Stu1smartcookie

Take care of "my next" (possible) scope please Steve

Out with the 8" sct to do a bit of planetary watching ... very clear in Witchford last night ,surprisingly . I had a few tracking issues mainly due to a poor alignment but i switched to a 2 star auto align and everything was rock solid keeping Jupiter in the frame for the entire session . I love evenings like this , just a simple set up and go and a relaxing view.

Not only EPs but scopes as well ... i reckon its an illness , albeit an enjoyable one 🤣

Hi Dave , the ST120 is a widefield Achromat and being a short Tube will have Chromatic aberation on bright stars and Planets . I have owned one. In fact this was going to be my "ideal" scope at one point as it has a good sized aperture for the money . I did find however that looking at doubles such as Albireo and its companion the colours of the stars were not that pronounced . Having said all of that , £80 is a steal for this scope . So , why not give it a try ... and dont forget you can get rid of a lot of CA in pocessing . Stu

Fantastic images

So , the second night of thunder and heavy rain , what did I see tonight ?? I watched Interstellar ( again ) , at least I felt a bit closer to the stars .

Agree about M31 , i have never seen it so clearly as i did last night .

The Baader 8-24 has , i believe the Best FOV in any of the zoom EPs out there in that mag range and will be an excellent addition to your EP collection As others have noted , there are times when its the only EP you actually need for a whole session . I have used many zoom EPs and the baader is the best , imo . A good choice

Gave my little Sharpstar 61 version 2 it’s first light this evening , a quick session on the nexstar mount . Beautifully sharp stars and a great view of M31 , onto the double cluster and the owl cluster and then to Jupiter . The planets are obviously not this scopes forte but with the 8-24 EP it was clear with two main bands visible along with the 4 moons . Neptune and Uranus were tiny but I could make out the colour of the discs .

A lovely little Sharpstar 61 (2) arrived today …. Put it on my Nexstar mount for a quick first light … lovely sharp stars

It would be akin to painting the 4th Bridge ... by the time hes cut the grass it will be time to start again , which would mean he doesnt need his scopes as he won't have time to use them I expect to see a "For Sale " sign , @JeremyS

I'm finding the Celestron EPs to be very good , across their range .

Only out for a short while tonight as the clouds were around ( it’s perfectly clear now though , typically) but having got my Wi-Fi module sorted out for the 8SE I concentrated on Jupiter . The high , thin cloud actually helped dampen down the brightness of the planet to such a degree that I was able to see more detail than of late . Very rewarding but ultimately short session .

People … I have success … of course it wasn’t down to me but a very short YouTube vid that showed me what to do .. my iPad when connected to the scope was set to sky align , I originally didn’t know how to change this but went into settings and entered into manual align .. at this point after centering the first star or planet in this case I just had to point at another star on the SkyPortal map and the scope slewed to that star ( ish ) and after centering I did the same for the third star and hey presto I am aligned .. and now I am happy. Just want to say a really big thanks to you all for your suggestions , ALL of them were genuinely helpful .. I hope by listing what I did it might help someone else who may have the same issue as the instructions are at best ,questionable . Tonight I have to continue building a wardrobe !!!!! I think we all know where this is going 😂😂😂… those instructions are even worse !!!

Royal Mail ( finally ) decided to relinquish their grip on a lovely , pristine 10 mm Luminos EP , well packed from @Rob (many thanks Rob) and low and behold , Amazon delivered a 15mm Luminos EP at the same time ! Talk about London Buses 😂

WHAT A RIP OFF !!!

Many thanks , I can get one from the Widescreen Centre tomorrow … if I can make the wretched module play ball lol

Hmmm I will need to check this , unfortunately later , as we are out this morning .. thanks for the continual ideas and suggestions here by the way , all very appreciated Stu

Hi , I’m using the standard 8SE on its alt Az nexstar single fork mount . I’m using the Celestron SkyPortal ap which runs a version of Sky Safari I checked the handset previously and made sure it was in alt Az mode

Really nice , Malcolm .. can I ask , what tripod ( mount head ) you are using please . Looks so brilliantly simple , and sturdy .

Ok folks , showtime again last night … I placed my small scope in the mount , levelled it , pointed it north , plugged in the Wi-Fi module on the one port that Celestron gave us ( what were they thinking) , turned on the mount connected up my IPad to the Wi-Fi module ( all good so far … the connection NEVER drops btw) pressed connect and align in the ipad screen … but , at that point I notice my reticle ( which shows the scope position on the ipad screen ) is pointing somewhere else !!.. the ipad thinks the scope is pointing at Polaris not level to the horizon ! This is what I get when I use the Wi-Fi module .. I can two star align if I use the handset although sky align NEVER seems to work . But I cannot use anything other than sky align when using the Wi-Fi module ( the other alignment methods are not shown ) very frustrating and tedious and , another evening completely spoilt by a bit of tech . mom sure there is something I may be doing wrong , but , it’s not the connection , as that is rock solid . Stu

Thanks Thanks , I thought you couldn’t use the hand controller and the Wi-Fi module or am I thinking that because it’s the case with the Starsense system .. I am going to try it again shortly . Fingers crossed eh ?

My iPad only connects to the Celestron , I didn’t connect it to the house Wi-Fi , but thanks for the answer as I know it’s a relevant point

I have a Celestron WiFi module and used it for the first time last night . I say used it , but it was so frustrating. Connecting to my iPad I tried to align and every time it failed ! The handset , which is a nightmare to remove and reconnect wasn’t touched so I was purely using the Wi-Fi . In the end I took everything indoors and noticed that my location in the iPad was still set to 55 degrees !!! I’m in a 52 degree location … I updated this , and re connected , without a scope .. I didn’t connect and align , just connect . Then I noticed on he iPad that the scope target icon was pointing north and the mount was pointing east .. so I moved the mount to face north ( just picked it up ) pressed connect again and finally the mount slewed to the intended target , or at least near it . My question is when using the Wi-Fi module does one have to point the mount north to start ? I understand the scope should be level . Also is it necessary to disconnect the hand controller entirely or just leave it plugged in without using it ? Sorry if I’ve not explained the above very well .. but I’m out shopping with the wife and it’s always a stressful experience lol😂

SVBony gear is really good value and to be honest very good quality