Cosmic Geoff

I see your problem. 🙁 It would be better to attach the scope directly to the mount via the dovetail.  There are various workarounds that might be tried for the finder position problem: 

See if you can use it as-is.

Buy another finder bracket and Araldite it into the desired position.

See if a right-angle finder will work - you can arrange it to stick out sideways so you don't have to crane your neck when trying to aim upwards.

Remember that you have a GoTo mount, so with luck you will only need to use the finder a couple of times a night (for alignment). 

Yes, that's what the adapter on the almost identical Celestron 127 Mak looks like.

You just need a 90 degree star diagonal - lots of choice there. I found that the diagonal that came with the scope worked just fine, so no need to spend a lot of money.  I had to buy a good quality 10mm eyepiece (£50+) to get the best out of the scope.

You definitely don't need a Barlow with a Maksutov of focal length 1500 mm.

You will also need a finderscope of some sort. It will mount onto the Synta finder bracket visible in your photo.

I wouldn't bother with a 2" adapter and eyepieces.  They cost more and the scope does not have a big hole in the rear.

Do you have a suitable mount for the Mak?

So does the mount still work properly with its hand controller? If it does, I would leave well alone there.

If you appear to have a communications fault between AZ-EQ6 and computer, then investigate the cause.  Various things might need resetting e.g. the serial port number, the baud rate, etc.

It is not wise to upgrade firmware unless you have read the small print and know for sure that the upgrade is going to have a desirable result, which outweighs the risk of something going wrong.   In the worst case, you can be left with a 'bricked' piece of kit and have to buy another.

I recommend you get a multi-test digital meter (available cheaply online) and use it to test the polarity and voltage of any supply BEFORE you plug it into any Vixen device. e.g.

Neoteck Multimeter Pocket Digital Multi Tester Voltmeter Ammeter Ohmmeter AC/DC Voltage Current Resistance Diodes Transistor Audible Continuity with Backlight LCD for Factory and other Social Fields: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

2 hours ago, LaurenceT said:

I've just put my thumb through the solar filter 🫢

Available from FLO for £21.

I think that you need a clearer plan before buying. It appears that you are interested in imaging rather than visual.  Be clear that some telescopes are not well suited to imaging because of the way they are mounted.  This includes the Celestron C8 SE and any Dobsonian mounted scope.

If you want to image, the possibilities are (in ascending cost)

a fixed digital camera (DSLR),

a DSLR on a star tracker mount (for widefield shots)

a small refracting telescope on GoTo mount, and CMOS astro camera (for EEVA, see other thread in this forum),

a small refracting  telescope on equatorial GoTo mount, with DSLR or CMOS astro camera, and autoguide, for medium field deep sky imaging, 

Various larger aperture telescopes, e.g. a SCT with focal reducer, equatorial GoTo mount, autogulde, CMOS camera or DSLR, for imaging small galaxies etc.

Lunar and planetary imaging requires a different approach. The bigger the telescope and the more  sophisticated the mount, the more satisfying the results are likely to be. You require a dedicated planetary astro camera, and take short videos (see 'lucky imaging' technique).  The telescope in this case will be the same as what you would use for visual observing of planets.

I almost forgot the Seestar S50. If you buy one of these highly automated devices, it will do the whole imaging thing for you.  To get a rig that outperforms it, you would have to spend a lot more money.  The only caveat is that with its short focal length it is not much good for planetary imaging.

Dark skies are amazing - as the others say above.  Not easily compared with an urban area.  With an 8" SCT, looking for galaxies from home was unrewarding, but at my sister's place in Devon one year I was using a galaxy list in the GoTo and logging fainter and fainter ones till I ran out of energy. 

However, I imaged one particular galaxy field from home with my 4" f5 refractor, that I'd seen in Devon with the 8" SCT, and I imaged all the same faint galaxies.

27 minutes ago, Flame Nebula said:

Storage and my back need consideration too. 

