Peter Drew

Yes, don't buy someone a telescope thinking they might like one, just because you do.  Make sure that that it's a very enthusiastic request, only then there is a good chance that the recipient will persevere with the learning curve.     🙂

Understandably, binoculars always get recommended in this scenario, small, light, inexpensive and largely hassle free.  Unfortunately, a six year old rarely possesses the required hand/eye coordination for astronomical use and the magnification won't be enough for that wow factor.  A small, well mounted telescope of whatever design will be better but the greatest route to success will be the amount of time and assistance the adult is able to provide.   🙂 

With a flat looking surrounding, any lowering just gives extra capacity.  Any prospect of raising critical areas?

You could try contacting Tenerife Astro Society <tenerifeastrosociety@tenerifeastrosociety> they are at the Vilaflor end of Tenerife.      🙂

I had a lot of success with a 12" SCT in conjunction wit a Watec 120n+.  It is simply point and shoot with an integration exposure time range between a few seconds to theoretical infinity.  Best results were around i minute which revealed DSO images similar to what one might see visually with 3x the aperture.     🙂 

2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

How does that eliminate cool down time? All it does is stop the tube losing heat, which is fine once the scope has cooled; it still need to be at outside ambient temperature to operate at its best.

Disclaimer.  I have yet to try out this approach to thermal management but my understanding (?) is that insulating the tube adequately SLOWS the change of temperature to the point where there is little optical distortion.  This, apparently, is n opposite effect to the thermal shock imposed by taking an uninsulated telescope from a warm house environment to an outside much colder one.  There are several claims to this effect on CN, some from very credible posters.

I have not tried this procedure as all our regularly used telescopes have their own unheated housings and presumably close to ambient.    🙂  

So, are all the people who claim that insulating the OTA of a Mak/SCT avoids cool down time wrong?     🤔

Not an imager but pre Covid I was a frequent astro visitor.  4 things I could mention, check the Moon phases at the date you plan to visit, check for Calima weather conditions, it gets very cold at night at high altitude, you can usually get a better exchange rate for euros at local kiosks.

By law, advertising hoardings and hotel signs are switched off at 11pm, street lights are subdued compared to the UK. 

Best to concentrate on objects not seen in higher latitudes, Omega Centauri is a good object at the right time of year,  Canopus is above the horizon!      🙂  

I doubt whether an "Everbright" diagonal will need recoating unless damage in some way.  I believe that dielectric coatings are very difficult to remove and maybe even have to be polished off and requiring refiguring.     🙂 

As long as you can tighten the adapter, a small amount of decentring shouldn't upset collimation, tilt due to sag if the item did not tighten, would.  There may be a physical detail like a chamfer which centres the unit once tight.    🙂   

I have several SCT's including a 8se, the video image of the star is quite commonly seen in all of them due to either less than perfect seeing or insufficient cooling to ambient.  I would say that the Jupiter image shows little wrong with the overall performance.    🙂 

Sadly, the former.

JMI  (Jim's Mobile).  Sadly, Jim is no longer with us.    🤩

Whilst I'm in complete awe of the design and expertise of the engineering I have to say that my approach to the construction of binoscopes is at the other end of the spectrum.  Applying the "KISS" principle It takes me around 2 weeks to make a similar aperture model yet still retains simple IPD adjustment, focusing and almost instant  user collimation.  The main downside to all  these binoscopes of 150mm and upwards is the weight.       🙂

I've probably had more telescopes than Mike.  My problem is that I still have them!    🙂

I too, prefer not to permanently modify an original part if at all possible.  Unfortunately it would be the only solution to use the existing item.  Making a new component as you suggest would certainly be a way forward if you can find a suitable facility.  Another option would be to advertise for a spare focus tube and have the eyepiece threads turned out as per my original suggestion.    🙂

I would turn out the threads of the RAS thread fit to accept the 1.25" eyepiece fit.     🙂 

Managed to find mine at last!.  The Bresser model is the better one.      

Disclaimer.  It was my fault that Rusted got into PST modding, not him being banned from a forum.   😀

They do, if you want something larger than a toy telescope that's still affordable.    🙂

I've made several Plossl type eyepieces in the past.  I found that minimum separation provided by a spacer wide enough to prevent the inner convex surfaces from touching gives the best performance.  The resultant focal length is roughly half the focus of a single achromat.  The images are nice and bright with little distortion and good colour correction.  Downsides are medium APOV and excessive eye relief.     🙂

How high?

The more I use my "BRB' the more I like it.  The soft white outer casing has proved comfortable and warm to the hands during the current cold snap and can be peeled back to provide perfect IPD.  The material  is a bit of a dew magnet and I am on the lookout for one of the, nowadays rare, Izal models which I believe do not suffer from this problem.  I also have a longer focus "kitchen roll binocular" for Moon and planets.   🙂   

The Bog Roll Binocular.   Cheap, lightweight, perfect colour correction, simple collimation, steady image, spares readily available.  What's not to like?    🙂

Another conundrum is being British for 82 years and not being able to understand any of the above.     🙂