fifeskies

+1 for how helpful FLO are

They will give honest advice both pre and post purchase , and their prices are very good as well.

Makes all the difference to find a retailer who is enthusiastic about their products and cares about their customers experience.

Might be a fold in the material or a seam.

Just try again and make sure the material over the lens is nice and even.

(Was it a cloudy sky , a clear sky isn't really as suitable ,  a uniform even grey high cloud is best to avoid gradients)

I use an acrylic sheet to do mine , opal colour and fits on with 2 screws like a bahtinov mask , it just hangs on the Dew shield at the front

Cost me a few £ on auction site and I find it easier than the t shirt method , keep it handy in a padded envelope to avoid scratches and dust,

If you have not already done so , download the free Stellarium software as it will give you some idea of what is in the sky from your location , and what direction to look in.

While it is a smaller telescope the Pleiades should be worth a look, in the night sky just now to the south.

Andromeda M31 is also well placed but in this smaller scope will just be a fuzzy patch , but hey , you are seeing another galaxy.

17 minutes ago, Newforestgimp said:

 Think I made schoolboy error in choosing this as the first subject, I will stick to bigger and brighter for a while before returning to it.

There are plenty good bigger brighter targets that can keep you going for a full winter, and a DSLR is no poor option either , the nice big sensor will allow you to capture some impressive big nebula.

Enable the nebula (DSO) display in Stellarium to highlight them for you

Are you using the mount for visual only or planning to get into astrophotography.

For visual the Ascom Eqmod utilities allow Stellarium to make finding objects very easy.

How To Control Your Mount With Stellarium & EQMOD - YouTube

If you are going down the astrophotography route , then the free AstroPhotographyTools software APT will run alongside these to control your camera.

You will see a lot more in one of the 150p variants than you see in the AZ90.

I actually had a 90mm Celestron as my very first telescope , like you I very quickly realised that as nice as the views were with it I really needed something a bit more powerful.

A 150mm gathers about 2.7 times as much light as the 90mm (so things are brighter , important to help get the best from nebula) , and also has improved resolving power (so you can see finer detail).

Jupiter and Saturn will be a lot better with a bit more power (especially as they move higher in the sky over the next few winters)

Do not ignore the advantage you get from better quality eyepieces , I bought an X-Cel eyepiece for my original 90mm and it made a fair difference compared to the stock supplied lenses, and eyepieces stay with you as you upgrade.

I actually was lucky enough to get a 200p locally second hand as my big step up from my 90mm

I actually have a similar horizon to yourself blocked by trees from South East to North 

M31 being so high will be moving relatively slow across the sky so you can push the exposure time on it.

Deep Sky Objects by Magnitude for Inverness tonight (telescopius.com) 

this site will keep you up to speed on the best targets each day , just input your own co-ordinates for best functionality.

Look for objects transiting south at times you can get out imaging.

Also give the North America Nebula a try , its better in an astromodified camera (being an Ha emmision nebula) but should still work if you stack a good few exposures, high up to south west just now mid evening.

You should give Andromeda M31 a go

Its very high just now so you should find it easily to the South (later evening) at a high elevation

Nice bright target compared to the Crescent and always a thrill as it pops out of the background when image is stretched (in eg GIMP)

Compared to what you see visually even short exposures stacked have a "wow" factor

If you are new to astronomy an EQ mount can be a bit awkward.

A dobsonian is an alt az mount and far simpler to use.

The eyepiece position changes as you move an EQ mount, and will end up under the tube in certain directions, with a dobsonian  it stays in the same position.

The 150 flextube version is a very good starter scope

Nice and compact for easy storage when not in use.

Supply of telescopes is very poor at the moment due to Covid interupting supply

Sky-Watcher Heritage-150P Flextube Dobsonian Telescope | First Light Optics

Video review here     Sky-watcher Heritage 150p Flex Tube Dobsonian Telescope - New for 2020 - YouTube

If you prefer the fixed tube version

Sky-Watcher Classic 150P Dobsonian | First Light Optics

This can be used direct on the ground due to the longer tube.

The well known auction site has some basic diagonals at low cost , but you will need to wait a few weeks for it to arrive.

PowerSeeker 50AZ Telescope | Celestron

according to this page you need the small 0.96 inch diagonal

but check this before ordering , this is not a common size except on the smallest telescopes.

Have you checked the mirror in the diagonal

Very occasionally new mirrors have a protective film on them that should have been peeled off before delivery.

Or perhaps it has been smudged with some oily residue and needs wiped clean.

GIMP is free and does almost the same job as Photoshop , I also have and old version of PaintShopPro which I find useful for quick basic editing.

GIMP is powerful , easy to use , and there are a number of good online astronomy themed tutorials for it.

It is not all that complex if you can solder.

An ABS project box is ideal as it is non conductive and easy to drill.

I would go to the effort of inline fuses for each output.

The input +'ve wire will split spider like to one side of every fuse.

The output side of each fuse will go to the +'ve side of each seperate output socket .

The input -ve is split like a spider to all the -ve sides of the output sockets.

Adding led monitoring for each output (to show if fuse has blown) only complicates things and creates unwanted light pollution. Though a very dim LED can be used for this.

To "spider"  the cables you can either solder and heatshrink cables together or use commoning connector blocks.

