Louis D

If the ZWO camera doesn't have it's own lens, I don't know that the Delos will project a flat enough field onto its imaging chip to get a well focused image across it.  I assume you're trying eyepiece projection rather than afocal projection, which is what you get holding a cellphone camera up to an eyepiece.  The camera's lens in that case takes care of flattening the field for you.  You'll need to find some sort of adapter to attach them since there's no thread on the top of the Delos unlike the M43 threads on top of Pentax XWs and Morpheuses.

5 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Americans use aluminium alloys for almost everything.

Probably because it's easier and faster to mill than steel, and you end up with a lighter product.

As @ronl suggests, the diagonal might be damaged.  It's easy enough to verify by putting an eyepiece directly in the focuser draw tube and looking straight through.  You'll need about an extra 60mm of out-focus (extension) to reach focus without it in the optical path, so you may end up having the hand hold the eyepiece behind the fully extended draw tube to reach focus.

2 hours ago, FLO said:

Interestingly, when it comes to machined astronomy hardware, the reverse is true. I.e. American-made ADM accessories are plain and functional when viewed alongside similar European products. European-made equivalents tend to have bright anodising and rounded edges.

This is probably true.  For example, anyone who remembers Van Slyke Instruments can attest to his very functional looking, but exquisitely engineered products.

1 hour ago, Second Time Around said:

Yes, you can screw the eyecap off with the Baader, Louis, although I use it with a Dioptrx.

I've now tried the Celestron and, although it was wasn't far behind the Baader, it had 2 disadvantages besides the FOV being smaller.  Firstly, as already mentioned, it didn't have a filter thread.  I realised that without that I couldn't use my 2.25x Baader Barlow as this screws into the filter thread.  Secondly, it's nowhere near as parfocal as the Baader, which would make it not so good with a binoviewer (that I wanted to use it for in the future), as both eyepieces would need refocusing.

For these reasons I've had to return it.  The seller, Northern Optics, was very fast at refunding me and I can thoroughly recommend them.

That said, I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality for the price. 

P.S. Thanks again to John and Louis.

Sorry it didn't work out.  From my frame of reference having used the Speers-Waler 5-8mm zoom for years, the Celestron Regal seems almost perfectly parfocal in comparison.  If a BHZ ever comes up for under $200, I might look at getting one for comparison sake.

4 hours ago, FLO said:

I wonder if they are a little too 'American' for the UK market.

???? 🤔

I'm not sure as an American if I should take offense at this or be flattered.  It's not like it's the size of a house and flying an American flag held up by Barbie.

I sometimes put my TV PBI in my 2" GSO ED 2X Barlow for the night in my Dob to double my focal length for all my eyepieces.  Do not try to use a 2", non-telecentric Barlow with near maximum field 2" eyepieces.  They will have edge cutoff, not vignetting.  It's like there's a new field stop inboard of the physical field stop.  The discontinued TV PBI (Panoptic Barlow Interface) works well with either the TV Big Barlow or the 2" GSO ED Barlow (nearly the same focal lengths) to convert them into telecentric magnifiers like the TV Powermates.

With no budget, how about a Celestron NexStar Evolution 8 EdgeHD with StarSense?  A beginner here in Texas brought his to a star party a couple years back and he seemed really pleased with it.  The views were quite nice as well.  It was super easy to setup, align, and control from a tablet.

12 hours ago, iapa said:

If you wanted to image a large target, say, the Andromeda galaxy, you would not be able to fit all of it into the field of view os the 200P-DS, but a refractor, say, 72-80mm should allow you to capture the full galaxy.

Not quite 200mm aperture, but the Takahashi Epsilon 180 ED f/2.8 Newtonian Astrograph Reflector should be able to capture M31 with its 500mm focal length.

With a 2000mm focal length, you'd be pushing the magnification to very high levels with a ~9mm eyepieces (2000/9=222x).  Sky conditions may not often allow for that level of magnification.  I would recommend staying between 75x and 150x for now.  You've got the lower end covered with the 25mm Plossl for now, so I'd look into getting a 12mm to 14mm eyepiece for the upper end.  The 12mm Astro-Tech Paradigm is pretty decent for $60, especially in an f/10 scope.

1 hour ago, iapa said:

So, as an example the focus point to the 200P is somewhere inside the focus tube to bring focus to the eye piece which fits inside.

