Peter Drew

Confined to home now but I have a 60mm Coronado Solarmax etalon and BF10 blocking filter fitted to a Skywatcher ST80 achromat. Much better than nothing but a bit of a climb down from the 150mm setup I've been used to! 😀

@merlin100. I didn't mean to appear flippant but the truth of the matter is that telescopes designed specifically for AP are better for AP than telescopes designed specifically for visual and vice versa. Every compromise in between is the dilemma faced by most potential purchasers. 😀

You have answered the main question already. Which one is most suitable depends on the prime use envisaged for the instrument. 😀

Looks good enough to me. Other issues such as seeing conditions and cooling to ambient temperature of the optics will have far more effect on performance than collimation being a few % short of perfection. 😀

Excellent image, belies the aperture used!. There may well be a run on 127 Maks after the current crisis passes. 🙂

It's interesting to see the different issues that those new to the subject come up with initially. Not seeing the red dot in the telescope is a new one on me and not one I'd ever thought about, I can see how it could be confusing. On a similar tack, yesterday I had an email from a local amateur to ask what it was that appeared to be eclipsing Venus as there was a big bite out of it as seen in the telescope. 🙂

Putting some cuts into the fabric seems worth a try to reduce wind pressure. Be careful though, the wind might cause it to "blow raspberries". Or worse!

Yes, as usual it's a case of YMMV. Celestron, like many manufacturers, will do their best to maximise their range at minimum cost, that the SE mount was good enough to carry the 8" OTA adequately to suit most purchasers who would not have bought it for astrophotography in the first instance. They have other models specifically for that, at higher cost. My 8 SE, albeit based in Tenerife, has given me some of the best lunar and planetary images I've seen with any telescope in the UK at magnifications up to 600x, I would be loathe to lose that level of performance by reducing to a 6". Once the telescope is focused, the tricky part, there is no need to keep touching it, it drives well and corrections are made with the handset. Not trying to sell you one, just relating my experience. 😇

There may be some confusion between faint mottling of the solar surface and the resolution of individual solar cells. On occasions I have seen a white light disc appearance of a cover of fine sand at around 75x, more obvious towards the limb, the whole impression moves if the telescope is tapped. I'm not confusing this with faculae which are much easier to see. Looking at high resolution white light images on solar forums it's obvious that considerable magnification is needed to clearly show the solar cells. 🙂

I've had the 8 SE for several years. The weight is at the limit for the mount, no doubt about that but I have managed for visual and video use with little problem even at high magnifications. You just need to be gentle with it and this takes practice. For me, the extra performance over the smaller versions outweighs slight compromises. 😀

Hello Ed. I certainly do remember meeting you at Kelling. It was such a pleasure as I had only known you through SGL up and until then. Good to know you are still keen and active. 🙂

I would leave it as is. I don't think the performance difference would justify the effort, however in these troubled times when something to do is at a premium it could be an interesting experiment, specially as you have the components to hand.. I was under the impression that central obstruction could be an aid to close double star splitting, the obstruction reducing the size of the Airy disc making the centres of the double more obvious, specially on equal bright pairs. 🙂

Good question! I have the 8 SE so not really comparable. 🙂

The Nexstar5 SE. 🙂

+1 for the Celestron NexYZ. We have two and they are brilliant. 😀

Ah, 20x80's, these are going to be difficult to hold steady enough to get your eyes in the best position. If/when you mount them it will become easier. 🙂

Try varying the clearance between your eyes and the eyepieces, you should be able to find an optimum position. If the eyepieces have twist up/down facility this helps to keep your eyes in the right place. 🙂

Sounds like the infamous "kidney bean" effect, usually caused by not having your eyes accurately on the exit pupils. Takes a bit of practice to get it right and some eyepieces are more prone than others. 😀

Here they come! 😀

Not all stainless steel is non magnetic, it all depends on the "mix". Slightly magnetic steels are rust resistant. 🙂

I used to buy the 7x35 "Sport Special" version of these to make 5" binocular telescopes in the 1980's. They used the same large prism assemblies and wide angle eyepieces providing up to 5.5" centres on the objectives. The binoculars were quite expensive in their day, you should have seen the look on the shop assistant's face when I bought two and he asked me if I was interested in taking out an insurance policy. My reply was that it wasn't necessary as I was going to cut them in half when I got home. 😀

I have a couple of 16" LX200's, one de- forked and fitted to a professional class mount and the other on the usual factory fork system. I used the latter for DSO video imaging quite a lot in the past with exposures between 10 and 60 seconds at F3.3 without problems. I thought the 16" had a periodic error correction facility?. To be frank, although I've found the telescope to be excellent I don't think the mechanics and particularly the electronics to be up to the same standard. 🙂

Sounds like the common gradual transmission failure of the 10mm ITF. This is apparently caused by the ingress of damp. The problem usual starts from the outer edge and works inwards. As you say, it dims the image but it is still usable safely. There is a drop in replacement available from Maier Optronics . 🙂

I bet that would surprise the average vet.

The eye lens hardens and changes shape as you get older. If you are lucky, as you seem to have been, it can correct some vision problems. 🙂