Cosmic Geoff

Are you going to inspect the scope in person, or buy online? For a newbie, buying a used scope carries risks, as it may turn out to need some 'sorting out' which will cause difficulties if you have little idea how a perfectly functioning scope would be set up. Because of sheer lack of familiarity, some people struggle to get brand new scopes working.

The setting circles on your Eq-2 are largely ornamental, and their main purpose is to increase sales. When setting circles were a serious item, before GoTo superseded them, they were much bigger. If you persevere with the setting circles, you will be able to get items into the field of view of your finder, but don't expect much more. If you want to find the M57 Ring nebula, it is almost between two stars that can be seen with the naked eye, and these stars will show up in an optical finder.

I can't answer your question, but there have been cases of people taking a 40 year old C8 off its patently obsolete fork mount and mounting it on a new GoTo mount.

All the "Nexstar 6" will have the same optical tube assembly (OTA). The C6 SE can be regarded as the base model - it has a reasonably sturdy mount (also used with the C8) with no frills. The SkyProdigy is a model we don't have in the UK. It looks lke it incorporates the Starsense system (q.v.) available here as a £300 accessory. As you say, the mount looks like the relatively flimsy SLT. The Evolution has a better quality mount with better internal gearing and the differences you have noted. Altogether a nice piece of kit, if you can afford it. Just to confuse you further, there are wifi and SLT models on flimsy mounts, and an AVX version on a good equatorial mount (mainly useful for advanced astro imagers).

The latitude and longitude, so far as I recollect, should be in degrees and minutes (seconds) W and then degrees and minutes (seconds) N, with any leading zeroes entered. It's safer to use the nearest city for now. Since the mount offers a nearest city option you can judge that the setting is not critical, but it is preferable to use an exact value. Everything has to be entered in the correct format and right values otherwise the alignment will fail. I assume you are on daylight saving time. The Skyalign is intended for novices who cannot identify two or three bright alignment stars. It will work with any three bright objects, but if they are not bright enough to be on the alignment list, the alignment will fail. If you can locate and name two bright stars, (e.g. Vega and Arcturus) then use the two-star auto align. (generally thought to be an equally accurate method). Note that you can align on one named star ((one star align), but this will not be accurate unless the mount is perfectly levelled with a spirit level (not the bubble level built into the mount). You can also use Solar System Align and align the mount on a planet, e.g. Jupiter. I hope this helps. The Nexstar alt-azimuth GoTo is one of the more straightforward systems to use once you have learnt the sequence of operations (doing exactly what it says in the manual and on the screen.)

That's up to you. A 5" SCT is big enough to give you interesting views of a variety of objects. It will show some galaxies if you can get to a dark skies site. The 6" (C6 SE) will do everything better, but will be a bit bulkier and heavier. It has a bigger mount, the same as used with the C8 SE. The Nexstar GoTo system is relatively easy to use.

That's up to you to decide. It does save much of the faff of doing a star align, and you can fetch out accessories while the Starsense is doing its thing. I use it as part of a carry out, quick deploy setup. Some people have had problems with the SS, others love it.

I recommend the ASI224MC. It's good for planets and small DSOs, or EEVA. If cash is short, try the ASI120MC-S (3.0 USB) but it's more of an entry level camera.

I have a CPC800 and at my pensionable age I would not want to be handling a heavier scope. A CPC1100 would be great in a permanent location, I should think. Depending what you want it for, you could have a C11 on another kind of mount, which would enable you to shift it in two or three more manageable lumps.

Nice image of Mars.

My experience is that it's not critical and that picking any town within 30 miles will get it working. Of course it's best to get it exactly right by entering the lat/long numbers. (On the other hand, selecting the nearest town will avoid gross newbie data-entry errors that point to the wrong continent 😦.) The lat/long format is indeed confusing, being quoted in various formats not necessarily matching the Nexstar format.

Polaris should work as an alignment star for an alt-azimuth Goto mount. I have used it. I am surprised it does not come up on your alignment list. (it wouldn't if you enter a southern latitude by mistake). The three-object Skyalign is liable to fail if one of the objects chosen is not on the alignment list. (Too faint, etc). Your lat and long look about right for Hastings. It is not super critical. I always use two star auto align. The three star (Skyalign) is not thought to be any more accurate but can be used even if you can't name the 3 objects. One star align is not accurate enough unless the tripod is levelled with great accuracy - greater than you can achieve with the built-in bubble level. You could use a Solar System align and align on Jupiter. If the system is working properly, objects should land within the field of your 25mm eyepiece.

Thanks. It costs more than the polariscope did, though.

If you fully extend the tripod legs and point the scope at the zenith, you will need a step-up to reach the eyepiece at about 7 ft off the ground. This outfit is big... or with the legs retracted, board fences get in the way of low objects.

