PEMS

I think for the Flat61A the first sequence is correct. Even that reads as 1mm too much and seems nothing you can do to reduce it. Will say that WO seemed to change the numbers at some stage and I am presuming the Flat61A is sort of the original where the distances were from the Flat61A at 0mm. Then you added and set it up for 55mm from that fully would in position.

Specification seems to be 90mm and a focal length of 1000mm at f/11. Nice and slow and to a good extent easy on eyepieces. I would say that the previously mentioned 32mm (plossl) would be good for the wider field. For "magnification" it is more complex. The Starguiders at 8mm and 12mm should be a good option. I would not go less then 8mm, that would give 125x and enough for the vast majority of objects. Greater magnifications will often begin to produce less quality images once you match the aperture in mm. So I suggest that 90x and 100x are a more practical limit. The 8mm for 125x will likely be used less then you think or hope. Seems 60x is a more generally used magnification for observing. That would be an eyepiece of 1000/60 so around the 15mm mark, maybe an 18mm. Have to remember that something like M33 at 1 degree fits better with an amount of the background "black" sky surrounding it. Any good with numbers? The Starguiders are a 60 degree eyepiece. So M33 is 1 degree means you need a field of 1 degree so a magnification of 60x. M45 (Pleiades) is 2 degrees (maybe a little more) that means a magnification of 30x - and the low power 25mm Starguider will not allow all of M45 in a single view in the AM90. Even a 32mm plossl for 31x will just make 1.6 degrees. Life becomes interesting when you start from the object size and work back to "What eyepiece?" As info and in case: Your field of view is EP filed/Magnification. So to an extent do not get drawn into the desire of large impressive sounding magnifications. They do not usually deliver. And may be best considered as useful for and in specialised situations - double star splitting say. Should be a nice scope, the lens is as said "slow" but will be easy.

Friend looked at them and said they are based on population density and the presumed, assumed or expected light polution associated. He also said they kind of failed to take into account undulations and hills, the general geography. A few villages around here have no lights but with the number of people they come sort of well up the scale. But they are dark, very dark. Agreed everything comes out as 3 or 4. Think even parts of the North sea are 3 or 4, and some of the 3-4 bits are well off shore. Use them as an approximate guide to see what improvements may be available to you. But I wouldn't take them as an accurate guide. Well not a 100% accurate guide. Finding somewhere dark is half the work, finding somewhere suitable to observe at or from is the next.

I would sort of suggest a different route. A dobsonian is a purely manual system. You can expect to take 2 maybe 4 weeks to familiarise yourself with using and operating one. This leads to how long do you expect it to take your children to learn? Honestly and from experience if you find and centre Saturn at the first touch of the scope by anyone Saturn will not be in view. Rather simply learning to use a "simple" dobsonian takes time. In a way they are simple, that however likely means that you have to do more work to compensate for the "simplicity". The scope is aimed at a larger £ for £ objective, other aspects were not part of the consideration. One description I have read is that you are aiming the scope up at an object you cannot see, as you are looking at the ground. The object will be along a line approximately going from one ear and through the other. And the movement of the object is not matched by the movement looking through the scope. And of course the object "moves" continuously across the sky. In one way you are doing outreach or a small home star party for your kids. So think more along those lines. A small goto, wifi variant like the Az GTi with something along the lines of an 80mm or 70mm refractor (not one of the fast f/5 achro offerings) would be I suggest a better option. Yes smaller, but kids have no problem with a wifi controlled mount - Skysafari and the touchscreen of a phone or tablet and off they will go. Have you checked out somewhere like the group that meet at Regents Park. No idea if they still meet or have strated again. I would strongly suggest a visit to any club or better outreach that you can find. They seem to be starting up again. I was asking about an event close and found that there are no dobsonians in use by anyone. Everything apparently is full goto. Do a search for UK Astronomy Clubs and see if there is one or two accessable to you. Likely comes down to the saying: Your best scope is the one you use the most. And from the clubs I have managed to visit, see and attended before everything was cancelled a dobsonian does not fall into that. Actually need to start considering a club for myself now. Also expectations may be high. Very little seems to be a "Wow". The best is The Moon. Yes that ever present, perhaps boring, and often complained about, object gets the "Wows". Pleiades possibly next - needs LOW magnification (30x or less) so forget big magnifications. M31 always sounds spectacular, it isn't. Fuzzy grey patch, pretty indistinct grey patch at that. Also oddly M31 is unlikely to fit in any initial field of view in even an 8" reflector = you will not see all of it in one go. Assuming a starter eyepiece of 60 degree type and an 8" f/5 mirror so 1000mm focal length, you need 3 degrees for M31 and that implies 20x, which in turn means a 50mm focal length eyepiece, and they don't exist. May be useful to add in the London area you are in. Thinking E9 or whatever. Rather simply London covers a large area and suggesting say Loughton club is pointless if you are around Weybridge.

