Cornelius Varley

You probably do have one without realising it.

Either. It also measure nautical miles, angles and Smoots which is about 5' 7".

A very long one.

Yes.

Yes, if it wasn't for the cold winters, cold springs, wet summers and we were nearer the equator

The UK is about 260 miles across if you measure through the geographical centre which is somewhere in Leicestershire. Nowhere in the UK is more than about 75 miles from the sea.

Have you looked here

It might be better to get the mount checked out by an authorised Celestron dealer. There may have been a reason why the original board burnt out which was not evident when you plugged in the replacement and then caused the new board to also fail.

The specs are the same.

Definitely not discontinued, possibly just not available in Australia. The smallest astrophotography reflector appears to be the 150P-DS http://www.skywatcheraustralia.com.au/product/bkp150-otaw-dual-speed-d-150mm-f-750mm/

The EQ5 is Skywatchers version of the Vixen GP mount and Celestron call theirs CG5. The Phenix "TQ5/EQ5" is another clone of the Vixen mount.

At the best I think the mount could be described as a Chinese clone of the Vixen SP/GP mount.

In theory the EQ3-2 tripod should fit the new mount because this is a standard size used by the EQ3, 5 and HEQ5 mounts. If it doesn't fit then a tripod from an EQ5 or HEQ5 might not also fit.

Unfortunately the AZ-GOTO mount doesn't have the corresponding ST4 port for the autoguider to connect to. The way autoguiding works is a separate camera (guide camera) connected to a guide scope sends a continuous video feed back to some software on the computer which continually monitors any drifting of the guide star. The software then sends corrective commands back to the mount through the autoguider port on the camera. Equatorial goto mounts and some high end alt-az goto mounts have the autoguider port, but not the Skywatcher AZ-GOTO. Your best option is to use the camera for lunar and planetary imaging, which is what it is best at. You can try DSO imaging with the camera but you will be limited to what can be achieved by the size of the sensor and the limitations of the mount.

The point I was making is that a goto mount won't physically follow an object in the sky. The mount will slew to an area of the sky which it believes is the location of the target and when there will return back to normal sidereal rate tracking. Whether the target stays in the field of view and centred in the eyepiece or not is down to how accurately the mount is set up.To get true tracking of a star for imaging you need an autoguider which will continually monitor any drift and send corrective actions back to the mount.

No, they just jiggle around and hum.

The mount won't actually "track" a star, you need a mount with an autoguiding setup to do this. After the mount has slewed on to your chosen target the mount will then revert back to sidereal tracking. The mount doesn't have any idea if the target then starts to drift out of view.

Time to change the batteries I think. On the older style handset the LED would show green when tracking at sidereal rate and red when any the buttons are pushed and return to green when the button was released. A flashing LED usually indicates the battery voltage is dropping.

With the Synscan handset you drop the seconds component so the coordinates become 004 20 W , 57 40 N

Run the .mov file through PIPP and this will convert the file to .avi https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/

Yes, if you add a Synscan handset.

If your mount is equipped with the basic dual axis drives you will need to purchase the full Synscan goto upgrade kit.

Please ask your questions in the forum ( http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/186-getting-started-equipment-help-and-advice/) rather than in a personal blog. That way you will get more replies.

The minimum of 50 posts to access the classifieds was done to discourage traders buying up all the good stuff and then reselling it at a profit on a certain internet auction site.

please ask your questions in the forum rather than your own personal blog. That way you will get more answers