DaveS

Ideally your exposure times should be long enough to swamp the read noise by about 3x. How long this is depends on your light pollution, the read noise of the camera, and whether you're doing OSC, mono RGB or NB. The rather noisy CCD cameras that I use tend to need longer exposures, but CMOS can get away with shorter.

Ah OK, I was going to suggest selling everything apart from the dob and eyepieces, then purchase:

SA-GTi

A small, fast astrograph apo, from Askar or Sharpstar, keep it light and manageable. FLO have several options depending on size and mass. You could add a reducer for a wider field.

A ZWO ASI 533, either mono or OSC depending on whether you want to risk the added complexity. I suspect that one of the IMX531 cameras might blow the budget.

You may or may not want to add a small (30-50mm) guide scope and camera. 

Sinking three upside down flower pots in the grass with the drainage hole used to locate the tripod legs is something I've seen people do. Sink them low enough and mowing the grass then isn't impacted. You could sink them the right way up, then fill with concrete with dimples to mark the points.

It may be worth downsizing to keep it simple, either a Skywatcher SA or SA-GTi and a short Apo 'frac depending on what you can carry.

OK, so a permanent installation isn't possible. The only other simplification I can think of is to keep it very simple and portable so that the entire rig can be carried out in one go and polar aligned. 

Any chance of marking the tripod locations? What are the neighbours like?

What's your ground situation like? is there any chance of a permanent set up? Even putting the rig on a pier under a Telegizmos cover can slash the set-up time drastically, and eliminate the repeated polar alignment faff.

Although an obsy is ideal, you don't have to go that far.

Currently there's nothing I need, at least at a price I can afford. An IMX 451 camera might be nice though.

We need nuclear, nothing else can provide the base-load in a dependable way.

And we need it 30 years ago.

26 minutes ago, RobertI said:

This thing will be 6km long!! And it’s helix shaped so a part of it will always be reflecting the sun. And it’s in geostationary orbit over the UK so it will always be visible. Quick calculation, I reckon it will appear 35” in diameter in the sky, which is about half the size of the ISS. So I think we can expect it to look like a bright star of around magnitude -2 or -3 permanently in the night sky in the UK and surrounds. 

From where I live even Jupiter at opposition is painfully bright, and that's not mag -2 or -3.

From a search I find the UK generating capacity is 75.8 GW.

How much of that do we want to come from orbital solar?

What is the conversion efficiency from microwave received to electricity supplied to the grid?

What is the conversion efficiency from solar radiation received to microwaves transmitted?

No, I don't know the figures, and I doubt anyone else does at the moment, but these questions have to be addressed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62636746

When I do a model for the PA the software also reports any cone error as well.

With a fast achromat I would stick to NB, as narrow as possible while refocusing between filters, though you may also encounter considerable spherical aberration.

Or buy a slower triplet apo.

Yes, I have a TS Photoline 130 f/7, and a very good 'scope it is too, if not in TOA territory. I've used mine with a variety of cameras and both the TS 2.5" flattener and the Riccardi-APM 0.57x reducer.

It's carried on the ASA DDM60 which handles it with ease.

The best I could do. Crop from my phone. Cloud chasing.

Plenty to like about that.

I've just seen this on my YT stream.

And of course he forgot AstroArt.

What a surprise.

NOT   

I joined the BAT, but like tomato found the Discord too discordant, so dropped out. My current setup is really not suitable unless I put and IMX 571 or 455 camera on my ODK12, something I'm in no hurry to do.

Ah, I had forgotten the 190MN, the "poor man's 7" apo". Could be a good choice.

You might also add a Telecompressor if 1600 mm is too long. I *think* it will cover APS-C.

At under £1k, then I think a reflector will be the only option, as even budget 130-150mm apo 'fracs are going to be three or four times that, and don't even think Tak, or TEC .

FLO have the 8" Stella Lyra RC in stock at under your budget.

Have fun with the collimation.

At one time I would have said big RC or similar, 12" aperture / 2m+ FL ...

BUT

As @ollypenrice has repeatedly said, with today's sensitive small pixel CMOS cameras (Like your QHY268M), then maybe a 130 -150 mm 'frac of 1 metre FL . There are too many options for me to single out one particular model, and in any case it will depend on your budget, and the load carrying capacity of the CEM60 mount.

Welcome back Ron, you've been sorely missed.

Here's hoping the knee replacement recovery proceeds quickly.