Peter Drew

Well done Paul. (A bit of a slippery slope for a single man!)

Cleaning the outer surface of a lens is quite sraightforward, unfortunately cleaning the inside surfaces requires dismantling the components which is a very different matter particularly in the case of a triplet. This should be entrusted only to the manufacturer or a third party specialist as tiplets are a very sensitive design and their components will need critical realignment on the rebuild to ensure good collimation. If the mould is not too severe it might be worth leaving the telescope pointing in the general direction of the Sun in the hope that the ambient UV will kill the mould. A picture of the problem would be helpful for others who may wish to comment.

There is a preliminary report on CN by some experienced guys that have had a session with a pre market one. Impressions seem to place it between average ED models and the highest end APO's.

Unless you are very lucky with the seeing on your first light pre purchase test it will be pretty difficult to fully assess its quality other than if it's really bad which is unlikely these days. There are plenty of nights where I wouldn't touch my 16" SCT with a barge pole if buying it, at other times it gives exquisite images.

Yes. I moved my solar observatory when we downsized from a farm. I relocated it here at the Astronomy Centre and is now my most used installation.

Outstanding images, you almost need sunglasses to view the coloured version!. I've found lately that the best visual performance has been after 6pm.

Yes, I don't see a problem with that, the wheels that is, not the spinach!

No I didn't. Both of my 16" SCT's are on piers and housed in observatories. The OTA's weigh over 120lbs minus the forks.

This price drop doesn't reflect the performance of the telescope, more to do with finding a buyer, not only with the cash to spare but also somewhere suitable to house it. Believe me, they're not "grab and go"! On this type of circumstance I was able to purchase a complete 16"SCT setup including a £1800 Gigawedge for just over £5000. Original total price over £19,000

The pro's of side by side mounting are that the weight can be shared each side of the azimuth or ra axis and balanced better in dec. The con's of piggybacking are usually the opposite and require extra counterweighting.

Looking forward to seeing it.

I'm on my third 12" LX200, I've had a few electronic issues but the optics have been satisfactory. For visual use they are far better left in the alt-az mode, more stable and the goto works better.

Nice images. The line artifacts are probably some variant of "Newton rings".

Try "Cloudy Nights"(if you dare!), there are some top optical designers on that forum who would be willing to advise.

Free to get in but just try getting out again without making a donation!