Knighty2112

Don’t do imaging but sounds like your scope at 11kg is already at the max limit for imaging with the HEQ5 pro, so with any additional equipment fitted may make it too much. Scope weight Mount max imaging load

I have the same scope and use it on the AZ5 head fitted to a Berlebach wooden tripod. Works well but depending on weight of any diagonal and eyepieces used does require good balancing to get the slow motion control working well. I also use it on AA Sabre push to mount, and very occasionally a Skytee2 mount with a second scope attached, although the later is probably over kill for it on its own.

Nice report Michael. I too have had excellent views with my 2 ED ‘fracs (80 and 102mm) recently on Jupiter and Saturn, and even from my Celestron Omni 120mm ‘frac too one night with a semi apo filter fitted. There was so much detail and colour in view when looked at, especially for Jupiter. Much better than I’ve seen even through my C8 SCT.

I have a 10” newtonian reflector, which should be great for scooping up fuzzies, except due to size and the mount I need to use to use this scope (Skywatcher Skytee2) I rarely get it out, and much prefer some of my smaller ‘fracs either on a goto mound or manual az mount. So if fuzzies aren’t your thing and you want to stick with lunary, planetary and doubles etc then a good ‘frac will suffice. An 80ED would be probably the smallest I would go for for visual use for this as with the ED optics you can normally push it past the 160x magnification limit quite easily when seeing is good.

To be honest I only watched it to appease my girlfirend, otherwise I wouldn’t have touched it with a bargepole!

Well of course it’s has got to be binoculars for ever! Kind of funny but I have just for the 1st time last night ever watched the 1964 movie “My Fair Lady”, and was amused in some small way between the snobbish and priggish linguistic Professor Henry Higgins, and Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. As for the English language (in its many variations around the world) evolves constantly, else we would all still be talking the stilted English of yesteryear. In my lifetime I have seen/heard many words that back when I was a child had a totally different meaning than they do in todays English. New words have been added in, and some old words dropped totally (for good or bad). Now I am no English language expert and would never claim to be (this is my opion only and don’t expect everyone to agree with it) but would I like the English language to only be dictated down to us poor, uneducated masses by erudite people like Henry Higgins who would favour that his version of English be set in stone forever, and the voices of the likes of Eliza (i.e you and me, or is that you and I? ) be silenced? Eye thunk ya’ll no me ansa ta that as a big fat Nooooooo Guvna!

Nice haul Doug. Well done. Was going to go out last for some observing too on my goto mount with clear skies, but in the end tiredness from work put any of those ideas away after I fell asleep on the sofa!

Thumbs up for the Baader Mark IV. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Try pressing the Escape key after it says successful alignment, then press Planet, Star or M key for Messier object and select an object and see if it works then.

Nice haul. Been meaning to do more doubles observations, but not got around to it yet. Do you use a manual mount or a goto mount to track these down?

Nice report. Yeah, Jupiter was the best I’d seen it all year at around 00:45 after it came into view from behind my house from where I was observing in the back garden. Using my Celestron Omni 120mm ‘frac with Celestron Duo 5mm to view through Jupiter was excellent, with belts and GRS easily visible, with very steady seeing. The moons also looked like moons too rather than the normal specks of light. Best night of the year so far for me for observing.

Yeah, I was the same last night. For the 1st hour out from 10 to 11pm I wasn’t having a great time as my 2 star align on my Heq5 eq goto mount wasn’t performing well, with most things not been in the FOV of my EP. After getting cheesed off with it I did a 3 star align, and managed also to get the new version of Skysafari Pro working with my mount on Wifi to use rather than using the handset. Everything I wanted to view was pretty much bang in the middle of my EP when my mount slewed to it after this. I was like a kid in a candy shop skipping from one thing to another viewing globulars, open clusters, planetary nebulas etc. Saturn was very good last night, but Jupiter was even more so in my Omni 120mm ‘frac with my Celestron Duo 5mm EP. Was easy to see GRS and the belts on Jupiter, and the moons looked like moons and not just points of light. Even distant Neptune was easy to pick out. Was a joy to observe and only cut it short at just gone 1:15am after starting to get tired. Was the best session I have had in 2022 so far & hoping for clear skies again soon to try to repeat it again! 😀

Great, but if it clouds over we know who to blame! Enjoy the new scope! 👍🏻

Doubt you can get the focuser you want as a separate item. You could try Gumtree and see if there are any scopes near you that you could get that you could take the focuser off. These type of scopes go up quite often in the 2nd hand market.

Yeah, realised that after I posted it.

Is the issue only seen on the RA motor side? If so maybe get a replacement belt just in case the belt you fitted has either stretched somewhat, or was faulty in some way.

Not done the mod (but plan to do so pretty soon), but is the belt tension correctly set? In the instructions it looks like the motor housing is positioned more to the right than your seems to be? Should only be 2mm movement on belt. If too slack then the belt can slip out of the teethed pulleys.

Cracking! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Yeah, Friday is looking good here too fingers crossed! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Hi and welcome. Hope you enjoy the views through your scopes. If you want to view Saturn you can nab it at around 10pm, and dont have to wait till morning to see it as long as you have a SE view. The jewel of the solar system, and always a WOW! factor the very fist time you view it (and even after that too!) 😀 Orange line is the height of the houses/bungalows on my horizon, so use as a reference for when i can actually see things above the roof tops.

Daytime views were great, so can’t wait for the views under the stars! 🔭😀

6 rainbows per year? Nah! More like 60 now! 😉

Nice wee ‘frac addition to the family curtesy of Dragon_Astro arrived earlier on via DPD. Tis’ small but very cute! An SW Equinox 66ED!

Yeah, was looking to get the Monster parallel mount. I have the smaller one already, so will have to do with that one.