banjaxed

Wow another coincidence, those are the exact same scopes I have. 😀

Hi and welcome to SGL. In my opinion it is a good idea to get used to your gear in the daylight so you can familiarise yourself with how it works, always making sure you do not point it anywhere near the sun (assuming we are going to see the sun sometime) A very useful app is Stellarium which is free and gives you the view of the night sky when you enter your lat and long positions which you can google.

When I had an AZ4 Mount fine movement was a bit of a pain, but since I sold it and bought an AZ5 Mount it is much easier even without the slomo cables because the knobs are in easy to reach positions, providing you are not using a long tube refractor. 😀

Looks like you need a dovetail clamp.

Hi Ash, Turn left at Orion is a very popular choice among amateur astronomers. I bought it about 5 years ago and would recommend it.

Hi Matt, welcome to SGL.

Glad things are going well for you 👍

I hope the skies stay clear for you, good luck.

Hi Spencer, welcome to SGL.

Hi Dustin, welcome to SGL.

If you are a tinkerer like most of us you could attach a pistol grip ball head which would give you a pretty steady mount.

I enjoyed reading your report then got to thinking how many of us have a 200P Dob and a 127 Mak, we can’t all be wrong can we ?

Hi Mark, welcome to SGL.

Whatever their reason there is absolutely no excuse for that sort of behaviour 🤬

Hi and welcome to SGL.

You will need a sturdy mount if you want to use that scope for AP.

Hi Rolfe, welcome to SGL.

Hi Harry, welcome to SGL.

I have not used a 60 rpm motor yet but you can always reduce the voltage if you find it too fast. Looking forward to see how your project turns out.

You can get good reversible motors from Amazon and eBay for around £10.00 plus fixing bracket if you need one. Your controller is exactly the same as the ones I use but mine are mounted in a plastic box, see below.

The reason I built my own focuser motor unit was the Skywatcher one is extremely slow especially when using on a Mak. I use a 30 or 40 rpm motor with a forward/reverse + speed controller, all of which cost less than the Skywatcher motor focuser kit. I can give you details if you would like me to. I think your 10 rpm might be a bit slow but it depends on the maximum voltage it will take.

If you are interested I can give you my contacts for motors and fixings.

I am adding a pic of one of my diy focusers so you will see what I mean.

Those focuser knob grooves look like they would take the GT2 timing belt if you could find a way to attach the motor.

Neither have I, and I love the 7mm also.