JG777

Thank you, great set up.

They do seem to look bigger in the pics than real life, it packs down to 31.5cm retracted and just a little over 2 kilos. Very good travel scope.

Yes please do when you have a moment, I do have one of those ball heads but hadn't considered before mounting a scope on it, how is the movement and damping?

Very neat, how is it on the manfrotto ball head?

Mark, These are 72mm F6 TS Apos. Very easy for aircraft cabin travel. Possibly the 90 you refer to might be as well, obviously slightly heavier and longer so might depend on your bag and or airline. Performance wise very pleased, the rack and pinion focuser is really well engineered so much nicer than the SW Crayfords!

Very neat and 4 kilos, that's excellent. Forgot to add my lunt 1.25 to the mix thanks for the reminder!

Oh right, I didn't realise from the angle! Where did you get it?

That's interesting, looks like a fair bit of weight there with your NV kit. Have you sourced a longer dovetail yet? Will be interested to see some pics when you do. One other thing that slightly helped was locating the RDF further forward onto the clamp ring, might not seem much but all the grams add up!

Hi Gavin, I found that I could move the Altair clamp as far forward as possible and then move the scopes dovetail forward to equalise the balance as best possible. In the image you can see the dovetail overhanging but still clamped firmly in the Altair. I also changed the 2 inch diagonal to the 1.25 to help lighten the back end and the result is nicely balanced. Not quite perfect but as best as I can get and better than the 80mm scope. I really like this 72mm as well takes up far less room in the bag and means I can fit my DSLR in there now!

The mount is a Tecnosky Elle v2 which I got from Rupert at Astrograph. This version has 8192 encoders fitted for the Nexus DSC hook up. The mount is really well engineered and solid and also comes apart in minutes by use of Allen key if space is really tight. The DSC tray comes with it but if your not using DSC you can use the mount without the tray with the smaller fixing bolt. Sadly you cannot balance a pint of beer on the tray either, one of those astronomy compromises we all have to make....

Here's mine, goes anywhere. About 8 kilos I think but for aircraft travel the mount and tripod go in checked baggage the rest with me.

Looks decent Alan, does it have any other compartments for bits and pieces?

Great stuff, thanks for this. Might order just the mount then and add the Manfrotto later.

Thanks Jon, appreciated. Yes have looked at the 055 pro as a suitable contender ,closes down to 61 cm with 170 cm height ,add a pier and it could be good for binocular set up.

Any chance one of the owners here can measure the tripod length when disconnected and closed up? Wondering if it fits into a suitcase! Thanks

I know ,was hoping someone found a way around it! AZ132 specifically mentions Evolution from what I can see ?

Hi Janet, The Astrozap gear is pretty good you won't go far wrong with that it's also what I use. I made my own dew shield and then attach a heater tape around the scope and plug it into a dew controller box. That does need power so you will also need some kind of battery as dew controllers cannot be powered from the Evo mount. ( Please someone prove me wrong! ) I think your peace of mind plan with Amazon is a good idea, the returns is one thing they are very good. Yes what a pain about Photobucket, many ruined forum threads thanks to them. I will attempt to log in tomorrow and see if I can retrieve the pics and if so send them to you!

Hi Janet, Welcome to SGL! Thank you for your kind words I am pleased the review helped you in your decision. I think we have all been there when buying scopes trying to find the right one at the right price and also one that can be versatile and will get used. That last point is so important as observing for me at home is not really practical but I have a few dark sites nearby I can use and taking the Evo out to them is not too much trouble at all. It is certainly a scope you can grow into and there is no end of help on here if you get any issues. Of course there will be a learning curve but once mastered the big Evo will open up the heavens and show you some spectacular sights. After a while you will gain an idea of what objects you like looking at and then tailor things to suit your interests. So this moves it onto your question about eyepieces. Personally it may seem tempting to pick up a complete set for the extra 220 dollars or so but for that money you could get 2 or 3 intermediate and better quality EPs. I am no expert on EPs and watch very carefully on here for other peoples advice especially as I am about to upgrade mine so it might be worth asking the question here or doing a search. Certainly the set will get you on the way for a time but as you hone your interest you will aim for EPs to complement them. One thing to consider is a dew shield and maybe some heater tapes or indeed a dew shield that is heated, These SCTs are dew magnets!. No one is going to flame you for jumping in like this, if it does not work out you can sell and adapt to something that will work for you so do not get bogged down by your choices. Read as much as you can, sometimes between the lines as well and remember just about everyone here has bought and sold a scope after finding it was not quite right! This hobby is great fun, sometimes frustrating, usually always expensive but very addictive and rewarding. The Evo 9.25 took my own astronomy to a whole new level and although I have smaller scopes for different situations usually time related when the right moment presents itself it is the 9.25 that comes out for the very memorable evenings. Look forward to hearing about your adventures.

Thank you Lockie Yes this is a stock OO UK focusser. It arrived with a slight squeak but OO explained to me what needed adjusting and was cured pretty quickly.

Hi John It is the UNI18, I added the central spreader which is a huge improvement over the chains. Not sure how different this would be to the 28?

Thank you Clem, have been testing at home the AYO is superb and the Nexus so easy to find your way around.

I think you will enjoy you AYO when it comes. Worth the wait. Strange about the text it is definitely black on white on this screen. I have seen other peoples text do this as well but not sure why.

I only have the Sabre AZ to compare it to but the axial rotation appears to be fine on both axis. Once a scope is mounted and balanced the movements are very smooth, no jerkiness it seems and fine tuning on the clamps feels a little more exact than the Sabre. I guess the real test will be out in colder conditions.

At last I now have all the parts for my new grab n go set up. A bit of an international feel to this, telescope from England, tripod from Germany, Mount from Switzerland, flight management computer from Australia! The tripod a Berlebach UNI18 I have had for a while, but upgraded to the central spreader, the scope is a OOUK VX6 F5 1/10 has had 3 brief visits out since it arrived and is very promising but not used enough to fully assess just yet. The encoder fitted Swiss AYO got here a few days ago after a near 6 month wait and the Nexus DSC arrived today. Probably be September now before I have time to use this set up due to holidays, but everything appears to be working from quick testing today and very much looking forward to using what I hope will be an easily transportable and fast set up grab n go system for the short sessions where the big cat Evo takes a little to long to cool down. Fully set up except EP The business end of the VX6 F5 Never used to like RDFs until I got a decent one.... The Nexus DSC on AYO II mount with encoders. The Nexus has GPS and WiFi so coordinates and time are taken care of as is connecting to Sky Safari 5 with a tablet. A "Proper Job" to show scale of size. That`s it now, beans on toast until Xmas.....

Looks superb, which mount and tripod have you there sir?