Ricochet

Given that you have frustrations with both the telescope and mount, I think replacing the whole setup sounds like a reasonable plan. Personally, I think the most important consideration is that you have to carry the whole setup in one go. If it is too big/heavy/awkward then you will find yourself finding excuses not to use it. Based on that, I think I would immediately discount the 150/eq3 option, and any other equatorial mounted system so that you do not have to carry counterweights.

To me, the stand out option from the ones listed is the 127 Mak on the AZ5 mount. In terms of size the 127 seems to be the goldilocks size for Maksutovs, with the 102 not quite having a large enough aperture and the 150 being too heavy. There have also been a  fair few pictures on this forum of a 127 Mak and a mount head packed into a rucksack, which would be a good option for you as you have to carry the telescope to your observing location. With regards to the mount you choose for your 127 Mak, the thing that is great about the AZ5 (or the AZGti if you want a goto option), is that it uses a standard 3/8" photographic connection, which means that it fits on any decent photographic tripod. Photographic tripods are generally designed to be transportable, which for you is ideal. The tripod supplied with the mount is reportedly not great, and doesn't appear to be particularly compact, so I would recommend replacing it with a tripod from Manfrotto, or some other good quality manufacturer. Luckily, photographic tripods are quite common and so there is usually a good supply of them in the second hand market if there ins't enough left in your budget for a new one.

FLO currently have the following two scopes on their offers page if your budget stretches to either. The Mak is more of a lunar/planetary scope and the short refractor is better at low power, wide field views (i.e. not lunar/planetary).

Nexstar 90 SLT

Startravel 102 GTe

1 hour ago, jonathan said:

A lot, thanks! 

Couldn't help reading 'Does this help?' in the deep voice Blackadder does in the episode 'Head' when he's pretending to be Farrow!! 

I'll have to look that up. I'm bad enough remembering the names of the actors, I don't know how you can remember the episode titles too. 

1 hour ago, jonathan said:

I think I need lots of pictures, instructional diagrams, and probably a video showing the exact procedure because at the moment my mind is in major confusion mode!  Just wish I was able to take it to my local astro society (of which I am a member), I know someone there would probably be able to show me in a few minutes.  Damn you, lockdown!!

Does this help?

15 hours ago, AlexK said:

if the EP glass got fogged/frosted at last by an accident

1. immediately wrap it loosely with your bare hands so 4 fingers are on its body (pinkies and rings) and the rest are above the lens forming a dome;
2. hold it for several sec with your fingers tight;
3. then loosen and open fingers above the glass a bit and form a funnel with narrow slits between fingers and larger opening between thumbs; 
4. now exhale away from the telescope and bring your mouth to the opening between thumbs; 
5. slowly inhale the air through the funnel, so it goes through openings between your fingers; 
6. exhale away from the telescope; repeat form # 4 ~3-5 times watching for the frost/fogging gone.

Thanks, I'll have to give that a try the next time I find an eyepiece dewing up. 

6 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Wouldn’t you like to win the lottery and call up FLO and say send me one of every scope you have. 😁😁😁

Two. One for each eye 😉

6 minutes ago, astrocanito said:

question: alone with the barlowed laser can you collimate turning the knobs at once and finish the process? without having to stand up and down, up and down, until see that the dougnut fits the barlow paper?

Yes. So long as the laser has an angled face then you can turn the face so that it faces the rear of the tube and watch the result as you adjust the primary. You may find that certain barlows work better for this than others as the different focal length will change how big the doughnut shadow is. 

With your Cheshire in the focuser, adjust the secondary so that the doughnut on the primary appears directly under the cross hairs of the Cheshire. 

Once that is done switch to the collimation cap and adjust the primary so that the dark spot of the hole in the collimation cap is inside the doughnut. 

These are the only two things that matter. Don't worry about anything else. 

Did you go for the A5 as linked in the original post? Is the 153cm height accurate or does it actually go higher? 

6 hours ago, HollyHound said:

Good to hear they work very well on dobs, I certainly will be trying with mine as soon as I can. I do have the extension which came with the dob, so can use that if needed... thanks for the heads up 👍

It is in travel that you will need rather than an extension. I am hoping that the newton gpc should allow focusing on hexafoc newtonians. Hoping, rather than knowing, due to the excellent covid supply chain issues. 

The higher the focal ratio, the better the binoviewers will perform. You should try to use a low power eyepiece with a barlow or gpc rather than no gpc and a high power eyepiece. The only reason to cut the tube would be if you want to have the option to reach the maximum field of view available from a 1.25" eyepiece with your telescope. 