Sockets are best placed on the side of the box.

If all this sounds like too much perhaps there is someone you know who is an electronics hobbiest who can help you.

This size comparison illustration below may be useful

there is also another option to consider which is very portable , its a 150 that folds down for easy moving around , any telescope that your son can easily take out by himself is likely to see a lot more use than a bigger one he needs help with.

Nice and compact for easy storage when not in use.

Sky-Watcher Heritage-150P Flextube Dobsonian Telescope | First Light Optics

Video review here     Sky-watcher Heritage 150p Flex Tube Dobsonian Telescope - New for 2020 - YouTube

It will need a low table to raise it up a bit but this can be any Patio table that can be left outside.

When folded down it can easily fit in a car to take it out to any dark sky site nearby (or take on holiday).

The 50cm is the better fit and also uses slightly less power.  Also a few grams lighter.

Short by 2cm circumference is easily taken up by the stretchy tab at the join. Just keep the join at the top of the scope so any heat rises to cater for the gap , but I don't find its an issue.

My ST80 guider uses a band that is a few cm short and it has never bothered it any.

I made a box with dimmers for LED tape , modules from china on an auction site , works fine to adjust my heaters.

I had an existing block built shed that I converted for my ROR.

Painted white I don't find any issues about heat retention.  I tend to open the roof a bit before I start using the scopes to let the temperature settle.

My pier does sit fairly high so that the side walls are not above the scope horizontal axis by more than a few cms so when open it is very "airy"

(curved roof lets it slide over scope when parked horizontal)

The fully retractable roof on the telescope section also must help minimise any thermal current problems, any air movement is spread out over the whole area.

(may not be so good with a dome top).

I do have some wooden lining around the walls on the inside. Handy for fixing things to.

Located in the damp cloudy Scottish lands , so what exactly is this sun thing that heats the blocks up.

The dew bands have a fair range of adjustment so don't worry about being too exact.

They have a good length of velcro cover to allow adjustment.

You will probably want to consider a controller for them as running at full power may be a tad warm except on the coldest nights.

Dobsonians are a good way to start the hobby. The bigger aperture will give a much better experience on DSO.

The 250px while being an excellent scope may be a bit large for a 13yo starter scope, not easy to move out into the garden without help.

The much more affordable 150p is still a good performer Sky-Watcher Classic 150P Dobsonian | First Light Optics and the money saved to go on a couple of better performance eyepieces, these eyepieces will stay with him as he upgrades his telescope over time  (ohhh .... it will happen if he gets bitten by the bug).

All the skywatcher models have basic starter eyepieces , fine to begin with but an upgrade will get the best out of the telescope.

This is much more portable while still a big telescope.

There is a middle ground Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian | First Light Optics , which is probably a more popular size, fine for adults but getting a bit big for a 13yo to move out unaided. I used to have a 200p , was my first serious telescope.

Trouble is all 3 models are virtually unobtainable due to Covid supply chain problems that are unlikely to resolve for some time.

All is not lost however as there is a good 2nd hand market on these , just buy from a reputable source like the buy/sell section on this forum.

45 second subs are not that long for the fainter DSO , but if you are tracking without guiding you may be limited in exposure time before you get some trailing.

As you found it is fine for the likes of the bright Orion Nebula , the fainter objects will be easier if you can run longer exposures

Orion Nebula is about Mag +4

Crescent is about         Mag +7.4

This is a lot less bright , the mag scale is logarithmic , each step being approx x 2.5 (so 3 mag is 15.5 times)

A 3.4 mag difference means it is about 20 times fainter 

In general I use guided subs of 180 seconds to 360 seconds and stack about 60 to 120 images for objects that faint , though it does vary by target.

That all said GIMP when used in the way the tutorials show you is pretty good at extracting even very low data from frames that look at first to have almost no content. 

Try these 2 , I found them very good

GIMP Astrophotography Editing Tutorial - YouTube

DeepSkyStacker and GIMP - How to capture a galaxy with your DSLR, Part 2A - YouTube

4 hours ago, smashing said:

Currently have a Skywatcher Equinox 80 refractor on an old style HEQ5, modded Canon 600d all guided with a piggy back refractor and ZWO 120 mini.

 

I use my Equinox with a Televue  0.8 flattener

This reduced the FL to 400 from its native 500 , and allows nice wide views , I can get the whole North America Nebula in a single shot.

I bought a load of GX16

Screw fit and keyed so cannot get reverse polarity.

Fairly cheap in lots of 6 pairs of male and female on an auction site.

I use the 2 pin type for 12v (13.8v)

My Equinox has been upgraded with a moonlight focuser.  Very smooth focus with no drift.

I love my Equinox 80 , nice wide field it has.

My ST80 guide scope and ZWO290 sit side by side with it on my NEQ6 and I get 360 second subs from the stable platform.

A good second hand NEQ6 would be something to consider , they appear reasonably often.

Most of the easy DSO are fairly big  (Not saying there are not good smaller targets , they just tend to be a bit more challenging)

Compare below the sensor size outputs for your scope and both cameras

And being faint some of the smaller ones will need guiding to get them , so the ZWO is best given guiding duties until you have used your DSLR as main camera to learn how it all works.