Cosmic Geoff

On 18/12/2020 at 16:12, Cosmic Geoff said:

In fairness to Celestron I should mention that the C6SE was presumably designed to be used with its handset rather than wifi.  And that most speciaised software, including astro, is written for MS Windows only.

I have been wary of WiFi since I worked in a lab where it was installed for our laptops, and then they had to rip it out because the stuff in the lab interfered with the wifi and jammed it.

As I already said. One can buy cheap ex-business Windows laptops which work well for astro applications and run all the free astro programs.

A comment that you have not had this problem with your EQ-5 Synscan would be useful.  The picture above shows the mount in the collision position.

You could get a Startravel 102mm achro refractor.  It costs about £200, so worth considering if you can't afford an ED or APO.

You could consider selling the Celestron Nexstar Evolution C6 as a complete package, and then re-purchasing a C6 OTA (or whateber OTA you want). Why? The implied value of an Evolution mount is high (check the relevant prices) but you might not get much for it if you try to sell it separately as an alt-azimuth mount for small short telescopes.   As a guide price, you might attain for the package 66% of what a new C6 Evolution costs.

If you are going to use the mount as a camera tracker, you need to figure out how to do the star alignment. It might be better to dispose of it and get a dedicated camera tracker. As a guy at my astro club pointed out, these relatively new devices are becoming increasingly capable.

I had an odd event with my EQ-5 Synscan last night. I was using it to image EEVA-style some galaxies in Coma Berenices, east of the meridian. All good till I commanded it to find one with an azimuth of over 170 degrees (i.e. just east of the meridian), and a lower altutude.

The mount proceeded to do  a meridian flip, and I did not realise anything was wrong till I found that stars on the laptop screen continued to trail, accompanied by some odd noises. Eventually I spotted the problem with the aid of a torch - the declination motor, now on the east side and below the declination axis, was colliding with a couple of connectors on the fixed box on the east side of the mount. 

I recovered it by commanding it to go to another object. The mount continued to function, but now needing a platesolve & resync to find objects. Anyway, it was now aiming on the other side of the meridian from the two alignment stars.

I have been using the mount for over a year and have never had this happen before. I thought this kind of thing couldn't happen. And why did the mount flip itself before reaching the trigger point of 180.0 deg azimuth? And what can I do to stop it happening again, other than keeping a wary eye on what it's doing?

Aperture counts for general observing, so that points to the 127mm Mak you have shortlisted.  The only notable thing it won't do well is show wide star clusters.  Some of the nearer galaxies are also wide, but in practice they are a disappointment visually.  Unless you live in a dark skies area and have a bigger scope, all you will see is a dim glow representing the central nucleus, fitting easily into the Mak's FOV

If you want to see galaxies, take a big scope to a dark skies area. Or try imaging them - with modest kit you can get a better result from a town than you'll get visually with a big scope at a dark skies site.

I am not clear what you have and what you are trying to do.

You have a manual mount? And a Synscan handset? But no motor control box and no motors?

Having a USB port on the handset just means a few less bits of cable and hardware needed to connect it to a PC or laptop.

Unless you want to make a hobby of obtaining motors and building a motor control box and programming it, I think your best course might to sell the mount and handset for what you can get, and then look out for a used Eq3-2 Synscan or a EQ-5 Synscan. The latter should be a better mount and more widely available.

18 hours ago, gateway said:

Would be glad to hear some experiences from observations with your setup  

I have posted intermittently in the EVAA Observations sub-section and Planetary thread.

3 hours ago, op975 said:

I understand that a dob is probably the best bang for your buck but unfortunately that is out of the question just because of how big they are.

This is a misconception. A Dob mounted scope can be any size you want, from a table-mounted mini dob, to one so big you need a tall ladder to reach the eyepiece.

If you want GoTo, that's fair enough, as it is a personal choice whther you want to let the hardware find objects for you - especially useful if like most of us you live under light-polluted skies, or prefer to find things by the traditional methods.

But if your budget is £600, that guarantees that the scope and GoTo mount are going to be relatively small and portable.  If buying new, there are plenty of GoTo outfits in this price range.  Just be aware that whatever you buy will be a beginner outfit rather than a "Telescope for life" and once you have figured out how to use the scope and the mount, and discovered in what direction you want to take your new hobby, you will probably be looking to buy some different kit.

