Marki

I might be able to - I enjoyed the time I went a few years back. Will check diary and my other half to see if possible!

Packed it in. Clear, but poor seeing. M42 was just a blur for me and can barey make out the Trapezium. Bit nippy out too! Stay safe out there!

Mostly clear here with occasional cloud. Nicely cooled Tal125r out. Power tank charged, just waiting for Orion to clear the tree in my neigbours garden. Air was pretty "wet" earlier, so wasn't much good for higher magntifications. Hoping it'll improve as the night progresses.

Out for the first time in well over a year (life got in the way). My Skylight 100mm F13 'frac is nice and cool and Orion is just climbing round my neighbour's tree. Feel like some easy targets to ease me back into things, so M42 and assorted Oriony goodness for me. Clear and relatively still here in York, at least for now. Hope the rest of you manage to get some time in .

Hi and welcome

Ah yes - should have looked at the non go-to; not too far off in price although the Az-eq does come with legs. The mount is indeed quite heavy though - I tend to leave mine set up, rather than break ir down after each session for that very reason. Good luck with your choice though :).

I use an AZ-EQ 6 with my 125mm (f9) achro, mostly for visual. I think it supports up to around 18kg for imaging and c. 25kg for visual. Will take vixen and losmandy. Very robust and steady. Bit pricier than an AZ-eq 5, but way cheaper than a GM :).

Thanks Stu - will look out for it :). Looks nice out there and I'm having some fun counting cratrs in Clavius already (welll if you can;t beat the big bright thing, you may as well look right at it :)). 'Scuse typos - fingers are a bit numb!

Hows does the AZ pro compare to a minitower? I used to have a minitower and really rated that (wished I hadn't sold it in some ways). Have a good nights viewing and enjoy Verona!

Quite a few thousand spent on mounts and scopes over the last 5 years or so, although some was recouped and recycled into other scopes. When you add in cameras, leads, eps, filters and so on it soon adds up!

I've had to remove ABS and various retailler website from my Bookmarks to try to avoid temptation...just about holding out

I had an Istar Perseus 150mm F10 mounted on my AZ EG6GT. That thing was massive! The mount coped ok, the sheer weight of the scope contributing to the stablity of the set-up. Alas, my back was less happy with having to mount/dismount the scope every session, so I found it got increasinlgy limited use until eventually I sold it. I really miss the views it gave me, but unless I can keep a permanent setup, I reckon 120 - 130mm is about as big as I can go in refractors. I still hear the siren calls of the 140mm APMs though...

Tempted - will talk to my better half and see if its a goer.

Or make me an offer