brantuk

£150 'ish would be a good average depending on age and condition and negotiating skills.

Only in terms of field of view. With a slow scope you have a narrower field of view and an object will travel across the fov in less time than a fast scope with a wide fov. However, if you're using an alt/az mount with tracking motors, the motors will be working to track in two planes. An equatorial mount which is accurately polar aligned will only be tracking in a single plane cos RA is handled by the spin of the Earth and mechanically it's much easier - especially for astro photography. The moon is very close compared to dso's so a slow scope will give more magnification and brighter views. If it's a manual mount though you'll need to be turning the slow mo controls quite frequently to cope with the narrow fov. Hth

On a side note - this problem is one of the reasons a lot of folks sold their NEQ6's and got the newer AZEQ6-GT which has the much more substantial mechanism for set up and polar alignment. It's stronger and can be adjusted under load. If you get no joy from the return and you have the top up money required - maybe they would do an exchange for you - just an idea.

The issue with Skywatcher providing hardened steel bolts is that the mount is made of a softer steel, and with heavy use, the internal soft steel threads would eventually strip and that would create a bigger problem for them. So they provide bolts that match the mount and leave it to the consumer to decide the best "personal" way forward. My advice is get the harder bolts (especially if you live North of Birmingham) and don't over load the mount when doing adjustments. Well worth it cos the mount is a cracker when it's set up right.

The EQ6 bolts anomaly has been a topic of discussion for at least the ten years I've been doing astronomy. The problem is they actually are perfectly adequate when used as per manufacturers advice. The advice is to use them to set up the mount before loading the scope and other equipment on. Any further adjustment after loading is usually only tiny tweaks to perfect PA. The problem of bent bolts and stripped mount threads only occurs with overuse (frequent large adjustments) when heavily laden, and particularly at higher latitudes of 52 degrees and over (literally at the extreme end of the bolt threads). It's a common solution to re-lug the mount and use harder steel bolts - but even then the mount threads are "more likely" to be stripped e.g. if using a heavy dual imaging rig. When I had my NEQ6 Pro I used it on the move a lot - so I was always resetting it. It came with the hardened steel bolts but I still only did minimal adjustments when loaded. Most of the mount setup and PA was done unloaded. Of course if your scope is in a permanent setup e.g. in an observatory - the process is only ever done once so the chances of a problem are vastly reduced. Hth

A cheap alternative might be some of those Bressers 10x50's that Aldi or Liddl have on offer from time to time. I got a pair for £15 a few years ago and they still work absolutely fine. They'd be a bargain if they were now another tenner.

If you think about it, when you shave with a flat mirror you stand a certain distance away. But if you put a convex curve on the mirror you have to stand a little nearer cos the focal point is closer. If you put a concave curve on the mirror you'd have to stand further away. You're not magnifying anything, you're just changing the point of focus. In telescopes, a lens is used to magnify or reduce the size of the focused image, at the focal point. Depending on the size of the lens used and the focal length of the scope objective (mirror or lens), you get a different size of magnified image. With a normal camera, the lens does the magnifying at a fixed focal length. When you switch the lens for a telescope you're working with a different fixed focal length - the primary focal length of the scope. Hope that helps.

The scope just does the focusing, it's the eyepiece that does the magnification. I'm no expert in AP but I think you're really asking about image scale matching with the camera chip size. I'll leave that for an imager to answer in more detail - and better than I can explain.

Looks fabulous Jim Are you going to paint or stain it? Does the alt axis feel stable turning the scope at lower elevations or d'you reckon it might need a brace near the end?

Received a Lego Saturn 5 Rocket today - spent all afternoon building the first stage. It's a fabulous kit and amazing how all the little bits go together to make a strong free standing 1m high model. Will pop a build thread and pics up once it's complete.

These guys are usually at most astro trade shows and I've used them a couple of times via mail order. They're also very good with advice if you give them a call: http://www.awrtech.co.uk/miscprod.htm#PTFE

Hahaha! Yep - I've done that too - had to totally rebuild a mirror box cos of one little slip - but you won't find any photos it no matter how hard you try. lol

Looks fabulous - and there's gonna be a lot of weight in that mirror box so you'll be able to mount loads of accessories on the top tube.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Mathew Nice Cake!

Great result Paul! Glad your gonna get sorted - and it saves you all the effort of stripping the mount down which you don't need right now.

The only way I currently know of is using Stellarcat and Argo Navis - but they are usually employed on very large dobs of 20" diameter and over, and would be prohibitively expensive for an 8" scope. As suggested above - the most cost effective way is to sell the current scope and buy a ready made goto dob. Hth

Finally got round to fixing my Christmas pressie Moonlite focuser on the LB 16" - Now I just have to paint the rocker box the same colour - hopefully spend some time in the garage when it gets a bit warmer:

Absolutely - to match the red of the rocker box which I'm going to paint soon. Should look nice I hope.

I got a nice shiny Moonlite focuser and radius kit to fix it on my dob - but it wasn't the postman it was Santa wot delivered it.

Bump - due to popular demand

Fabulous image - one of the few where you can see the whole extent of M42 - right the way round it's perimeter. Nice one Slynxx.

Yep you pretty well have it there Derek - you only need a ball head if you're operating more than one bit of equipment on it. I would recommend getting an EQ5 or EQ6 tripod and an adaptor to mount it on rather than a photo tripod - much more stable and one less floating ball to slip and go wrong. If you want a look at a set up then pm me and we can arrange a meeting to get mine out and give it an airing over a cuppa.