DeanSL

I was originally looking at the ZWO to buy, then came across the Altair, both seem to have happy owners. Thought I might have found somewhere or someone comparing them on the net, but not found anything.!

Yes,, thank you I did mean 290, I've now changed it. I did see the USB3 version, but it's a bit more exoensive

For various reasons I've not been able to devote time for a few years, but am now looking to get going again. Obviously already looking at upgrades 😁. I've got a Celestron C8N and am looking to do a bit of planetary and some DS. First upgrade I think will be the camera, (other options were changing out the R &P focuser or upgrading from enhanced motor drive to the synscan one on my CG5). Currently using a converted webcam, but looking at the two on the title as they are similar priced, I think the Altair is the one I might go for but want to hear others opinions. Might use for guidong later if I can fit it to the 9 x 50 finder scope and my daughter let's me use her Canon 😁).

Absolutely agree with this. Extremely friendly and helpful, not sure if that is down to the moderation or the astronomy community in general. Probably a bit of both. Also agree with the editing, I guess there is a valid reason, although there are some forums that allow a few minutes of editing after the initial one has been posted, which is helpful in correcting typos. Might be worth considering if it is available as an option or plug-in.

He He , I'm going the same way. I have used my other halves hair on models before, I also read that spider silk can be used.

Here's the completed Finderscope

Let me start by saying, I am no engineer,this may be an obviously easy repair and I may be the only person ever to need to repair them, but I thought i would share the repair! My recently purchased telescope's finderscope had what i initially thought was loose hair in it, until I found out it was supposed to have cross-hairs! After initially think I could do without I thought about seeing if it was glued up or screwed up, luckily it seems that things are still made using threads rather than glue and I had soon unscrewed the eyepiece end Only a gentle nudge with a flat headed screwdriver got the small threaded disc that the cross-hairs are stuck to turning, I unscrewed it by hand, be careful not to turn it upside down or the lenses may fall out! (This picture was taken after the repair!) I used a scalpel to remove the broken cross-hairs and clean up the area where they were attached. Luckily there are small grooves in this disc to help align the cross-hairs. For the cross-hairs I had a search on the internet and one recommendation was the fine copper wire in the in-ear headphone leads, although I didn't have any of these I did have various broken iPod charging cables. I stripped these back and used the wire from these, visually they seemed the same thickness as the ones I was replacing. I taped the wires down flat over the small grooves to make a cross, I then added more tape nearer to the disc to increase the tension. Finally I used my daughters false nail superglue to adhere the wire to the disc. A few minutes later I trimmed the excess and screwed it all back together, job done!