Knighty2112

Nice tip. Never knew that!

Meant to add also that if you know the right ascension and declination of the object you want to view too you can input these in to the handcontroller to go to the object as well. This link lists some manuals for the Celestron goto mounts, so if you need one that gives details of this then select whichever mount you have and download it. http://www.nexstarsite.com/Manuals.htm

As per what Ronin said it sounds like your goto speed is too low for you to pick up that the scope is actually moving. For large movement to go from object to object over large angular distances the slew speed of your goto needs to be set to 8 or 9. Find the key on you keypad called "Motor speed" or "Slew Speed", (bottom right key) press it, then select either 8 or 9 on your keypad, then move your direction keys. You should find that goto mount moves much more rapidly. You can test this out in the daytime first also without having to do an alignment; power up your scope. Press "Motor speed" or "Slew speed". Press 9, then press your direction keys on the handset. Also, if your handset is a Nexstar+ controller, after pressing "Motor speed, the current speed of the mount will be shown. Just remember after doing your initial alignment the motor speed or slew speed will most likely be lower than 8 or 9, so if you want to move it manually via the handset make sure the motor speed is set to 8 or 9 again before manually moving it.

Focuser collar sent off in mail today, so you should receive it soon. In the end the collar wasn't plastic, but painted aluminium. Hope you manage to get some clear skies to check out the new scope. 😁😁

The adapter you link to is not the same. The plastic collar has the tightening screw to hold the EP in position, and is screwed onto the metal focused tube if I rember correctly. The scope only takes 1.25" inch EP, although you could use a 1.25" to 2" adapter to use 2" EPs if you wanted too. This collar has an internal diameter of 1.25" only. I am away at the moment, but when I get home I'll take off the collar from my scope and mail it down to you. PM your address and I'll post it off as soon as I can to you.

The pink ringed control is the left/right slow motion control. It needs the locking screw for that axle to be tightened before it will allow it to work. The counter weight bar (fitted to the orange part on the left seems to be missing. Did you get weights and the bar with the mount, as you will need those to balance the scope? As for the plastic collar that fits on to your focuser tube I have my now defunct Astro master languishing up in the loft as I soon upgraded scopes, so if you need this part I'll strip it off mine and send it too you if you want it.

I use the mask purely for visual work yes. Not AP. I normally use the mask at the start of the session especially when viewing planets to get the sharpest focus possible by focusing on a bright star, normally Vega. If the seeing withstands much higher magnification I may slew back to a bright star and refocus with the mask again too after upping the EP, but sometimes not depending on if I can get it to focus sharply without it well. If observing stars then I normally can get it just about spot on without the mask, the only time I may use it for stars are if the seeing and the skies are not too great. .

Nice shot. Well done! I got a brief video shot of Venus yesterday morning in the daytime that came out much better than I expected, so will try to capture it again in the next few days in the daytime also as long as the skies are clear.

Get a bahtinov mask for your scope to help you achieve nearly perfect focus. It does sound more like your were out of focus. I was observing Jupiter last night too. It wasn't great seeing with Jupiter last night, but with a either a 30mm or 10mm EP in my C8 SCT the bands where quite easily visible. It does only talks a small amount for it to be out of focus to be just a smudge of light though. Saturn was much better last night to observe, which I was surprised about as it was lower down in the murk, but good seeing and fine detail visible easily. Your scope should pick up these things very well, but focusing is very critical to getting the best view especially at higher magnifications. If possible focus your scope during the daytime on something as far from you as possible. This will get your focus pretty close to be able to then just fine tune focus with very small tweaks when you look at the night sky, but do get a bahtinov mask to use. It is one of my crucial pieces of equipment that I use to make sure focus is spot on for every observing session.

I was observing some doubles last night too; started off with Xi Bootes, then over to some tight doubles in Ursa Major, some of which where the leaps of the gazelle. To top it off Saturn was a great sight too, with the Cassini division been very prominent and clear, with details on the surface of Saturn as well. Thankfully no mozzies near me and keeping cool in tee-shirt and shorts!

Nice work Nick. My son brought a bottle of whiskey over for fathers days, so may slip a couple of ice cubes in a dram to cool me down. Nice sketches mate!

Hi Niall. I have some EP's that don't perform well in my f5 short 'frac, but much better in all my other scopes with a higher f ratio. As all have explained this is down to mostly the angle the light comes into the lens, so the narrower the light path into the EP the better the EP should perform. I have a 2' 25mm ES EP that I was trying to sell a few months back due to poor performance in some of the lower f ratio scopes I was using back then. Now as most of the scopes I mainly use are f8 or above it performs a whole lot better, so keeping the EP now for good. Your f11 mak should perform very well with most EP's, however the more expensive ones should still provide a better views over plossls etc if you are willing to shell out the extra cash.

Well done on the new acquisition. Hope you enjoy the new scope when you get some clear skies. Hopefully not too far away for some. Pity the summer solstice is so near too, but hey ho! Once past it we'll be slowly getting the longer nights again! One thing to keep an eye on though is your bank balance. Once bitten by the Astro bug the old moneroony can deplete from it real quickly! Hehe!

Not sure about Manchester/Liverpool side of things, but I believe the nearest shops would either be Rother Valley optics off the M1 near Sheffield, or Green Witch in Birstall near Leeds off the M62. If they are out of the question due to distance then a local club would be the best idea as stated. Good luck.