Geoff Lister

I replaced mine with a RACI equivalent - much more user-friendly. Geoff

Provided that you mount the alternative OTAs with them balanced in the dovetail clamp, they should not place undue strain on the lcm 114 mount. I balance my OTAs, with a typical eyepiece in place, by sitting the dovetail bar at 90 degrees across a broom handle/piece of plastic pipe, and slide the OTA back and forth until it rests level on the handle/pipe. I mark the contact point with tippex, and when dry, a layer of varnish. This ensures minimum strain on the altitude motor-gearbox assembly. The photo, below, shows my 127mm Mak with the balance points for (a) a normal eyepiece, (b) binoviewer with 2 eyepieces, and (c) with my D3200 DSLR. Geoff

Hello orca, and welcome to SGL. My first telescope, bought in 1986 to view Halley's Comet, was a Tasco 3T, very similar to your setup. It is an azimuth/altitude mount with a fork-and-rod coupling between the optical tube and tripod. The eyepieces have a diameter of 0.956" where they fit into the focuser draw tube, although I understand that your version has an adaptor, and will take the, more standard, 1.25" eyepieces. The mount is not very easy to use, but I got some fine views of the comet. If the manual supplied with your 'scope is difficult to understand, it may be useful to google "Tasco 3t" and look at some of the suggested sites - the USA "Cloudy Nights" astronomy forum, equivalent to this site, has some useful posts. This may help:- Tasco Luminova40-076420Inst.pdf I have made a dovetail rail & ring cradle, so that the optical tube can be used with my more-capable mounts:- Geoff

With my 127mm Mak., I tend to start my sessions with my 32mm Plossl eyepiece. I have also replaced the 6x30 straight-through finder with its RACI equivalent - much easier to align to objects at higher altitudes. Geoff

My Skymax and Skyliner mounts have the V3 Synscan handsets, and seem to be very sensitive to voltage dropping below about +11V. I have found that the battery packs for 8-off 1.5V AA size alkaline cells can suffer from poor contact at any of the 16 contact points. The voltage may hold up during initial startup, but can drop as soon as the mount does its first slew. As Martin mentioned above, when observing from my garden, I tend to use the 12V 1.5A or 2A mains plug-top supplies; some borrowed from the older standard external USB hard disks, or sold for use with the LED flexible stick-on light strips. Geoff

This is a selection of power sources that I use for my mounts:- Most of the internal and external battery packs supplied with mounts, assume the use of 8-off 1.5V alkaline cells. NiMH and NiCd cells give a nominal 1.2V, so 10 cells are required for 12V. I have found that a pair of 6V 2600mAh packs (borrowed from my radio-controlled model sailing yachts), give a reasonable evenings observing. I have measured the current consumption of my various mounts:- The current consumption for the AZ GTI mount is likely to be similar to that of my Celestron Cosmos 90. Geoff

Hello Kartik, and welcome to Stargazers Lounge. If you Google "Dobsonian Base DIY" you should get many links and YouTube videos giving details about making a base, including those for this site (Stargazers Lounge) and its USA equivalent, "Cloudy Nights. The various articles will give you an idea of what is involved, and the level of woodworking skill required. You will also need eyepieces. The eyepiece collection can be built up as funds permit, but I would start with a 32m Plossl, and a x2 Barlow; both 1.25" diameter. Geoff

Not quite, even cheaper, Screwfix's galvanised builder's strip, a few bits of double-sided sticky foam, and a couple of nuts and bolts from my "come-in-handy" bits box. Even the wood was recycled from something else. Geoff

And the budget mounting option.... This is my first telescope, a Tasco 3T, 3", 700mm, and 0.963" eyepieces, bought in 1986 to see Halley's Comet; it's a fork-and-rod Az/Alt mount. This is my DIY ring and dovetail assembly and this is the setup on my Skymax mount, for full GoTo. Geoff

Still very pleased with it. It has a definite advantage over my Skywatcher mounts, in that I can enter a comet's orbital parameters and do a Goto. With the Skywatcher Synscan system, I have to find the RA & Dec of the comet, for the time/date I want to observe, and then enter them in the handset. As I understand it, equipment availability in the UK is very limited due to Covid/Brexit delivery through the ports, combined with a higher demand during the lockdowns. Geoff

There is a definitive guide to collimation written by Astro Baby. If you do a search, using "Astro Baby", on this site, there should be links to the document, and other excellent advice to get you going. The most important advice that I have gained from the experts on this site, is to adjust the secondary with the main tube horizontal, so that if anything falls, it will not drop onto the primary mirror. Geoff

When I use my (colour) camera, I tend to use Sharpcap to display and capture images. The focus is a bit of problem, but Sharpcap includes some focus quality indication functions, and I find that my best images correspond with the highest focus quality indications. I have not tried the SS yet with the recent sunspots, but I would expect these to make a sharp focus easier than using the edge of the disk. Geoff

