bomberbaz

Why the extra up on the mount when he isn't going into imaging though?

I don't know the weight of the 150 pds so maybe the mount I use to do what you are planning isn't enough. I am using the skywatcher wifi gti with the star adventurer wedge on it and I have upgraded the tripod to the steel tripod for extra stability. The mount has been flashed to work in EQ mode with the wedge and I have had a little imaging success so far with it. It is really ubiquitous and the mount/tripod combo are currently used for the following: Solar White light viewing with a 90mm celestron frac (this pushes the mount to its limit, mainly due to length) Solar HA viewing with my lunt ls35 star viewing (doubles, globulars etc) with my mak Wide angle imaging with my sony camera EEVA with a small frac and zwo 224 colour camera. As you can tell I really do like it and is by far my most used purchase for astronomy. Steve

Yes I know there is a little drift over time. Not enough to warrant the spend though. (Caveat, not at this time 😉 ) haha

Thanks Grant. Just had a quick mooch at it and although it seems an impressive bit of kit, think its a wedge to shell out for something my wife gti mount will do once it's centred. Hope you only bought the mount, the tripod is same as the wifi gti one and it is pretty average at best. cheers, steve

I profess to knowing very little about these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/daystar-solar-h-alpha-telescopes/daystar-solar-scout-ss60-ds-60mm-h-alpha-solar-telescope.html I have read a lot of the blurb on FLO's website but not much wiser. There is this statement, "The engineers at Daystar offer this premium quality 60mm H-alpha solar telescope with 'double-stack' performance". But how does this translate and be in comparison to my existing Lunt LS35. I looked at the basic and full package but can't see to much in the full to make it worthwhile. Any info will help. A purchase is far from imminent though, but the price does seem very attractive from how they were just a short while since. TIA Steve.

looks rubbish Dave, best get rid. £150 cash 😉 seriously, looks and seems a great chunk of glass. Great FOV and super range in the zoom. I had not heard of this ep until I spotted this thread. I currently have a powermate to fill much of my higher power viewing with the nikons, one of these on offer would certainly make me consider relinquishing the powermate. Steve

If you wear glasses because of astigmatism, the televue dioptrix fit the Nikons. I was really fed up with missing out on the full experience of the Nikons until I found this out. Bought a dioptrix and now it's a whole new ball game. Full field of view, you really get that immersed experience that we are given to expect from these eyepiece's. Hell would freeze over before I would sell mine. Steve

microsoft ICE I have heard of, never used it though but I shall give it a go as a starter. I will try autostitch if that fails. Thanks guys.

Hello everyone. AS per the title looking for a decent programme for stitching panels of the sun (the moon as well I guess) together. The simpler to use, the better. To me ease of use is more important that a slight increase in quality as a serious lack of patience lives within me as of the last few years. I am quite happy with a moderately good result really. So what does anybody use please Cheers Steve

Old thread/question louis I know but did you ever resolve this question? Steve

Try searching these, great cases at a great price. I own 6 of these type. Should add my wife is getting fed up with them seemingly breeding 😄 Make sure you follow internal dimensions. https://www.protective-cases.co.uk/category/waterproof/max-waterproof-cases/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAs67yBRC7ARIsAF49CdWuU-71IhmkmE2P01b2bKicPhNo0bAiPSEgyiMUUj553ElyxXhdn-4aAvXWEALw_wcB

As you have not got the scope but wear glasses, wait until you have and see if you can view without them before spending any money on new eyepieces.. If you are plain near or far sighted, chances are you may get away without them. If you have astigmatism, you will probably need them when viewing at lower power although to what extent will depend on eyepiece focal length and severity of the astigmatism. The main reason I mention this is glasses have a massive effect on what field of view you see and also make some eyepieces near unusable. I wish I had known more avbout glasses issues, exit puplis and other things about them, would have saved a few quid for sure. If you note my eyepiece collection in my signature I can use something called a dioptrix corrector with the nikon and nagler eyepieces which has the effect of correcting my astigmatism. However below around 2.5mm exit pupil the astigmatism becomes so mild I no longer need the dioptrix. Sounds complicated maybe but once you get your head around the basic principle it becomes easy. Re; BARLOWS. I use a teleview powermate (also in my sig) as it allows me a large range of viewing with only 3 eyepieces but the PM's are quite expensive. The explore scientific focal extenders run a very close second to the TV PM's I am lead to believe at around half the price. Will work superbly with the C8. Just another idea for you. HTH Steve.

Don't know if you realised Rudd but the post your answering is over a year old. Good information though.

Simple guide here to spotting your mirror, it's not hard. https://garyseronik.com/centre-dotting-your-scopes-primary-mirror/

Most very high magnification is limited morre by air quality and the atmosphere. The higher you go the more the view deteriorates. The moon is an exception to this. I have been up to x240 and its still good.

Thanks John, had a bit of a look around earlier and seems that the ES TE has been around longer than I realised as well. Not had my eye on the ball recently though.

Hello all. I have found an older thread on here regarding these two. The TV PM and the ES FE. Comparisons were at 1.25" though, has anyone made a comparison at 2" since as I cannot find anything on here or elsewhere . Cheers Steve

There are a host of barlows/tele-extenders here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows.html Depends what your budget is, but all would do the job adequately as a minimum. I do like the look of the ES tele-extenders, and they are at a great price for the 1.25" version. Steve

The 2 to 1.25 adaptors can be found cheap enough on ebay or similar. I found this one on sale which appears to be threaded and is compression ringed for eyepiece holding. It would be a good idea to check re: threaded or not first though as it is coming from china. adaptor Steve

This link here is very useful to allow you to pick the right type of object to look at and also assist with your expectations of results. https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/accessories/astronomical-filters/filter-performance-comparisons-r1471#top

I used to have a chart for exit pupils for various filters but generally the tighter the bandpass of a filter, the larger the exit pupil needs to be. This is because you are dramatically cutting the levels of light passing into your eye and therefore a larger exit pupil is needed to make the image being looked at bright enough. As a UHC has a larger bandwidth passthrough than say a HB, you can get away with a smaller exit pupil. However this also depends on the target option. EG planetary nebula such as the ring nebula are quite bright and so will stand a lower exit pupil, even down to 1mm and be viewed from a light polluted back garden. The horshead nebula on the other hand is very dull object, really needs a HB filter and a 5mm exit pupil is optimum. (in ink black skies) Your 20mm plossl will give an exit pupil 3.3mm which is great for very many nebula. Steve

I linked to this earlier in the thread, as did ScouseSpaceCadet just now. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html This simply takes 8 AA type batteries to run it and they last for ages. For what you are considering it might be a great starter and the mount is very ubiquitous for using with cameras and potentially other scopes too. Steve

No worries John, in fairness maybe I should have put suitability.

I currently own this setup https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html Under your budget and more aperture. Having the extra aperture means you will see more objects in the night sky. However as John mentions above you will certainly need a dew shield for it. Can be home made, a google search should get you some tutorials. Very cheap and easy to make. I won't go into eyepieces, it's a tin of worms, haha 😅

I wasn't disputing it's quality John, just it's suitability to my requirements at present. I am in the process of over hauling some of my equipment, currently on the list are my filters.