Personally I would have tried it. Yes there is coronavirus but the rather general opinion is that we will always have it around - like flu. The original talk was as if it could be in effect wiped out. Create a vaccine and that is the end, just that is not reality. More and more are getting round to saying it is likely to be a permanent background infection. Someone did say that about 20 months ago actually, about a month before the first lockdown was put into operation. Think that they said it will be around for the next 10-20 years. Two clubs around my area seem to be starting up again and one is definitly starting with outreach, seems after DST ends. Suppose I should also have checked out last weeks LDAS gathering - could ask Grant how it went. They are just 8-10 miles down the A1 from me. The number of "deaths" is slewed. If you get a positive test and are on a mobile phone to say you cannot attend a meeting and step out in front of the No 68 bus then you are a coronavirus statistic. But the bus was the problem, not the virus. The old saying: There are lies, damn lies and statistics. In a way as the virus is here to stay, how long are there to be no astro societies ? By the way the 2 meter distance was reduced over a year ago to 1 meter. Just no-one really dumped to old 2 meter idea. Look at it this way: We are now allowed to hug. 🤔 Maybe that is a bit much, at least for an astro outreach night. Difficult as I doubt a number of astro clubs will survive, little income and people drift away. If no outreach then no new members, no-one will join a club that is inactive. Maybe Grant will indicate how many turned up at last weeks LDAS members evening meet. Just wonder if the usual number, or more or less.

This is going to be either difficult or fun, depending on how you look at it. On a personal level and with the description I would avoid the SCT ot Mak variety of scopes. They tend to have a long focal length, people think that will mean a high magnification but it also means a narrow field of view. So alignment becomes more difficult. I suggest that the easiest scope variety to either start with or get along with are the refractors. So for ease consider one of them. Which?? There are few at the 70mm area, a 72ED would be nice but would I half suspect not deliver the magnification for Saturn. Saturn needs around 120x and if possible 150x in magnification terms. Which puts you in the region of an 80mm refractor. Jupiter only needs 80x although 60x will show something. If I recall ES do an 80mm achro, was around the $220-$250 area. Called a first light or similar. Thoughts are you get the mount and scope (it is a package) then get a goto mount and put the scope on that. I actually do not think ES sell the scope separate. The scope is specified as f/8 and a reasonable slowish speed for an achro. I have assumed that something like a WO ZS81 or AT80ED are over budget. Mount really means Alt Az again for ease and the Skywatcher AZ GTi is in a way the obvious. Alignment is by "Level and North". You should be able to set it level and aimed North. North being at Polaris NOT with a compass. Get a long focal length eyepiece and use that for alignment. The stars should be in the wider field is the idea. Describing "alignment" is generally a scary idea. Sounds complex but isn't in reality. Best advice is : Read the instructions and do it as described, do not try to cut corners. Guess you will get several ideas. You have to make the final decision. Oh yes the mount will be around $400. However equipment is in short supply in the US. Search out a club if you can. Someone may just have something for sale. Someone is likely able to help in any set up.

