Cosmic Geoff

IIRC I bought a cheap battery-powered drive for mine and it attached to the side of the mount not visible in the photo. It was not a very good RA drive. 🙁 See 'Meade Motor drive' post in this forum section for a similar setup.

If you want the best response, try re-posting the image in a format we can actually open. 🙁 I used to have a Lidl mount.

I have not seen the Celestron Starsense Explorers in the metal, but these are not GoTo scopes, just manual scopes with a clever pointing aid. The 5" and 6" SCTs are good telescopes, but rather different from a Newtonian, They have a f10 focal ratio but are much shorter than a Newtonian of the same aperture, and cost more to manufacture. They have a large focusing range which often proves useful with accessories. I don't think so. I think the mounts will be in the lightweight portable or 'starter' class. An EQ5 Synscan, a Celestron AVX or an Evolution would be my idea of a 'proper mount'.

I use my cheap 10x50 bresser binoulars while wearing varifocals. As for the double image, seeing two stars where there should be one is a symptom of the binoculars needing collimation. This happened with my Berssers, and this issue is more obvious when looking at stars, than in the daytime when your eyes will find it easier to combine the images.

It is not clear what you mean. The correct plug has a 5.5 mm overall diameter and a 2.1 mm inner (a hole). The point I am trying to make is that these plugs are liable to give a poor connection, as I have experienced with more than one mount, unless the cable is restrained to stop it pulling on or twisting the cable, or unless the inner pin on the mount is fettled to give a better contact. The amp-hours of the lead-acid battery is irrelevant, except that it prompts me to ask: did you make up your own lead and plug? In which case you could have used the wrong plug, as a previous post suggests. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282995139329?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=7101533165274578&mkcid=2&itemid=282995139329&targetid=4584826055637456&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=412354546&mkgroupid=1299623041023876&rlsatarget=pla-4584826055637456&abcId=9300541&merchantid=87779&msclkid=0d83cf88dee4135c98e1ae580ebc8b5c

Before you send it back, turn it on and wiggle the power lead where it plugs into the mount. See if anything bad happens on the display. If it does, check you have the right plug (see previous post) and consider attaching a cable tie to stop the cable moving at the plug.

I'm curious to know what mount. At 6Kg the Startravel falls into a gap between cheap but inadequate GoTo mounts and adequate but very expensive alt-az GoTo mounts.

Some time ago I acquired a better quality Circle T diagonal for my Maksutov, replacing the budget diagonal that was part of the kit. I could not see any improvement in quality when viewing. Elsewhere I have read that spending money on costly diagonals gets you better build quality and durability rather than any obvious visual improvement. Later I bought a new £50 Celestron Omni barlow to try instead of the cheap kit Sky-watcher one. Again I could not see any difference at all, either visually or when doing planetary imaging. On the basis of this, you should expect to see little or no difference should you upgrade, rather than an obvious improvement.

https://tejraj.com/pdf/EXOS2_GOTO-Manual.pdf Does this help?

You don't need to do that with a Celestron mount. But I doubt this is an issue. Mine never did that. This suggests that your mount has a fault. The Skyalign fails if one or more of the stars used are not in the alignment star shortlist. It should not do that. The mount may be faulty.

Astronomy is not a cheap hobby and £200 will not go far. Telescopes also need a mount which can cost hundreds of pounds by itself even without the addition of motors or GoTo. Threads like this one generally point the beginner in the direction of a Newtonian telescope (an inherently simple and cheap and easy to manufacture design) mounted on a Dobsonian mount, which is generally made of chipboard and costs only a few pounds to manufacture. The Dobsonian telescope/mount began as a design that could be made by impecunious DIY enthusiasts, but is nowadays a commercial item. There are other alternatives, but they are either toys or cost more because of the requirement for a more elaborate mount with tripod. It should be pointed out that a heavy-duty fully functional metal mount with GoTo will greatly add to the potential uses of any telescope but will generally be heavy and cost a great deal of money.

Dissatisfied with an 8" Newtonian on a manual EQ-5 mount, I bought a used C8 SE (GoTo 8" SCT outfit). Problem solved.

The SE mount used with the C8 is what it is - a lightweight portable mount suitable for visual use, but not for imaging. It can be used for planetry imaging, though the backlash is a bit annoying in this role. The whole assembly can be picked up and carried outside through a domestic doorway. The same OTA is available bundled with the Evolution mount - a better quality mount, or with the AVX (if you want an equatorial GoTo), or in the form of the CPC800, which has a heavy-duty twin-fork alt-azimuth GoTo mount. This is a great mount for visual observing, or planetary imaging, if you don't need an equatorial and don't mind the considerable weight.