I recently acquired Synscan as an upgrade. I don't quite understand why you are trying to align the mount using a laptop, Stellarium, etc. Doing it via the handset would be simpler. The polarscope in my EQ5 is a bit of a pain in the neck to use, but usable provided Polaris is within the FOV of the device. With the scope in the Home position, Polaris should be visible in the finder and maybe main scope, for a rough alignment. The later versions of the Synscan firmware have a feature whereby you can go back after a two or three star align and fine tune the polar alignment - you get some numbers on the handset screen and you are supposed to mechanically adjust the altitude and azimuth on the mount. I did it once... My impression is that if you use this feature the alignment ought to be accurate enough for AP. Not that I have tried AP with it.

I used to have a 200mm f5 Newtonian on a manual EQ5 mount and I didn't like it. It was too tall, the eyepiece got into awkward positions and it was hard to find anything with it. With just a straight-thru finder it was almost impossible to find anything near the zenith. If you want a dob there are different brands e.g Bresser. If you can spend more, get a used C8 SE, or the bargain C8 Evolution in the For Sale section here.

Some quick results on Mars from the morning of 20 July. The seeing was good and Mars at a good altitude. Equipment: CPC800, ASI224MC with IR-cut and IR-pass filters, ADC. The surface features show more clearly in infrared. I forgot to try a Barlow lens on this small target, but have not had any good results with the cheap Skywatcher x2 Barlow in the past. So these images are kinda small; I was going to x2 them in Photoshop but am having a problem with my network just now. The surface detail checks out as Syrtis Major and Hellas with the southern icecap.

To be frank, I would not buy either. Both are mounted on lightweight mounts and I would prefer something more substantial. I have the SLT mount and thought it on the wobbly side with a 127mm Mak, so got a more robust equatorial mount and then built a wood tripod for the SLT mount head. I have stuck with handsets rather than have the complication of wifi. With the wifi model, you are in effect providing a wifi connected handset instead of the manufacturer. I once worked in a lab where wifi would not work on our laptops because of the electrrical interference. There has been discussion about those OTAs and their weight, but they are probably identical. The same OTA can be had with various other mounts of a more substantial nature, at more substantial prices, or as just the OTA. You may have noticed that one of the budget outfits costs the same as the OTA (= a free wobbly mount). You will probably have to upgrade the 9/10mm eyepiece regardless. Kit eyepieces are notoriously poor - they are included to get you started but the manufacturer wants to keep the kit price down.

Light pollution filter: I don't use one. The old street lights could be filtered out but the new LEDs emit a continuous spectrum and are far more difficult to filter out. There are filters that are claimed to work, but they are expensive and of limited effect. SCTs can be collimated, but are much less prone to going out of collimation than Newtonians. You may never have to touch this adjustment. My used C8 was horribly out of adjustment when I bought it, but I collimated it on a bright star and have never had to touch it since.

I never found the cooling time a serious problem with my C8 SE. One can view less demanding targets first. A dew shield is an essential accessory. If you don't want to buy a smart-looking plastic one, you could make your own shield.

The various Maksutovs, sold under various brands, seem to mostly originate from the same Chinese factory. The one you link looks the same as mine except for the colour. One sees very few complaints about any of them and the design is robust and unlikely to ever need any adjustment. So buy with confidence. You should be able to see bands on Jupiter easily with a 127mm Mak. If you search through the Planetary Imaging section of this forum you should find some images showing what 127mm Mak optics can do - but caution, a visual observer will be unlikely to see as much. I recently used my 127mm Mak to view Venus in the daytime, using the Sun as a Goto reference (extreme caution required.) I use my 102mm f5 Startravel refractor for EEVA imaging, and a couple of nights ago put it in the only position in the backyard from which I could view Comet Neowise. The smaller scopes are far handier for brief grab'n go exercises (a 127 may not seem much smaller than a 150mm, but it's about half the bulk.) By the way, the Mak you link is outfitted for daytime use. For astronomy you'd want a 90 deg star diagonal (mirror or prism) not the 45 deg correct-image prism.

GoTo or not GoTo is a perennial question on which no three backyard astronomers will agree. It is particularly useful in urban skies, or if you want to look at objects rather than look for them. On the other hand, some people just don't get on with GoTo or are confused by the setup procedures and prefer the traditional simpler mounts. Since you have expressed a preference for GoTo, you should go for it. 🙂 For your initially quoted budget you would have more choice of outfit if you go for a smaller aperture, i.e. 127 or 130mm, which is still enough to give you many nights of enjoyment, particularly if you can actually find the objects with a GoTo. A 127mm Maksutov, unlike some of the entry level reflectors, will be a good quality instrument optically and mechanically. It is the kind of instrument you will keep even if you graduate to something bigger. The lower cost mounts tend, alas, to be on the wobbly side. If you want a decent aperture telescope on a really solid mount, the total cost rockets to a wallet-emptying degree. Three element eyepieces should be avoided. Plossl eyepieces are adequate in many situations, particularly for longer focal ratio telescopes, while f5 Newtonians will probably benefit from a more exotic eyepiece design. I am not an eyepiece expert though

Obviously yes, unless you live outside the UK and can't find a supplier/importer. Buy from an astro specialist, not Amazon.

That's an impressive improvement from the original bouncy video. The results are markedly better in IR.

Interesting point. I'll try correcting the colour at the next opportunity.