There was a program or something about similar a few days ago - when the ship the blocked the Suez arrived at the UK. That alone appears to have caused a months delay in arrivals. Then someone pointed out that even if your container was booked for say a departure date of say March 1 that there was a high chance that it would not actually get on a ship for 3 maybe 4 weeks longer. After that came the Covid problem. If a ship had docked at a high risk country the next one may not allow it to dock and off load. That effectively meant a wait as the stacking performed is to arrange containers top down in order of off loading. As the next ports containers are under the present ones it causes problems. Think Mexico is now on the UK Red list so if a ship from Mexico arrived what would the UK enforce on it. That has to be taken into account. And yes I know Mexico is not on the China-UK shipping but it is an example. One person who buys in goods said thay had previously never paid more then £2,250 for a container, the prices had now jumped to over £15,000. Maybe a slower ship would cost less, say £7000. But that adds a delay. Both items you have ordered are Skywatcher. And Skywatcher equipment comes via OVL at Bury St Edmunds. All UK retailers are in a way dependant on what OVL say will be arrival times. And I seriously doubt OVL will be 100% honest and say "We have not idea, could be several months." So I expect that the dates or wait times from FLO (and others) are as given to them by OVL. Every chance that your items will actually never see FLO but get drop shipped from OVL. Have found that FLO do answer emails, should have had one with confirmation of the order, questions@FLO or similar I think. However I stongly suspect that at present they cannot realistically give a specific date. Guess that you have been by chance and circumstance ended up a poor position. However doubt that for the items requested that anywhere else will be able to improve.

Is 2000 frames the best say of 20,000 frames, or did you only get 2000 frames and stack the lot ? Also how long was the video duration ? As 2000*5ms is only around 10 sec I assume you had a longer end to end duration. Jupiter rotates fast, once round in 9.9 hours, that is fractionally over 36 degrees every hour or 0.6 degrees rotation every minute. The effect is that you do not have much time to capture a fair set of sharp enough frames before the rotation of Jupiter just moves the image round and so even stacking good sharp images results in a somewhat final slightly blurred stacked result. If the first and last frames of a 2 minute capture were perfect the result of stacking those 2 alone would have the features in different places. If you had centering and tracking perfect then after 2 minutes the GRS (as an example) will have moved 1.2 degrees around the image of Jupiter. So the detail of Jupiter itself begins to get spread out. Also as ever Jupiter is low at this time, and we have this rather annoying atmosphere to content with. I expect that the problem is altitude of Jupiter, then you have to find the optimum balance or compromise between a short duration video to maintain the Jovian features as stationary but long enough to get sufficent good frames to stack. If you have the time maybe worth trying capture lengths of say 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes. Save each separately then perform a similar (identical) stack and process and see which result appears best. For stacking I would suggest best 5% or 10% of the frames. At least then you will have an idea of the limitations imposed on you, and the rest of us.

Have met the EQ5 with the Dual Motor upgrade. I would say it is fair, not sure any more then that. Unsure of 3 minute exposures, would feel happier if you were thinking of 2 minute and less. You need the hand box or whatever it is termed. It doesn't move the mount overly fast. The motors are DC and 6v - NOT 12 Volts. So if you give it 12v in error that will be the end and you will need a new controller box, not sure if the motors would survive. Being DC motors the rate is controlled by the supplied voltage. In my opinion this limits the rotational accuracy. Hence the idea that exposure times needs to be on the lower side rather then the higher side. Simply they are not as well defined as stepper motors. Start low and increase the time until the captured image becomes too poor. And that depends on the scope focal length and weight. My thoughts are they are more for the convenience of tracking rather then more full blown AP. Don't expect the final accuracy that the goto with steppers supplies. Keep the expectations realistic. Better repeat - be careful of the voltage you supply. You will only get it wrong once.

Tend to agree with Tiny Clanger, slow down. There are lots of scopes and being honest each has there plus points and their negatives. You won't get told the negatives, but the negatives can make whatever almost useless. Be very careful of the aperture is everything trap. Good quality aperture is good and good quality aperture costs. Otherwise a 200mm spherical mirror would be preferable to a 150mm parabolic. And I would hope that everyone knows otherwise. I think at least one suggested is termed a table top scope. Consider that yes it is nice and small and the eyepiece would be about a meter off the ground. Throw in that in effect no scope delivers the often stated magnifications. So if you think a 130 will give 260x then you are way out. Do you want a mount that tracks the objects? A$1500 should get a mount+scope combination but I suggest that you pick the 2 items. Not a package. Where are you in Aus ?? Location will possibly help in identifing a potential club nearby. Although most of Aus has, I gather, returned to a strict lockdown. So an available club could be difficult. In I suppose general avoid a fast scope, they are hard work. Reflector or refractor variety. A nice slow one is going to be preferable. Thinking around f/8 here. I would suggest something small, easy and inexpensive. I have a Skywatcher Az GTi with a Skywatcher 72ED. Now that will likely give me 100x and that is boarder line for Saturn which I find 120x is required for and a fairly good 120x. So maybe not for Saturn, although close. An 80ED will go on a Az GTi but overall cost jumps. My 72+Az sits at around £800, maybe a bit less, not much however. That is Almost exactly A$1500. Nice small setup but maybe doesn't come to the expectations. Also Aus has some high import duties if I recall. If you opt for a dobsonian maybe consider the 150 that if f/8 so 1200mm focal length. And throw in that whatever you get, add in a few eyepieces, and the 72ED needs a 2" diagonal as it doesn't come with one as standard. Well mine didn't. Check retailers for used equipment, one might have something. Have you found "iceinspace" ? Think that is the name - Aus based astronomy forum and may therefore have used equipment for sale.

