red dwalf

well done in getting it working, are you going back to using the philips webcam, it should have a better chip inside than the tesco one, ccd instead of cmos

the visual back is the bit on the rear of the scope that the diagonal or eyepiece fits into, it unscrews.

I know they've been having a lot of trouble in China where most of the gear comes from, and on the back of low supplies the prices seem to be creeping up alittle, hopefully not to much.

i` ve seen it done, not sure what size the finder scope was but i should imagine that the bigget the finder the better, you can get a philips webcam and an adapter that can be fitter to the finder instead of the bit you look through.

it might be worth a post in the diy section of the forum for a better qualified answer than mine

post in the imaging section, you will more likely get a response there, sorry that i can`t help more

very well done Martin, fantastic first effort, better than mine, i`m contemplating a canon 1000d in the near future, how easy are they to use ?

i know what you mean about "raised eyebrows" ! i`ve just bought a barlow lens off astro buy and sell and the wife has seen the e-mails relating to it ans has started asking questions, think i`ve thrown her off the scent by saying i sold one of mine

thats not a bad first effort, beeter than my first and better than my last with a camera costing £300 second hand, does take alittle practice to get it spot on,

keep it going

p.s.

if you get any offers at a good price , put me down for one also,

cheers

you might get a better response if you put this post in the FOR SALE section, there`s a wanted section in there

my first scope was a 5.1" skywatcher, brill bit of kit imho, light, easy to use, setup and transport, a real cracker of a scope and i miss it alot for the ease of use,

had some wonderfull views through it too, orions belt being the first thing i looked at and still one of my favs,

keep up the good work,

Rob

sounds like you had a good but cold night, looking at m31 does make you think doesn`t it, when you think about what you are looking at and maybe something in that galaxy could be looking back at us !

i`m willing to stump up the £25 notes, but i think at this stage i would like to meet up at the local for informal chats and the site then if the club grows then look to spend money on a meeting room, we don`t have to use the same local each time, but i`m happy to go with the majority

the scope in the picture is my first scope bought last christmas, a Skywatcher 130p auto trak, and yes it is a newtonian, this has motors on it and is very very easy to use and very light to move about, around £190-£200 new or around £130 second hand, i would recommend this scope for a first timer, good quality and excellent views.

the 1145 is a 4" scope, not really enough aperature (size of the mirror) in this game the bigger the mirror the better, this collects more light enabling you to see faint things and with better contrast, and yes you can use the scopes in the daytime also, alot of people do but something smaller and easy to handle

i started last xmas, bought my daughter a skywatcher 130p and as i`d allways wanted one myself i bought a cg5 gt mount and a 6" sct to go on it, has been a big learning curve and still learning ! also have made a few freinds from this site that live close by and we meet up every now and again. can get a bit expensive though with all the kit you need for a good quality setup but have enjoyed it so far and i think if you buy wisely you get most of your money back if you sell it on so not to bad. how about you ?

i`m in the midlands Steve, Nottingham to be exact,

if you post for members in your area someone will be able to help, there are a number of same groups or clubs in certain areas where people meet up, also check out the sky ay night website and look for clubs in your area, i found one in Ilkeston only a couple of miles away from where i live and they are very helpful bunch

Steve,

there about £14 depending on which camera you have, they are called "t mount camera adapters"

link to some are here.

Adaptors

cheers Rob

you can get an adapter to fit onto your camera that then fits into the eyepiece focuser, the telescope then acts as the lens

i`m no way a master on the matter but for that sort of money you should be able to get yourself a 6" Newtonian, maybe 8" if you are lucky on a basic mount or a new 8" Dobsonian or a second hand 10" version, no motors with these but they can be put onto better mounts when funds permit, post a wanted add in the for sale section, maybe someone can help or post in equipment help section for advice.

cheers Rob

you might be better off putting your questions in the beginners help and advice section of the forum, then you should get alot more answers to your questions

do you have the goto mount or the 130p auto trak mount ?

forgot to add that you will not see alot of colour as the eye can`t cope with all the different colours at once so it shows up as white, a mixture of all the colours, some stars look a different colour as do some nebulas and you can see colour in planets also

stars will always remain small pin pricks of light as they are so far away, download stellarium onto your pc that will show you what planets, galaxies and nebulas are visable in the sky at your location and time, aligning the mount is easy, just point the scope directly at polaris, lower the altitude so it reads 0 on the mount scale, unplug the power, plug it back in and away you go, assuming that you have put in the latitude of your site as per the instructions to start off with of course otherwise it won`t work correctly, the mount needs to know roughly where it is in the world to track well.

good luck and keep trying.

P.S. M42 the Orion nebula is brill with this scope, Saturn and Jupiter amazing

good luck with the soldering !