Knighty2112

As Tony the tiger used to say there ggggggrrreat!

Some nice details on show there. Well done! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Also, used to use Skysafari on my ipad for control and initial alignment. I used to leave the hand controller connected to the mount, but never used it, however if necessary you could use the up/down, left/right keys for movement if you wanted to rather than use the ipad for direction control/fine tuning etc during alignment.

When I had a Celestron wifi unit a few years back I used to turn my house wifi off before I used the wifi on the mount. Used to get similar issues where it would not connect, or drop out sometimes. Used mine on a 6/8 SE goto mount. Worked Ok with the house wifi off. Try see if yours works any better with house wifi turned off.

For a 1st try that is very good. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Hope it works out Ok. Be interested to see if it works Ok after the transfer.

Not bad for just an HB pencil still! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

If you move the focus wheels does the Eyepiece you are using moving outwards or inwards in the focuser? If so and you still can’t reach focus when it is Fully wound outwards you need an extension tube fitted in the focuser first, then the EP fitted. That should allow focus to be reached. If the focuser does not move at all when you turn the focus wheels then the knob highlighted in the picture is either set too tight, or possibly too slack. In which case alter this until you can move the focuser when turning the wheels. If this is a Crayford focuser you need to set this knob on the focuser to the right tension so that that focuser tube moves only when you adjust the focus wheels on the focuser. If too tight it won’t move. If too slack you can probably pull the focuser tube outwards by hand.

Two in stock at FLO at the moment. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-series/celestron-starsense-explorer-dx-5.html

Excellent! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

OK, in the title now I see.

Nice work! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 What scope where you using the camera on?

Nice shots. 👍🏻 Maybe try an ND9 filter which will help to tone down the bright parts of the moon and make the terminator stand out more too. I generally use one on the moon when observing when its past 1st quarter as it tends to be too bright to observe, and the filter makes for a better view overall.

For lunar and planetary views a good ED refractor would give nice views. A longer focul length one also would give give good views but you’d need a good mount to hold it on, either manual or goto manual. I have 2 ED scopes from Altair Astro, an Ascent 80ED f7 and 102ED f11 ‘fracs I use. Generally I use the 80ED ‘frac on a lighter grab and go mount for quicker set up of sessions, then use the longer f11 ‘frac on either my Skytee2 mount, or more often on my Heq5 pro goto mount. I also have a Celestron Omni 120mm f8.3 that I also use which is not an ED scope, but does give great views still. The Omni ‘fracs are discontinued now, but still come up often on the second hand market, and I got mine about 4 years ago from a member on here for about £150 if I remember rightly. All these scopes give very good double star views too. Quite a few different ED scopes available from different manufacturers etc, with varying price ranges but for 2K you should get a scope and a mount OK.

Did you loosen the three philips screws first as highlighted below from the manual before turning the collimation knobs?

Make sure the scope is parked in the home position before you power it off then on. With my synscan wiffi adapter I do an initial 3 star alignment on my mount, then switch control over to Skysafari to then run with targets. I don’t think a one star alignment works well, so try a 2 star or better still a 3 star alignment. You don’t say what mount you have, but if you have one you can polar align do that too as it makes things even better when slewing to objects.

Glad you got it OK. Hope you get some great views with it.

Pete’s image of Io was from the Saturday morning, and the Europa transit was from the evening/night of the same day just to clear up any confusion. Seeing wasn’t great for me last night, but I could see Europa’s shadow easily although Jupiter was dancing like crazy when trying to in the seeing. In fact seeing made all but double stars worth looking at, although did manage to spot smaller Neptune easily in a sparse starfield.

Hope you all get some clear skies whilst at Kelling. Last (and only) time I was there a few years back now the weather wasn’t playing ball, but when it does clear it makes up for it. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Amazon been busy today again. Got a Map of Mars to frame up and stick on the wall somewhere, either on the back living room wall, or on the wall leading up the stairs maybe. Need to decide when framed up. 😀

Good review. Always wondered about these EP’s from Celestron. 👍🏻

Good review. For those less fortunate to be able to get the likes of a Nagler EP etc these sound like a very good option. Thanks for posting.