Most simple thought is that the focus is well out. Put in whatever is the longest eyepiece, although reading the information it says 4mm and 8mm and I half suspect that both will be too short. The details would imply that the scope is "sold" on rather extreme ideas of magnification. If the 87x is based on the 8mm eyepiece then the focal length appears to be 700mm. General optics would say that at 87x and an SR eyepiece that your field at the eye is around 0.5 degrees. You really need to get hold of something like a 25mm or 30 or 32mm plossl. That would give you a decently wide field of view. Makes getting things in your view immensly easier. If the focal length is 700mm ( any chance of details, usually on the tube somewhere). Then my opinion is that only the 8mm eyepiece may be of real use. The 4mm is likely too much and the 3x barlow seems pointless. Presuming the 8mm only then one possible idea is during the day aim the scope at something distant, big and distant, and adjust the scope to get whatever in view and adjust the focus. That is then approximately where the focuser needs to be set or used. Distant means a mile or two, not the house on the other side of the road. Remember that scope are intended for distances of light years not meters. Will suggest a couple of additional eyepieces, simple plossls to keep cost down. Say 30mm, then say 15mm and 12mm. You will end up spending about the same on eyepieces as the scope cost. Any chance of you specifing the eyepiece diameter "size" ? Ask as there may be a chance that they are 0.965", not the normal 1.25". If the smaller diameter then locating additional ones will be difficult. The information in the link seems somewhat lacking. Do not expect in general anything like the magnifications given. They are in general unrealistic.

At a guess and it has to be a guess until a little more detail of the scope is known the 10mm eyepiece very likely not very good and it appears that these days the supplied eyepieces are basic, as in Kellners, and scope are fast. That combination generally does not give a good final result. There are a couple of small reflectors that are somewhat stupidly fast and if you have one I would suggest careful thought. Probably need to consider some better eyepieces, again depends on the exact nature of the scope. Better eyepiece will cost $ and select carefully and avoid the urge of high magnifications. One rather simple guide would be the get nothing in eyepiece focal length that is numerically less then the f number of the scope. Although I would say even that fails with the faster scopes that are put of these days. As you say California then maybe try the Paradigm range, in the US they are also the Agena ED's I think. Basically they are sold under 2 names. Perhaps the 8mm and 12mm. And oddly the 12mm may be the more useful for general overall use. An alternative may be the ES 52 degree eyepieces. I have no experience of the ES52's but they seem to get good reviews. The Paradigms work well to f/5 and many say even a little faster. Mainly they are reported as "comfortable". A very useful property and often overlooked. Any way, any firther information on scope etc would be useful.

The Perseids appear to have a fairly high count per hour - around 100 as a maximum. Table at AMSMETEORS However I would say do not expect anything like that in reality. I wandered out one year on the night of the peak and saw a total of zero in around 2 hours, and it was after midnight. The table linked above says the optimum time is around 04:00 as that is when whatever part of the big ball of rock we are on is turned into the shower. Always find it difficult to correlate the time and date as I tend to think of 04:00 as being the night of the previous day, in astro terms it will be a case of being the "night" of July 11th, before I would wake up on the 12th. The AMS table(s) are useful. Sometimes just fun to realise there is a minor shower and just go have a hopeful look. Geminids seem to be earlier in the day - as in 01:00, but they are later in the year. In the minor meteor showers there are some that are sort of late evening, thinking the Kappa Cygnids and Northern Taurids. I will say that a rate of 2, 3 or 4 per hour is at least in my opinion not really a shower. Still have a read and make up your mind and choices. The "Weak showers" are really weak. Best times seem to vary slightly. I recall one of the main showers being given specified somewhere with the best time being around 21:00, as was another of the showers. The AMS table has nothing that early in the evening. So there are differences.

