westmarch

Congrats on your 100th edition. Always a great heads up on what’s happening visually. John

Hi and welcome to the forum. John

Hi there, welcome to the forum. Dark skies. John

Sorry you are having such a hard time with it. In older ETX models there is an additional requirement for the home position. Do you first release the horizontal lock and rotate the scope anticlockwise until it reaches the hard stop and then rotate clockwise until the fork arm aligns with the control panel on the side of the scope? The only other thing I can suggest is Does it align in Alt/Az? If not, it may be that the batteries need replacing - alignment is very sensitive to voltage drop. John

Hi there, I have an ETX 90EC that I use as a grab and go, although not in equatorial mode. A couple of points: Did you first, choose “Polar” from the “Setup: Telescope: Mount” menu in the hand controller? If you did, then here is a fairly detailed setup guide: http://www.weasner.com/etx/ref_guides/polar_align.html It goes into a lot of detail about finding the correct North Celestial Pole alignment (which is near to but not identical with the Pole Star position). Good Luck! John

Hi there, welcome to the forum. Clear skies. John

Sorry all, didn’t mean to get anyone into trouble. John

just checking... is this cancellation announcement in the correct thread? I knew that the SGL meet was cancelled due to flooding but haven’t heard anything from Derek. Clutching at straws! John

Hi Ron, welcome to the forum. John

Hi Alison, welcome to the forum. Can’t advise you on the Synscan - there are a couple of Youtube vids that may help but if your question doesn’t get answered in the welcome thread, try reposting your question in the “Getting Started, Equipment Help and Advice” thread. wishing you many dark skies from N Yorks. John

Hi Mark, as John said, lots of people go to to dark sky sites, both as a group and individually. There was a thread recently about the wildlife sounds that you can encounter. John

Hi Mark, One of the important things to consider with a dob is where you will be using it. If you need to get it away from light pollution then portability becomes important - you need to get it into a car. If you are lucky enough to live somewhere without significant light pollution, then this can be less of an issue. An 8” will give you great views of the Moon and planets but if you want to look at deep sky objects like galaxies then dark skies and extra aperture of a 10” really pays off. John

Hi there, welcome to the forum. John

Booked in for the Feb week, weather permitting! 🤞 John

Lovely post. Sometimes it all just comes together, the kit works, the weather cooperates and the sky is dark. I’m just in from a bins session - no targets just drinking it all in. John

Tried to book the Feb week but Lesley away until the 27th. I will confirm when she gets back. John

Hoping to book tomorrow for the week with Lesley. I’m too much of a wimp to go back to Scottish camping, so its a van for me! I’ll check how much hard standing is left. John

Hi Dean, welcome to the forum. There is lots of sound advice to be had here, join in. John

Don’t know your scope but if you run out of options: check the date format entry, is it day or month first? check the gps format, is it d:m:s Or decimal degrees (DD)? Do a hard reset. Good Luck. 🙄 John

I had a similar problem with a sticky altitude bearing. @brantuk gave me a tip to use a strip of the loop side of velcro on the base bearing of my dob. Perfect mix of free movement and “stiction”. You might also consider an equatorial platform at some point. It holds your target in place and reduces the amount of fine adjustment needed. John

Welcome to the forum. John

Thanks for this. I have passed this info onto a friend who is intending to make a Xmas purchase from you. John

Hi Chris, welcome to the forum and I wish you many clear nights with your Dob. John

Great report, sorry to hear about your disaster. You were very lucky that a bruised back was all you ended up with. Take it easy. John

Hi there, welcome to the forum. Clear skies. John