Skinnypuppy71

I ordered the cheaper model yesterday with the £40 off voucher....won't be with me until 1st of March though.

I'm looking at the Beaudens power tank myself...it's listed on Amazon UK @ £169 atm and I have a £40 off voucher..it's looking like a good bargain to me, considering celestron are looking for £250 for there liFePO4 power tank.

I just remembered also, I did do a three star alignment as opposed to the usual two star. I think maybe this could be why my tracking was better.

Hi folks.I feel that this might be a stupid question, but after polar alignment and two or three star alingment on my skywatcher eqm-35 pro...when I start viewing objects, does the mount start tracking to it's best abilities or do I need to go back into the menu and select the sidereal tracking option or pec + Sidereal....the instructions are very sketchy on this....it's just my stars have been trailing even with just 30 second exposures when I just go straight to viewing objects after alingment process.....but the other night I decided to go into the menu and I went into the tracking options and selected the pec+ sidereal.....50 secs and the stars were nice and sharp...so does the tracker go into a easy tracking mode to start with and I have to select the more accurate mode.....or did I just nail polar alignment....the instructions for these mounts aren't very beginner friendly.

Rubbish in sw Scotland too. I think the second header on this thread "what can I expect to see" Well if you stay in the UK....Nothing!.😁

Hey Neil..I'm just thinking that the Nikon d810...a fantastic camera it is. I'm just wondering how much time and space it's going to take up on the processing side of things..your going to be taking hundreds of images on a good night's imaging.....that 36 mp sensor is going to be asking lots of post processing power...I think.

Hi Neil and welcome. I think all advice will point to, no mount is overkill...buy the best mount you can afford....as you say the h-eq5 will handle a good few upgrades over the coming months....if you can actually get your hands on one....the backlog for astro gear is crazy just now....I waited 3 1/2 months for my skywatcher eqm-35 pro mount between May and August last year.

I was using a baader hyperion zoom eyepiece and tried everything in between....the seeing was not up to much in any of the focal lengths...I'm just assuming that the atmospheric conditions as you mentioned weren't great . oh and I had left the 8se in the shed most of the day and dew shield was on.lol.

I had the same issue on the same scope the other week...just a fuzzy mess at high mag (8mm)and was still just a speck of light @ 24mm. I can't say I've been impressed as yet by the 8se.

The zenithstar has a huge amount of back focus.....but if I have issues I can just get a couple of wide field eyepieces for the 8se.....at some point....they are expensive.

Hi guy's, just wondering what the general consensus is from you knowledgeable folks about bino viewers....I have a William optics zenithstar z73 ii and a celestron nextar 8se, although the WO was bought primarily for imaging...I do also love the views it gives and find myself observing more than imaging for the moment....I want to learn more about the sky at night visually before jumping straight into imaging...even though I have the gear for a basic setup and know my way around my Sony a7........anyway I think I'd appreciate the views even more through both eyes and I was drawn to the WO bino viewers, I do know that in some cases they are a compromise, like most things in astronomy.lol..but just wondering if they are a decent product....at the moment I have 9mm and 20 mm wo uwan eyepieces, a basic 25mm plossil that comes with the 8se and lately bought myself the baader hyperion zoom eyepiece and barlow...if I got the bino viewers and liked what they did...I'd probably get another hyperion zoom . thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Welcome Michael...I'm in South Ayrshire myself...had some good clear skies last week.....but be prepared for lots of cloudy weather in sw Scotland.lol.

For the likes of our own milkyway...yes..camera and a wide angle lens ....remember that your Nikon dx based d5100 has a crop factor of 1.5..meaning your 18-55 mm kit lens is around 27-82 in Full frame (FX)terms So a lens as wide as you can get your hands on in dx form.

You don't use a lens for prime focus astrophotography....the telescope is essentially the lens...so your Nikon d5100 body only with the necessary adapters attaches to your 130 pds....oh and your nikon uses f mount lenses incase you're wondering for some wide field astro work.hope that might clear it update a tad.

My father's day gifts from my kids for tomorrow....Making every photon count and turn left at Orion..well there not really kids...but you know what I mean.