Somewhat understandable, rather unfortunately. The mounts are anything but quiet. HEQ5's make a noise, quite a bit of noise. Skywatcher didn't produce them to be quiet. As said lower the max slew rate, really helps. Try 7 or 8 or even 6 or 5. The scope doesn't have to race across the sky. And yes most DSLR's are similar. A silent movement was not often in consideration - maybe a bit odd as many use DSLR's for nature photography, and noise can easily mean the target hears the first shot and disappears from sight. Would actually suspect that some use the noise for a better image. Take a side on shot of a deer, it hears the shutter and looks towards you, take another shot of a face on deer. How many of those are shown and deer etc do not pose for a photo. Heat being a factor, maybe. Likely just means a window was open and your activity was more audiable. So a warm night would just mean everything was easier to hear. An artifical and periodic noise registers more with people. Even a low noise registers - head to a quiet location and every small rustle will register to you. Small mice make a huge noise, or so you think. A hedgehog sounds big enough to easily beat up Godzilla effortlessly without a second thought. If the DSLR can be quietened, mirror lock or similar then try that and run the mount slower. At home that is about the best you can manage. At least without an equipment over haul. And apologise to the neighbour, it helps, and helps a lot. Throw in that you never realised that the set up would produce the apparent noise it did. Could in a way thank him/them for bringing it to your attention and you at least know and will see what can be done to improve the situation.

My worry of the JWST is that eventually it will be decided to launch and be damned. If I were any insurance company - and that includes Lloyds - I wouldn't consider any form of cover under any condition.

Just a couple of opinions, and one question or condition: Is the scope bit f/8 ? Therefore having a 1200mm focal length. I assume it is. On that presumption it should be relatively easy as basically it is not a "fast" scope". You will not need overly many eyepieces. 3 or 4 reasonable ones will cover you. I do suggest that you drop any idea of the magnifications they often quote. One rather simple idea is expect a magnification equal to the diameter (150x therefore) if you get more out of it then be content. The quoted "maximum" is likely 300x, you will not get that. 150x is sufficent for Saturn and so covers Jupiter, Mars is a bit more questionable but Mars remains somewhat out of view until next year, and I believe the end of next year. For eyepieces I would suggest say a 6mm, 8mm, 12mm and a 25mm in the now fairly common 60 degree field format = BST Starguiders are the obvious although they do not have a 6mm. Suggest that you do not get carried away thinking the 5mm will do, it might prove too much and get little use. Sturdy base? They come as 2 parts - OTA and base, so a little puzzled. If you mean a base to sit the whole thing on when outside and so keep it off the ground I would say look up a "step stool". One of the rather simple basic folding flat platform ones, they come in small and high. Both are not exactly high. eBay sells them and at one stage Aldi did but likely one of the "here today gone tomorrow" items. Look up a hopefully nearby or accessible club: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/ Expect to need some time to get familiar with the way a dobsonian works. Have realistic expectations.

It will not be easy to get a single full image of the moon with the SV205. Seems that the sensor is the IMX179 and that it is 4mm square. From my past days of simple geometry and if the moon is 0.5 degrees that means the maximum focal length of a scope would be 458mm focal length. Believe the equation is: FL = 4/(Tan(0.5). Allowing for a little space around the actual image it would seem to imply a maximum focal length of around 400mm. I am not realistically aware of a reducer that would effectively reduce by that amount. I think, only think, that the 127 Skymax is a 1500mm focal length scope so you would need a reducer that in effect quartered the native focal length. They sort of do not exist. Have read of the Starizona items but they are specialised and cost $$$. Scopes that might are the 60mm ED's that are around, William Optics do one, guess Altair do and maybe a few others. They have focal lengths of 360mm. A Skywatcher 72ED should just squeeze the image on the sensor, but it will be close and assumes that the full sensor size is available. A mosaic is as said often done but that adds a level of complication. They do not generally just easily and smoothly slot into position next to each other. You seem to have acquired yourself a scope - 127 that has a long focal length so a large final image, and sensor that is small so needs a small final image to fall on it. They are a bit mismatched. If I have the right geometry idea above then for a 1500mm scope and a 4mm sensor your largest object will be 0.15 degrees or 9 arcmin = 540 arcsec.