It depends on what exactly you want to do, which is something only you can decide, not us. You don't need a GoTo to find the moon. GoTo can be helpful, and a greattime-saver for finding faint non-obvious objects. I know some people enjoy searching for objects manually and 'learning the sky' and 'star-hopping', but I have never seen the point myself. 🙂 Maybe the same people enjoy trying to navigate their cars on British roads without a sat-nav. But each to their own. Do whatever you enjoy. 🙂 You can have a mount that tracks (an equatorial) without going to the lengths of fitting GoTo to it. A single RA drive motor will suffice. If you have imaging in mind, you should think in terms of a full GoTo mount, and preferably not one of the cheaper lightweight ones. Should you want to secure, for instance, a live-stacked image of a 12th magnitude planetary nebula, an object more or less invisible or at least un-identifiable through a visual scope of modest size, you will have a dismal time without a GoTo to aim the scope at the right area, secure an image for plate-solving, platesolve and automatically correct the position to centre the PN in the camera, and hold the outfit very steady while a succession of images are taken and super-imposed. As you move beyond the 'beginner scope' stage it becomes more important to decide what you want to do and buy equipment that best does it, or resign yourself to acquiring an ever-increasing collection of assorted telescopes, mounts and accessories.

A number of these red dot finders come with a set of alternative mounting parts, including one to fit in a Synta shoe. I have the Baader Sky Surfer III which works well, seems well made, and (unlike others I have tried) has not gone wrong yet.

Assuming the Helios is the same size and weight as a Skywatcher, an EQ5 with steel legs would be considered a barely adequate mount for it. I once had a Helios 200mm newtonian on a manual EQ5 mount, and I thought the combination was horrible. With legs extended, the eyepiece could be 7ft off the ground, and with them retracted it could not see lower altitude objects over a 6ft fence. The eyepiece could get into awkward positions and I had great difficulty getting non-obvious objects into the field of view. The combination was quite stable for visual use though, in a sheltered location. I bought a C8 SE within a few months.

The gear alignment does look like it needs fettling. It couldn't be that the motor assemblies need to be swapped over? 😀 Or did the previous owner fit the wrong upgrade kit?? It is impossible to quantify the motor noise from a video recording, unless there is a side-by-side comparison. But I was surprised by the level of noise my EQ-5 Synscan upgrade made when doing a fast slew, compared with my Celestron GoTo mounts. Otherwise the EQ-5 Synscan works OK (but I put it together myself. 🙂).

If it's new, and you think it's faulty, refer the problem to where you bought it. It should be under warranty, and it's their problem, not yours. (And if they are useless, you know not to buy from them again.)

I have had this error twice with the same mount - a SLT Nexstar+ - and fixed it by reloading the mount firmware using the Celestron utilities. Clearly the problem I had was corrupt firmware. I found a utility that actually tested the firmware, which confirmed that corruption of the memories was present.

A dew shield for a SCT should be regarded as standard equipment - not an accessory. I have found that the easiest way to get a totally out of focus SCT into focus is to aim it at a really bright near-point light source, e.g. Jupiter or Sirius. You should see a grey donut. Just wind the focus knob in the direction that makes the donut smaller and ultimately reduces it to a point of light (or small disk, in the case of a bright planet).

I have found that Windows 7 networking always works, but Windows 10 networking is a total pain with devices failing to see each other as often as not.

If you don't know the seller it would be wise to exercise some caution. There is not a whole lot that can go wrong with the Startravel. It's a low-powered scope, so if you can persuade the owner to let you mount it and focus on the end of his garden you will see that it basically works. You should get the owner to power up the mount and show you that something sensible appears on the display, and that when the relevant buttons are pressed the motors make a noise and move the mount. If you get that far, it's 99% certain to be in good order.

I suggest that you take a hard look at where you are prepared to compromise, to keep within your budget. If you can do without a powered mount (no tracking, no GoTo) you could get a fair sized Dobsonian mounted Newtonian within your budget. If you want GoTo, you can get a smallish telesccope on a lightweight and rather wobbly mount. If you want a non-wobbly GoTo mount that will take sundry small and medium-sized scopes, that can be used for some entry level imaging of whatever you like, you want at minimum an Eq5 Synscan at about £700, and a HEQ5 (about £1000) or EQ6 (wellover £1000) would not be overkill. If you want to image planets, the bigger the scope the better, but I have found one can get a result with an alt-azimuth GoTo, even a wobbly one. Alternatively, use an equatorial mount that tracks. BTW, ALL GoTo mounts include tracking in their functions. Note also that non-wobbly mounts can be decidedly heavy, and some setups can take quite some time to assemble and get working every time you take them out. One of my setups is configured so that I can carry it outside and get it going in a few minutes without having to align the GoTo myself,, but if you want one exactly like it you will need to spend nearly £2000 at current prices.

Neither of these options is lightweight. If you want a SCT on a heavy duty twin fork mount you should also look at Celestron's CPC range. The CPC800 OTA/mount assembly is heavy at around 20Kg and personally I would not want to handle anything heavier. But it is an excellent setup for planetary imaging etc and very stable, with minimal wobble. The Meades seem to have a good reputation for optics but a poor reputation for the reliability of the mounts. And there was something recently about the company going into receivership. Isn't the LX200 an old design? If you want it for visual, consider also the Celestron SCTs on the SE and Evolution mounts (or an AVX, to mention another option). The SE is decidedly the cheap option, but adequate for visual use. You can do planetary imaging with it, as I have found, but the backlash and wobble can get a bit annoying in this role. And there are now "Classical Cassegrains" available which you should check out to see if this design appeals to you.

Yes I see your point, but a 'starter' telescope can usually be re-purposed as a grab'n go or holiday telescope.