thekwango

guess i should probably download the app and actually look at it before making a decision on it's usefulness. i assume that it can be downloaded and 'looked' at even with a scope to connect to.

Ah ok. So when to slew to an object you don’t have any ‘fine tuning’ to do with the handset/app? I’d assumed (wrongly!) that with GOTO the scope would slew to the general direction and you’d then have to fine tune the positioning while looking though the eyepiece. With that not being the case then the WiFi model I linked may actually be worth the extra.

cheers again for all the replies. there really is a mass of brilliant and helpful folk on here. regarding the 2 scopes, the thing that jumped straight out at me was the bit about operating the wifi model with an app while looking down an eyepiece. i've had to use apps on a phone/tablet 'blind' before and it's horrible - at least for me. i need that haptic feedback so that pretty much rules that scope out as i don't think i'd want to buy it and then go looking to buy the synscan handset.

another quick question for all the helpful folk out there; is there any massive difference in the 2 scopes below - outside of one of them being wifi. or to put it another way does the wifi setup justify the ~ 70 quid extra? or would i be better going with the cheaper one and putting that 70 notes to something else (battery pack, eye pieces?) https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-goto.html

hi, yea it's just a wobbly cheapo scope in general. i can manage it fine and even managed to hook a lumpy dslr on to it but the little one struggled and just kept telling me it was broken!

definitely the fragility. a mouse sneezing half a mile away upsets the damn thing!

pm sent....very kind of you.

yea i have tried the bresser with my little but it is a really low end unit. bump it at all and all your seeing is a whiteish blur, so she sort of got fed up!

hi and thanks for the welcome and reply. sadly astro clubs in Northern Ireland seem to be very limited (can only find 1 and it convenes miles away) re testing the water, i do have a cheap bresser and always intended to upgrade - still look through it from time to time but the moon is about all it's capable of....now the oldest kiddy is just about old enough i thought now was as good a time as any to take the plunge and make the step up to something more substantial.

yea i keep drifting back towards this scope. new is just under budget...second hand is well under. head, gut and heart are all starting to lean heavily toward that option.....seems if i decide to 'stick' at it and want to upgrade or even decide it's not for me it's pretty easy to move it on if i have to...oh the joys of indecision.?

oh without a doubt. i'm not a post and run merchant. i just need to sit back and have a think which route to take, scope wise. the selfish me says to get the EQ5 the best scope the remaining budget allows but then the 'dad' side reminds me i have a massively inqusitive daughter who has been fascinated with my cheap bresser since she could talk but has never been able to see anything through it. this started off as what i thought would be a simply straight forward plan....oh how wrong was I ?

again, very informative and helpful so many thanks - however, i think the need to rotate the scope about (if i understand what has been said previously about EQ's) when moving/viewing different objects coupled with the fact i want to try and introduce my eldest girl might make the EQ's more 'awkward' (not the right word but i'm sure you know what i mean) if it was just going to be me wanting to look then i would jump all over the above but trying to keep a young 'un interested might just push the boundaries of her focus a tad? nothing more to say other than.....good god!!! how do you find the time to use them all?! ? no massive hurry and i actually started off nosing round the 2nd hand market but then realised how little i know - i have no idea what to watch out for (red flags so to speak) with 2nd hand scopes, i'd have no idea if someone was to sell me a 3 legged donkey!! so that's what kind of prompted me to start looking at new.

thanks for another very informative reply. i think i'd best revert back to my original thoughts and look at the 127 Mak. i'm already more than doubling my original budget ( from £200 second hand to 450ish new) that mount alone is in excess of the revised budget! ?

i'm now toying with just going new........trying to search the second hand market when you don't really know what to avoid is a bit of a minefield and following a bit of a search of other threads on here i'm now leaning towards this combo. i had initally almost set my heart on the SW 127 Mak and goto but i've read the 130pds might be just slightly a better all rounder?

oh cheers for the software links. google was failing me bad trying to find some that would work with my old camera.

I swear I must be going senile or gremlins are at work, that edit button was definitely not there when I posted!! ninja mods maybe ?

ah Coolio - the D3100 doesn't support infra-red for some reason but I have a remote cable kicking about somewhere cheers - as above I have a remote cable kicking about somewhere though I can't remember if I ever figured out how to set length/delay and number of exposures...….must get onto google! as a side note, how does one go about editing existing posts?

@Alan64 thank you’ve very much for the post, seems to be a whole load of excellent information. That’s my reading for tonight sorted ?

Excellent looking setup (especially the wine - though White is my preferred poison) interesting to see you say you use your D3200 camera. I’ve a D3100 kicking about somewhere and I’d read the Nikon D3xxx range aren’t supported by most Astro imaging software. Do you use a particular sw solution to control the camera via the laptop or do you manually take your shots?

Oh my. While it does appear an impressive scope, I fear having recently spent close to a grand on pc upgrades I’d be best sticking a bit closer to my budget but thanks for post and info.

actually hadn't given thought to fact the little one wouldn't be able to actually see planets etc due to them moving - so more luck than design that I looked at motorised tracking scopes! cheers for the input/insight

oh nice one. I need to ask the million dollar question though...what kind of things could I expect to see with this type of scope......and were I to try a jam a camera on there at some point is taking a pic or 2 possible?

cheers, yea I really didn't realise how big they actually were till I watched a few videos. sadly the size of them kind of means I have to rule them out and focus on something with a mount, which given the limited budget means i'll take a hit on what i'll see. but if I bring something that into the house the wife would give me 2 black and eyes and i'd see even less then! ? I might have to look at upping the budget somewhat to try and overcome this a bit.

thanks for the link to the vids - dayum they are big. you don't nearly get a sense of the size just looking at them on for sale listing! I think sadly I would need to retract my previous statement that storage wouldn't be an issue (not an issue for me but the wife might have something to say about it!) given the physical size of the 6 & 8 inch Dobs I'll have to rule them out for now, even though they seem to be very much the best 'bang for buck' scope and the views with look absolutely brilliant. I suppose I could always try and trade the wife in for a smaller model to make room ?

yea, i kind of figured i'd be sacrificing on the viewing abilities given the added 'stuff' on a scope like this over 'simpler' ones.