ICR_2019

Inspired by your responses I just did a quick experiment. The sky is currently cloudy and street lights still on. I pulled the scope out of the shed and put in an eyepiece. I have some black subwoofer carpet, I rolled it up and placed it as if it were a dew shield looking through the eyepiece I removed the roll and it did indeed brighten the view. Diy dew shield coming up.

I do usually wait for the street lights to go out, sometimes its a bit cat and mouse. Breaks in weather, work etc. The "dark" side of my garden is straight up and NW which also happens to be the side facing the back of the houses and the least area for viewing. The largest viewing area is SE facing directly to town. Well we have what we have and do our best. So flocking material, yoga mat, thick black material for hood, pirates eye patch, the shopping list keeps growing! John you say a 21mm? maybe I should look at replacing my 20? the rubber around the eyepiece is split. I have seen advice on 18mm bst 25mm bst and skywatcher 32mm plossl for dso, my budget is limited.

Thanks Rob Last night I was thinking an eye patch would help reduce the strain on the non observing eye! sliding over to the observing is a great idea! A hood is another great idea, one I had never considered, thank you. The LP i have is mostly skyglow, although there are a few garden lights that add to the problem.. I'll search out a diy dew shield and have a go. thanks again Ian

Hi all I am one happy newbie. A short break in the cloud last night and I got my first hit on Andromeda. At first it was a small grey patch but with persistence and averted vision I got glimpses of a bright central core with grey "cloud" extending out from each side. So my question from my LP back garden what might I be able to do to improve or at least get a more consistent visual. I have a skywatcher 130p the best views came with the supplied 20mm. Would flocking and a dew shield help with contrast? A 25 or 32mm eyepiece clean up the image? Or maybe a colour filter to make it pop a little? I understand the limitations of both the scope and viewing site both have a major effect but there must be steps I can take to get the best from what I have. Thanks in advance Ian

Hi All I thought I would share how I fixed my sloppy rack and pinion focuser on Skywatcher 130p. The issue? When using or collimating the slop in the focuser would put the target or centre dot way out of line. With the tube tilted downward I removed the 4 screws/nuts of the focuser to remove it from the OTA. Loosen the lock and 2 adjusting screws, I used a small torx screwdriver as i did't have an allen key small enough. Remove the 4 screws holding the adjuster bar in place, and remove the adjuster. Note: Be careful to avoid the very sticky grease used on the drive! Remove the draw tube assembly, remove the lock/adjusting shim located at the top of the main body. There were 2 plastic shims 1 each side of the drive I removed both of them. Thoroughly clean everything with degreaser and isopropyl alcohol except the drive itself. I cut 2 plastic shims from food packaging, cleaned them, and using 50mm double sided tape I lined out the main focuser body. Be careful to cut to the correct size and shape before installing and don't cover the drive or lock/adjusting shim areas. Next using teflon tape purchased from eBay I covered the draw tube exterior. I then did the same covering the plastic shims in the main body. It was still a little loose so I doubled the teflon tape at the top of the tube either side of the adjusting shim. Next I added a plastic shim onto the adjuster shim and covered with teflon tape. Put it all back together and almost no slack! I can now move the focuser from fully in to fully out without the collomation moving out of the centre ring on the primary. Complete success I think.

Thanks for the advice guys. I had never considered going up to 32mm. At that price it's definitely worth a punt, I can get the flocking at the same time. Thanks again for your help. Ian

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I missed off the scope. Skywatcher 130p. The reason for going with BST was price/reviews. Its a cheap scope with limited use so I'm not going to throw too much money at it. Although that may change when I get out the 8mm. They certainly are a very different bit of kit compared to the stock EPs. I would like to see nebula/galaxies etc. I understand the views would be a smudge but even to get that would be cool. I do have 2 adaptors with the scope one certainly looks like its for eyepieces of twice the size of the smaller one. The focussed has a ton of play so I'm about to do the teflon tape hack and may well flock it as i mainly use it in a light polluted area. Ian

Hi all this has been covered in various threads but there are so many to search through! I have had the scope for a couple of years and only observe occasionally. My main targets seem to always be the easy ones, moon, jupiter and saturn. I also scan around cassiopeia a lot. I have to be honest I don't really know what it is I'm seeing by name or number but am in awe of the views and trying! I've just taken the plunge with a BST 8mm (arrived today) for planetary use. Cloudy skies 😞 I have the supplied 10mm 20mm and 2x barlow. So now having 8, 10 , 20 with barlow 4 and 5 So my question is what would be the next eyepiece for dso observing? The 18mm gets great reviews but is that a little close to the existing set? Would I benefit more with a 25mm? Thanks in advance Ian

Thanks for the replies. The secondary appears well centred, However I'm not so convinced its aligned properly as the primary clips are not of evenly located. I can see the top and left but not the right. The donut and cap hole align perfectly. I assume its the secondary thats a little out?

Hi all another newbe with a collimation issue, I think? It was my first travel to what was hopefully a dark sky site and as I undid the clamp for the tripod, bang! the scope hit the deck.A quick inspection and a spider vane was bent. I straighten as best I could and put it away. I have since purchased a cap and proceeded to attempt alignment. I tried to undo the centre screw for the secondary but it was so tight I decided to remove the spider as it was getting bent trying. I did undo the screw and once loose I found I could move the 3 allen screws. I did expect to be able to move the allens without loosening the centre. Everything appears centred but in truth I don't know what I should see. I've read somewhere I should see the primary retaining clips but I can't, is that an issue? The scope is a skywatcher 130p. Any advice or pointers grateful. Thanks in advance Ian