Knighty2112

To balance things out a little I think that the majority of people on SGL have at some point posted up things/queries/questions etc that generate little if no response. Over the years there have been a number of times some of my posts didn’t garner any reply. This might be for various reasons why people might not respond, but regardless of how it may ‘smart’ when little or no response is forthcoming I think keeping any posts free as much as possible of any harsh comments because of this will generate a more positive response. Of course sometimes some comments could be intended as been sarcastic and made more in jest, but it is fine line sometimes between playful wording of things and someones interpretation of them.

Anyhow, I hope you don’t cast too much of a critical eye over us all on SGL for any lack of responses, but a belated welcome to you and I hope you stick it out a little longer before you pull the plug on us. 😀😉

Nice to get things off your chest, yes?  

If you can get hold of one a Celestron Mars filter works excellently on Mars. It not only gives Mars a nice red look, but does tease out details very well. Failing that a cheaper option would be a #82A blue filter which works reasonably well too. Any of the other filters mentioned will improve the view of Mars too, but as I have all these filters I can say that for Mars viewing I always use the Celestron Mars filter to give the best results, especially when Mars gets larger in the EP. Hard to find on sale in the UK, so I got mine shipped across from the US when I bought mine.

OK, that’s a nice long focal length. If it had been much shorter fl then that could have maybe caused an issue perhaps. Used to own a 17.5 Morpheus and never had any issues with it, but never used it for daytime views so not sure if this is normal or not. Was the scope in focus whilst you were looking through the EP?

Might help to know what scope were you using to look through it with? What is the scopes focal length?

I have an Altair Astro Starwave ASCENT 80ED F7 Refractor with fpl51 ED glass which punches well above its weight when the seeing is good. I also have their Starwave ASCENT 102ED F11 Refractor that does very well too, but although ED glass I am not sure if its fpl51. The 80ED has a very good price point for fpl51 glass. I’m sure fpl53 scopes do even better but  I guess the answer for most is then how deep do you want your pockets to be?  

Remember when you collimate the scope just have the focuser attached to use the device. Don’t have any extension tubes fitted that you might need to achieve focus with any diagonals/EP’s fitted, and have the focuser wound fully in to perform collimation. 
 

As there is no manual sent out with the scope (at least I never got one), then the below link gives the manual for the Orion CC version, which apart from branding is exactly the same as the Stellalyra version;

https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/IN621_Classical_Cassegrains.pdf

I would say also that the scope does need to be well cooled down to get the best views from it, so make sure that it is cooled down before you observe with it even when collimated. One reason I prefer ‘fracs really is you can get on with using them pretty much from taking them out.  

7 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I’ve been looking at them myself but I didn’t want to throw good money after bad. I see FLO has these in stock at the minute. I keep chasing my tail with my Hotech, Cheshire and cap. I get what I think is close then a half turn to oblivion. So you recommend one of the TS RCKoli?. My new scope buzz has turned to despair 😩 

Worked for me and I’m no expert at collimation. 

I had the same when I got my CC6. Struggled to collimate it with a laser, cheshire and a collimation cap. Got one of these from TS Optics and got it sorted out within about 15 minutes of using it.

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p11188_TS-Optics-2--LED-Collimator-for-RC-Telescopes-and-all-other-Types-of-Telescopes.html

Did you have just the focuser on the RC only, and no extension rings? With any extension rings fitted you would loose the thin outer white ring. For collimation I ended up getting one of these https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p11188_TS-Optics-2--LED-Collimator-for-RC-Telescopes-and-all-other-Types-of-Telescopes.html from TS Optics. Used it the first time and got it pretty much spot on 1st time, which gave me nearly perfect lunar views.

Seems like every generation like to find faults with the previous ones, so for the current ‘woke’ generation I asssume that later generations will continue to find faults in them too!  

5 hours ago, chrispj said:

Inspired by @Ags diagonal comparison (& my 1st piece of Takahashi kit!), a new prism diagonal....

 

Let us know how it fares. Could be tempted to try one myself at somepoint perhaps! 🤔

Wow! I’d hate to build that up and break it down every time you’d use it! 😳😳😳

 Nice images. Both are very good. Excellent work! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

34 minutes ago, SthBohemia said:

My point actually was, to be more specific... It is a LOT more fun to search for DSO fuzzy patches with a pair of binoculars within a night sky absolutely illuminated with stars. Sighs, I think I simply miss the spectacular views of clear night skies, 'dats' life I guess....

I agree. A good pair of binoculars is great for that. M13 in an 8 inch reflector even in bortle 5/6 areas is still a great sight to see on a dark night. Many a night I’ve just gazed at it for ages soaking it all in!  

2 hours ago, SthBohemia said:

The moral to this post? Don't expect to see much of interest if the skies are NOT Bortle 1.... Sighs 😞 

Sorry, I don’t agree. Yes, whilst bortle 1 skies would be perfect, in the real world for the majority of people we have to cope with a lot less than this and there is still plenty to see up in the night sky. If there wasn’t then most of us would have packed it in and looked for another hobby. 

If you fancy getting some early morning action on some planets at around 2:30am they are strung out nicely in the sky. Saturn, Jupiter and Mars should be easy to pick out and find.

The green line above the horizon is the approx roofline of buildings where I live, but I set the location for SW Northumberland to show the view near you. BTW: Neptune and Uranus should be seeable with your scope, however as they are small still and look like stars unless greatly magnified they will take some skill in narrowing them down in your scope.

54 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

There is no true darkness to enjoy DSO properly. In early evening (I mean 10-11pm at this time of the year!) in addition to the Moon you could try some classic double stars, they could be seen even in twilight. Try Albireo, Rasalgethi and Mizar, you won't be disappointed! 

Sorry Nik271. Didn’t read all posts fully, so see you suggested Alberio already. 👍🏻

As others have said with not been really full dark at night its not the best time to view things, and darkest period is around 12:30 to 1am. By the end of July we should be starting to get darker skies coming back again slowly. Until then enjoy the phases of the moon along the terminator watching craters etc slowly emerging from the shadows, and maybe try for some of the easier double stars in the sky. Some like Alberio in Cygnus have nice colour contrasts. 
 

https://astronomynow.com/2017/06/24/seeing-double-in-the-summer-sky/

5 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

can seem that way as if a nice Telementor came up at the right price I'd be very tempted to add it to the collection, a good classic older japanese scope too perhaps if it was in its wooden box. Then again the conservatory has too many 3-legged things hanging about out there already...

Oh yes, I have a roomful of things like those too! 😆

Can never own enough telescopes, so I’ve been told!  

Yep, can just see it. Well done! 😀

32 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

There's a second hand Starsense LT80 on the Bay at the moment, for a decent discount.
I was tempted, but it's collection only, in the Manchester area.

Do we know if the code for the Starsense scope once used can be re-registered again on another device?

Looks the same as the Bresser version I have, apart from the branding. Work like a charm they do.