Knighty2112

Nicely summed Doug. Tricky choice for a larger ‘frac as unless you get a solid goto mount that could handle it, you’d have to use it on the Skytee2 and loose any goto option on the 8SE mount. If you don’t mind just using it manually then I’d sell the ST120 and get something like a 120ED, or if budget allows a 150ED. The Skytee2 would cope with the weight of these OK. I always found that I got better double stars with my ‘fracs all round than with my old C8 SCT. Currently got my scopes down to a Skywatcher 10 inch Newt, a Celestron 120mm Omni ‘frac, and an AA 80ED Starwave Ascent ‘frac. Using a Skytee2 again, but wanting a good sturdy goto mount that will hold the Omni well, and if doable also the 10 inck Newt too.

Best thing to do is focus the finderscope in the daytime on a distant obtect as far as you possibly can see with it. As John says you do this by turning the front lens section clockwise or anticlockwise until it comes into focus as sharp as possible. It my have a locking ring behind the main lens group that needs to be backed off a little from this front end to allow you to focus it, and then once focused you screw the locking ring tight up against the front lens section again to stop it going out of focus again. Video shows Skywatcher finderscope, but same principle to most finderscopes.

PM incoming.

BTW: Pounds in the UK, not Dollars! Hehe!

Astro budget for this month blown already, otherwise would have snapped this up!

Nice report. Glad you got to see some good suff. I’m back at SGL starparty in November at Lucksall, so plan to scoop up more faint fuzzies with my Skywatcher Explorer 250P-DS I bought off Pitbull on here. Got some very nice views in my Bortle 8 skies, so can’t wait to see what it’ll pull out in the Bortle 3 skies at Lucksall. Saw the Veil last time I attended back in 2017 in my 8” SCT, so hoping to see much more with the extra 2” aperture, plus new stuff too, as long as the weather plays ball of course!

Be interested to see if it works for you.

Great Doug - can you just move the clouds out the way on this side of the Pennines please so I can see them? Hehe!

Bringing my Skywatcher 250P-DS to scoop up some nice fuzzies, along with my AA Starwave Ascent 80ED for some widefield views too, mounted on my Skytee2 mount. Binoculars too are a must, and if I have room the binocular mount too.

A Skytee2 should cope nicely with your scopes, and give you better control. I picked up a great 2nd hand one up the other weekend like new. I’ve gone back to a Skytee2 (sold the previous one earlier on this year) from a Sabre mount, mostly as I miss the slow mo control on the mount. Currently using my Skywatcher 10” newt on the mount with either one of my 2 ‘fracs (short and long). The AZ-100 John mentions looks great, but comes at quite a price it seems once it gets released after John’s testing is done.

Looks nice. Great idea to keep the slow mo cables inline with the scope as it moves. However, at nearly £800 it’ll have to be at the very bottom of my list for potential mount upgrades for now.

Sorry, withdrawn from sale.

In pristine as new condition and only bought just under 2 months ago off FLO I have an exceptional Baader 2” clicklock dielectric star diagonal for sale. Comes with all original parts shipped out with as seen in pictures attached. No marks, scuffs or anything on the diagonal or box. The clicklock part can be removed & rotated to a different position to suite your scope/equipment etc. Looking for £150 which includes postage in the UK only. Payment via Paypal or direct bank transfer. Thanks for looking, Gus withdrawn from sale.

Nice shot of that elusive object. Well done! Only seen it once many years back on an exceptionally good night.

Excellent sketch. Well done!