SIDO

This is my Bresser Exos2 eq5 mount, this mount assembled with a 9 pound counterweight weight to balance a ten pound telescope weighs 4x what the GSO does I posted earlier, has to be assembled on site unless your a young chap and don't mind lugging more than 40 pounds around awkwardly without the ota attatched it also has to be leveled and aligned. The advantage is its capacity is 10 pounds more than that of the GSO alt az and instead of etch a scketch style slow motion tracking one can simply roll along care free with one finger. This is a big advantage for long period observations of most any celestial target. Some eq mounts include setting circles which make object location easier provided the mount is properly aligned and leveled. The disadvantages are the setup time, weight and the constant unlocking and locking of clutches if you are not doing long period observations, this unlocking and locking can be eliminated by installing a goto system or purchasing one with the mount but then more weight is added and a power source such as a heavy battery will be needed if the scope is set up far from AC current. Freddie...

Hey Greg, Hope the skies down that way have been clear for you and everything else too... Like D said if not AP then a good alt az mount might be best, this is my GSO Sky view Deluxe sold by Agena Astro I think you have seen it before. Holds my heavy long old 90mm Meade very well, I use my 6" f5 newt on the mount too and its just a solid performer with either both scopes are in the 10-12 pound range and the GSO has a 20 pound capacity and is slow motion equiped. The mount weight is 13.75 pounds. Only drawback is the accessory tray has to be sourced elsewhere but the standard vixen tray is not a hard part to find, if you have trouble pm me and I'll help you locate one. I am also hearing good reports about the SW AZ4, although the mount head on the AZ4 is not a universal head so scopes can not be mounted either righthanded or left meaning if the intended telescope is dovetailed left and your AZ4 is right you would be moving the location of the dovetail bar not easy and drilling holes in a new scope may not be what you want even though I know you've done it before... Best of Luck and Clear Skies ? Freddie...

Only have seen a snippet of this shot posted elsewhere, in it's entirety its even better...Nice shot Stu Indeed!

Awesome, Best of luck with the new scope...Cool you found a good deal, Clear Skies... Freddie ?

We loose a lot of good visual observer's this way, first they tinker in eaa then its on to the hard stuff and before you know it their off spending thousands of dollars on the stuff and eventually discover photographers are only as good as their next image but buy then its too late ?

These conversations on the policing of laser operators is interesting as every country has different laws governing use. Not that I wish to participate in such discussion I will say police over reach in the USA is mainly confined to large cities were police are quite outnumbered overwelmed and are tasked with the enforcement of many more laws and ordinances, criminal activity in American cities can be many thousands of times greater than in the countryside. Where I live in the US we don't even see the police and when we do it's usually on trip to the metropolis, we treat them in high regard though as theirs is a most difficult and dangerous lifestyle and they are the threads that hold the fabric or our communities together.

I have been using these laser 303's, like some eye piece types these are rebranded with many different logos but once you see one you've seen them all, one of mine is pictured below mounted to my st80 they have a twist on protective cap over the laser element with a notched lens so the laser can also project patterns of dots wich I'm sure the children would find interesting they are about 1" in diameter and 7"s long aluminum hand hold well work reasonably well in colder temps and are cheap as chips I have several and they've been doing fine for about 8 months without issues. Like others have said the power of these lasers from China can vary but online testing of the 303 types typically runs as high as 15mw, though they are labeled as 5mw so I would proceed with caution letting younger folk handle this laser type or any other laser unless specifically tested and verified to be 5mw or less and none of these are tested. For the price these 303's are hard to beat and reliable, I bought a few to sprinkle on my telescopes and see how they stick and discovered I should have done this a long time ago... Best of Luck ? Freddie...

Keep at it and we will have to start a best of diy section just for your works, excellent discriptions and pictorials I must say.

I do agree, this is a Great alternative likely getting better colour correction than the formentioned midfocus achromatic doublet of greater aperture stopped down and for land and sea it ticks all the marks even portability. This is really a nice solution for those looking to use a telescope as a spotting scope.

For lunar and land & sea viewing its a difficult choice as for lunar a narrow field enough to see the full lunar disk and increase magnification from there is optimum and for land and sea lower magnification and wider fields will make objects easy to follow and better see through daytime thermal distortions wich can seriously hamper viewing even with a low mag wide field instrument. So the mid focal length refractor will be a much better land and sea scope but for the moon the maksutov with no chromatic aberration or false colour will be optimum. The refractor should come with an aperture reduction cap build in it's objective lens cap and using it should make such a scope virtually colour free although by reducing aperture, personally I'd get the refractor because it is most likely the best compromise for all your viewing requirements. Best of Luck ? Freddie...

Welcome to SGL, Best of Luck and Clear Skies of course ? Freddie...

I think for visual astronomy a telescope were one can see things they have never seen before with enough resolution to define at least minimum details is where the lower bar really has always been regardless of the literature espoused by many publications over the decades, so then the debate where serious astro begins becomes again a question of aperture when in reality its a conglomeration of aperture, sky brightness, skill level, experience, scope quality and then add to all of that the level of commitment an individual apllies and how consistent there efforts may be as well each individual may interpret "Where serious Astronomy Begins" differently both at any one given point or at different points in their unique journey. I would in summary conclude the point of serious astronomy has very little to do with aperture and more to do with the individual and conditions with aperture being important but just one of the many criteria that is so.

I predict a flood of Lunar imagry and can't wait to see it all, dident see a lot of the last cycle due too cloud so press on everyone I insist ?

You have a very nice telescope and a little bit of restoration to do, looks like the focuser has been upgraded and the original ID plate replaced...a small bit of "pb blaster" applied carefully will loosen the spider for clean/derust and repaint. These scopes restore nicely as I have seen quite a few successful restorations through the years and they do give up views well worth the effort. Best of Luck ? Freddie...

For me it has gone a bit further than described on the tin, it has provoked an interest in owning metering equipment. Likely it has done this to others as well ?

Location info is correct as I live on a 20,000 acre wildlife refuge there is little concern of finding much more than a chipmunk or deer at these coordinates, the light pollution map seems quite hot for this area so I'm tending to believe its quite a bit better than stated but a broad calculus gives one result and local field tests likely would provide more accurate information. Clear/Skies Everyone ?