Indeed.  I suggest you look up the recommendations for lifting heavy objects, and see how that fits with the weights of the above-mentioned objects and whether you will be lifting them from the ground or just from e.g. a bench to the tripod.  Personally I take great care to avoid lifting my CPC800 (20KG) off the ground and endeavor to keep my back straight when lifting it.  If I have to hold something up at arm's length, then 10 Kg (the weight of an 8" Newt) is plenty.

I move the CPC800 OTA/fork assy around on a trolley.  One can buy special trolleys that take a tripod and associated kit.

1 hour ago, LandyJon said:

A photo of what you've got would help,

If a part is missing, the likelihood of finding a replacement is probably nil, unless you can acquire another scrap C6. Or have a part made, e,g by 3d printing.

These might be worth a significant amount of money, and inexpert attempts to dismantle or clean them is likely to reduce their value.

It occurs to me that Apple's new Vision Pro smart glasses (see PC Pro magazine, April 2024 issue 355) would do what you want.  You'd just need to produce your own software, as before.  They cost $3499 though.

If you want to produce your own telescope-like device, you would need a LCD screen (120mm in diameter???) and an achromatic lens of about a quarter of the focal length of the ST120 objective (ie about 150mm) to project an image of the screen into the eyepiece plane.  Or to simplify things, just have an eyepiece that focuses directly onto a smartphone screen.  Note that a lot of eyepieces won't do this so you might have to make or modify one.

Also there are commercially available digital setting circles which will give a readout of where in the sky the attached telescope is pointing - see Nexus DSC.

1 hour ago, Flame Nebula said:

I've deliberately asked about the shorter version, to keep weight down and being able to hopefully sit at the eyepiece. I don't want to stand whilst observing.

I think you should have a good look at what a 12" scope looks like when mounted on your preferred mount.  I had a 8" f5 Newtonian on an EQ-5 and was not pleased to find that with the tripod legs fully extended the eyepiece was about 7 feet off the ground with the scope aimed near the zenith.

1 hour ago, GeezerGazer said:

To protect the film I'll back it with plexiglass, glass, or clear acrylic. This will be behind the film to avoid direct sun exposure. I'll also paint the cap white or reflective silver for further heat reduction. Think this will work?

Don't back the film with plexiglass, glass or clear acrylic.  This is not necessary, and unless the material is of optical quality, it will degrade the image.  It won't do any harm to paint the opaque part of the cap, but I doubt this is necessary.

1 hour ago, Flame Nebula said:

mushy views from SCT scopes for visual

Not necessarily an inherent feature of SCT scopes.  The manufacturing quality seems to have been variable in the past. I have found them sensitive to slight mis-collimation.  Some people claim the EDGE HD models perform better visually.   Also ED vs SCT is not a level comparison, as (unless you can afford an 11" ED or APO) the ED scopes will have a smaller aperture and hence less vulnerable to atmospheric churn.

In theory, (asides from the effect of any central obstruction) you might get the same effect by stopping down the larger scope. 

I don't see why you would need two from this list. Just buy one of them.   I would need some convincing that the 120ED would be much of an advance on the 127mm Mak.

4 hours ago, Stephen196360 said:

Can the gps setup be done in the daytime  ?

I would have thought that the GPS does not need to be set up. I have GPS built into one of my Celestron mounts and it just works if one turns the mount on, selects an alignment mode and waits a bit.

On 13/03/2024 at 22:29, Stephen196360 said:

But it's says cone error etc

Cone error is an error pertaining to German equatorial mounts. If you are not using a German equatorial, this suggests you have a problem with the software.  In any case I do not see what this has to do with the GPS dongle.

Your options for a Alt-Az GoTo fall into two groups, those barely adequate for your 4.1Kg scope (and don't forget the added weight of finder and eyepiece) and those like the Az-EQ5 with a much greater capacity and a much higher price tag.

One of our astro club menbers had the ST120 on an Ioptron alt-az GoTo, IIRC. 

The plug connection between cable and mount is a common source of trouble.  Touching it can cause the connection to momentarily break, causing the GoTo setting to fail. You can fettle the split center pin or use a cable tie etc to stabilise the cable.

