Stu1smartcookie

Horses for Courses springs to mind , Laurence . Zooms are convenient and obviously good for some .

My first evening out with the scope , this week ... a bit of high cloud that made viewing the moon a bit hit and miss at first but as the sky darkened the clouds seemed to disapear . What i did glean from last night is that maybe Zoom EP's are not for me as i found the SVBony 8-24 mm a bit , almost claustrophobic ... if that makes any sense to anyone . I now realise why most people use dedicated FL EP's as the views are brighter and in my opinion less restrictive ( due to the FOV? ). Mainly viewing individual and double stars last night as i have early starts during the week , so Late night astronomy is off the menu . Overall though a good session and a joy to set up and look through a scope .

Hi Steve ... i will call you later on my way home .

Thanks Geoff ... i suspected that was the case but i had a converstaion with a supplier who said that the thread on the centre bolt was different . As you have the AZ4 and an EQ5 could you possibly check for me . ( at this point i am assuming the bolt on the eq3 and eq5 are the same )

Welcome to SGL .

I’m going to give a penny’s worth of my opinion ( can’t resist ) . What about the skywatcher 102 refractor on the AZ-GTe .. it’s 399 pounds and you can simply use batteries with the mount . Ok , it hasn’t got freedom find but , I am not sure that’s going to be a problem .

Hi , could anyone tell me if the AZ4 tripod is suitable to house the EQ3-2 head . Many thanks in advance Stu

Hi I am now seriously looking into this set up ... If anyone out there has a similar item perhaps you could let me know if an AZ4 tripod (including Adapter to 3/8" thread) could replace the seemingly very lightweight ally tripod that comes with the scope and the Starsense modual Kind regards Stu

Frustrating isn’t it ? I was a bit late out in the early morning and just managed to see Venus and Jupiter together . Since then it’s constant cloud . 😕

My early morning walk is getting earlier just to get the last throes of darkness. In fact at 4:45 this morning I actually just got a glimpse of Jupiter and Venus low to the east .. alas no Saturn or Mars as the sky was too light . But , totally not astronomy related , I was heartened to hear a cuckoo during the wonderful dawn chorus , the first time I’ve heard one in years The early mornings are really wonderful especially at this time of year .

Hi Andy , welcome ... and congratulations on your purchases . The star adventurer is a fine piece of kit . Paired with a camera and the kit lens it will produce some lovely wide field shots , i'm sure . What are your skies like ? do you suffer any light polution ? Finding targets may be a niggle at first but , learning the night sky is half the fun ( and frustration lol) Download something like Stellarium or Sky Safari . Start with targets you can actually see . Its a shame the winter targets have all but gone now cos they would have been fine to start with . Practice focussing the camera . When you have found the focus i find its good to put a bit of masking tape on the camera to prevent the focus being inadvertendly moved . The lens will be quite forgiving even if your polar alignment is slightly off , but the beauty of the Star Adventurer is that its easy to polar align . Have you downloaded the Sam cosole App? or PS Align app ?... these will give you accurate details of where polaris is . Above all , enjoy the experience ( sometimes everything will not work as expected , but , take your time and try not to rush the set up procedure ) I am speaking from experience Stu

🤣 "nearly T-Shirt Weather" ??? In the UK as you jolly well know , thats T-shirt weather during the daytime. Well done on the lovely views . I am envious .

Yet another EP arrived today .. with the usual clouds .. 😕 Anyway it’s a nice wide field EP to go with the SVBony 8-24 zoom .

One of two EPs ordered ( second one arriving tomorrow) .. an 8-24 SVbony zoom ! A really nice weight to it . And it feels premium .. we will see how it performs , hopefully tonight ( very late) when or if the cloud clears .

what a lovely horizon ... Envious in the extreme

Your situation mirrors mine , i am really struggling to see galaxy targets due to LP , Auriga is a good target for me though . It doesnt help that i do not use a goto system with my main scope . I managed Mercury again last night , and just to the upper right , the Plaides were in view against a dark blue sky , which cheered me up a bit . It still looks good even though its getting rather low now . I too split Castor last night , but when i swung the scope to Leo the frustration set in a little . Still it was nice to be able to get out two nights in a row .

Yaaaay , 🙂 Thanks Ags I was more than surprised as i really do not have mush of a clear horizon , er, any direction . Brilliant to see the little planet though .

So , last night I bagged Mercury ( I think ) it was low down , about 6 degrees up in the northwest. I couldn’t definitely make out a phase as the sky was still quite bright , maybe just over half ? If anyone else could confirm then I will be happy . I wasn’t too happy with the rest of my evening though as a light that would double as another sun ☀️ shines right into my garden and inconveniently washed out a lot of the sky . And , although I have previously images M81 & M82 I couldn’t even find them last night !!! Judging by Astro Dads success ( above post) I reckon he stole them for viewing all for himself 😂😂😂

Me too … how many times are we eagerly looking at the sky during the day , whilst at work only to find a cloud mass in the evening ! Fortunately tonight I will ( supposedly) have a clear sky .

very nice

So , after what seems like an age …( about a week ) tonight will be first light for the “new” scope and mount , and the “new” nexstar as mount and camera .. it’s the first time ( apart from a short dummy run last night indoors ) that I will be using the camera on this mount . A bit chilly in the breeze out there but a beautiful clear evening of relaxed star gazing . Not even got a plan to view any particular objects. Just scan and see . Whereas I hope to get some photos of the area near the plough . My lens is the stock 18-55 … so wide field definitely on the cards . Clear skies to all ! stu

Nice One , Laurence ... i was on my usual morning walk and the moon looked wonderful . Last night for me , however , was spoilt by a thin blanket of grey cloud that persisted all evening zzzz, but , hopefully tonight i will be out . The ST102 is a much underated scope , Which displays little CA when using sensibly powered EP's

I got the 4/5SE version on Good Friday ... lovely mounts for lightweight scopes .

Congrats on your purchase . Its a great set up .

Having owned er , a couple of the zs73 and er, a couple of zs61 in the recent past i can absolutely recommend either of those scopes for visual ... if you look at the FLO site they state that you should think "binnocular views" ... whilst this is correct the clarity that these scopes provide means you will be mightily impressed . Even planets , whilst small , will provide lovely views . You cannot go wrong with Williams Optics Gear ... oh , and they look good too