barkis

Could fitting a diagonal help?  If you could still achieve focus that is. I assume you are using a refractor of course. Although a Newtonian would not give you that problem.

Ron.

Do you know what condition the telescope is in?  Might not be so cheap if the mirror needs deviating for example. The the OTA should be easily detached from it's mounting. If you know the focal ratio, then the tube length can be reasonably worked out. At f5, the length could be around  50 inches, but perhaps a little less, as the light path has  to pass through the focuser. If you are buying this scope blind, you need to get as much information you can before committing any money.

Ron.

As the song goes,.                                                "Never Give Up On A Good Thing".  Astronomy and SGL are inseparable,   you may take break occasionally, but you are gravitationally bound, and escape is not possible.   Pick up your instruments, and enjoy the good skies that await you.

In other words, Welcome Back.👍

Ron.

Incredibly fine capture, brilliant giant size too, Mercury becomes a disc, and the aircraft 
comes out very well too.  It's an exciting image to look at, and you ought 
to send this to your local  press, their readers we be amazed by this, and you will
become famous.  Well Done indeed.
Ron.

Pleased to see you back in the imaging saddle Ant.
Great looking result from 22 subs. Splendid detail too.
Who gives the Moon those weird names?

Do you intend to build your imaging rig up again?
You ought to, you turned out some good DSO's before you sold up.
Ron.

A quote from an article on the sun.

"The grainy appearance of the Solar Photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells, and is called
Granulation.. A typical Granule has a diameter of 1500 Kilometres, and lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating.
At any one time, the Sun's surface is covered by 4 Million Granules."
 

So safe to say you have caught a whole lot of detail Ant.🙂
Ron.

Welcome to SGL,   That is a plethora of equipment you have listed here. I guess your California Skies afford you plenty of opportunities for both observational and imaging. It's sad that the current virus outbreak is playing havoc with so many aspects of people's lives at present. We only hope the nightmare ends sooner rather than later.

Looking forward to your forum input. Your Outreach work must have some interesting topics you may wish to share. 

Best Wishes.

Ron.

In HG. Wells 'War of the World's, it was Earth's microscopic life forms that  overwhelmed the Invaders, now there is another army of the little blighters trying to remove us from our World.                Doesn't add much to this threads topic, so apologies to John. I quite enjoyed the original movie, but not the Tom Cruise remake😁.

Ron.

So much detail visible considering sunlight is almost directly down onto 
an almost full Moon. Very attractive image, and a well put together mosaic. 👍.
Ron.

It may be something as simple as cataracts, They play havoc with distance vision.
I know this from experience. I recently had my left eye repaired, one year after my right eye 
was corrected.  Believe me, the difference even with one eye sorted was brilliant, with
both now done, I feel reborn.  The wait for procedure one. was very long, the second appointment came 
one year later. The waiting time for these procedures are  a nightmare, the second event was at a different hospital
in Cumbria, but only an hours travel by rail. Believe me, I would gladly have walked there if that was the only option😀.
The drawback now of course, is how will this virus outbreak affect things such as this.
Ron

2 minutes ago, Frank the Troll said:

This will sort you out, you can keep it in the frezzer, it doesn't freeze, and comes out thickish, ps, it has quite a kick,

https://www.thedrinkshop.com/item/1700/balkan-bajika-vodka-176

HehHeh!!  I'll hazard a guess that downing a bit of that, and you wouldn't worry about 
WWIII never mind the  C.virus. 😀  I'm sure the Nitro Billy had came in a Skull shape bottle.

36 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Alcohol dissolves the oils that protect the skin, and will leave you with dry skin. Use a hand/skin moisturizing product after the alcohol.

Ah! the the Good Lady has plenty of those items 🙂.

Since many stores have been stripped of their stocks of hand sanitisers, and liquid soaps, I'm wondering how effective Isopropyl Alcohol would be as a bug killer. 