I won't try to recommend a particular outfit - so long as you buy one of the major brands and from a specialist astronomy dealer, it matters more that you buy something and get started.

You can save money by buying used, but for the novice this carries the risk of buying a 'dog' because of knowing too little about telescopes.

Forum sponsor FLO has a range of beginner telescopes.

13 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

So the computer will be off during the day, except for occasional solar, but 100° can't be good on it.

Speaking as a former technician, I don't think computers are that delicate.  It should be okay so long as its cooling systems work. The internal components should withstand at least 70 deg C (I58 deg F).  On the other hand, keeping the observatory and telescopes cool would definitely be a good idea, in order to help it cool to ambient at night.

A dismal situation all round. Unfortunately the majority of Brits live in urban centres, meaning that the majority of Brit amateur astronomers live under light polluted skies. My bete noir is a supermarket unloading bay with a light that comes on automatically every time a car drives past, and a neighbour who can't afford curtains...

As a compensation, I have found that EEVA vastly improves the visibility of faint fuzzy objects.

Dark skies would be great, but getting to them is logistically difficult.

While these guidescopes will also work as an optical finder, they are intended to have a camera directly connected, and a diagonal will excessively extend the path length. If you really want a RACI finder that takes 1.25" eyepieces, you may have to buy again.  And note that to make the Svbony work properly as a finder, you will need an eyepiece with crosshairs.

21 minutes ago, George Gearless said:

From the datasheets the EQ5 (23,4 kg total) is heavier than the EQM (17,5 kg total). I'll let you decide if it's much or negligable difference.

To be honest, carrying the scope attached to the mount and tripod is probably not a good idea for more than a few meters. Although I'm sure you can carry a weight of say 25kg's, the weight distribution of scope, mount and tripod is going to be unmanageable. You're bound to break something during transport.

I totally agree.

I have three setups, each with a replacement value of over £1000, and would have trouble deciding which to take to that desert island. Largely a choice between imaging and visual.  And does the island have power for recharging power tanks and laptops?🙂

If it's a 'luxury' purchase, why not go for a nice sexy ED or APO refractor?

4 hours ago, Nrmh02 said:

yeah its for imaging.  I've bought myself asi533mc pro and whilst I'm by no means fantastic at it, I'm hoping that in due course ill get better lol

If you've bought an ASI533MC Pro, then I recommend a GoTo mount, e.g a EQ5 Synscan. They have better motors plus the GoTo will save you time and you can plate-solve & re-sync (on some fields at least) to confirm your target area. Your next step will be to decide whether to image unguided, or upgrade to guiding with a guidescope and guide camera or an off-axis guider.  Who said imaging was cheap or easy?

You may also want a focal reducer for faster imaging. I got a f6.3 reducer for my C8 but I don't know if the same one works on a C6.  They cost about £150.

Any mount would be better than a 6SE on a wedge. I assume this is for imaging. I have seen posts from users who found that using a wedge did not meet their expectations. An EQ5 Synscan would be far more suitable. Not the easiest mount to use compared with an alt-azimuth Nexstar, but it works.

On 07/04/2022 at 17:53, THEGREAT said:

I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece.

Perhaps you are just expecting too much. I have been using Celestron Nexstar mounts for years and have found that the sought object generally lands somewhere in the field of a 25mm eyepiece.  It's rare for it to land in the exact centre of field, or in the field of an 8mm eyepiece.

With a Starsense + AVX, I doubt that the GoTo accuracy relies on an accurate polar alignment.  My alt-az Starsense works with no polar alignment at all.

If you are imaging there are other things you can do to refine the aim, e.g plate-solve & resync.

I am not aware of any significant differences. The C8 OTA has an assortment of holes in the end castings allowing it to be attached to a single fork, twin fork or EQ, and the tubes are given different colours, and some have a rear handle and some not, but the optics are all the same. 

In some cases the price of a C6 bundle is discounted to the price of the OTA, making an interesting buying choice...

As a former mechanical engineer I find it unlikely that the vane could have been bent by rough handling in transit without collateral damage to the tube and packaging. An extremely high acceleration would be required to bend a vane. It wasn't dropped from an Amazon drone, was it? 🙂

If you would prefer to tackle it yourself rather than pursuing the guilty party, note that what is bent can usually be un-bent.