Purchased a set of ND filters from Svbony and thay do the job well. Think that you have to limit your expectations to the price level. Many astronomers seem to want the lowest price and the highest quality and that does not really happen. The Svbony items are decent value for their cost, and their cost is below the top end, high quality items for a reason. Their NB filters will be not as narrow as some, cameras will not match ZWO or ATIK or QHY, but neither will their prices. In effect be realistic. An example in the NB filters is their Hb, it is wide enough that I believe it also allows one of the OIII wavelengths through. So not narrow enough to be HB only. Find many items are sort of ideal for trying out something new, also good for when really complete accuracy of the item specification is not really required - my ND filters for example. If the ND1 was 5% either side, even 10%, it would not have mattered. In simple terms I wanted something around the ND1 area. So if you buy an item I suggest you work on that basis.

Best is I suppose enjoyment and hopefully some socialising, even the opposite - escaping from the world (people). Most "hobbies" have in many ways little "purpose". Throw in What is the purpose of golf? Even fishing has in many ways little purpose, visit a shop and buy a bigger range then you will in general ever catch. And buying them is a lot easier.

Will need compromises, or sometimes called a heavy dose of reality. For imaging of almost all varieties you will need a motor driven mount, and for the best described as classic DSO imaging that also means a reasonable equitorial mount. They do not have to be the largest construction known to mankind which is often implied. A Dobsonian was and to a great extent is a visual only setup. So to make your life easy accept that. Another factor is they seem to need each user to learn how to use them. Basically if you find a target then say "Have a look at this" the chances are that the scope will move fractionally and so the target is no longer in view. A small table top reflector, often also termed a "dobsonian" will often be fast, and to a fair extent "fast" is best avoided. They need good, maybe very good eyepieces, and they need a greater amount of simple maintenance time. Basically collimation moves more or is more critical. And a table top scope needs (well) a table. So suddenly not so small. A refractor will be smaller, they need better glass and they have 4 surfaces to be accurately ground. However they are very often a lot easier to use. As to size, I suggest you do not fall into the idea that a scope must be the biggest. I have had a 70mm refractor now for just on or over 20 years. Strangely still my most used scope. So far I have little reason for even an 8" Newtonian, never mind anything bigger. Bessier or ES do an 80mm f/8 achro refractor. Think it is called "Firstlight". At f/8 the CA should be minimal and the size is a good general start. On another site as someone points out it comes on a manual Nano mount, however later down the line you could buy a Skywatcher Az GTi mount, put the scope on that and you have a small goto. The scope is also ideal for adding a solar filter to and doing solar observing, would be white light only. Unsure of the real capabilities of the Az GTi for imaging. Seems to fall into the criteria of it can operate equitorially, would need other bits that cost, and was never really intended for imaging by Skywatcher. Your decision if you go that far. I would suggest that you consider visual and imaging as 2 separate occupations.

The mount turning groundward sounds like either data - time and location, or power - insufficent. Use Polaris if at all possible for North, although St Louis is not bad for the compass to True North comparison, you have a 1.6 degree difference and I would have thought the scope should handle that. Although usually the US states have a difference greater then that. Often up in the 10-16 degree difference. As most compasses, even those on a phone/tablet still utilise magnetics you will find that often a visual on Polaris is better. I suppose also that you could be sited at an area where the underlying rocks are slightly magnetic and so throwing the compass off. I have found often that the magnetic compasses can have too many influences. So check if possible by using or comparing Polaris. My first cover had a magnetic clasp to hold it closed - that really upset the compass function. Power - the use of batteries is OK if they are new and high power ones, and even then expect only around an hours use. Could try a Lithium item as they tend to output a bit more and have a larger capacity. Thinking one of the Talentcell item say 4800mAH and greater. If data then need to know the wifi device. If Android check that the mount is getting the data. My Android you have to tell the mount to get data from the Android device, then you have to tell the Android device to let the mount have the data. Miss one out - easy - and the mount has little idea and will I suspect default to some location. Which will not be St Louis. These days more likely Beijing. Suppose the bottom line is that although described as "Computerised" then mounts are far from "Automatic", have seen it said they are still about 60-80% manual. At least to start with. Give the mount an easy time and set it as level and North as reasonable in whatever time you have. The Az Gti is small, and relatively simple, I suggest it is very much a mount for wide to medium field scopes and visual.

