bish

Great idea.

I like the NASA sticker on your scope. Might put one on mine! Not so sure about pork scratchings though.. 😀

Hello, I have thinking about my 127 mak because I am not bothered with a goto. I have now just decided to buy a manual AZ, but want to keep the cost down. The AZ4-2 would do the job, but I was wondering how the lighter tripod legs of the AZ4-1 would be. I want it light for a grab n go. Thanks

Hello all, My wife is expecting a fairly large paypal refund from something she cancelled. When she chased it up again the person told her the refund hadn"t worked, which was typical Mercury retrograde! Be careful out there!🤣🤣

Thanks. Yes I am worried that I spend a load of cash on something that isn"t that comfortable to use. One of the best things about bins at a dark site is the ease of just sweeping the sky.

Hi all, I was at Kielder last week with my celestron 9x63 bins as my scope was ou5 of action. Have to that sweeping a dark sky with a decent pair of bins was great. I would quite like some 100mm bins but can't afford the right angle ones. I"m not sure how comfortable it would be trying to see anything overhead with bins on a tripod. Experience and suggestions welcome. Thanks

Yes it was a big relief when I focused on M103 and the stars were sharp.

Managed to grab a quick look through a lot of passing cloud. I think the scope is OK. Had a great view of M103 and a crisp view of Mars and The Moon. Seemed to be a lot of coma at the edge, so had to re-focus the edge to get it sharp. I think it was always like that but it has never bothered me and I am looking out for flaws now. The main thing is I enjoyed my grabbed quick session and the view was massively improved.

Looks good. My wife keeps asking me to tidy the garage. Not sure if she had this in mind though.

Thanks. I have loosened the bolts today. They don"t press down at all but hold it in place when it"s collimated. Just need a star to look at now!💭

Thanks. I will try that and hope I haven't done anything permanent.

It is a Skywatcher 250px. It does seem like a fair chunk to warp.

I put off cleaning my mirror for quite a while because I am a bit clumsy and thought a dirty mirror is better than a broken one. However, it looked very straight forward, and it was. My mirror is (almost) spotless. Now for the problem. The clamp bolts were very tight and 2 of them broke off. There are 10 more, so no worries. I assumed that being so stiff that the bolts must have been screwed down really tight. I expect you know what"s coming. I screwed the clamps down hard, collimated the scope. The first light after cleaning, the stars were all streaky and Mars all elongated. I loosened the bolts quite a bit last night and it did seem improved but not cured. I intend to loosen the bolts as much as possible without the mirror moving around. If it is not better I will assume that I have warped the mirror and just buy a new scope (although there is quite a wait at the moment!). The main thing is that I have learned from my mistake!

Booked up.

Thank you.

Where do I book? Thanks.

Many thanks. That is really helpful.

Hi, I was thinking of having a dabble in some low cost astro phtotography. I have an 1100d , 50mm and 70-300 lens I could use, so thought I might get a star adventurer. My 127mm mak is on an AZ goto, which I could mount my camera on, but don"t know if it would be as good as the star adventurer. As an aside, would the mak/mount be OK for planetary/lunar if I got a celestron nexstar or similar. Thanks Bish

It"s the Kielder star camp . I think electric hook up pitches go fast but I always get a spot for a tent.

Yes I will be there. I never bother checking the forecast anymore because I will go on the off chance of a patch of clear sky! It's a bit of peace regardless. I take more home comforts ever time I go. Think it"s my age!

Is anybody going up to Kielder this week?

Looks good to me.

The Skywatcher 250px is a great scope for the money. There are more expensive lighter better quality scopes, but I have never compared them. Easy to use, quick set up, not too bulky or heavy. DSO"s will be brighter and easier to spot.

I came very close to cleaning it in the cell because the bolts were so tight. I was lucky to only break two of them!

Yes the bolts were in so tight that two of them just sheared off. Thanks for the tutorial. It worked a treat.