jeffwjz

Hi everyone I own a Celestron SLT telescope and recently one of the clamps on the tripod leg snapped unfortunately. Now I've managed to source a replacement clamp but I'm struggling to understand how to fit it in. There are the black plastic parts that sit on both ends of the stainless steel leg which stop the clamp from sliding in. Not sure how I can take one of the plastic part off?

Recently I acquired an old Leviathan 25/40x 100 binoculars with wooden tripod made by Monk Optics. It's a bit tatty cosmetically but the optics are unmarked. There doesn't seem to have a lot of information regarding this pair of binoculars, does anyone have any experience with it? I set it up for a terrestrial target and the viewing is great although purple fringing is visible. Not sure if it will be suitable for astronomical viewing? The binoculars are not angled at the viewing end, this may cause a bit of inconvenience. I also would like to know if by any chance I could attach astronomical eyepieces to the binoculars? Thanks

Welcome to SLG! I think skywatcher skyliner 200P would be a good start. It's large in aperture, easy to use and it does not cost too much.

Thanks a lot I dissembled the eyepiece barrel bit and indeed the ITF is rusty, which could be the reason. I'll look to buy a replacement filter then..

I have had an opportunity to own a double stack PST. I took the scope out with a 12.5mm eyepiece, and without the double stack module I'm able to get a reasonable view of the whole disk with some prominence. I then threaded on the double stack module at the front of the scope, immediately in the eyepiece the solar disk becomes very very dim and I'm having troubles to view the sun clearly, let alone distinguishing the surface details. I understand the double stack module reduced bandwidth but I'm not sure if the image is supposed to be dimmed by so much that it affected the viewing. Is it something normal, or maybe some parts of my set up was faulty?

I was observing the sun yesterday (Sunday) with my Lunt 60mm and a 9mm eyepiece. In the eyepiece I was focused on the edge to try to see some details in prominences. At about between 10.30 to 11.30am ish I noticed a very small black dot moving across in my field of view in eyepiece. It was about 3-4s between it entering and leaving my view. Initially I thought I was just a fly or ISS (thought I was lucky!) flying across the view, but then in the evening I was thinking if it were a fly the shape can't be a dot/disk and the dot was in focus too. I'm not sure what could that be that I saw? Unfortunately no footage or image as was just observing at the time..

Thank you for the help!

Hello I came across an erecting prism with seemingly good build quality, can anyone help with identifying its brand? Thank you.

My Bresser AR127L has a broken focuser as I've realized recently. When I took the knob part of the R&P focuser for examination I found that the worm gear was badly worn out, and the focuser knob shaft was bent already. I'm wondering if anyone's got experience with replacing the worm gear part? I'm trying to contact Bresser as well to see if they are able to provide/sell any replacement parts. Thanks in advance.

Hi all thanks for all the replies. As I played around it, I found that the top silver screw in first pic is for tension and bottom is for locking. I had to tighten the tension screw really really hard to the focuser knobs can drive the tube. I disamble the focuser and found the mechanism opposite to the knobs has a ball bearing missing. I suppose this is the issue so I ordered some replacement bearings.

Hi everyone, I recently acquired a TAL 100RS, the optics are in great condition, however there is one issue - the focuser doesn't work. Basically when I rotate the focuser knob the focuser tube is not moving at all, and if I loosen the focuser locking screws I can just spin the knobs freely. I pulled out the tube, and I think the focuser is missing a part but I'm not sure which and not sure how to repair it. Can anyone advise? Thanks in advance.

Ah ha I see. The previous owner is cheeky!

Need to start stockpiling the label now!

Really? If someone has done that he's done a great job, as there is no way I could tell the label was peeled off from somewhere else..

I came across a skywatcher skymax 127 but with a "powered by TeleVue" label. Anyone knows the background of it?

I have a question regarding testing the condition of a newly acquired camera. So whenever I purchase a new astronomical camera, it's quite normal to try to see if it works properly. Obviously the first "test" is to put in the power cord and see if it powers up and and if the cooling fan works. But in UK the weather condition isn't very ideal all the time so there is a large chance that I am unable to check the actual image quality of the camera for quite a while until the sky clears up. I'm wondering if there is a way to focus the astronomical camera at home (not sure how.. maybe using barlow lens?) so that I can at least use it as something similar to a normal webcam, and have some sensible images coming up on the laptop. In this way I can at least tell if there are anything seriously bad on the camera pixels, or if there are any cracks/scratches that are hard to spot by just looking at the camera. Any ideas?

I used to use a SW 150pds and had a few exactly the same donuts without the use of a coma corrector. Later I found out the reason is because the shift of focus, mainly due to insufficient cooling. I used a Bahtinov for helping focus as well. I can see from the sub frames that the focus of the first image is spot on, and the second one shows slightly more blurred stars, the 3rd, the 4th I can see the donut started to grow larger and larger. After this experience I made sure I left the OTA outside for at least 20min before focusing with Bahtinov and this never happened to me again. Also make sure the focuser is locked in place and not slipping.

I came across a Bresser Catadioptric OTA and the label says it is 150mm and F10. It looks like one of the older versions of Bresser, as it has blue paint on the surface and is one of the "blue line" models. Also unlike the normal maksutov with focus knobs, the OTA has a focuser like a refractor. I couldn't seem to find a lot information about this telescope. I'm thinking of using it for planet imaging on a EQ5 mount, would it be a good scope for it? Sorry I don't have any photos yet, I haven't bought the scope at the moment. Thanks.

I'm using Heq5 pro mount and I found that the latitude bolts (especially the lower one) can be quite difficult to turn. I was thinking replacing the bolts with M10 socket cap screws of similar length so that I can use Allen key to adjust the latitude and supposedly I'll make the process easier with the longer torque arm. Has anyone done such modifications? Is it a viable option? Thanks.

Hello! I think I have a rather stupid question! While I was browsing articles and astro images online, I couldn't help notice that the professionals are using very high quality scopes for guiding. For example there are people using 80mm ED scopes for guiding, let alone the even higher end specialised guide scopes. As for myself, I'm currently using a second hand skywatcher ST80 bought for £40, and I have been quite satisfied with it (so far). So I'm wondering, what are the differences that high end guide scopes can make? I think the same question also applies to guide cameras, as I see a lot of very expensive dedicated guide camera in the market. I guess better cameras are able to increase the sensitivity of guiding, and good at suppressing dark currents. Thanks very much!

Also if your still have Heq5 pro manual I'm sure there is a paragraph in there, detailing the purpose of single, two or three star alignment. From what I remembered, three star alignment is optional.

I'm using Heq5 pro as well and I'm always using two star alignment. And I think two star alignment is sufficient. I tried single star alignment before and noticed from PHD tracking log that the RA axis is deviating more than DEC, so using two star alignment will adjust the performance of RA tracking. I believe in case of three star alignment, the third star is for fixing misalignment of telescope and mount (I forgot the terminology), for example when telescope is tilted on mount. I read somewhere else that alignment with third star will sometimes add additional inaccuracies. I don't think three star alignment is necessary if you set up your equipment correctly. Have you tried to see the mount's performance in case of two star alignment? Or any reason that you have to use three star alignment? Thanks.

IC5068 taken with Ha filter and 80mm apo, 9x20mins sub frames. I'm not hugely experienced in astrophotography, but overall I'm quite satisfied with the result.

I see. I not an experience refractor user, so I guess in the case of astrophotography, it is necessary, or recommended, to re-adjust focus for each channel for RGB imaging?