A DSLR had a fixed distance between the sensor and the front of the body. Around 55mm, that means that the sensor is some distance from the focal point.

On the '-DS' models, what they did was move the primary mirror further forward (closer to the secondary mirror) which brings the focal point further away from the secondary, effectively a point outside the focus tube.

This allows use of adapters for cameras, to allow a "nose piece" to be added (fits in the focus tube).

With a GSO/Revelation coma corrector, I am able to reach focus on my Dob with a DSLR despite most eyepieces coming to focus with about 20mm of in-travel to spare.  That's how I took the attached photo.

5 hours ago, JoshHopk said:

Hi Richard,

If you're wanting to do deep sky AP, a HEQ5 is usually considered a minimum, as previous replies have mentioned. The 200P is quite large and will be a bit of a sail in the wind, (not good for long exposures). The 150P-DS was designed with AP in mind, and it'll be easier to focus using a DSLR, and even a dedicated astro cam, if ever you get one. Both scopes are f/5, so the 200P's larger aperture won't make a difference, so long as you use longer exposure times.

Josh

Would the Sky-Watcher Quattro f4 Imaging Newtonian work better due to it's shorter focal and tube length, dual speed focuser, and photography dedication, than the 200p at f/5?

5 hours ago, The-MathMog said:

astronomical darkness ending in less than 2 weeks tops (the downside of living at a latitude of 57 degrees..)

That's wild.  I live over 25 degrees south of that, so we have plenty of astronomical darkness even in the summer.  It would be about the same as being in Cairo, Egypt on your side of the pond.

You can always create an aperture mask to mask off the edge to see if there is any change in the view.

2 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

How did black holes get in here?

Because @Nicola Hannah Butterfield proved me wrong that Venus can never be seen at midnight under the right circumstances.  I was only thinking of my own circumstances in Texas where that can never happen.  I then wanted to head off someone else trying to disprove my supposition that Venus would never be visible on the meridian at midnight from anywhere on earth by claiming that if space-time were bent sufficiently, it could be visible there.  Sorry for adding to the confusion.

3 hours ago, doubledoubleswifty said:

Is there a reason why Venus is normally found in the Western sky?

Because it's just as often in the eastern sky before sunrise, but many fewer people are up and about that early to notice it compared to its evening appearances.

4 hours ago, miguel87 said:

My OCD would be going crazy, I cant have more than 5 or 6. And if I had more than one of the same focal length I would have to chose the best one and sell the rest.

I'm an OCD hoarder, so everything is organized by type in dedicated cases.  I think 7 at last count.

3 hours ago, merlin100 said:

That's just his everyday use collection!🤣

Not quite, but I do tend to get out different eyepieces and telescopes on successive nights to "spice" things up.

3 hours ago, Timebandit said:

Louis that is one "Big" eyepiece collection. Do you think you may have one or two eyepiece's to many 😀

Quite the contrary.  I've gotten several more since these photos were taken and at least one more is on the way.  You should see my still and video camera and lens collection stored away in 10 or 15 Tamrac cases and assorted boxes.  When I die, my wife and kids won't know what to make of any of it.

Here's my mismatched collection as of last fall.  Zooms are repeated at each tested focal length.  Someday I'll have to figure out how to get them all in one group shot.

I have no experience with Orthos below 25mm due to their limited eye relief for eyeglass users having strong astigmatism.  However, the 18mm BST Starguider is rather weak toward the edges.  I suppose it's fine in the center, yielding as much sharp area as a good plossl, but it is not as well corrected across the field as the 8mm BST, so it's best to temper your expectations.  It is better corrected at f/6 than a traditional Konig design as you can see below.

I have no idea why the 5mm BST gets no love.  It views very close to my 5.2mm Pentax XL and 5-8mm SW Zoom at 5mm, just narrower and with a bit less contrast.  There's very little center to edge sharpness difference between them and the 4.5mm HD-60 as seen below in my test images taken at f/6 through an AT72ED.

5 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

If you get OCD over diagonals try not using one.  Perfection.    🙂

I've read that diehard Japanese observers regularly eschew diagonals in search of the best possible view regardless of ergonomics.

Is this a common problem with the Baader Clicklock?  Up until now, I've only read glowing praise of the BC.

That tube is exceptionally long for a 10" scope (close to 6 feet).  If your hatchback has rear and passenger fold-down seats, it might fit front to back on that side.  The tube appears to just lift off the rocker box.  That could ride behind the driver.