Cosmic Geoff

As it happens this looks very similar to a large Ross telescope that I own. I can supply one or two pictures of it on request. Mine is in immaculate condition asides from not having the original leather covering (I also have the original leather which is in poor condition). I don't have the original mount. The seller informed me that it originally came via Charles Frank of Glasgow as an astronomical telescope with an equatorial mount and tripod, which I saw but was unable to purchase. These large Ross appear very occasionally on ebay and I have seen a photograph of a complete one sold as a spotting scope with wooden tripod. The normal method of attaching the tube may be via a conical sleeve rather than bolts fixed in the tube. There is no sign of any attachments on mine. It looks like you have a big job on your hands to repair that main tube. To encourage you, the optical performance of mine is probably as good as any 70mm scope you can buy today. If you get it restored it will not be worth a fortune, more like a few hundred pounds.

I am not convinced by the notion of having one scope that does everytning. A C11 or C14 would be very nice for visual observing, and for planetary imaging. But for deep-space imaging it would only be suitable for imaging small objects. Unless you use the Hyperstar. I think you need two telescopes, one for visual & planetary, and another for deep space imaging. Others may come along and advise you further. I would also suggest that if you want to grab a scope and go outside for half an hour, a C14 is the last thing you want. If you buy a used C11 you could sell it in the future with little loss. I recently bought a used CPC800 + accessories which looked as good as new and represented a massive saving over the new price. The potential saving would enable you to buy an imaging refractor and a grab'n go outfit.

Thanks for the tips..

The SLT is a useful GoTo mount. The tripod is on the wobbly side but if you want it light and portable... The scope will be something like my 102mm Startravel f5, which is a handy widefield scope. I put the Startravel on the SLT mount and found it capable of surprisingly useful tasks with a camera attached (admittedly on a wooden tripod rather than the alloy one). I have had both for several years.

I have been plate solving some starfield images with All Sky Plate Solver and found that the solve time was measured in minutes. I presume that it shouldn't take that long and that the elderly PC is to blame. (Intel Core 2, 6320, 1.86GHz x2, 2GB memory). Can anyone suggest a PC spec that will reduce the solve time to seconds? It seems time for an upgrade anyway, and I was thinking of getting a used business PC as they are available cheaply from re-sellers. I'm typing this on another one that cost under £100.

I have imaged both with a 8" SCT. If you get more than a round and not over-exposed disc of the right colour, you are doing well. Imaging Neptune's moon Triton was more interesting.

It's really a personal choice bearing in mind your budget. Maybe read up more on the various types of telescope. For instance, small refractors range from inexpensive long-focus achromats for general use and inexpensive short-focus achromats intended for wide-field viewing, to expensive ED and apochromatic small telescopes designed for astrophotography. Collimating a Newtonian telescope may be challenging if you have never handled anything more tech-y than a smartphone - it's not hard if you are used to tinkering with things. Be aware that entry-level telescopes have entry-level mounts - generally lightweight and a bit wobbly. But if you want it portable... You don't have to buy the scope and mount together. But a decent non-wobbly mount could consume most or even all of your budget.

The C8 OTA is very good for planetary imaging but doing any planetary imaging with the SE mount is a struggle, and the SE is hopeless for any other sort of imaging. For serious imaging you need a different mount, or a different outfit altogether. The C8 SE is intended to be a portable visual outfit only. Synscan is a Sky-watcher brand. Celestron features the Nexstar GoTo which is easy to use.

Some experiments with EVAA have shown me that with a 4" refractor and a camera I can 'see' faint galaxies in the suburban, reportedly Bortle 6 skies here just as well as with a 8" SCT. It even challenges what I saw with the SCT at a dark skies Devon site. From here I generally can't see M110, a companion of M31, but the EVAA image shows it clearly. Something to think about before you buy a big, bulky scope.

Impressive work. I am intrigued by the difference between my shot of M31 with ASI224MC and 102mm f5 achro and the image above. I have a little nucleus in the middle of a 0.5 deg wide frame that ought to be nearly all galaxy, and the satellite galaxies which I imaged separately are out of frame.

An update: I tried Pluto again on the evening of the 5th Sept, with a bigger stack. This image overlaps the previous one, the previous position being out of shot to the left. Pluto's position on the 5th is marked halfway down on the left, next to a 13th mag star. The brightest star in the image is TYC 6310-466-1. I struggled with the platesolve yesterday but today compared the image with the earlier image and got it the right way round. 19 frame 114sec stack taken with ASI224MC camera and 102mm f5 achro refractor.