Just added to the "other" post to this, basically said work out some bright ones, work out (guess) where they should be, aim binoculars. Then hope. Usually seems to work, well 80% of the time. Did throw in a small selection: Think they were: M31 - Andromeda Galaxy, M33 - Triangulum Galaxy, M45 - Pleiades, M42 - Orion Neb, M??? - 3 Open Clusters in Auriga, M13 - Globular Cluster in Hercules (along one edge of the square) C14 - Double Cluster in Perseus (haf way between Cassiopeia and Perseus), C?? - The Hyades Cluster, cluster is dim and bigm easy to find as you locate Aldebaren - Big Red Star to the right of Orions Belt. M are Messier objects, C are Caldwell Objects. Basically work out the big, bright, easy ones first. Write them down, get a book, estimate where and then find and tick them off.

I suspect that your expectations are a little high. As Noodles has said the mount itself is an Alt-Az and so you need a good wedge for it. I will assume that you have one, if not 30 seconds is good before trailing on an Alt-Az mount. Next is that even with a wedge you can align the wedge to North, but what guarantee is there that the mount sat on it is then equally aligned? If the wedge was perfect and there was say 2 degree angular offset between the wedge and the mount then your wedge may be polar aligned but your mount is not polar aligned. I suppose basically never assume that because one component or item is correct or right that this makes all components equally correct. Trust nothing! Sounds like you are up at the upper range of the mount capacity. And also reads that you are not guiding. If you were then I would say you are over the mounts capacity. If you read around then a dedicated equitorial mount, say EQ5 variety, when unguided will have comments like expect 30-60 seconds for exposures with good polar alignment. The Az Gte is not in the performance of an EQ5. So expect possibly similar but likely less exposure duration. Certainly not 2 minutes. The only place I read that are Youtube videos and I would not believe Youtube if they said that sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Have seen people say that Skywatcher state the mount is not for Astrophotography. The rather simple answer is if you want to do astrophotography then get a proper dedicated equitorial mount. You have posted this in the Equipment section, and the Az Gte is in effect the wrong equipment for any serious astrophotography. Apologies.

I would agree with Stephan when he says "Binoculars are complementary to telescopes". They are not the same and deliver a different aspect. Nice for ease of use and looking around the sky, think I have 3 sets somewhere. If however you want detail, even planetary then you will need more in the magnification then a normal binocular supplies. Always a difficult thing to answer. I suppose my fear is that someone will spend £80 on a binocular and immediatly want say 50x to see even minimal banding of Jupiter. And that £80 may have been better used on even a basic 80mm achro which would display Jupiter. Also a lightweight set and even low power set is often the best. I suspect many of us have had binoculars around before a scope. So they have always been around. My first set(s) were not for any astronomy at all but another sport that required them - Archery. When shooting a FITA or a York you need them.

The trick is to have an idea of suitable objects in mind. Which also means some idea of where to look to find them. Naked eye there are very few, unless your location is somewhat dark, which is getting rare when people are concerned. M42 is the obvious, Orion Nebula. Then is M45, the Pleiades, and between them is the Hyades cluster, easy to sort of find as the red star Aldebaran sits at the edge of the cluster. I suppose that Orions Belt counts. Also good for navigation as Left to Right directs you to Hyades then Pleiades, Right to Left directs you to Sirius, our brightest star, well after the sun technically. Not overlly sure of other naked eye in the view from general populated locations. Binoculars - M13 globular cluster in Hercules, Double cluster in Perseus, M31 in Andromeda, 3 (or so) open clusters in Auriga. You will need to have a book to show where the objects are, then you the binoculars and be able to aim them. Strangely not always easy. Finding a simple guide to the sky may not always be easy. As the book or giuide needs to be one that you can follow easily. I would suggest the least complex one you can find.