Roy Challen

Seeing the sun for the first time in HA.

Isn't Octans for southern pole alignment? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octans I suppose the process is the same though.

Yes, the Polaris is a versatile mount. My long fracs were a bit of a pain as the legs of the tripod are designed for Newtonians, but it's perfect for the little Skymax. I'll be using it for lunar, mainly, and Jupiter and Saturn when they are next visible from my location.

I need something that can do everything my Tal RS can, but in a much smaller package. So, here is my new to me Skymax 90 mounted on my Vixen Polaris, easily carried in one hand. Doesn't even need the counterweight. My first ever Skywatcher telescope, I'm impressed, it's very well made and considering it's the older version, it's in great condition too.

It's a refractor, it's grab-n-go. Now weighing in at 3kg exactly.

I managed to catch all these features in a half-hour session before the clouds returned. Some nice proms on view too.

You mean refractor?😉

110mm aperture, 800mm f/l, so approx f/7.3

With your budget, finding something that represents a step up will be difficult, but not impossible. I don't know how easily available astro equipment is in India, but I would look out for a second hand TAL 1. It's a pretty good Russian reflector, on a reasonable EQ mount. They are easily available here in the UK for well under £100. I got one for free - £0! If you decide to go this route try to find one with the later 1.25" focuser so that you can use modern eyepieces, otherwise you'll be limited to what they come with originally. They're not bad at all, but are a different size. The downside is that the setup is heavy, so I doubt anyone would post from abroad.

The Japanese script on the illuminator says Takahashi.

Sorry, no info, but it looks very nice.

Neat and tidy setup, like it.

The setup is nice...but I'd kill for that setting!

I gave mine away, however I also acquired it for nothing. Is it complete with mount? You could try asking for £75-100, but that'll be the absolute max. Shame really, as they're good telescopes.

Amazing! A tiny spot of light moving through space beats anything on Netflix/Amazon/TV!

Ok, anyone got one lying around they'd like to sell?😂

Nice sharp images Stu.

I can't see what scope you have, but regardless of that, you will definitely need a filter of some kind. There are several types ranging from very cheap to very expensive. The cheapest is solar film. It looks like foil and shows the sun in white light. You can see sunspots and their surroundings with this. Glass filters that fit over the objective also show the sun in white light although they may show it as yellow/orange. Herschel wedges used in refractors, fit into the focuser. They're also white light, but can be used with filters to improve contrast. Often, the sun will look green. The most expensive are hydrogen alpha filters. These are not the same as imaging filters and block all wavelengths except the 656.28nm wavelength. This allows you to see the surface of the sun (chromosphere) or prominences. If that's what you want to look at, then you will need a hydrogen alpha scope, or a quark (a type of eyepiece that allows solar viewing). Which ever you choose, exercise extreme caution when viewing the sun.

My Skylight on Vixen Polaris in AZ mode. Had a quick look at the moon last night before everything dewed over. Moon pic is cropped but unprocessed any further. Quick question: in many moon pics, there always seems to be more CA than the observer reports seeing in the eyepiece. Is this from the camera?

Regardless of which scope is 'better', that is one lovely setup Stu. I would be happy with either, or indeed, both!

As always, super stuff!

Nice report, Stu. With a fat redundancy payment heading my way soon, I'm hoping the minister of finance will approve funding towards either a 60 or 76 mm Tak (or at least, a similar apo). These things are not easy to buy where I'll be going...

Mark is correct, the early Tal 1 has 32mm focuser. I recently gave mine away and recall that 1.25" eyepieces loosely fit, as Mark said you could wrap some tape to improve the fit. However, most modern EPs won't reach focus this way. You'll need to move the primary mirror up the tube by about 25-30mm. There are threads that show how to do this. Alternatively, you could try and source the specific barlow that came with these scopes. It's a decent unit, and for me at least, gave great views of Jupiter and Saturn last year. BTW, the 25mm that also came with these scopes is also worth seeking out, better than the 15mm IMO

Nice report, Steve. I really need to start using my bins more.

Nice one, Nigella. I got my first session of the year in this morning, seeing was poor but just glad to see the sun at all tbh☺️