davekelley

Yeah thanks I suppose I'l stick with my original order. It's odd that Canada can do it for so much less though?!!!

Hello people I am excited about the ZWO Seester S50 anticipated to hit the shops sometime soon. I already have it on pre order at £459 which looks like such a great price, however, Ontario Telescope and Accessories online store (Canada), is offering this at about £319 and claiming they can ship to my address in the UK for about £6! They do say that when something looks too good to be true then it probably is! Does anybody have experience of this dealer, particularly buying stuff from overseas with them please? Where is the catch? Thanks Davw

I have the 127, it is about scope number 7 and finally I think I'll just stick with this one. I really wanted the goto and tracking and opted for the azgti wifi, sounded so simple and even purchased the hand controller but I've sold that all of that and I have the scope on a deluxe alt az now. I couldn't get on with the goto no matter how i tried to get it setup It was just frustrating and time wasting. this scope is brilliant for quick looks at the moon and the planets, enjoy! Also, a Rigel quickfinder and 8x50 right angle finderscope make things even easier. Clear skies Dave

Hi people I'm looking to purchase some low power 2x40 type of oculars. I believe the helios 2.1x 40 are great value but the best are the Orion 2x51, with a much greater fov. I have heard that the Orions can present issues with eye placement and it's a red flag to me as I do tend to suffer with that sort of thing. So my question is, will I find eye placement issues with both of these bins or will the smaller objectives of the 40mm bins mean they're more comfortable and easier to get my pupils in the optimal position? (The cost is not the most important thing if the Orions are all round better performers I'd go with them.) Hopefully someone has used both of these or understands about optics and can help me with advice please? Thanks Dave

Hi all. I have googled around and can't seem to find an answer.to this basic question. Having found it near to impossible to get snapshots through the eyepiece, I bought a T adapter and attached my mirrorless camera to the diagonal and testing it out in daytime it was great to see how easily I could get focus, the camera seemed to default to MF, but it would not fire the shutter! I'm guseeing it is lacking information from the lens that it requires or some such thing? Do I need to set everything manually somehow, I'm a bit of a scene selection auto/fully auto shooter.... It's a new camera I'm not too familiar with all the digital menus etc. It's a canon EOSM100. Anybody know what I need to do to make it fire the shutter please? (I'm not ever going to get into serious astrophotography, strictly the moon, planets and maybe a glob or two, I'm not technically minded, as you can tell) Thanks folks Clear skies, Dave

Thank you very much! I heard the series 5000 has 60 deg and "comfortable" eye relief? I think I'll go with bst.

Thank you. I'm stuck between a super plossl and a starguider and can't decide. I know I love a plossl and the BST's seem to good to be true at £49!

To be concise, what is better, a series 5000 plossl or a bst starguider, for planets, bright globs and double stars in a 127mak? I'm thinking of between 9-12mm max as my skies are generally poor and I've rarely been able to go much higher than 150x, or even go that high. Alternatively are there any better suggestions. I'm interested in comfortable fov and eye relief, I'm not using tracking. Thanks everybody Dave

I hope this isn't out of place on here. I have always wondered so I thought I'd put it to the forum.......whydo many large Maks even up to 150mm, feature the dovetail bar on the side edge of the ota, when surely it makes 100% more sense to place this on the underside, in terms of balance and just common sense really it seems a bit nutty hanging the ots from one side of the mount and tripos when clearly it should be atop and central to the whole setup? Just seems so daft. Any thoughts or explanations anybody?

These are becoming scarce with just the 15mm and 20mm available in 1.25" . I would love to get hold of a 15mm. Will @FLO be stocking the 15 any time soon please?

I'm after a star diagonal to replace my Tak prism. The problem is the twist lock. I use Baader Hyperions and Baader zoom and I keep on twisting the wrong part of the setup. Hyperions come apart and of course zooms zoom so I want a diagonal with retaining screw. I've seen one on Amazon that looks like quality for under £10. Is this a case of when something looks too good to be true, it probably is? or does anybody have experience with one of these? I know with diagonals you need to pay huge sums to imake tiny improvements but is this thing going to be just too cheap? I'll post a link as I believe that is allowed. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dielectric-All-Surface-Multilayer-Telescope-Diagonals-default/dp/B08KRLHRHG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=dielectric+star+diagonal&qid=1624979072&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExM1Q4Tk5HR1RVWEJWJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDI3NDM5VzhMNjJOV0lSVVhQJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA1ODczMDkzSjFUNk1INk5NUVFQJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== Cheers everybody. Come On England

I don't think it was actually, but that looks very interesting as well!

I'm sorry to post this but I have used the search function on here and got no joy. I do remember news of a june launch of a 1.25" zoom, approx 7-21mm with a 70 deg FOV at all focal lengths. I cannot for the life of me remember the manufacturer and I can't find anything on google but I do know it has been mentioned on here. Can somebody please remind me and does anyone know if it's still expected to be available this month because it sounds hugely exciting? Thanks Dave

This might be a ridiculous question but.......I have a solar filter and I'm enjoying being able to enjoy astronomy during the day and in warm temperatures! I have seen that projecting the image onto a screen can create a large image that more people can observe and in safety so that seems like a great idea. My question is, can the same method be used with the moon, after all the moon is extremely bright in the telescope. Do people ever project an image of the moon onto a screen? Or is it a completely stupid question? Cheers dave

I have purchased a sheet of Baader solar film to make pair of solar filters for my Canon 15x50 IS binoculars. I had intended to modify some pop up objective lens caps, outer diameter 70mm, by making 2 circular cells with 50mm central openings, out of the film and stiff card, then gluing them to the inside of the lens caps which have a good 25mm of depth, so that the cap can still be closed and protect the film when not in use. That was my plan, However the film comes with instructions showing an overlap around the objective lenses which could be square or circular. Is it necessary to have this overlap, considering that with binoculars your eyes are looking directly towards the Sun, whereas with a telescope they are not? The issue is that the 15x50 objectives almost touch so there is no room for any overlap. I would need to make a rectangular or oval shaped filter? I do have another option which is to make filters for my smaller 8x30 Nikon Monarchs, or even for a cheap pair of Nikon 8x42's? or should I go the whole hog and make a filter for my 127 Mak. Does aperture or magnification matter when observing the Sun? I hope that's not too confusing I have tried to be as clear as possible. I am torn because I love the 15x50's, the objectives do not move so a single, rectangular filter would probably be the solution? Thanks everyone for any advice. (Of course, safety is the most hugely important issue!!) Clear skies Dave