banjaxed

Hi Roy, welcome to SGL.

Looks like you took a picture of the man on the moon 😀

Hi Kevin, welcome to SGL.

Further to my earlier post, the forecast for last night from all my apps said cloud cover all night but surprise surprise on looking out of the window there was the almost full moon and the sky was very clear and stayed clear for a few hours allowing me to get a good viewing session. If I hadn’t looked out of the window I would have missed it. 🙄

What is a clear sky ? 😒

As TerryMcK said the weather has been particularly bad for some time now and doesn’t seem to be improving. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to predict what the weather will be like IMO as there are so many variables. As an old friend of mine told me years ago, the only way to see what the weather is going to be like is look out of the window.

I wouldn’t bother 😀

The one I have is no problem, can you see what is stopping it ?

Glad it’s not just me 😀

I see what you mean, looking closer the eyepiece lens moves away from the cup. When I first noticed I thought it was the barrel only moving but I see now the whole interior moves. Must have had this eyepiece for about 18 months and never realised it moved 🙄 😀

It isn’t the eye guard but the bottom section that attaches to the diagonal that moves out.

My TMB 4mm eyepiece has not been used very often as it has been very disappointing. Checking my eyepieces earlier I looked at it again to see if it had any problems and on trying to move the cap from the barrel the whole lower section turned which I never noticed before. The barrel travels out approximately 2 cm and made me wonder if it is meant to be used for fine focusing. Can anyone confirm if this is the case please.

Thanks very much to both of you for replying, never thought it would be so simple.

I have a couple of 12 volt batteries and would like to power my 9 volt Skywatcher auto focuser with them. Could anyone suggest a way to reduce the voltage please.

FLO do a range of Astro Essentials eyepieces and are all within your budget.

Hi and welcome back to SGL.

Zoom eyepieces are very convenient to gauge what magnification is best for your target but fixed eyepieces usually give better wide field images. My most used eyepieces are 6, 12 and 16. PS, SvBony do 3 types of zoom eyepieces which are very reasonably priced.

Hi Andy, welcome to SGL. I can’t give you any advice on using your scope with your computer as I only do manual observing, but you will probably need to upgrade your eyepieces as the supplied ones are not normally very good. The BST Starguider eyepiece are highly thought of by a lot of our members and they are hard to beat for the price.

Hi and welcome to SGL.

I am seriously considering changing it for a 150 Newtonian.

Thank you for your suggestions but I have already changed the AZ5 to the vertical position. I also have an ST 120 which is fine on the same mount as is the 127 Mak. As I said before it might be easier to change the scope for a lighter reflector but not before I try John’s suggestion of trying some extra weight to help it balance.

I think you have the answer John, but I am contemplating changing it for a lighter reflector scope.

The 5kg limit for the AZ5 is with the supplied aluminium tripod, and 9kg with the heavier duty stainless steel tripod according to the specs I have seen.

The only reason I got this scope is because the stated weight limit for this mount is 9kg with the stainless steel tripod. I thought 3.2 kg under maximum would be ok.

Yes John, it wobbles while focusing but it takes about 4/6 seconds to stabilise. I use my 127 Mak on the same set up and it is no problem.