Bruce Leeroy

Amazing meteor whilst viewing  Neowise @ about 01:10 tonight.

I say amazing, I didn't see it naked eye I was testing my 7X35 binos and it appeared infront of my view and I managed to track it well 👍😀

You should be able to draw the eyepiece out by hand to see if you need a further extension, if you have a barlow lens you can normaly remove the lens element and use the body to provide a further extension.

If you can gain focus on some roof/tree close by then your close to focusing to infinity.

Try a lower exposure setting, if your camcorder has an effects setting where you can select mono try that, the moon is a good target especially if you have a HDMI out port and TV close by.

Similar scene round my parts last night had me walking down the street looking for a fire at about 1:00am, the fog dissapeared as quick as it rolled in.

Be careful on setup that your binos don't suddenly drop when your messing about with the counterweight, as said above a shrunk wrapped 4 pack of tomato sauce is about the same weight as my 20x80s, I pierced a hole top and bottom of the shrink wrapping then used 2 small clamps to stop the counterweight sliding.🤓

I can get 7 foot easily but you have to have the pole in the correct way round, this is due to the stop on the tripod head.

I have a vintage Velbon ball head on it atm but it's only just about useable, I only knoceked this up last week and have only used it in anger once.

27 minutes ago, col said:

How did you attatch the pole to the tripod head?

I used heavy duty cable ties and some padding under the pole, I had to add in an extra tie with a rubber type of material to stop the binos slipping/rotating as I moved upto zenith, I think a wooden square pole would work better than the rounded manfrotto pole.

*To add the whole assembly is very light and the poles retract so when the tripod is folded it takes up little space the disadvantage of the alt az is the elevation, 1 side favours sitting the other side favours standing due to the alt saddle.

Inspired by this google find I tried my 20x80s using a manfrotto pole, works well but I need a better ball head and an alternative to my 4x cans of tomato sauce counterweight....I attached the pole to a spare alt az tripod I had knocking around and works well while reclined on a sun lounger. My only concern is the flexure on the pole is quite noticeable. You could also as pointed out in the weblink use a different pair of binoculars as the counterweight then you'd have 2 binos on one pole.

https://garyseronik.com/build-this-simple-binocular-mount/

Roofing felt either torch on or nail on? The torch on would add a fair amount of weight if that's an issue.

Ah ok, you could have possibly used 1 as an extension tube for now.

Did the scope come with a barlow lens?

52 minutes ago, Kluson said:

is there a way to make the focusing on the Celestron 6SE a little less coarse..

I'm sure some people use an ordinary clothes peg pegged onto the focuser knob. Put it at right angles to the knob when your close to focus then use the peg as a lever, the longer the better.

I'm no expert with these controllers but would it be worth downloading nexremote? With this you can load different firmwares and test the responses without actually updating the firmware on the physical handset. You'd need to have the serial cable attached between pc-handset.

https://www.celestron.com/pages/nexremote

1 hour ago, Nikodn said:

Will this affect anything

Probably, test it out in the middle of the day on a brick wall and count the rows of bricks with and without the filter, I guess you would change the focal length by projecting the eyepiece further out and thats not to say it's a detrimental/bad thing, make sure the filter isn't touching the mirror/prism.

40 minutes ago, stargazermanc said:

Do people find that there is a large amount of travel in focus between eyepieces and the cam?

The use of a barlow should reduce the amount of travel needed. If you can remove the barlow lens from the barlow body you might be able to screw it onto the nose piece of the camera.

If he has a barlow lens with removeable lens he could use the body of the barlow as an extesion tube. I've been known to stack 2-3 barlows like this to achieve focus.

22 minutes ago, stargazermanc said:

I think I will just give it a try tonight and see what happens.

You should try during daylight/twilight hours, if you can gain focus on a roof or tree close by you shouldn't be far off from focusing to infinity later on, keep gain low/off and have the exposure somewhere in the middle range or lower if testing during daylight hours....you may need an extension tube or conversely you may need more inward focusing travel, if you have a 2-3x barlow with a removeable lens you can use that as an extension tube. If it seems you need more inward travel then you might gain focus using the barlow with the lens attached. You might also be able to attch the barlow lens directly to the spc's camera nose piece for less magnifacation. Good luck.

26 minutes ago, Whytey said:

so I have today ordered a 2" extension hoping to resolve this.

Providing you have a barlow with a removeable lens you can use it to extend your camera sensor distance.

I had a camcorder attached to my 150/600 refractor at that time hooked up to a 50" plasma tv (unfortunately not recording) and I think I spotted the same thing, I thought it was a bird but not 100% on that, it definately had shape to it.

If you get a phone holder you should try to do a panorama shot. You need the phone orientated to the drift of the moon for success.🤓

If you have a barlow lens it may be possible to unscrew the lens element and use the barlow body as an extension tube for the time being.

Regarding the existing finder you should be able to push fit a 0.9 inch mirror diaganol straight into it if it's the same as mine. I seem to remember having to reduce the length of the barrel a little to gain focus.

The mirror slides up/down on 2 rails sometimes not so smoothly, try a little wiggle and gentle force on the knob as you turn it, sounds like the mirror moving mechanism is sticking.

1 hour ago, KevS said:

Does anybody have a link? At $45 falls into my sort of price bracket.

There's a link under 1 of the YT videos, the link takes me to a 2mp camera!