Louis D

What objects are you trying to image?

Plus, this might be better asked in an imaging forum.

Certainly worth a lot more than they were a year and a half ago.  Check the classifieds for your region to get some idea of what others have been asking.  Here in the US, it's been about 85% of 2019 MSRP lately for desirable items.

If you're careful with a green laser pointer, you could swing the telescope onto the target while sighting it through the bins.  I've been at star parties where one person puts a scope on a target and lights up the point in the sky with a laser that other scope owners can then align onto since there's little to no parallax.

4 hours ago, toofaruphill said:

I live in  warm sunny   England!

In a rather small house. I d be quite happy to keep it inside and peer  through its around  its tripod  to watch television , but my indoor boss wont!

I keep my tripod fully retracted and closed.  It sits in the front corner of the hall closet by the door hinges.  Coats keep it from teetering over.

The refractor sits in a case at the back of the closet behind the coats, again not taking up much space.

How big is your refractor and mount?  Do you have no closets whatsoever?  Perhaps it's time to declutter them if they're stuffed to the gills.

2 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

I use IPA and Kimiwipes for the cleaning.

I've never heard of using beer (India Pale Ale) to clean sensors.  At least you'll have something to drink when you're done. 😉

5 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

By all means leave the mount set up, but I can't think of anywhere worse than a cold, dark, damp-aired observatory, where a dewed objective lens has no opportunity to thoroughly dry out - especially if the refractor is capped while dewed. Even when not dewed, an observatory is not a good environment to leave a refractor, unless there's a dehumidifier running, and even then I'd still be uncomfortable about it. 

Unless you're in a desert, then moisture issues are all but nonexistent.  I've been looking at a second home near Mayhill, New Mexico where lots of folks have observatories.

Makes me glad my secondary is mounted on a separate screw that adjusts for height, leaving the tilt adjusters free to do only that job.

1 hour ago, Alien 13 said:

The two things that fungus doesn't like is fresh air and light so never pack any optics away in a box or similar..

Alan

If there's enough moisture, fungus doesn't care.  I've had mushrooms grow in my yard during the summer after heavy rains despite 100 degree F temps, full Texas sun, and lots of fresh air via breezes.  That's why I keep all my optics in my cooled and heated house.  Despite being stored in cases, I've never had fungus issues with any of my astro or photographic gear for over 30 years doing this.

My garage also has no fungus issues because it's surrounded on three sides by temperature controlled rooms and has plenty of ventilation via the large door gaps.  My shed, though, is another story.  It sits at the low point of my lot in the shade and has moisture issues.  To do it all over again, I'd raise it a foot off the ground, put a vapor barrier under the floor, and add lots of ventilation.

Keep a small warming element under the scope with a cover over it to keep it above the dew point.  A 40W oven bulb would work.

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks, scope was returned to the retailer some time ago.

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you.

What have you replaced it with?

On 01/01/2021 at 04:23, tooth_dr said:

Does anyone know which screw to adjust to tighten the focuser?

There's one screw that bears on the pinion and one that bears directly on the tube.  I would adjust each to discover what combination of tension on each works best for your situation.

Unless this is going into an observatory or your wife is an accomplished weight lifter, I would advise against such a heavy telescope starting out.

For the moon and planets, a 127 Mak on an alt-az mount will more than suffice.  Just give it 30 minutes to an hour to acclimate outdoors before using it.  There are two main flavors of them.  There are the more plentiful Synta versions which are actually 118mm of clear aperture, 1500mm focal length, and sold under Orion, Celestron, and Sky-Watcher brands.  I have two of them, and they work terrifically well even though both were bought used.  Then there are the JOC versions which are a true 127mm of clear aperture, 1900mm focal length, and sold under the Explore Scientific and Bresser brands.  I have no experience with them, but they also get rave reviews.

For either one, I highly recommend purchasing a 50mm RACI (Right Angle Correct Image) finder to help put the scope on target because their field of view is so narrow thanks to their long focal lengths.

