Eddster

Thanks, I'll try and get some pics this weekend.

So, one of the tube mounting rings bust off the mount. During my amateur repairs, I had to disassemble a little. I think a spring or some such popped out, never to be seen again. It's the Skywatcher EQ2 mount. Does anyone have any idea of the inner workings of the declination axis so I can work out how to fix it? The tube ring is fixed but the declination control rod won't work because of this (possibly) missing part. I'm going to replace the scope soon anyway, but don't want to pass it on without a working mount, but even worse, at the moment I can't use it!!!

Had a great late evening/night. Just turning in now. One of the tube hoops bust off my mount the other day, wrecking the base plate, so I've got a new one on order. In the meantime I re-drilled it and bodged a fitting so I could make the most of tonight's clear skies. It held up really well! Started off with M57. I've had better views but the pesky neighbours out back have removed their bedroom curtains and keep their lights on FOREVER, which killed it a bit. Still, for a 130 scope, I'm still pretty chuffed with this Skywatcher. With my 15mm eyepiece I could see the shape and the empty patch in the middle. It wasn't overly sharp, but it was visible. I then took in M13 which was a bit of a blob and then M92 which was just on the edge of being able to see some detail. Getting more cross with the neighbours by the minute I opted for an easy target and spent a good 30 minutes on Jupiter which was fabulous. Some clearly defined cloud belts and bright sharp moons. My 5mm eyepiece is a bit pants, so at the higher mag it could have been better. No matter! I spotted a fine meteor travelling North west that burned out iridescent light blue just passing to top of Böotes. That was spectacular! I then tried M101 and M102. I could locate them, just, with my binoculars but totally failed with the scope. The battery was dead on the finder, which is crap anyway, so that really didn't help. So then I packed up as its work tomorrow and guess what? After carrying all the gear inside and retuning to lock the door, I could see that the neighbours had just turned their lights off. Aaaaaaggghhh!!!! Have decided I need new neighbours and a new scope with a go-to mount, either 200mm or 250mm. Hope the rest of you had a good night!

Got all excited to tonight. I'm lucky enough to have dark skies (apart from an **** neighbour who has no curtains and their lights on 24/7 in an upstairs bedroom, but thankfully to the South). Got it with the naked eye. Got it in binoculars. Went to get the scope out and...one of the mounting hoops has broken off the stand!!!! 😭 (See pics) As I only spent £45 on this seriously great scope (Skywatcher 130), I risked it with one hoop. It wobbled a bit locating Neowise but wow, it did NOT disappoint!!!! Just breathtaking with my 30mm & 25mm plössls. So happy. Wishing you all luck spotting this beaut!! Attached also is a pointless wobbly pic taken with my phone at the eyepiece. It's green.