JOC

Because its not precisely true imaging qulity tracking it will, in the finish, drift, but I reckon you can easily keep things reasonably on target for a good 20 mins or so, before needing to re-centre. Hope you have fun with it.

There is a place for it in the handset, and yes, I generally enter what the synscan init 2.0 says, so yes, I would be inclined to enter 150m.

I have a Y shaped adapter for my telescope and on one branch I put an optical RACI and on the other a cheap RDF with this combo I can have the telescope on anything I can by eye in <30 seconds. That's what I did - have fun!!

It might be worth during the daytime, in the opposite direction to the sun trying to focus on a distant object. Don't worry about what way up, or side to side it might be, just fiddle with the focus wheel (with an Eyepiece in place with the highest number you have written on it) until the object you are looking at become clear. If excessive fiddling with the focus wheel doesn't change the view check to see if you might have a locking screw tightened in somewhere in the vicinity of the twiddly focus knobs. It might need loosening.

Err........You do realise, don't you, that the focus will need adjusting every time the scope is used, with every eyepiece change and sometimes with things like the moon even across the objects being viewed themselves?

I think I'd suggest trying to take a decent picture of the moon (I don't know if it's decent, but I took the one in my avatar). You will find the hardest thing is achieving sharp focus. You can use a Bahtnitov mask on the telescope, I've got one, but have never tried it - plenty about them online. I find that I am better off hitting the LCD display zoom in and watching that (but you don't get forever to do so before you need to click it again). If you want to take night sky photos I've found it's almost more satisfying to dispense with the telescope and just to put the camera and wide angle lens (with the lowest F stop you've got) on a tripod, add an electronic cable release and wander outside (you can get a Bahtinov mask for your camera too). You might want the zoom in feature again and focus is often just before the maximum twist. Then go and see if you can get in a whole constellation or star area. You can get free stacking software and it's a revelation to take say 20-30 shots of a few seconds and then ask the computer to stack them - all of a sudden loads of new stars that you can't see suddenly appear. There is lots of help on SGL if you want to give it a try, but it does add a little interest to every day oberving and you can share the pictures with the folks that have stayed inside the house. I've asked for help several times In this thread below I got some help on a picture of the moon - a-focally

I like 2nd hand too and their beauty is that if looked after you can usually resell with very little if any loss. You can get some excellent EP's second hand - I haven't paid full price for any of mine.

Following on from the above another positive point is that if you buy a smaller, but proper telescope from FLO, that it will probably only come with what is useful to the telescope in terms of eyepieces rather than coming with all sort of dross that you will pay for, but don't need and won't be able to use such as multiple eyepieces, things called 'barlows' (x3, x5 etc) with claims that these will increase you magnification by some many hundred times (many people have a x2 in due course, but the department store offerings are far more than is normally useable) - you probably won't get anything useful from the sort of telescope you will be looking at (even from FLO) above about 150-200 times magnification in the UK (I have an 8" Dobsonian like this one - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html and it's good to about x200, but if your budget didn't go that far something like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html or even this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian.html (which could last a lifetime of observing if looked after might usefully go to around x150) ) For little more cash than the department stores or National Geographic style telescope and Proper telescope from FLO will provide a far more satisying experience. You will get great views of the moon and also the planets coming up in the summer - your daughter might be blown away to see Jupiter's moons and the Saturn rings - which should be possible with those three I've linked to. I can see Saturn's rings with a gap between the ring and the planet. The other thing that you may have not picked up on which is worth noting in as many words is that all telescopes also need an eyepiece. It is the eyepieces that change the magnification from view ro view, not the telescopes. With a FLO telescope like those linked to they will often come with two eyepieces one lower power and one a useable high power (you get high power in the department store ones, but it is not useable). The eyepieces may not be brilliant (though mine actually were quite useable), but they will certainly suffice for early use and provide quite adequate views until you find out if the hobby works for you. Then the recommended improvement is often an 8mm BST eyepiece- but you can find out more about those when you have the telescope 😉

Perhaps 5 if I look North or West, and maybe 3 if I look East (a year ago I would have also said South too, but some idiots have installed 6 large floodlights in the last 12 months that def. have not improved South at low level.

I didn't realise the clear outside app. gave sky quality. @carastro hope you won't be too jealous. Where I live the app says: That's not too bad is it?

