wookie1965

I had to have mine re engineered because of the latitude bolts from a good friend on here did a marvellous job polar aligning now is like butter. Still had trouble so sent it to Rother Valley optics who serviced it now runs like a dream.

Very strange it does sound like the motors are going the wrong way I wonder if polarity is the wrong way round not sure whether that would blow the board, it's definitely tip positive but sounds like yours is not very strange. Yes try a different power source see how that goes.

My routine is tripod out levelled mount on polar aligned I do not put Polaris in the cross I use the circle around it like a clock. Synscaninit shows you position e.g 9 o'clock I will then position Polaris on the ring at the 9pm position. Put weights and scope on scope up weights down (park position) check Polaris position again sometimes needs a tweak. switch on have Synscaninit app running on phone check my coordinates, next time zone 00:00 date month day and year,time set it exactly, daylight saving yes for this time of year press enter check p.scope maybe just out and hour angle again maybe just out. Chose a star about halfway up the sky if you can see Ursa major use Dubhe if your doing 2 star use Deneb its in a good position. See how that goes, people on here can tell you ive had loads of trouble with my EQ5 now I do the same routine and I use a 10 amp cctv power pack as mine was losing power causing problems. good luck stay patient check and double check everything especially daylight savings and month day year easy done I have done it several times. Do you let it finish going to first star just thinking it maybe doing a meridian flip to get the star in the scope.

I use stars half way up the sky at the moment Deneb and Altair if you need the list of stars in the Skywatcher handset give me a pm I have the list somewhere you may even to download it. https://www.jimscosmos.com/synscanalignmentstars

This weather is upside down wasn't like that when I started this hobby, winters night where cold and crisp wonderful now its either raining or cloudy no freezing nights.

I got out 23 times last year even winter well wet Autumn was lousy just checked my observing logs.

Well I have been thing of giving up I can count the amount of times I have been out this year on one hand, I have not been out now for over 3 weeks and the weather does not show any sign of changing for the better over the next two weeks.

I am still waiting to do this I have done it before in the Tal with a 10mm x100 want to try it in the Meade 127mm

Just read this might as well give up on astronomy https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8581179/Amazon-wins-FCC-approval-Kuiper-internet-constellation-consisting-3-200-satellites.html#newcomment

Beat me to it Amazon £2.99

I can give you the email address if someone would like to email them and enquire about October I unfortunately will not be able to attend I have had MRI on my back I have two ruptured discs with arthritis of the facet joints I am waiting for a epidural injection to see if that can help before going down the surgical route.

I was referring to the DSO`s you have been looking at, I had a 150p on a EQ3-2 mount I easily could see many DSO`s M31, M81 M82, M57 M42 including six stars in the Trapezium, M57 looked like a smoke ring in the sky but the others where fuzzy blobs, I have only ever seen real detail in a friends 22" dob looking at M51 when you could clearly see the spiral arms. From home even when I had a 8" scope I could not see them. Obviously with a bigger scope more light comes in this all helps as does seeing and a dark site, where in the 8" I have seen many deep sky objects like "The Whale" and "The Hockey Stick" NGC 4631 and NGC 4656 respectively some amazing things out there, A favourite is "Hagrids Dragon" NGC 2301. Don`t be despondent Those fuzzy`s are your galaxies go for clusters from home much more rewarding.

I am wondering whether you can see them but they look like fuzzy blobs, if they do that is what you see. We only see in black and white in the dark you won't see DSO's in colour and you won't see what you see in Google pictures. From a dark site you may see some detail or spiral arms but that is with very good seeing.

Everytime there is something to see that you won't see in your lifetime again the weather is rubbish. Same as above one night go out hit everything go out another night your fighting with the mount get objects in FOV.

Check the laser is collimated as well those cheaper ones often are not collimated.

Well thank you to Richard Biggs who was on the Repair Shop fixing a old newtonian telescope, he has adjusted the prism's said it was straight forward £27 posted back to me to say I'm delighted is a understatement.

A warm welcome to SGL

The 150 is a brilliant scope the focuser is not bad there is a way of making better and you can get a Lacerta 10:1 upgrade making it a dual focuser.

I have decided to send them off to be checked £15 if they do need a bit of tweaking it's £25 + Postage. I have read that my eyes and brain can compensate for a bit of miscollimation and that could lead to headache's so I think this is best. Thank you everyone who helped me I really appreciate it. Paul

I have had them all I have the 25mm , 15mm and the 8mm now the 15mm is my goto eyepiece that gets used more than any other its a brilliant eyepiece. It was voted best of the bunch in S@N magazine,

Took them out last night star tested on Altair it was slightly elongated, tweaked with very small adjustments and got them to a point I cannot discern any notable collimation issues. Stars where sharp and easily picked up Jupiter's moon's as dots so I am quite happy with them now.

I will guarantee there will be no clear skies always the way. I saw Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in binoculars last night.

I definitely need EHU for heaters especially with my back cannot get cold otherwise I would be in severe pain.

If there was enough interest I'm willing to contact the site to see what they are doing. But it's not worth it if we only have 3/4 people. Paul

I found it last night with binoculars I could see it by eye last week. Has it dimmed at all strange I could clearly see it last week but last night had to use binoculars.