There is no 'best battery' - any power source that supplies a clean 12 to 14 volts and adequate current will suffice.  

6 hours ago, GasGiant said:

Am i right in saying I should get a decent field of view ?

A decent field of view for what?  Potential deep-space imaging targets vary hugely in size, from the Orion ring (very large) to planetary nebulae (often very small).  Any given rig will only cover a limited range of targets to advantage.  A telescope like the one you cite will cover a range of targets but you may struggle with the very large, or the very small.  With the Seestar S50, for instance, some nebulae fit nicely, but some are too big for it, and all but the nearest and brightest galaxies come out looking rather small.

I would suggest that both your quoted mounts are totally inadequate for the intended purpose.  I suggest you look at the EQ-5 Synscan as a minimum. A lot of imagers who presumably know what they are doing use an Eq-6.  For long exposure runs you would want an equatorial mount to avoid field rotation.

The Powerseeker 127 does not have a good reputation, because of its 'Bird-Jones' optical design, which compromises optical performance in favour of compactness.  If you can't source a cheap used tripod & mount for it, it might be better to cut your losses and buy something else.

Astronomy is not a cheap hobby. 🙁

1 hour ago, Flame Nebula said:

Thanks Geoff. I've seen some very good images of saturn taken with the edge version of sct8, appearing to my surprise to show the encke division (gap). How does your scope do with that target? 

I can't say I have managed to capture the Encke division.  It's extremely narrow (about 325 miles) compared with the overall size of the ring system.  (The diameter of Saturn is about 74,000 miles, and the diameter of the ring system about 170,000 miles.) The Edge versions are allegedly finished to a higher standard.

Depends on how these scopes of yours are mounted.  If the C11 is not permanently mounted on the EQ6, I foresee a certain reluctance to heave these heavy items outdoors, erect and align them for a session interrupted by cloud etc.   If it is permanently available, I do not see any pressing need for yet another scope.  Have you seen and handled a C11?  You might conclude that mounting it up without assistance would be no fun. 

I have retained my  C8 SE + Starsense as a lighter weight and quick to deploy alternative to my CPC800 which is much heavier and has to be assembled before use.

BTW I imaged E & F in the Trapezium with the CPC800 so the C11 should do it too.

I have a slightly different take on this as I have a EQ-5 Synscan mount permanently set up on a pillar. 

The setting circles: Purely ornamental. Total waste of time. ignore them.

Mechanical polar align: get Polaris near the middle of the field of view in the polarscope. Scope horizontal. (I can't get my head around the instructions for aiming more accurately).  Check that the finder (a red dot) is pointing close to Polaris. 

Electronic alignment (or re-align): Start with the scope in the start (or park) position with scope above mount pointing to pole, and counterweight down, to North.  Follow the handset instructions for 2-star align, it should slew to near the first alignment star, centre with red dot finder, then scope. Repeat for second star.  When done, if you have recent software, you should get a prompt to fine tune the mechanical adjustment (probably not easy to follow).

At end of session, command the mount to Park, and remove the power.  

At beginning of next session, command the mount to start from Park position. No more aligning!

If perfectly set up, the GoTo performance of the mount should be quite good, but in practice I found the all-sky GoTo performance of mine to be awful, and I rely on Plate-Solve and resync in Sharpcap to find anything.

You query what is a red-dot finder?  It projects a red dot (or circle) against the night sky.  If you don't have a finder (either red-dot or optical) you will find aligning the mount to be extremely difficult. 

2 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

8-24mm celestron.

I have a 8-24 mm BST Starguider zoom eyepiece, which was very inexpensive. It looks the same as the Celestron zoom, and in fact a number of the more budget 8-24 zoom eyepiece brands look (or looked) the same, as though they all came off the same production line.  

The Starguider zoom is OK optically, but the action is so stiff that I can't zoom it in situ, but have to take it out of the holder and grip it firmly in both hands to adjust the zoom. You get what you pay for, I guess.