JG777

Before you do this get some measurements of your replacement parts to check once connected up you have enough clearance from the EP end to top of mount as you raise the altitude. Should be OK with a 6, but the 8 and 9 are very tight and might need a slew limit added. You can and should front load an Evo to maintain accurate tracking.

Have you ticked the box in Skyportal for Automatic daylight saving?

I guess this all depends on how far your set up protrudes before colliding with the mount. So a bit of trial and error to set the slew as high as you can possibly get before a collision.

When the red logo light stops flashing its fully charged. Time depends on how much charge it starts off with. Mine from about half charge, not entirely sure maybe 2 hours.

I just checked mine and it is solid, no movement like in your video. I would take this up with your dealer, show them that video. I would not be tempted to take it apart if its under warranty in case something more goes wrong. Your dealer will contact Celestron and probably swap the mount out.

I will check mine later and see if it is the same. Mine has play on the ALT clutch but that is normal. How does it feel and act under load? Wondering now if there is a link between this and your earlier tracking issue?

It will be clearer literally if you have a apochromatic refractor. I also had a ST120 at the same time as the others and when it came to taking one of them out the 100 ED pro won out every time as the CA in the other scope was a bit too much for me, mind you the ST120 excelled at wide field thanks to the shorter F number. It's one of these things that when you look through an APO refractor you will always want to look through one and anything less gets left behind in the storage cupboard. Thinking more about the views between the 100 ED and the Mak the refractor gave much better contrast and punchier colours than the Mak on planets, but the Mak was a moon killer for detail. Personally I think the 100 is worth the extra as you only buy this scope once and its a keeper. Then at a later date add a Moonlite focusser and it becomes seriously impressive. For grab n go its hard to beat a refractor especially when you want fast set up, clear skies are few and far between and they do not stay clear for long.

I also owned both and kept the 100 ED for its versatility and fast cool down times. As mentioned these ship with a focal reducer taking it from F9 to F7.65 so this adds useful functionality. I also use a Lunt wedge with it for solar which I recall has a limit of 4 inches so the 100 ED pro matches this really well. Didn't use the Mak for for solar but for planets and lunar hardly any difference between the scopes in terms of quality of view its just the Frac releases them to you a lot quicker! The Frac will display minor flashes of CA which disappear as you snap into focus. The Mak is more portable though and easier to mount but I never quite took to it probably because I found it usually needed around 40 minutes before it properly settled down. So the 100ED pro won it for me mounted on Berlebach tripod it just felt more functional and ready to go.

Good to hear Eric, shame no one here can fix the weather !

No, mine seems OK in that regard, only needs small adjustments on the scews, if you adjust right through the whole range of the screw you might see it jump across by quite a bit. Failing this you could try checking the position of the finder on the rail?

Neil http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00FQEJ2HC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00 but you may find a smaller one than this for your 6. Unless you buy this and upgrade to a 9.25 !!! The bag is not padded but very strong and tough, I then packed it with bubble wrap and similar

It is a great RACI but I keep leaving the lights on with it and the batteries are always flat when I get out there. Have I got any spares in the box? Of course not!! I have got used to using it now without it lighting up. You can get pretty good alignment on a distant object in the daytime, then fine tune it out in the field.

Ah good to know and see that is sorted out now. We had a superb night out on the 8th although the clouds were always not far away the clear patches gave us some amazing views. Lots of deep sky objects and some new ones to me. The C9.25 is an amazing scope and is really opening the skies up for me.