I've developed regular hand washing regime as recommended by those who know about these virus invasions. Anyway, I understand the Alcohol has to be 60%. My IPA isn't that strong, so might be useless in any case. I wonder where Psychobilly got that unusually strong Vodka he produced at an  SGL's Star Party a few years ago 😁

The wife and I did a shop this morning in Aldi, it was pandemonium in there, everyone had trolleys packed to the gills with shopping. Talk about panic buying, it's a dog eat dog mentality starting to manifest. I'm not sure the UK will be badly affected, at least I hope that will be the outcome.

  Good to see Flo. preparing to safeguard each other.

Ron.

It's very Important that a first time telescope is not a disappointment. Unfortunately, that scenario
has cost many people the wonderful experience Observational astronomy can provide..
Most of the suggestions in the thread will certainly take you to that  exciting starting point.

I can only agree with the  8" f5/f6 Dobsonian unit, which is easy to assemble, transport, and enough light grasp to provide you with
some wonderful night sky targets.  Have a read about Collimation of the Newtonian Scope, there will come a time  you may need to make adjustments,
it is necessary to maintain correct alignment of the primary and secondary mirrors. It's an easy process to do though.

At a later time in the learning process, you might get the desire to go larger. Well, there is much to choose from,
but please seek advice again before committing to more expensive equipment. 
You might have a better grasp of what part of astronomy appeals the most,
so  it's imperative the right choice is made.

You will make a good choice from the descriptions given by the members in this thread, 
so enjoy the new experience awaiting you and yours, the night sky
will be revealed in a beautiful way to you.
Best Wishes.
Ron.
 
 

Do you wear spectacles, they can affect the focusing results.
if you normally suffer from poor distance vision without wearing spectacles,
then you need to focus wearing your glasses, This can be a discomfort, but necessary.
Ron.

10 hours ago, Ruud said:

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

Blimey, it's happening here now. Perhaps I've been infected with a Virus 😯.

Well a mystery I must say. Not to worry,  perhaps a glitch at Ivo's end.

Thanks for your replies guys, appreciate it.                                                      Ron.

I received an Email from APT this morning and though Ha! another software  update. However,
all the message contained was a number of lines comprising of nothing
but lower case  letter a's.  Anyone else get such a message?
A real odd one. It appeared to be from Astroplace too.
Ron.

Some fine images here, and well detailed too.

A couple of evenings earlier, It was a beautiful crescent too, with Venus  not too far from the Moon, although too far to 
capture together. But, what a picture book sight they made in an azure sky.
Ron.

Give me a good Western anyday. Unfortunately, you need to go back in time to find one.   

I did like the old Star Trek series, with Cap'n Kirk, Spock, Bones and Scotty, I didn't care for the new series too much . 

Ron.

You could do some nice wide field Astro photography with your dslr and various lenses. 
Work towards a acquiring a manageable fast Newtonian or an Apo. chromatic  refractor if you can raise the 
the money.  A good equatorial mount can be bought second hand too, not everything needs to be new.
Getting what we desire  is not easy, but a lot of satisfaction can be got doing it all slowly, and with forethought 
This AP can murder your Bank Account, so proceed with caution🙂.
Ron.

It's looking as though the trend is heading for a grim 2020 too  Des.
I hope it doesn't turn out to the case, although  the weather has  done a of
damage aready in 2020. I couldn't give figures for clear skies up to the present date though.
Ron.

If you intend buying the neq6, it  is a weighty unit together with tripod . Transporting to site and setting up for a session will require dedication. Plus, polar aligning needs to be carried out.

If you want to go big, delay it for a while, until such time as you build yourself an Observatory with a permanent pier to install your mount and larger scope. Polar alignment need only be done once, no repeat setting up, all that's required is to set out your imaging targets for the night. Hi into your obs, switch on and away you go.

Now I know the above would be the Ideal outcome for you. However, that route is not possible for many, and I've no Idea if you have the facilities to build an Obsy.  If not, I would keep your setup requirements to a minimum, and do it well.  

I wish you well whatever you do.

Ron.

In this present weather, even an IST. Is of little use. 

Acronym being of course the,Infinitely Small Telescope.       Has a launch date for the James Webb been announced yet by the way?

Ron .

I reported a missing cable in a recent order for a Lakeside Focusing system.
Martin at Flo responded quickly and the cable arrived in post this morning.
Thank you very much, Flo Staff are a well drilled team👍.
Ron.