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.

Hi Mackem and welcome to sgl.....I'm still waiting on a few bits n bobs to start my endeavour into astrophotography...much like yourself although I have been a amateur photographer for 9 years and know my way around a dslr /mirrorless camera and I've shot a few night sky and star trail images....

If your starting from absolutely scratch...I think baby steps is the best advice I can give to you..it seems you want to run a marathon before you've learned to crawl...if you've already done some reading then surely you'd know this.....definitely no such thing as a Jack of all trades telescope....your going to need a different type for different types of astro work...that is can tell you for sure....I'm starting out with a small refractor,(field flattener), eq mount (skywatcher eqm-35),and a full frame mirrorless camera (Sony a7). not the best camera for the job I might add..but it's what I've got atm...probably the first thing I will change.

I plan on guiding and using a astro camera...but as I said baby steps...I need to learn the equipment for the basics first as you also will have to do....I'm sure other more knowledgeable people will be along with more detailed advice.

I can't really help you with which one to choose..All I  can say is that I received my WO zenithstar 73ii  yesterday and I'm fair chuffed with the build quality of the thing...built like a tank these are....oh and that focuser is soooo smooth and I haven't even looked at the sky yet...just a couple of birds across the street......flying ones... before anyone gets any ideas.lol.

My new frac...as you can see...still waiting on the eqm-35.

In the same boat..my WO zenithstar 73ii arrived yesterday....cloud and thunderstorms up here on the west coast of Scotland.....flo box does state.."may contain clouds"....still waiting on my mount to arrive anyways.

That scope of yours  looks like a rather large dob...300'???

I'd buy a used camera already moded for astro work.....and that's what I will be doing myself when my mount finally arrives, leaving my Sony a7 solely for terrestrial use....and it's not that great for astrophotography https://m.cheapastrophotography.com/

Note that canon is the goto dslr for astro work.

Had a look at the 103...and the 126....and the 132...lol....they're lovely looking scopes, it has to be said.

Going to make you a bit envious....my WO zenithstar 73ii is coming tomorrow....but on the downside..I'm still having to wait for the field flattener and the eqm-35 pro mount....it could be well into July before these items come.doh.

I used the skywatcher star discovery with the 150pds for a year or so and while the mount really was at it's limit...it still slewed and tracked reasonably well for visual observing...just not on a windy night though.

Hope it's the pds version of the 200p you've bought as that is much easier to achieve focus with a dslr than the standard model.

Yeah..had a look at the rvo  frac but I've been persuaded by Astro backyard guy...he likes his refractors and pretty much swears by the Williams optics kit and I'm a suker for nice build quality and pride of ownership....if your into cameras and lenses...you'll know what I'm on about.lol...oh and the eqm-35 is me stretching it from planning to buy a star adventurer....so the h-eq5 is a few years down the road for me I think...and I really hate the idea of spending nearly 800quid on a glorified tri-pod....I love glass.lol....but if you're planning heavier loads in the future, the h-eq5 would make more sense....me I think I'll be quite happy imaging with a small refractor and observing with a 150-200 newtonian....which the eqm-35 should manage, hopefully!