12 minutes ago, Paul_Sussex said:

I was originally (before starting this thread) thinking about a Dobsonian - best bang for your money - but my garden isn't best placed for using one. But I am pretty much decided on a 5"-6" reflector. I've been concentrating on Skywatchers, just because there seems to be more discussion about them, but are there any other comparable makes I should be looking at - Celestron, Bresser, etc. How do they compare?

Celestron don''t offer many Newtonians nowadays. They do offer a 130mm Astro-fi Newtonian for an affordable £399. There is also FLO's own Stellalyra brand which seems well received.

I feel though that if you are buying to get a first scope rather than for some specific purpose it doesn't matter hugely which of these leading brands you go for.  Some of the parts may come from the same Chinese factories.

13 minutes ago, Paul_Sussex said:

Very popular, but most of the threads seem to concentrate on imaging. For visual, would the 150P be a better start? I could always upgrade to a Crayford dual speed at a later date if it was an issue.

The 130PDS is intended for imaging, though it by all accounts will also work well for visual.  If you buy the cheaper version of the 130 intended for visual use, it has a different focuser and will not come to focus with some cameras.  It depends on what you want...

I formerly had a Newtonian with a single-speed focuser. It was  a bit tricky to focus, but I managed to find a helical focuser for around £20 that would fit.  A dual-speed focuser conversion would have cost far more.

For visual use, polar alignment is not at all critical.  If you attain a usable polar alignment (by whatever method), then you could mark out the ground so that next time you set up the mount you just have to place the tripod legs in pre-marked positions.

If you are aligning for imaging, there are various methods you can use that don't require Polaris to be visible.

29 minutes ago, Paul_Sussex said:

I am waiting until August because I don't have cash to spare - that is when I retire and have a modest lump sum to "invest" in a telescope, among other things. In the meantime, I have joined a local club and will aim to try out as many different combinations as possible.

And speaking of limited budgets, has anyone come across Dorr Danubia telescopes? Saw this - Dorr Danubia Sirius 150 Newtonian Reflector Telescope - Best Price at Bristol Cameras - but £280 sounds too good to be true? (And probably is?)

It seems curiously cheap considering that an EQ3-2 mount costs £209 and a 150mm Newtonian around £200 elsewhere.  It's not a major brand AFAIK and though it might turn out to be some sort of clearance item it could turn out to be a risky buy for a beginner.

Paul, I assume that you are not prepared to buy some little starter scope with your credit card and repay with your lump sum later?

17 hours ago, Paul_Sussex said:

Won't be pulling the trigger until August, so plenty of time to change my mind so many times.

Meantime, according to the BAA - "A classic beginners’ telescope is the 150mm f/8 reflector. You can get the Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PL tube [...] and put it on a better mounting than it’s normally sold with. Again, I recommend that you use the EQ-5, then you’re spending [less] in total before adding any motors. This is a much better-value package in terms of what it will show you than the 100ED refractor, but rather less portable. It is as good for planets as the 100ED, and better for deep-sky objects. This is my top recommendation for most beginners: as the late Sir Patrick Moore might have said, it’s a telescope with which you can go a very long way."

Why wait till August? I can't help thinking that your time and energy over the next few months would be better spent in looking through some small telescope rather than peering at screens agonising over what to buy.  The perfect all-rounder telescope does not exist.

I have a similar package with the 127mm Celestron SLT Mak.  Basically the same mount and OTA but with the Celestron brand and the Nexstar software, which IMHO is more user friendly than the Synscan.  The OTA is great but the mount & tripod are  a bit cut price - but very portable.  The tripod is too wobbly for anything but visual use, though I have done some imaging with the mount custom fitted to a wood tripod.

Overall it's a fine introduction to GoTo visual astronomy. The Celestron SLT is currently £599, a d*** sight more than I paid for mine. There is an Astro-fi version at £499 (no handset).

4 hours ago, Paul_Sussex said:

I can't believe I totally overlooked the SynScan AZ GOTO mount. Seems to have much of the functionality of the AZ-GTi, an included handset, a sturdier tripod and with a 127MAK less than an AZ5. I'd still have to add a PowerTank, but currently from FLO that would add up to £551, which I could push my budget to. Any thoughts on this mount?