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Got a tripod and a mini-Dob mount which I will be giving to somebody for their birthday. I got a Dob eyepiece holder for myself. Dinged up the holder and my Dob a bit because needed to use other screws and holes to install, but its all good.

Yeah I meant reflector lol

I have started to upgrade my old childhood telescope. It is a 75mm Focal length 700mm Tasco refractor. I have already put a modern red dot finder on it, to replace the "toy" 9x finder scope that was on it. I will be attempting to put it on a better mount than the flimsy thing that it comes with; I have some tube rings and a dovetail plate coming on Tuesday. Also coming soon is a .965 inch to 1.25 inch adaptor for the focus tube. I also will be attempting to replace the existing spherical primary mirror with a new 76mm Focal length 700mm (the closest I could see to my original mirror) when it eventually arrives from China. The scope has an existing square secondary mirror on a single stalk, so I may keep that out of simplicity sake, instead of trying to find a way to mount the more modern secondary mirror coming from China. The primary and secondary show some corrosion around the edges, I can take the primary out and show if you are curious, but the secondary is hard to get a good view of down the eyepiece If anybody has any comments let me know. This is mostly an experiment, I could never see too much with the scope as a kid, so I wonder how far I can improve it.

A 32mm Plossl would be a good idea yes, and a 1.5x or 2x barlow lens, and either a 7mm Plossl or a zoom eyepiece. Nice scope as was stated above.

Cloudy here for the last week, and will be for a week at least into the future. Spent time buying astronomy stuff online, crafting dew shields, and trying to resurrect my cheap childhood reflector into something usable. I would prefer to be observing though

A cover and counterweight for my Dob.

Red light torch, digital inclinometer, "cheshire" eyepiece, Svbony 6mm eyepiece (1.25 inch), Svbony 34mm eyepiece (2 inch), and a smartphone adapter.

Awe inspiring. Great work.

Magnification isn't everything. I would get a 2x barlow, because I haven't seen many quality 3x barlows, and I think that 200x magnification would be more than enough for viewing Jupiter with your telescope. Just my opinions

It would, and I have a barlow, but I never use it with my zoom eyepiece funnily enough.

I used my 8 inch Dob and a 7mm to 21mm zoom eyepiece. The views were quite good, though Saturn could do with some more magnification or something, I need an other eyepiece in my collection I guess. The Dob is my bigger scope, but since moving it to the garage, it has become my "grab and go".

Maybe somebody can 3D print one for you.

Yeah, I was outside at about 2:50am, viewing the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Nice picture of the Moon. Welcome to the forum.

True, I was more thinking of my tinkering loving self than what a newcomer would need.

I remember, at a time when I knew less about astronomy, buying a Celestron Powerseeker 127 eq on Amazon; I spent 6 months trying to collimate it and get the planetary views expected from it, then gave it away free. Definitely not for astrophotography Relating to the opening post, I am sure that scope would be ok on a different mount, I like swapping and changing equipment parts around; my Explore Scientific Mak, sits on an Orion mount and tripod, and has a Orion finder bracket on it and an Orion red dot finder.

I got my new 8 inch Dob delivered today, along with some other accessories for my Mak, and a double finder bracket for the Dob, so I can use my phone and finder at the same time on it.

Is the Celestron AstroMaster 102 mm Refractor and the Orion StarBlast 102mm Altazimuth Travel Refractor, basically the same scope? The Skywatcher Startravel 102 AZ3 seems to be a bit shorter so I guess it isn’t the same. I gave my Orion 80mm to a member of the family to spark their interest in astronomy, so looking for a grab and go replacement, I have a small Mak for views of planets, just looking for a short to medium focal length refractor for everything else. I have a new Dob coming in a few days so I don't need a Dob

I am thinking of either mounting the phone perpendicular to the tube like the picture below, and using Skeye. Or buy a Celestron Starsense Explorer scope and using its hardware and app license to mount it to something like a Dob I can use Skeye instead of a finder, or should I use a finder a long with it?

I have an Orion 80mm Goscope, its lens are "coated". There is also a Orion ShortTube 80mm, and its lens are "multicoated". I live in a Bortle 6 area, so I assume that a "multicoated" lens would give more contrast in that situation than a merely "coated" one? I might want to try some very basic phone astrophotography, so I wondered if I should retire the Goscope and buy a ShortTube to replace it.

I recently moved back home to Ireland, but unfortunately the area I live in is highly light polluted. I am primarily interested in visual astronomy, and I like looking at the Moon and planets more than hunting for DSOs, so I was wondering, about my next telescope, and if an 8 inch Dobsonian was again in my future or a 127mm or 150mm Maksutov, I know that the bigger scope would mean a brighter, clearer image but it would also bring more light pollution photons to my eye, so I wondered if the Mak might be better. I will probably be using the scope in my backyard and can't see myself going to a darker site very often.

Looking at the Moon was about all my old Tasco scope was any good for. Seeing the craters pop into 3D like reality at the terminator, was amazing to witness; it was almost as satisfactory, as the first time I realised I was seeing the Great Red Spot in a telescope.

Yeah, I am not that young so I guess I will concentrate on the 10 x 50 binos. Hard to try binos in stores though, since the country here is locked down. I might buy a couple of cheap binos ffom a good store online, different brands and see if they are ok, if not then I guess I return them or learn to collimate binos.

I have a 100mm Mak, it gives good planetary views, and is compact. Planets are easier targets than most DSOs and Maks excel at planets.

Hi, I had a pair of Tasco 10x50 binos which I left behind when I moved back to Ireland. They weren,t expensive so I would like go buy either a 7x50 or a new 10 x50 in the same price range, which is 40 to 60 euros. I am looking at these binos: Meade Travelview 7x50 Celestron Cometron 7x50 Orion 10x50 Bresser Hunter 10 x 50 All are Porro prisms, all similar prices. Should I go with a 10 x 50 or a 7 x 50, and are any of these brands worse or better than the others?

I did some research and the OTA of the 100mm MAk is 4 pounds which is under the 7 pound handling capacity of the iOptron cube e, so i might try that combination. Still curious on the weight of the OTA for the Heritage 150p though 😉