scitmon

Are these reductions for a limited time? I've been resisting a C8 Edge for while now

Fair enough, until you are ready to get the FF/R, an M56 to M48 adapter will be needed, along with a M48 T-ring (not sure what size you have already?)

No, the adapter is clamped on with the standard compression ring.

I use the https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-adapter-for-skywatcher-focal-reducers.html screwed onto the FF/R which is screwed onto the https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/skywatcher-dslr-m48-ring-adapter.html. Works well for me, the angle of the camera can easily be adjusted.

At the bottom of http://skywatcher.com/product/eq6-synscan/ The AZ-EQ6's page also says 20kg where you state 18kg for imaging, 25kg for visual.

Slightly off topic (sorry) but I notice that the description says payload capacity is 20kg, but Skywatcher's website says 18kg? There is a similar discrepancy with the AZ-EQ6 too.

seconded! In fact there is a great priced one in classifieds:

Which is why I asked what you plan to be looking at. The moon and planets are not faint targets. If you want to try a bit of deep field as well, a larger aperture reflector like the Skywatcher 130p might be the way forward.

Yes serious astrophotography can get expensive. Moon and planets benefit from longer focal length telescopes so a good start will be to look at the Skywatcher Skymax range https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov.html or the Celestron Nextstar SE range https://www.firstlightoptics.com/se-series.html.

If you can give us your preferences on what you want to observe, your budget and your size/portability preferences then we will be able to better advise you. The temptation for "noobs" is to go big, but then they find the hassle of setting up big scopes restricts their use.

Found the answer here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/564252-polar-scope-not-on-12-position-eq6/ Sounds like adjustment of the reticle is not worth the hassle.

I've been using my Skywatcher AZ EQ6 for a good while now and have successfully used the polar scope a good number of times now, but something is still bothering me which I'm not sure is correct... When setup in home position and DEC axis rotated 90 degrees to open up the polar scope, should the clock pattern be orientated correctly at this point? i.e. 0 top and 6 at bottom. Mine isn't and I have to rotate the RA axis significantly to put 0 at top before I start adjusting. The manual is useless imo.

How on earth do you not get blownout images on ISO800 with 8 minute exposures? Are your skies really dark or using a filter? Great picture.

To my knowledge, Sharpcap is not a guiding tool. Polar alignment aids are a minefield in my opinion. There are lots of different ones that use different methods. I've tried PHD2's tools with no success, wouldn't work for me. I've also tried Astrophotography Tool's DARV once and was impressed with it, but found I didn't really need any of them because my AZ EQ6's polar scope is actually really really good. I just spend 5 mins carefully getting it in the right spot and tracking is really good. Sorry if that doesn't help you. If you can see Polaris from your imaging spot, I would just polar align it the traditional way and see how you get on with guiding (the PHD software will tell you how good your alignment is).

PHD2 does have polar alignment utilities as well if you want to avoid sharpcap. ASCOM is a platform that many planetarium applications (Stellerium included) use to interface with your mount. You would have the ASCOM EQMOD program running along side Stellerium. Personally I just use Astrophotography Tool (https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx) to control my camera and mount (with EQMOD running in background), and PHD2 for guiding. I might occasionally load Stellerum to see whats in the sky when picking a target.