Gabby76

Wonderful images, Vixen makes some excellent refractors. Enjoy the double star splitting!

With these being 4 element in 2 groups I am not surprised that there would be colour and artifacts along the EOF. Symmetrical work better at 50-55° AFOV. You would need to be using a long focal length telescope since you get a exit pupil of 7.7 when used in a f/6 telescope. The 45 mm would work in my f/15 as that gives a 2.95 mm exit pupil.

The dew heater should go on the dewshield outside so it transfers heat into the shield. You just want the air trapped in the shield a degree or two above the dewpoint. Putting it inside may cause it to show heat waves.

This writeup is from Michael Swanson who was a beta tester for Celestron for many years https://www.nexstarsite.com/OddsNEnds/SCTCorrectorRemoval.htm Another quick one from Don Pensack of Eyepieceetc https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/81066-how-to-remove-and-clean-a-corrector-plate/

If I remember correctly, Celestron marks the corrector and secondary at the 3 o'clock position to help keep things aligned during replacement. It is not a hard job just requires a bit of patience and there are many good tutorials online walk you through it if you want to give it a try.

A lot of these LiPo batteries are listed in milliamps, 1000 mA = 1 Amp, so if it is a 20.000 mA battery it will power something of 1 Amp power usage for 20 hours. To size a battery for your setup you need to add up all of the amps required. That is what you need for 1 hour. If you plan a 4 hour session you need to multiply by 4. That is the minimum amount you need so if you want a safety factor from cold weather (lipo do not like being cold) or age, take your required amount, multiply by length of average session then times that again by 2. That final number is the size of battery you need. The Celestron pack is alright but overpriced, I would also suggest you run a separate pack for your heaters so you are not using power for your optics/ mount.

You do need to set the backlash of these mounts for consistent gotos. It takes about 10 minutes to do during the daytime. The gears in the mount from factory have quite a bit of play in them. I am not sure what you mean by second alignment (or are you meaning aligning to the second star?) Using staralign you just align the 3 stars and you are ready to view. Here is how I have done it for years. Set up mount and when ready to star aligning look for the 3 stars you want. I usually face south when doing alignment. The first start is to the west, second star to the east as far away as possible then the third higher up on the east side. Something like this: /___ (right, left, up) Then other thing you mention is slewing with the mount, it does not have double encoders so if you do all goto slews it will stay good for 3-4 hours. If you manually slew then do a goto it will likely lose its precise alignment. The object should be close by though. For best goto, approach your alignment stars from below so your final approach is up to the object then right to center it. Being consistent with your object approach will also help with goto function. Great little mounts once you start figuring out their quirks

I have found most refractors are front heavy and in this situation you can put ankle weights at the focuser end to push the telescope further up in the rings. Movement of the eyepiece reduces the further the telescope is pushed forward. There are a lot of pre-made astronomy chairs available but as usual they are expensive. If you do not mind making your own there is the LYBAR chair, Catsperch Chair or Denver Chair. Plans for these are easily found online, the LYBAR is the easiest to make and the Catsperch/ Denver need a little bit of skill to build.

I have not read your other posting but the Bresser 52L is a good refractor. I have a friend that images solar and lunar with his and produces some amazing images. I am not sure if he has used it for DSO though. I think he is imaging in mono... A great visual telescope as well.

I use wooden (bamboo) embroidery hoops, you can currently get a 12 pack of 8" rings for $20 USD on Amazon (sometimes I am cheap) :)

I have to agree with Dave that EQ mounts are not hard to learn or use even for a first time beginner. When I began viewing it was with a EQ mount with nobody to give instruction and I was good after 15-20 minutes. The only advantage I have found over the years is that you can just walk out and your ready to go with a Az/ Alt mount. For G&G a Az/ Alt is great but for tracking a object the EQ is the way to go. With a newtonian on a EQ mount, if you place the focuser straight up, 95% of the time it will be in a useable position. The other 5% will be in a awkward position and likely the objects you want to see most but that is just Murphy stopping for a visit. Also it is quite easy to make a set of rotation stops so you can spin the tube easily inside the rings if you are using a large newtonian.

Placing the opening between the spider vanes will get rid of the diffraction spikes and stopping it down to 100mm or so will provide a more than bright enough image. Remember to either make a filter for your finder scope or remove it entirely so you do not accidentally use it.

According to a few diagonal producers (A-P, AMP, Baader) the central portion of a 2" mirror diagonal is easier to polish and coat with greater precision than with a 1.25" diagonal. Using 1.25" eyepieces works well with a 2" diagonal as the light cone is centered on the most accurately figured area of the mirror. As with most higher end components in our hobby we are likely talking a small percentage gain of less scatter and rendering of the image.

I never thought of that before, I should check to see if my old EQ-5 column will fit the TAL tripod.

Each series seems to be numbered so the higher the number the lower the capacity. I have the 055Pro and a 028b with the 028b being the larger/ stronger tripod.