I don't think the professional astronomers feel guilty about using the professional equivalent of GoTo. 😁

I have wondered about this myself - my Dell laptop went low a couple of nights ago and I had to take it indoors for a recharge. I'd rather use a 12v to 240vAC converter and the standard charger and not mess with the Dell charger control system, but 60 watts or so (+losses) is going to be demanding of any battery. One can feel the waste heat coming out of the laptop. Perhaps a laptop with long battery endurance would be a smarter option for field use. An option I have used is a very long mains extension lead. 🙁

I upgraded from a 127mm Mak to a Celestron Nexstar C8 SE so I'm biased. 🙂 The C8 Evolution is the same OTA on a better mount.

I returned home late on the 6th, sky was part cloudy though it was forecast to be clear. I set out the lighter weight quick to erect outfit- the 127mm Mak SLT. By this time the sky had mostly cleared and the GoTo got Phi Aqr in field right away. It and Neptune looked just like a colour contrasted double star. A higher magnification of x150 just about revealed that Neptune had a disk - though smaller than the diffraction rings and splatter from Phi Aqr. Worth the effort.

You would need a much bigger telescope and dark skies to see Pluto (mag 14.3), and in practice it is only possible to locate Pluto by imaging and using software or a follow-up image to identify the result among a field of brighter stars. See my post in 'EEVA Reports' in this forum.

I use my ST102 with a steel legged AZ-4 which is very solid and does not wobble at all. It complements a widefield scope well. Also with a Celestron SLT mount (alter a trivial mod to the dovetail bar) Apparently the AZ-5 can be had with a choice of tripods - a lightweight but wobbly aluminium and a steel one similar to that of the AZ-4. Your choice. The weight rating is said to be higher with the steel tripod.

I have the steel legged AZ4. It's a nice solid tripod (far stiffer than a lot of the entry level mounts like EQ-2) and ideal for a grab'n go role with telescopes up to about 6 or 7Kg. The lack of slow motions can be managed. (Dobs don't have slow motions either).

If the paperwork or labeling on the HEQ5 don't tell you, assume that it needs 5 amps. Something like this: https://www.telescopehouse.com/skywatcher-celestron-compatible-12v-mains-power-supply.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInbSdqoG65AIVQuDtCh15BQmyEAQYBCABEgJnBfD_BwE

You can buy 230v to 12v regulated power supplies designed for the task that will plug into the mount. Just check that you are getting the right polarity and connector and amperage rating. Ignore the cigarette cable. Or if you expect to use the setup out of range of the house, get one of the car starters and plug the cigarette lead into that.

Your first recourse should be to complain to the seller. You bought a scope, not a software course. If nothing happens other than 'start boot', that's a fault. Refreshing the firmware may fix it, but this is quite a rigmarole. You need guidance from nexstarsite.com, plus the right cable, which may depend on whether you have the latest handset or not. But I assume this Nexstar 6 SLT is one of the latest models, suggesting that it is new, so the fault is the retailers problem, not yours. If the outfit is working properly, it should be easy to set up.

A 115mm or 130mm Newtonian on a Goto mount would be a sound choice for a starter scope or permanent 2nd scope for grab'n go or portable field use. You could have a 200mm Newtonian on a GoTo mount but it will be a German Equatorial GoTo unless you separately buy one of the less known makes of mount. Don't put a 200mm Newtonian on an EQ-3 mount as it will overload it even for visual use. If you are determined to have a 200P-DS and use it for deep space astrophotography it is recommended that one uses a EQ-6. Yes, you can get upgrade kits to convert an all-manual EQ-3 or EQ-5 to full GoTo. These kits cost about £300. I have personally used a 200mm Newtonian on a EQ-5 mount and found the usability very poor. This setup is surprisingly large when erected and it is possible to get the eyepiece about 7 feet off the ground and in a angled position hard to reach even with a step-up. Yes if you want to see faint fuzzy objects an aperture of 8 inches or more is highly desirable. Choosing a telescope is full of compromises.🙁

I agree with the comments made by Mr Niall in particular. Even if we are talking visual only, scopes fulfill specialized functions and trying to buy one scope to cover all bases is hopeless. I have five scopes and four mounts, and I still don't have anything optimized for deep-space astrophotography. I suggest that you don't agonise overmuch over what scope to buy. Just get something small, easy to handle and within budget and see how you get on with that. Later you can buy with the benefit of practical experience, and perhaps having decided what kind of kit you don't like.

Excuse my ignorance, but I have still not grasped the justification for this project. We imaging newbies are constantly told that one does not need a large telescope for deep-sky imaging, that an 80mm aperture APO will do just fine. Even the massive WASP sky-survey looking for exoplanets used arrays of small optical elements. I saw a spare element on display at the Open University and it looked small enough to put under my arm. Apparently when a University department wants a research telescope or two, the stock response is to order up a 16" fork-mounted Meade and a dome. The OU has one. Yes I know that giant optical telescopes are used for probing the furthest reaches of the universe, but these are mounted on mountain-tops far from light pollution and far from persistent cloud cover, or even in space.

Thanks Bill. That proves I wasn't seeing more in the image than was there.