Cosmic Geoff

Plenty of good advice above. Sadly, astronomy is not a cheap hobby, and the price of desirable kit escalates rapidly as one adds aperture and technical features. Many objects that look great in Hubble Space Telescope pictures can be underwhelming when viewed with a small telescope from one's backyard.

Rather than trying to make the CPC925 (a very heavy instrument, BTW) into a widefield one, have you considered complementing it by buying a cheap, widefield, Dobsonian? It would cost little if any extra, and give you a grab'n go for the occasions when you don't feel like wrestling the CPC925 out of storage and spending half an hour erecting it.

A dew shield should be considered an essential piece of kit on a SCT or Mak, just as it is on almost all refractors. Manufactureres don't like to fit them, no doubt because it makes their product look big and ugly. I have found a dew shield, either manufacturered or home-made, to be adequate on almust all occasions over several years, but in other locations results may vary.

You should not need to re-align unless there is some slop in the connection between support arm and socket. I suggest you assume it's okay and see what happens. I find that my Starsense needs periodic re-alignment anyway.

A flip mirror diagonal is a great help for imahing faint objects like Neptune. In Sharpcap you may find that the Histogram tool does not work and you have to set the exposure by trial and error. It is easy to over-expose the planet so that it burns out during processing. If you deliberately over-expose by a lot, you may capture one or two of the moons. I have my gain setting for this camera (ASI224MC) permanently at about 350. BTW, don't wait for the opposition date. 🙂

For bright planets I use a GoTo mount to initially find the planet, then centre it in the eyepiece and then remove the eyepiece and fit the camera and acquire and focus the planet using the full camera pixels (e.g. 1304x976 px), and then reduce the field to e.g 320x244 to take video without wasting storage and slowing the frame rate. If I need to re-acquire the planet I use a 9x50 RACI finder and the full camera pixels. I don't think a red dot finder would be good enough as even the 9x50 barely gives enough magnification. I only use my flip mirror for faint objects, e.g Uranus, Neptune or plantary nebulae. Note that you need to use the ASI224MC with an IR-cut filter to get the correct colour balance. If you don't have a dew shield, you should buy or make one. A dew shield should be regarded as standard equipment on a Mak or SCT, just as on refractors. (The manufacturers don't want to provide one purely for marketing reasons - makes their product look long and ugly). I have not bothered with dew heaters as yet.

I hope you find it useful. I got on fine with the Celestron instructions for their mounts (a multi-page A4 booklet). And the Nexstar system is easier to learn that the rival Sky-watcher. Do you have time to cancel and save yourself some money? The 2-star auto align is quicker and just as accurate, but you need to know your alignment stars.

And get a dew shield. It should be standard equipment on a SCT, just as it is on almost all refractors. I have found that levelling the mount is not critical, except for one-star or solar system align. But you might be placing the mount on an uneven surface, and it's not hard to level, so why not check it?

The sought object should appear somewhere within the field of the 25mm eyepiece. The tracking accuracy will be good enough to keep the object within the eyepiece field. You may see some movement initially as the drive takes up the slack in the gears. I would stress that the 6/8 SE mount is intended for visual use and is not good enough for astrophotography. The sole exception is that you can try it for planetary imaging, as the 'lucky imaging' scheme is tolerant of mount movement. It is difficult to align a wedge mount with the accuracy required for deep space imaging (and you don't need a wedge at all for anything else). The wedge is only really satisfactory in a permanent observatory (e.g under a 16" SCT). I don't think I need to underline how useless the SE/wedge combination is, even though some opinions may differ. The bubble level may cause some puzzlement. My kit was second -hand, but the bubble level is stored on the eyepiece tray and placed for use on the machined top of the tripod. A complication is that this requires you to separate the tripod and mount/OTA, which you may not want to do at all if you prefer to carry the OTA/mount/tripod outside as one lump. If you have a traditional (long) spirit level, you could try placing it across the eyepiece tray.

Without the mount, it's a 127mm MAK and you can buy a 127 Mak (telescope only) from various suppliers. Often it's the same telescope from the same factory with different brandings. The Orion Starseeker IV looks essentially the same as the Celestron 127mm Mak SLT which I own, or the Skywatcher 127mm Mak Synscan sold in the UK. Then you need a manual mount, and you have various choices. It is less bother (and often cheaper) to buy the telescope and mount as a package, but if this does not suit your requirements there is no need to do so.

I have been going through my collection of Plantary Nebula images, taken as the opportunities arose with two telescopes, a CPC800 8" f10 SCT and a 102mm f5 achronat, and a ASI224MC planetary camera. I wondered which was in fact the best tool for the job, as some planetary nebulae are very small. In general the SCT images have blurred stars (if they have any stars at all) while the 102mm images have a wider field, generally include some stars which look sharper, and since there are stars in the image I can usually attempt a live-stack. I have not checked exhaustively, but the exposures should be shorter with the f5. In short it looks like the 102mm f5 is the better tool for the job, and a better match of seconds of arc vs pixels. I intend to continue the Planetary Nebula imaging, concentrating on the use of the small refractor. I wonder if the OP bought the big Meade?

Very odd. I still don't see why the finder should move that much. That amount of play should be obvious if you handle it. If you attach a second finder (so two finders are attached) even temporarily, you should find out where the problem lies. It wasn't in the field of a low power eyepiece after the meridian flip? Was the finder cross hair on Jupiter after the meridian flip?

What exactly are you doing with the telescope? Suggested solutions may vary depending on whether you are using it for visual, planetary imaging or deep sky imaging. I have never heard of anyone doing that.

