banjaxed

Thank you all for your help and advice, I have replaced the lenses and had a look through the scope and the views are crystal clear without any need for collimation 😀 how lucky am I (should have done the lottery)

16 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

The correct sequence is Biconvex lens nearest the sky with the shallower curve facing outwards followed by the concave of the rear lens. Be sure to replace the thin shims at 120 degrees to space the two lenses.    😀

Thank you very much Peter, you may have just saved a marriage 😀

Just to be clear, the lenses are replaced in the front end of the scope so first would be the rear lens with the concave facing the sky then the biconvex lens with the shallower convex facing the sky.

3 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

The correct sequence is Biconvex lens nearest the sky with the shallower curve facing outwards followed by the concave of the rear lens. Be sure to replace the thin shims at 120 degrees to space the two lenses.    😀

Thank you very much Peter, you may have just saved a marriage 😀

Thank you very much for your quick reply. Firstly I am not brave enough to blame my wife and will make sure she doesn't read this 😀

The model I have is the Celestron Nexstar 102 GT and the manual you linked does not cover removal and replacement of the lenses.

Hopefully someone may be able to help, thanks again.

I decided to clean the lenses in my 102mm Celestron refractor which I did very methodically and to the letter of all the advice received on this forum. As I removed the lenses I placed them in order of removal and kept them the right way up so I could replace them exactly as they were removed. All was going well until I recieved a phone call from a friend asking me for some assistance with a job he was doing. When I returned home my wife informed me that she needed the space and had moved my cleaning gear including the lenses 😲 and were now mixed up. Could anyone point me in the right direction as to which order the lenses should be replaced. There are 2 lenses, one is quite thick (about 12mm) and has one side slightly convex and the other thinner lens is about 6mm and is convex on both sides. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If this is in the wrong place could the mods please move it.

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Hi and welcome to SGL. A good place to start your research is by tapping on the First Light Optics title at the top of this home page which takes you to their store where all the information you need will be readily available to you .

Hi Don, welcome to SGL.

In the garage, easy to roll out and back and little cool down time.

1 hour ago, Charlie 2436 said:

Yes or to other members. I know it will probably be something simple 

If you want to start new thread choose the correct thread an you will see Start New Topic on the right side of the page. To contact a member tap on their name and you will see an envelope, then tap on the envelope to send a private message.

2 minutes ago, Charlie 2436 said:

Thanks for your advice Steve. I am looking into the local astronomy club it starts back this month.

once again thanks for all your advice. I will keep you posted. Ps I don’t know how you do a message on the forum, as I said I am a bit of a techno fob.

Do you mean you don’t know how to post messages on different parts of the forum ?

I have used a water butt base on a platform trolley for a few months now without any problems. Set up time from garage to back garden is about 1 minute. 

Hi Guillaume, welcome to SGL.

You're right, I am convinced that the spider population is growing and have had a web spun across our back gate within 1  1/2 hours.

The other thing I have noticed is the lack of flies, wonder if the two are connected. ??

12 minutes ago, mark81 said:

There is that old fact about never being more than three feet from a rat... Well, I'm guessing that this must work the same with spiders. Either that or they actually do like Observing.  Every time I go out and have a look about with the scope I always seem to bring in a huge spider.  I guess it could be the same one that is just hankering over taking a peep through the EP.

 So far this week, 2 sessions , 3 spiders... 

If, like me, your not a fan, it does make observing session a little more nerve wracking....

Maybe they just like me...... Yes, I'll go with that...

 

I have always found eating food with a good helping of garlic and drinking gin and tonic (not slimline) works well for me.

Last night was forecast to be clear from 10pm till about 4am and by 11am it was cloudy🙁Today’s forecast is dry so I decided to mow the lawn, got halfway through and it started to pour down. I f they can’t forecast the weather when it is actually happening I don’t see much point taking any notice of forecasts 🙄

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Hi Carlos, welcome to SGL.

Hi and welcome to SGL. I have the same scope as you and I agree, they are great all round instruments. 

Hi and welcome to SGL. We visited Switzerland on holiday last year and we were very impressed how clean and tidy everything was.

We will certainly be going again.

Have a word with Flo as I ‘m sure you will be able to get a 3/8” adapter to suit you mount.

3 hours ago, rizwanahmed24 said:

Hi Guys

I have a Skywatcher AZ3 Alt-Az tripod and I would like to mount my AZ-GTI mount head on it. The mount head will fit on 3/8". 

Tripod: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/skywatcher-az3-alt-az-mount.html

Mount: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi-alt-az-mount-tripod.html

Any suggestion how can I achieve the conversion. I want a solution like this https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2720325

//Rizwan 

Have you looked at how the mount is atteched to the tripod ? I am not familiar with your AZ3 but I think the mount could be attached with a 3/8" bolt which you can fit the AZ GTI straight on to.

14 hours ago, Redscouse said:

Hi all, 👋 

It's been a while since my last post. I'm still at it, quietly.  
Anyway, just wanted to drop by and thank the team at FLO for their recent customer service. 

I stopped by the warehouse out of the blue and purchased a couple of scopes (ED80 & Evoguide) 
Whilst I was there, Steve informed me of the Skywatcher price rise (which I was already aware of) and said I should take a look online to price match which I did.
After sending FLO an email with a couple of links, low and behold, vouchers landed in my inbox! 

Top notch service by the team.  

Pete. 

PS: Steve/FLO: I did go to your site to leave a review, but for love nor money I couldn't figure out how. 

On the home page go to the section titled Retailers then to Suppliers Reviews.

Hi and welcome to SGL.