Knighty2112

Also, try focusing on a distant object (house, chimney top, tree etc) in the distance if possible more than half a mile away and see if you can get it in focus like that. If so you should be able to get it to focus Ok depending on seeing conditions etc.

Yeah, I used this scope a while back about 10 years ago for a few years as my only scope. Tripod is pants, so used a much better photo tripod. Other than that got some decent widefield views with it. Good on lunar and planets, and OK for brighter fuzzies too if you keep expectations low and don’t expect too much. 👍🏻

I downloaded it fine to my ipad and iphone the other day with no issues.

Ditto to Franklin ‘s advice too. It will work much better that way.

Can’t you take the scope off the mount and carry the mount into the garage first, then cary the scope in after that and refit it to the mount once in the garage? Or are doing imaging with all wires etc set up on the mount making that too much of a chore to disassemble?

Well, to be honest I have a long AA 102mm ED f11 ‘frac that I use on an AZ5 mount, which is mounted on a Berlebach Report tripod . I use a Baader zoom lens mostly for the EP with it so I can balance the scope well, and fitted longer slo mo cables on the AZ5, and whilst in windy conditions it does shake around a little, mostly I can use it just fine. Yes, a Skytee2 does hold it much sturdier so that in windy conditions there is very minimal shake of the scope in strong gusts of wind, but for observing the planets and the moon I find the AZ5 OK. I’m sure the wooden tripod dampens things down quicker perhaps than a metal tripod, but as long as its not too gusty when using it is fine to use. I even have the Skywatcher extension tube on the mount so that the telescope doesn’t snag on the legs of the tripod and it still works very good. Much easier to lug out the AZ5 mount over my Skytee 2, so for shorter observing sessions I tend to use the AZ5 mount more.

Due to the serious dearth of anything astronomy wise on tv I will most likely watch the rest of the series, but my overwhelming view (at least from episode 1) was ‘Meah!’

Sorry, the one I actually have is as below, which the top part comes off easily so might give better wifi connection, but still give thermal conductance with the case for heat dissipation still.

There is a case you can get for the pi that acts as one big heatsink due to the design. I got one for my Pi. Works a treat, but don’t use it for astro stuff, just coding and messing around with.

You can select to show brightest comets and highlight them. This doesn’t show any tails, but ring where they are.

Its the comet tail from 342P/Soho shining like crazy.

Go to settings, solar system, turn off show comets.

Yeah, you get great views through these AA ED scopes. I’ve got both an 80ED f7, and a 102ED f11 ‘fracs which I use primarily for planetary, lunar, solar with the f11, and widefield with the f7 ‘frac. Stars are all pin sharp too.

Nice. I’ll keep any eye on this then! 😉

Might be doable if clouds stay clear in the south. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Did you check where the cable plugs in to the hand controller, and especially inside the slot where the cable then plugs into the mount is correctly inserted? Worth a shot checking!

Glad you’ve got some clear skies. Clouded over solid here. Not even a glint of a star.

Nice. You managed to nab the smaller group as well on view. 👍🏻

As there was some nice sunshine going on outside, I decided to view the larger sunspot group near the middle of the sun with my Omni 120mm ‘frac, and nabbed some avi’s with my ZWO ASI462 through my 2” lunt wedge. Stacked in Registax, edited a little on laptop and Photoshop, with a slight tweek too on my ipad to get some better details out of it.

One to add to the viewing calendar. Ta! 👍🏻

Well, I may have over exaggerated the extensive part in my research, but this certainly did my head in! https://medium.com/@phpdevster/how-telescope-aperture-affects-your-view-24507147d7fc

Turns out (after extensive research via Google! ) that the answer is super complicated. So rather than trying to wrap my puny human brain around these mysteries I’m just going to enjoy the views in my telescopes and EP’s as best as my old eyes and telescope optics allow!

Not a scientific answer, but I think of the light as data, so with the larger scope your scooping up more data which means more detail seen. Smaller scope so less data, so less brightness. Thats my contribution anyway!

For me with my most used eyepieces I guess the average is around twice a year. Basically only when any splodges start to appear when viewing through it etc does it get cleaned.

Managed an hour from just gone 8pm until low cloud and haze rolled in at 9:15pm. Got great views of both shadows with my AA 102 ED f11 ‘frac using a 6mm Starbase EP to give magnification of x187. Was surprised how easy it was to see the smaller shadow as easy as I could see it. The larger shadow was easy seen even at much lower magnifications. The addition of my semi apo filter made the views much better too. Pity that clouds then spoiled play.