I have a Celestron 50mm finder on a 8" Celestron SCT, and I doubt that this is the problem, as the construction of the bracket is substantial. As others have stated, there is the possibility of mirror flop. Devices such as an atmosphere dispersion corrector also have a significant effect on the telescope's aim.

At the present time, a fairly clear southern view is needed to observe or image Jupiter and Saturn. An eastern view would be useless.

I'd say that if you want a smallish telescope that is not too expensive to ship, purely for visual use, the choice is wide, and really up to you. Possibilities include: a long focal length achromatic refractor, a Newtonian, a Maksutov or a small SCT all suitable for viewing planets, double stars, planetary nebulae, small galaxies and suchlike. A short focal length achromatic refractor is suited for viewing star clusters, comets and not a lot else. But it can be used for experiments in astro-imaging when coupled with a suitable mount. On the subject of mounts you can choose between an unpowered equatorial, an equatorial with RA motor drive, or a GoTo which finds stuff and also tracks. With GoTo mounts, an equatorial is an unwelcome complication unless you are using it for long exposure deep space astrophotography - an alt-azimuth GoTo covers all other bases and is easier to setup and use. Your budget in Mexico may exclude GoTo mounts. As for eyepieces, avoid those kits as they give poor value and contain stuff you may rarely if ever use. Accept what comes bundled with the scope and buy about two more good quality eyepieces that suit your usage.

I was in a similar situation when I had a 203mm Newtonian on a EQ-5 manual mount. I soon decided that the combination was horrible and I had great difficulty in getting it aimed at general targets that, in theory, I would be able to view with it. My solution was to abandon it and buy a used Celestron C8 SE GoTo SCT outfit (same aperture) which proved infinitely more pleasant to use for visual use. The GoTo works well and the whole thing can be carried out of doors in one lump. The eyepiece remains in an easily accessible position. I eventually sold the Newtonian and converted the EQ5 to GoTo with the Synscan upgrade kit, for use in occasional imaging with a small refractor. Should you choose to do likewise, I think you would find this a satisfactory solution.

Sorry to tell you this, but if it was new and had internal dust on delivery, that was not your problem. If you have messed with it, you may have invalidated the warrantry and made it your problem.

Why are you cleaning the sensor? I am not familiar with this device. Is the sensor protected by a transparent window, or exposed? If the former, the usual methods should work. If the latter, you should be very careful and not touch the chip with anything other than a blast of pure air, or a very fine brush.

Partially dismantle it and re-seat all the internal connectors. If that does not work, obtain a multi-test meter and check whether power is reaching the horizontal motor. Note that in some alt-az GoTo mounts, the horizontal and vertical motor/gearbox assemblies are identical. If this is the case with your mount, swap the cables over and see what happens - it may disclose where the fault lies.

I was outside last night when I tried to unscrew my ASI224MC from the back of my flip-mirror diagonal. (T2 threads). It came off, but when I tried to re-attach the 1.25" nosepice I realised something was wrong. The red-anodised front plate had unscrewed and remained attached to the flip mirror. After recovering the red front plate, I tried to re-attach it to the camera, only to find that a scraping and grating resulted when I turned the plate to screw it in. On unscrewing and examining the assembly inside I found that a transparent disc and a black rubber ring had dropped out of place. Very fortunately these had not dropped into the grass, otherwise I might be still unaware they existed. 🙁 On reassembling the camera (with the front facing downwards) I found it still worked but I had dust bunnies on my image of Jupiter. 🙁 This morning I dismantled the camera again and with it connected to Sharpcap (to show the dust bunnies) managed to remove all of them (I hope) with a blower aerosol and a fine brush. So be careful how you disconnect these ASI cameras if you are using the T2 thread to mount them.

I have a BST Starguider zoom which came with a pair of 30mm short-bodied Plossl eeyepieces and two Barlow nosepieces. It worked well with the supplied eyepieces, but with the barlow lenses it was okay for looking at planets but not for anything widefield, as the extremes of the field had aberrations. I had a 20mm Revelation plossl so bought a matching one, however the results were disappointing. One eyepiece had an undercut and the other did not, and it was almost imposible to make the two eye views synchronize. My advice is not to use eyepieces of short focal length and not to attempt using a pair of barlows. Use a Barlow nosepiece if you need more magnification. If you are using a SCT or Mak, note that the added path length will also result in a significant boost of the magnification. What is a BHZ?

Where are you trying to sell it? Your problem is that the 4/5 SE mount is not a mount that many people aspire to own. Its usage will be restricted to small SCTs and Maksutovs. I suggest that you drop the 'or nearest offer' and consider keeping it should you not achieve the price you want, in case you want to sell your 5SE as a package at a later date.

Bob in Yorkshire - advice for people like you can be found at Eyepieces - the very least you need. in the Getting Started -general advice section of this forum. generally a set of three eyepieces of differing focal lengths is required. The actual focal lengths will depend on the focal length and maximum useful magnification of your scope. The degree of benefit you will get from exotic eyepieces rather than Plossls depends on the focal ratio of your scope. You could get a budget Zoom eyepiece to determine what focal length you find most useful in practice. What is your budget for fixed Fl eyepieces? £50 per eyepiece? £75? £100 £200? £400?

There is not much they could say about the mount, which appears to be a basic manual alt-azimuth mount. This package features the innovative Starsense phone app package, which I have read about but not seen in action. The same telescope tube is avaliable with several other mounts including the AVX (q.v) and the Evolution (q.v) both much more expensive but enabling you to get more performance out of the telescope. Also available with a SLT mount (wobbly). By 'available' I mean available after a possibly long wait...