Louis D

I was wondering the same thing. I have about a 20 degree slice of the southern sky from 20 degrees above the horizon up to zenith visible from my back patio.

My 6" f/5 GSO Newtonian also shows plenty of detail on the planets. My 127mm Mak also does, but with longer cool down time. Even my 90mm APO shows Saturn's rings and Jupiter's bands quite clearly. Something's amiss with your 130mm Newt. Perhaps it's mirror is not properly figured?

Look for a Scopetronix Maxview DSLR. It can easily accommodate your 5mm eyepiece. That ebay offer might be the only new old stock one in the world.

Dang, I hope you got a really good price on them. I've got a single coated 26mm Sirius Plossl from the 1990s that has some sort of coating hazing going on, but no scratches. It doesn't seem to affect the view through it all that much, but it's still annoying the seller didn't disclose it.

Thos eyepiece projection adapters haven't changed in 40 years. They were intended to be used with the Kellners and Orthos of the day. That being said, why would you want to push your SCT with the equivalent of using a 2.5mm eyepiece? It already has a ~2000mm focal length natively. Going to projection with a 2.5mm eyepiece is going to massively increase the image scale. The f-ratio is going to drop from f/10 to f/400. That's insanely slow with a 0.25mm exit pupil. Why not just try using the DSLR natively on the scope with a 1.25" or 2" (depending on your visual back size) to T-thread adapter? Guiding a 2000mm focal length scope is difficult enough. From there, you could progress to high powers with the Barlow alone if you think you still need more magnification. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your use case. What do you plan to image/photograph?

Actually, they're just overexposed. They don't appear to be particularly "bad" other than that. Try adjusting the exposure compensation feature on your phone's camera toward the minus sign or dark sun or simply to the left on the slider, so less light is collected for each exposure. To access it, bring up the camera tools (perhaps a gear or similar icon) and look for a sunburst-like icon, IIRC. Another option is to tap on the bright part of the moon on the screen to force focus and exposure to be centered on that region of the image. However, this approach is difficult to do without a holder, but you can try it.

So, a more compact version of all those telephoto lens attachments for smartphones already out there?

Pick up a Svbony 3-8mm zoom and try the different magnifications yourself to see if you are missing any "in between" fixed focal lengths.

Can you be specific on the range of topics you would consider appropriate for this thread's discussions to help clear the air, so to speak? Your opening post seems very wide open and nonspecific; thus, the wide ranging discussions that seem to have repeatedly offended at least one member as being off topic for this thread.

I guess the question then is, is this astro-cam more for observing or imaging? If for observing, then noise and image quality don't really matter much at all just so long as the image provided satisfies the observer. After all, look at how noisy night vision devices are. The image positively sparkles. If for imaging, then noise levels are a legitimate point of discussion along with many other image attributes.

Once I looked at the image on my cheap 27" 4K TN screen for work, I understood what you meant. Its low dynamic range and low color gamut completely masks the dark chroma noise. However, I first looked at it on my NEC 2690WUXI2 H-IPS screen I use for photo editing. Its wide color gamut, high dynamic range (1000:1) showed it plain as day. I guess it makes a big difference what sort of monitor you're using when viewing images even online.

If the market takes off beyond astro enthusiasts, such as with home schoolers, then they probably will. If they don't find a broader market, then they will die off or become expensive niche items. Only time will tell.

NoiseWare Community Edition It was never state of the art, but this version was cheap (free). I used the Landscape preset since it blurred fine details the least. This got rid of most of the chroma noise everywhere, but the sky background was now milky instead of multicolored. After that, I used Photoshop Elements 2.0 (packaged with a scanner way back when and still available for under $20 on ebay with activation serial number) to first select the entire image (ctrl-A). Next, I repeatedly used the magic selection tool with tolerance factors of 10 to 50 to select the brighter areas for exclusion. I used the non-contiguous option to get everything brighter excluded. Lastly, I used levels to push down the now selected dark background to pure black. It might not look perfectly realistic, but it got rid of the the distracting chroma/milky flocculence in the background. I'll be watching to see where this astro-cam market goes. The first digital microscopes for kids were fairly expensive years ago, but are pretty cheap today.

I hope you don't mind, but I ran the image through 20+ year old noise reduction software I was talking about to smooth out the chroma noise a bit. I then did some selective levels adjustments in a 20+ year old version of PS Elements to suppress the false background cirrus. I think the problem is that this astro-cam is using a tiny imaging chip prone to noise just like the P&S digital cameras from 20 years ago.

Just make sure to avoid allowing liquid to wick around the edge of the lens and go under it. You want your cloth/buds to be damp, not soggy.

I'd try unscrewing the insertion barrel while the eyepiece is upside-down to make it easier to get to the field lens. Just don't flip the eyepiece over since that barrel might be holding the lenses in place inside the upper barrel.

Does anyone put shock absorbing material between their mount and their pier to quell vibration ringing when you touch your scope to focus it, or does everyone focus pier mounted scopes hands-off with motors?

For vibration suppression pads, I bought 90s era pure Sorbothane insoles off of ebay and cut sections to slip under each tripod foot. They cut vibration times with my rig from 3 seconds to 1/2 second, so I consider that a major improvement, but YMMV.

This astro-cam's noise level reminds me of the noise levels in circa-2005 digital cameras. Post processing with noise reduction software was commonplace. Today's digital cameras are doing something under the covers to minimize such noise to an almost imperceivably low level without noticeably compromising detail. I assume it's some sort of digital signal processing within the post-capture electronics/software.

What's with all the flocculence in the background sky? Is it sensitive enough to pick up some sort of Integrated Flux Nebula that I've never seen in other M51 images?

You'd need to take a photo of an evenly illuminated field in the daytime with that combo and then use photo editing software to sample pixel brightness across the field to accurately determine the amount of vignetting. I've done this with the Meade 5000 SWA 40mm in my 127 Mak which has only 27mm of clear aperture at the rear port:

Most scammers prefer Zelle, Venmo, or Cash App because there are no fraud protections. Luckily for you, your seller seems like a stupid scammer that hasn't really thought this through and chose PayPal.

Perhaps one of those damp towels used for cooling might work, just over the head instead of around the neck: Personally, I've been trying to work out a sunshade around the scope itself so air can still freely move across my body to try to stay cooler. Perhaps one of those pop-up half-tent beach cabanas with roll-up windows for the scope's tube to poke out of might work:

I have had an eyepatch for decades, but rarely use it. I think my problem was fitting it under my eyeglasses since I need to wear them at the eyepiece due to strong eye astigmatism.

That's the idea behind Orion's AstroGoggles. You start wearing them early, during twilight setup, to cut dark adaptation time. They've been selling them for decades. I have no idea if they actually help or not. They would just make my face sweat during our hot and humid summers.