Stu1smartcookie

Very nice , Martin

Looks great Steve

A 5" sct is a nice starter scope , it will show you quite a lot .. i had an omni 127 ... i really liked the scope ... the DX5 will be good on planets and the moon

Not true ! you need to align the starsense with an initial 2-3 minute alignment and after that the sky need to be dark enough for it to "see" stars , not just one or two . The app will actually "tell " you that . Having said that , i love the starsense and use it on manual mounts whether it be placed on my scopes or the mount itself . It will only work properly when the sky is clear . That may seem obvious, but it does lose position sometimes ,if there are a few clouds about . its nothing major as it usually recovers . The other good thing about the starsense is that once aligned you can move the mount anywhere and it will find its position WITHOUT it needing to be re-aligned , thats a brilliant feature . GOTO's are brilliant but they also add so many variables that can fail at anytime . I have neighbours with small kids who , at this time of the year have their windows open at night . They dont want to hear whirring and screetching noises as the goto motors spring into action . So , my choice is a combination of the two ... i have a mount that accepts tracking motors but i use the starsense to find the targets first . One thing you might want to consider is that the starsense DX5 will also accept ather light weight scopes ie small fracs . So its quite versatile although the tripod is quite flimsy .

Yes , its certainly been good weather in the west ... changing now as you wrote , i agree regarding observing in the summer . Its ok for luna and trying to find venus during the daytime , and of course a bit of solar , but , bring on the autumn .

Hi Ian , only just seen your message.. I love the dwarf .. it's such a breeze to operate , mind you the iPhone app isn't up to much, whereas the Android app is fine.

Great Photo Lee ... simple , and yet it portrays the beauty of our hobby ... of course over here in cambridgeshire its recently been blowing a gale and thick cloud ( although its better now ) so its lovely to see such a relaxing scene .

Welcome to the Dwarf league , Dave . The little tripod is soooo much better than i was expecting it to be .

I had a similar thing with my 152mm starwave ... ( a scope that i sold and will buy back soon ) .. i think there is a way of tightening the focuser although i wasnt brave enough to try. But it is unerving although it never caused any real problems

Envious , as in the east we have had cold winds and grey clouds with the occasional clear hour or two

Thanks for the Heads up Geoff ... due to the lighter evenings this will be a bit challenging as a lot of the Beehive will be a bit faint , but its certainly worth a go

For information ... Most of us living on the East side of the country have seen very little apart from thick cloud !! zzz I still enjoy reading the reports of others with more luck than us , though .

I am pleasantly surprised at @John 's use of the 70mm frac to view the sn2023ixf . . Can't wait to try it for myself ( weather permitting) tonight .

Hi ... im sure many will comment on your question . I would point out that , depending on how limiting your budget is , generally budget and astrophotography do not mix well . Having said that , why not choose a star tracker and a dslr camera? it will be a fairly gentle way into the hobby and a wide angle lens will be quite forgiving with polar alignement if its not perfect . One thing you will need is a stable mount . In astrophotography a mount is the most important thing to consider .

Mass production will inevitably lead to some poor quality . a disapointing yet familiar tale .

Mike, this confirms two things , 1 That you are very good at colour matching and painting 2 You have too much time on your hands 😃 Great Job .

A great idea that i have taken advantage of .

Great spot Nik ... will certainly look out for it . Apparently we are meant to have plenty of clear skies this week .

A new EQ5 mount ( spoke to Simon at widescreen at 5:30 last night …. Asked if I could pick one up and I did at 7 last night … great service ) Motor set arrived today ( thanks @bosun21) . so an evening of setting up watching the clouds roll in . Edit ... yep the gears are not touching in the photos ... All sorted now and working perfectly .

Spot On regarding the database .. it should be upgraded based on location ... a "tonights best" would be great . I also think entering co-ordinates is cumbersome . Solar and Luna are both very good . The speed of set up is a real plus point , and as you rightly say , its a wife pleaser . So, basically endorsing all what you wrote ... i would not call it a toy though . For someone , like me who wants to do astrophotography but hates the thought of teasing data from a pc its a game changer . Also i was overjoyed capturing the Leo triplet for the first time . I then set my scope up and viewed it in the EP , which was even more magical .

To be honest most of us couldn’t hear it due to a sound error .

A shockingly cool day (+10 and cloudy ) was followed by thick cloud last night and looking at the weather (Sunday)it seems the cloud will persist all day , and into the evening . At least it’s going to be warmer today 😕 zzz

yeah , i can't see a need to apologise ! All fracs are beautiful to their owners and in general . There is something quite traditional about those ... (whisper it ) real telescopes

Often wondered about this scope .. Ed Ting gave a favourable review . looking forward to reading the report from first light . Stu

More like … what will I see tonight . Which will depend on how accurate this forecast is . … and an update on the weather 2 1/2 hours later dampens my enthusiasm zzzz And ifast forward to this evening , heavy rain and then thick cloud .