an knocked this up.not the best job but its gratis so cant complain.have stacked 1.25" filters on top of each other,uhc-s and o3 so far but have a neodymium coming this week.looking to complete the set of ES 82 ep's with the 24/12/4.7,a 2x powermate,some 2" filters and a 1.5" moonlite extender and that should do for the foreseeable future.going to buy a proper case in the new year

Agree,m31 was just a small smudge for me but the fact that i was looking at a trillion stars not in my own galaxy was good enough for me.

just wondering if other people agree that all these amazing atro photo's in the magazines using 1 hour+ exposures and photo editing ends up giving new astronomers an unrealistic idea on what they are going to be able to see through the average telescope?i personally did a few months research before i purchased my first scope so knew what to expect rather than ending up dissapointed but im sure some people who see images of pin sharp galaxies in magazines that end up only being faint smudges when viewed through a scope end up very dissapointed.

your oppinions please

all i can say so far is how welcoming people are on this forum.i hae in the past frequented quite a few car forums and a few climbing forums and tbh,most people on those are either rude,not very helpful or just troll for arguments.definately a welcomed change to have a nice place to seek help:)

will comment further as i get through more of the sites features