I have the Heritage 130p and the Heritage Virtuoso with 90p MCT (at home) and 114 Newtonian (holiday home) optical tubes. Both systems are very good. When I bought the 130p, the 150p had not been manufactured, and I would probably have gone for the 150p, had it been available. This is an idea of size, including a 1 foot/30 cm ruler. These are a few additions that I have made to the 130p's mount. The green patio stool/table makes an excellent stand, as does the round glass-topped table in the background of the first photo. The Virtuoso mount has 3 modes: (1) fully manual - similar to the 130p's mount, (2) tracking - useful when changing eyepieces, (3) full GoTo with the Synscan handset borrowed from my Skyliner mount. Geoff

I have the same Baader zoom. It is essentially a 1.25" eyepiece, but with the additional thread to fit a 2" sleeve. The 2" sleeve option is purely there to use the zoom with a 2" focuser, but does not give any optical improvement that I have noticed. Geoff

I use my GPCAM V2, with SharpCap running on the laptop. The challenge is to get enough shade around the laptop's screen to see the fine detail, and so optimise focus, scan rate and camera gain. I have found the best way is to stretch an old bath towel from the back of the screen across to over my head. Others may have a more elegant method for viewing a laptop in bright sunlight. Geoff

I normally start my Heritage 130p sessions with my 32mm Plossl. This gives a wide, low magnification, view; and then I transfer to my Celestron 8-24mm zoom to find the best magnification/object clarity compromise, particularly on the planets. Geoff

I have Synscan on my Skymax mount, and Starsense on my Skyprodigy. These mounts are very similar. The built-in camera on the Skyprodigy mount takes another 250mA - important if on batteries. I have found that, with the Synscan "Brightest Star" option, I can complete alignment a good 45 minutes earlier; before the sky is dark enough for the Starsense to "see" enough stars for its plate solving. The Synscan system does require a bit of prior homework, knowing the best bright stars visible from your observing position. At the moment, Mars, Altair & Vega are easy to spot, and have reasonable separation for alignment. Geoff

The Moon, Venus, Jupiter & Saturn, can, under good viewing conditions, be enjoyed with almost any telescope setup. With a tracking mount, you can take videos with a modified 640x480 webcam, and generate some reasonable stills. If the optical tube has an aperture of over 5", and the mount has GoTo, you should be able to locate and view Uranus & Neptune, as coloured disks. This is my Skymax 127 with Synscan GoTo and Webcam, that I used in the south of France. This is my UK setup for portable use Geoff

+1 for the Heritage 130p. I have the Astromaster 130EQ-MD, Heritage 130p, and Virtuoso 114p. The Astromaster is NOT a good system for a beginner, the initial setting-up is complicated, and the motor drive is a poor compromise. The Heritage 130p and Virtuoso 114p are very simple to set up and easy to use. I also have, in a different location, the same Virtuoso mount, but with the 90mm Mak. OTA. The Virtuoso mount is frugal on batteries when tracking, and I can plug-in the Synscan handset, from my 250mm Skyliner, for full GoTo; it is also an excellent manual mount. The Heritage 150p is a recent addition to the Skywatcher range, and had it been available at the time, I would probably have bought it instead of the 130. However, if you need it soon, your choice may well be limited by availability of hardware in the UK.

I bought this set about a year ago and they seem to be good value for money. I am a short-sighted glasses wearer, with slight astigmatism, and they work with, or without, glasses. Geoff

I am very pleased with my Heritage 130P, bought a couple of years ago, but would have probably gone for the 150P, had it been available. Geoff

I use my binoculars with a monopod, either standing (with the leg almost fully extended), or sitting in a reclining chair (with the leg slightly retracted, and resting at an angle across my body). In both cases, the monopod takes most of the binocular's weight, and I use small body movements to scan an area of sky. If you use a tripod, conventionally, with all 3 legs extended, it is much more difficult to scan the skies; however, a tripod, with only one leg extended, and the other 2 tucked-in, usually makes a reasonable monopod for anyone except a standing tall adult. The Skywatcher Virtuoso Dobsonian mount incorporates tracking; it holds the object in the field-of-view between changes of eyepieces and swapping observers; probably very useful for a 7-year-old. I have both the 90mm and 114mm versions and like both. They are very compact, relatively light, and are frugal on batteries whilst tracking. This is the 90mm on a patio table. The Optical tube is about 10cm in diameter, so you can get an idea of size from the photo. 2 of the feet are adjustable, to get it level (the little bubble level on the base works fine), and you just need to have it pointing (roughly) North at power-up, and the tracking gets going - no complicated alignment procedures. I have one equatorial setup, the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ-MD, and it is certainly much more difficult to use for visual observation than the Altitude/Azimuth (up-down-left-right) mounts. Geoff

I used the C90 Mak, from my Virtuoso, mounted on the Solar Quest, and solar film filter. I was not expecting the sunspots to be that obvious; so spent some time with the puffer-brush, as I was sure that some of the 'spots' were dust. My 32mm Plossl gave me an excellent view, with a full disk occupying about half the FOV, and nice crisp spots. I did not get a chance to set up for Ha viewing with the Daystar, as the sun was dropping below the local roof line. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

I measured the current consumption of my mounts. I have used a selection of 12V, 1.5A or 2A plug-top mains supplies with no problems. Geoff

This is what I use with my D3200 The adaptor is marketed by Celestron (same parent company as Skywatcher). I also have a mechanically-similar x2 Barlow, and you may need the Barlow lens to achieve focus.