Even if kept inside you might want to consider buying a Chimnea cover (or patio furniture cover) to go over it. These can be obtained (in all shapes and sizes) from the popular auction site at very little cost and you can get a really nice one made of 'Oxford' material for a fraction of the cost of a made to telescope proper telescope cover. I use a chimnea cover and find it is great for keeping the dust off inside and on a dry night, if it's late and I don't want to bring the scope inside, it's easy enough to just pop on the cover and it is fine to sort out the next day.

How about the Baader hyperions John? I've got a 31mm hyperion aspheric and you can unscrew the 1.25" barrel and put in place a 2" one to make full use of the width of the glass they go down to 5mm - I get the impression that the full range might function in a similar manner? https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/baader-hyperion-1252-modular-eyepiece.html The ones that link talks about. I don't know how good they are, but they seem to cover a range of lengths??

I think Newtonians tend to not be used so much for terrestrial viewing due to the way they flip the images and the fact that their viewing position makes the use of a prism awkward. As noted above for the night sky it doesn't really matter which way up what you are viewing is. It's actually quite amazing how quickly the brain and hands adapt to moving the telescope in the correct direction to chase things regardless of what sorts of flipping is occurring. Even with refracting telescopes the prisms used for viewing will sometimes only flip vertically and not always horizontally so be careful what you buy.

FWIW I get on very well mounting my non-modded cannon on a T-ring to take a few a-focal photos

As a general comment I guess it depends on your budget. I get the distinct impression that you can get 2" and 1.25" EP's in most sizes, I can easily believe that 2" will consistently be better than an equivalent 1.25". However, I bet more amateur observers like me tend to stick with 1.25" purely because they will often/always? be the cheaper option. Until you find out if astronomy is going to be 'your thing' and I'd give it 6-9 months I'd be inclined to start off with a few moderately priced 1.25" EP's picked up second hand from the SGL classifieds or the astro 2nd hand web sites. You will find out if it's going to be your 'thing' and then if you want to invest and upgrade to 2" EP's you will find you can sell on the 1.25" EP's for very much what you paid for them (assuming you look after them).

As noted above you need the app synscan init 2.0 then turn on the GPS on the phone and enter in the data that Synscan init gives you for every entry in the set. My strongest piece of advice is include the leading zeros and remember that the Lat/Long data needs to be entered in just the one specific format as per the synscan init 2.0 app. In addition the dates are in the American format, but the app will even present that information in the correct format. Just enter exactly what it gives you in exactly the same format and it should def. help.

Follow the Astrobaby guide linked to above literally to the letter and you will achieve collimation - no-one was more scared of undoing those screws than me, but it's sort of as you do it you suddenly gain an understanding of what you are achieving and why and it then it all seems much less a 'black art' and much more do-able.

I was going to post much the same. I would just question the term "are noisy". Yes, they are noisier when driving fast, but I don't think you would deem it 'noisy'. It makes proportionately more noise the faster it drives, but I don't think its excessive. Maybe on youtube the microphones are just very close to the things being demonstrated?

Couldn't you just tap little wooden pegs into the ground flush with the earth surface that you could run the mower over the top of, and then find again to place the telescope back onto? Or an I not understanding the issue here through a lack of owning similar equipment?

Courtesy of a generous person on SGL classifieds (from which my bank balance still doesn't appear safe) a rather nice set of Nikon Binoculars that I'm quite chuffed with.

and me! However, I can't blame lack of sleep! Great shots from both astronomers.

This is the definitive and most recommended guide. http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/collimation-guide-newtonian-reflector/ it needs following to the letter doing absolutely everything even if it sounds odd. You will see if you read to the end that sometimes the perfect collimation isn't an absolutely symmetrical picture of circles and vanes. Given this fact I don't think you are far out.

I wouldn't be without the indicated app above. The important thing is also not to forget any leading zeros. Enter the details INCLUDING the date and its presented format EXACTLY as the app gives it to you. Dates are sort of the wrong way around to 'normal' with the SynScan if you live in the UK.

The 6.5mm is well worth using on the moon. You can nearly fall into the craters.

Used to be excellent South, in the last year 5 spotlights have appeared about 1/4 mile away, still pretty good higher up. Excellent East (over the estuary and then open ocean), West light pollution in distance, North Light pollution at distance and factory lights just beyond hedge - Polaris often awkward behind trees. Whole garden ringed by trees, extra tall detached house central on plot limits views to about 2 directions in any chosen location. Unless I want to lug everything 200m over un-made ground to the middle of the field where I can have a 360 degree view.