Don't forget that the Chinese government also designates certain products and sectors to be strategic and receive generous (often indirect via governmental purchasing) subsidies, such as metals production and solar panel production.  There are always disputes being filed in the WTO courts about this.  I doubt amateur telescopes fall into this category, but if these same manufacturers receive generous government orders for optics, it can help cover low margin consumer production.

China also has very lax labor, consumer protection, and environmental laws as well that help to keep costs down.  Remember the whole tainted Chinese baby formula episode a while back?  The US has also seen tainted dog treats coming from China.  They're at a similar industrial laws point that the US was at around 1900.

I think the only US retailer still selling any variant of the 55 degree LER line of eyepieces from Long Perng is Orion USA with their Orion Edge-On Planetary.  Formerly, there were also the Astro-Tech LER, Smart Astronomy LER, Zhumell Z Series Planetary, and William Optics SPL (and possibly others I've forgotten).  I think the Paradigm/Starguiders, Meade HD-60s, and Celestron X-Cel LXs pretty much ate their lunch, so to speak.  Of course, the HD-60s are now discontinued themselves.

It always costs more to build a car from new parts than buying a complete one from the factory.

The 24mm version doesn't perform as well as the 30mm version.  It's good, but not spectacular.

The Altair version is heavier because it uses a stainless steel barrel (lower only?) instead of aluminum as with the APM.

Check for used photo tripods with removable heads and a 3/8" mounting stud.  You don't need to buy a brand new and shiny tripod.  A beat-up one will generally work just as well.

There are also a bunch of slightly up-market Chinese photo tripods that would probably work at a lower cost.  I have no experience with them, so I can't make any recommendations about them.

I think any tripod with a 3/8" screw will work.  A Manfrotto 055 or equivalent would work fine with it.

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

What would jooz part sound like?

Sort of like Jews.

I only ever use the 2" combination mentioned above so I can use my 2" collection at higher powers for funsies.

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

That was very satisfying.  Hard to explain why.  I watched the whole thing.  

Probably not applicable to eyepieces or telescopes, but my patio does need cleaning...........

There are two whole sub-reddits devoted to power/pressure washer porn if you need more fixes.

3 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I've had this argument for years. I never use it on towels, and mine are scratchy but very absorbent. My mother used to use so much that the water would bead on her towels. Lovely and soft, though.

Try washing your towels with a scoop of OxiClean or its UK equivalent.  I've found it helps to remove that last bit of crud that was leaving my towels crunchy when coming out of the dryer.

I can't comment on the merits of the 1.25" GSO 3x, but their 2" 2x ED Barlow is quite good, especially when paired with a TV Panoptic Barlow Interface.

The two best traditional Barlows I own are the Orion long Deluxe Barlows made in Japan in the 90s.  Both the 2" and 1.25" are about 6 inches long.  The 2", though, does cause heavy field cutoff with long focal length 2" eyepieces because it' not telecentric.  However, the central area is slightly sharper than the above telecentric combination.  I've compared them against the TV 1.25" 2x, Meade 140 2x, and Parks Gold Series (Celestron Ultima) Barlows as well, and these two provide slightly sharper magnification of stars in each case.  It's not a huge difference, but it's there.  Of course, their long lengths limit their usefulness in scopes that use diagonals.

I would just use a sheet of closed cell foam normally used for packing and insulating.  They're light, nonabsorbent, and insulating.  That's what I wrapped my hose bibs in during our record freeze in February and had no burst pipe issues.

9 hours ago, amaury said:

What about the Baader Scopos? lookk pretty solid edge to edge in your comparison. A quick google search tells me now they are called the Hyperion Aspheric and they are really well priced.

The Baader Scopos Extremes were an entirely different design from the Baader Hyperion Aspherics.  They were larger, heavier, and better corrected.  I would stick with the Aero EDs due to them being about as well corrected as the Hyperions while being smaller,  lighter, and cheaper.