heliumstar

To update the thread. I collected information from multiple sources and all agree that considering the extender lens is further inside the tube and not close to focuser/focal plane it's okay to use Herschel Wedge plus I found one person actually using Herschel wedge with FS-60Q. Now the question is which one? Lunt 1.25", Lacerta Brewster-angle. Want to keep everything 1.25" although Baader and Altair Astro ones look good with built-in solar finder. The other thing is you can get Lunt and SW Solar mount for the price of Baader...

I love it man. Love the 'keep up with times' phone finder Beautiful setup!

He's actually right in a way... BUT Your scope is perfect to get some EAA going and you will be able to see a lot with a simple entry level AA or ZWO camera with a 224 chip. You can even use it with 0.5x reducer attached to the camera. As far as eyepieces are concerned. I would get Panoptic 24mm, 13mm Nagler and 2.5x Powermate. It'll hurt at the beginning but you will be set for life and this combination will work for many telescopes down the road as well

Separate thread please. A little eyecandy with both scopes on that Sabre would do us good as well

There is indeed Circle T on the sticker. So I got myself a classic Interesting that this scope was used as a finder/guider?? on Celestron. I was surprised no one else bid on it. I was mainly after those Silver Top Plossls and Vixen 2x Barlow. Still very happy I got it and it was worth detour up from A127 You can see that the whole package was very well made and the tube is amazing since it's very light-weight. I'll closely inspect the mirror and do a star test and if all good I'll send it for recoat to OO. As for the mount I already contacted DarkFrame and am sending Dave photos of the mount so we can see what can be done. The idea is to get it all refurbished and get the whole thing into the showpiece state. Any othe recommendations for mount refurb?

John, yep. The focuser is of 'sled' design. I read that some people had issues with it but this one looks like in perfect condition and is very smooth. Worth cleaning and keeping.

I actually bid on it because of the mount A bunch of other stuff came with the scope as well. Two counterweights for the mount (sometimes these are not original when mounts bought second hand), two finders (8x30, 6x24) and a telescope called Topic 60/700 made in Japan. Focuser is 0.965" eyepiece side. Came with a diagonal and eyepiece but in pretty bad shape. Worth testing out though. Focuser again on this telescope is better than many, many new telescopes. You would think we would advance in this department but many achromats today have worse focusers than this old one. The same seller had 26mm Celestron Plossl and 2x Barlow (both Vixen made I think) but I was only able to grab Celestron 7.5mm for 14 GBP. Anyway .. here is a photo of the telescope. Any ideas what this is? It says Topic Astronomical Telescope 60mm / 700 ... probably one of the many that were made for different brands.

So, there was this interesting telescope on auction on Ebay.co.uk last week and I just bid the lowest amount - 35 GBP - yes 35! I was the highest bidder - kind of surprised there but oh well, luck struck and I picked it up the other day. This is Vixen made 6" Newtonian on Vixen Polaris mount. Condition I would say is not ideal but still servicable. Would need some love but the mount is smooth and I just love Vixen's slow-mo controls. These are rusty though. It has a sled focuser and surprisingly it is in mint condition and very smooth. One of the better focusers I used. The mount looks like a great one. Smooth and it can be set up in Alt-Az as well. I am still debating myself if I should tackle a little cleaning and regreasing or just send it somewhere. The same for the mirror. I can see the coatings deteriorated but still usable imo.

Might help someone : https://github.com/andrewferguson/YahooGroups-Archiver Looks like it can archive private groups as well as long as you add Y and T cookies from yahoo domain when logged into your account to variables (cookie_Y,cookie_T) in archive_group.py

For me any telescope is serious. There is not one I was disappointed with. Currently the beautiful Takahashi FS-60Q is my serious telescope. In Q config it's great on Moon and planets (what's left of them in the low sky) and splitting doubles left and right. But then you take the Q off and it becomes a nice little EAA machine. Point to M57 and a beautiful ring appears on the laptop screen in a few minutes.

I'll take it. PM me the postage price.

Bumping this for the last time. Third time lucky?

...and Altair Astro... Looks like Omegon jumped the wagon. That's good!

Sorry for not explaining properly. Out of 5 there were 2 that were really good. The one that came with 102 Mak and this latest one I ordered from AstroShop.eu - so some 40% success rate. Additional two were with minds of their own - sometimes working and sometimes not and one never worked for me. In my opinion it's worth trying a few since you'll eventually end up with the one that is accurate every time. Numbers game

There are serious quality control issues with this mount. While my latest version (fifth I bought - don't ask lol) is fine and goto is accurate there was one that was total rubbish, two that were sometimes ok and sometimes not and another one that was spot on as this latest one I have now. I bought mine from FLO, TringAstro, AstroShop.eu and twice second hand. Two best were from 102 Mak package from FLO and standalone from AstroShop.eu - it looks like a lottery to me then huh... I never bother with OTA North or three star alignment. What works for me with the 'good ones' is level the tripod and mount, 1 star alignment and then goto to two objects and confirm. After that every object is in the FOV. That is also my aim. To be ready in a minute. I only have hour or two windows when I can observe and every minute counts. While there are issues I encountered and read about I still love this mount. There's nothing like it available anywhere else - not in the price range and not in this form. I would gladly buy something out of this world in quality and accuracy terms and in the same form factor even if the price was 10x. I was head on RST-135 but read of similar issues so this nut looks like it's hard to crack.