Have you tried the barlowed laser method for your primary? Concenter for the secondary and then barlowed laser for the primary should give you a very accurate result, without the need to try to manhandle the laser into pointing at the centre of the doughnut. 

The biggest problem I find is the "window" dewing up. Once that happens you can't see anything at all. For some reason the Telrad seems particularly bad for this. 

I tried using Baader fluid on a spare mirror and found it left blue spots or streaks on the mirror when it dried. The cheaper method of soaking in fairy liquid and rinsing with RO water gives a much better result. 

25 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Funny you should ask that... I neglected to mention that I had already swapped out the wide (adjustable) eyecup for the narrower (fixed) eyecups that also come with the Hyperions... I have no problem at all getting these as close as I need for my eyes with plenty of space to spare. I could still use the adjustable ones too, but these give a bit more space and just more comfortable 👍

Thanks, I guess that's another two eyepieces I need then. 😂 

The thing that has always stopped me trying the Hyperion zooms is the wide looking eye cup. Have you tried any of the smaller eye cups when binoviewing? 

I had a 24mm/68° as the lowest power/widest field eyepiece in my dob for a while and found that it wasn't quite wide enough for my liking. Unfortunately, this means buying an eyepiece that needs a 2" barrel and the additional glass will push the price up significantly compared to a similar quality eyepiece in a 1.25" barrel.

A 24mm explore scientific 68° eyepiece will give you the widest field of view possible with your telescope and be well corrected at f5. However, this would replace the 25mm supplied with your telescope so you may wish to spend your money elsewhere first. At shorter focal lengths the 5, 8 and 12mm Starguiders would work well, or you could look at eyepieces from the ES82° or Nirvana lines if you want a wider apparent field of view. Vixen SLVs are optically excellent, but have the same apparent field of view as the eyepieces that came with your scope. 

An issue that you might have is that the RDF "window", being very small, is going to be highly prone to dewing. If it dews up this will prevent you from seeing fainter stars through it. You might find it needs a quick wipe sometimes before you try to aim at something (you shouldn't wipe mirrors or lenses, but a cheap RDF should be ok). 

If it looks like it might be clear I usually get my dob out early evening and then it is ready whenever I am ready to go out. The best time to go out could be determined by when something you want to look at is in a certain direction that has good sight lines from your location or perhaps even late night / early morning when street lights start being turned off. However, the best time to go out is whenever it is clear. If you wait for later there is always the risk that it clouds over. 

Baader also do an M43 adaptor to allow you to fit a camera to the their Hyperion/Morpheus eyepieces, as well as Pentax XWs and any other eyepiece with an M43 thread at the top. 

On 27/12/2020 at 14:33, David P Osborne said:

The foot arrangement with the ball head looks on paper as if could be useful

With the Manfrotto still out of stock everywhere I've bought a Moman A-222 monopod for testing as it has a similar ball-foot arrangement. The foot is too small for any sort of self-standing, particularly with a trigger grip head on top which shifts the centre of mass outside of the monopod footprint. However, with the foot in the "unlocked" position what you do seem to get is a more stable support than using a simple spiked monopod, and also very stable panning as the whole monopod rotates on the ball. Minor changes altitude are also easy just by leaning back or forward a bit so it really does make for a nice system for my 16x70 binoculars. Obviously, the Manfrotto will be much higher quality, but for under £20 the Moman seems well worth the money and a good upgrade over a normal monopod. 

The edge has additional corrective lenses in the rear baffle which give a sharper image. See the images below from https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/the-ultimate-guide-to-celestron-optical-tubes

If I was buying a C8, I'd buy the edge version. 

The dob should be perfectly fine with the weight of the Baader zoom, it's not actually that big compared to some eyepieces. You will definitely still want some long focal length eyepieces though for when you want a wide field of view. The one thing that I've found makes a massive difference in the speed in which eyepieces can be switched is the Baader clicklock system. Having upgraded both the 1.25" and 2" eyepiece clamps on my dob to clamps means I have no worries about changing from one eyepiece to another.

2 minutes ago, Nunfa1 said:

Thanks. I've got Sky Map on my phone, we starting using that for finding constellations last year. Will check out your other suggestions.

Is there a better alternative to a red dot finder?

I would probably stick with the red dot finder, or upgrade to a better one. The Rigel quickfinder might be a good option as it gives a couple of circles to help aim rather than a single dot. The other type of finder that I find useful is a 9x50 RACI finder, but this might be a little bit heavy on your scope and upset the balance. You can get lighter 6x30 versions but in my very limited experience of small finders, I've not found them much use over a simple red dot finder and so even on a 70mm scope I might be inclined to try a 9x50. With a RACI finder you will still need a red dot type finder for the initial alignment as any angled instrument is hard to aim.