Sounds good Eric. Good luck for Tuesday night. I was out earlier with mine we had a clear night, first one in ages and the FLO app is predicting Tuesday clear as well so will go out again. Ok a few more tips some based on silly mistakes I made. Have a look here http://www.latlong.net/lat-long-dms.html this site gives you co-ordinates in the required format of the Hand Controller, it needs to be in DMS ( degrees, minutes and seconds) . You tap these in to the HCs custom time site which you will need up there in Winscar. If for example you are going to the resovoir then this comes out as 1° 46' 2.2692'' W and 53° 31' 9.3828'' N. The HC takes the W cordinate first which is longitude and ensure it is set to West not East. Then tap in the latitude which is North. You can do this before you leave home and the settings will save. If you get this mixed up like I did once your scope will not align. Then ensure correct time, correct date in Month / day / year format , universal time and standard time. If you get that all in correct you are good to go. Yoy probably already know this stuff :shocked: 2 star align is very reliable although you might want to give 3 star skyalign a go but I find skyalign a bit fussy. I used 2 star earlier and used Polaris as my first star then chose Vega for the second. Now dont ditch the RDF just yet because I admit I do have one on my scope as well as the RACI. It is a very decent RDF unlike the Celestron abomination, but an RDF is useful to get you into the general ball park area at the sart of the align. Ensure the RACI and RDF are aligned with the scope as near accurate as you can manage, this really helps things. Once you have the star in the eye piece defocus it and turn it into a big doughnut. This helps to centre it in the EP. When you align try and ensure you approach each star from the same direction. Usually moving up and to the right. Some people report they get better results if they mount the scope slightly forward heavy. I personally do not preffering to have it balanced, but this may work for you. There are some indentation markers on the bottom edge of the mount for lining up with the bolts. Thats what I use in the dark. Check you lower clearance on the OTA once you have the visual back, diagonal and EP in place. You might need to set a slew limit. Have you got ant dew control? These big SCTs do fog up a bit without warning! Les us know how you get on. Have a great evening.

It travels in a padded soft case and sits nicely in the passenger foot well, I move the seat forward and the scope does not move. I used to strap it in the seat before I had the bag but there was still a risk of movement.

Wonder what this is? Comparing the pics its hard to see what is different, it snaps in but I think it needs a good shove. Anyway FLO will sort it one way or another.I have just ordered one of these from Starizona, hopefully they have one in stock and not to long to ship here. This puts the HC on the mount which means the cable to the upper AUX sockets will be a better fit and not stretch. If so my extension cable will be one less thing to carry. $30 including shipping which is a bit much but its been a good month so far

Eric, Have a look at these pics, you can see how the HC holder slides into the tube bracket. The pointy bit is up! It snaps in, and then I think it is never coming apart! Hope this helps.

Eric, the part on the left slides into the tube retaining clip. I can't see mine until later but it does look the same from those pics. To help you visualise it place the HC into the retaining holder then slide the back of the holder onto the tube clip. I recall it goes in with a firm click. I will look when I get home later and take a pic but I reckon you or your daughter should have it all done by then ☺

Yes you did explain properly but I'm not home until tomorrow night to take a look. This is one of those things you only do once and I can't quite remember how it was. Do the photos help?

Your welcome Eric, any questions on it get in touch.

Thanks Mark, glad some people have found it useful. It's a drop in the ocean compared to the help I have had from people on here. Just wish I could use the scope a bit more !

I bought a tablet just for this purpose, so not wanting to take an expensive one with me I bought a Hudl 2 which does have GPS and after it got an early update it worked very well with the Evo. I figured that it just needed to work and I did not want to risk the more flashier and expensive tablet out in the field.The experience was much better when I got Sky Safari 4 and it ran fine on Android 4.4. It is fine as well on Android lollipop. Actually the Hudl2 was very good at just about everything and I started to use it for quite a bit of other stuff. The screen is superb. But yes you will need to check whatever tablet you get has GPS. SS4 offers a lot more than SP and is a worthwhile upgrade, although I never really had any issues with SP.

The dew shields are home made from snow boards I cut up and fixed with velcro tape! The plastic is very light and flexible but strong and stays in shape. I think it cost me around £10 to make about 3 of them one of which I gave to a fellow astronomer on here for his dob. II think I found them on Amazon.

Hello Eric, I use a separate power source for the dew heater, one of those jump start car batteries, quite useful and portable. I don't think you can power dew tapes from the mount, someone though might correct me. You can definitely power and charge up your phone or tablet

I think the wait would drive me mad as well, surprised no other dealer in France has the kit? What about TS in Germany they may have it and ship to you sooner? Thanks Paul. I hope it helps others come to a decision, I have learnt a heck of a lot from this site thanks to other posters reviews etc, and yes your right everything is a learning curve and takes a bit of time. Cheers