ScouseSpaceCadet

To give you an idea of how bad it is here, I worked at large inner city hospital 4.5 miles west from me. Looking up on a clear night, the sky is black with maybe 5 bright stars, the moon and planets visible. Likely as bad as NYC. Crazy as another mile further and you're in the Mersey estuary and another couple of miles, the Irish Sea. At 5 miles east from the city centre, the sky is as described in my previous post. Drive another 10 miles out and you will either hit a town at bortle 6/7 or a pocket of semi rural land at bortle 5. I have to travel approx. 60 miles for bortle 4 rural skies. Around 100 miles for bortle 3. Any other provincial city like Manchester or Birmingham is about the same. Not much different than your experience except imaginably that awful dead black sky extends a little further over an area like NYC. We're all blighted wherever we live. There are members here from afar. Places like Delhi and Singapore have it bad despite large rural expanse in their countries. I just read your last post. That is bad! ☹️ Like the very centre of my city. I'm 18.84 bortle 7-8. You might want to give those double stars etc a try rather than DSOs. 😬

Poor weather along with light pollution is, I agree, incredibly frustrating however there's not much we can do about the former and the latter can be countered a little depending on one's circumstance i.e. blocking local light sources with barriers, using observing hoods or just giving in to reality knowing we must travel out of the city. I live in New York's twin city of Liverpool, England and gave up my 8" dobs, favouring a small refractor. For the simple reason DSO viewing is pitiful from my yard. Now from home I concentrate on lunar, planetary, double stars and some open clusters. Occasionally if the night is really clear I'll try some of the bright DSOs. Mostly I look forward to camping in rural areas with binoculars, a small Mak or at dedicated star camps, the refractor. Star camps I'll always try and steal a view through a dob though. 😁 The winter astronomy season has only just begun so don't give up. Hopefully you will enjoy some decent views as the temperature cools and the skies darken a little more.

The area could be brighter now... However even under light polluted skies a 12" reflector should reveal great detail in Orion and at least the core of Andromeda. I suggest the moon light and brightening morning skies are coming into play. Try again with the moon gone and both objects higher in the sky.

I feel your pain. 45 minutes observing in the last month up here in the north west . There has been the occasional clear spell over night but working 9-5 prevents me sneaking out at in the early hours like I used to. ☹️ This morning is a wonderfully clear and fresh autumn day, but the clouds are forecast to roll in this evening. 🙄

A lot depends on how she spends her time in the wilderness. Does she drive and camp near the car, or get out of the car and hike? Does she sleep in a touring vehicle or drive, park up and sit and watch the sky, returning the same evening? In all those scenarios a decent pair of binoculars up to 10x50, a planetarium app and observers' guide would keep her busy for a life time. However, if a telescope is really the thing to have, then a small travel sized refractor and tripod with a zoom eyepiece may suit. If she doesn't need to lug equipment too far then a 6-8" dob will fit into a decent sized car and leave space for other gear.

Eyepieces costing less than £100 I have not replaced over the last few years and don't feel a desperate need to swap. Although after my experience with the Vixen SLV 4mm, replacing the BST 5mm with a Vixen is tempting... All used in f5-f7 refractors and a 102 maksutov: BST 5mm BST 8mm BST 12mm OVL Nirvana ES 7mm OVL Nirvana ES 16mm The Nirvana 7mm is my Mak (realistic) high power eyepiece. Lunar observing at 185x is a treat with that ep and the little Mak. The 16mm is a nice medium power DSO ep. It replaced a BST 15mm.

It is indeed a 'lovely' image however fwiw it's more an example of what excellent processing skills can do!

Ahah. Well spotted. Stu. 😁

Ensure the telescope is level and pointing north before beginning alignment. Also check the time is correct.

The last few posts are a few good examples of how keeping requests to the point work. I think councils on the whole are slowly becoming more aware of light pollution issues now or at least are more receptive to individual residents' requests, so there's less need for the, 'my child's bedroom is lit up like Christmas!' excuses. 🙄

As you mentioned on a thread elsewhere. A Rowan built solid single sided mount with slomo (and potentially encoders) for those who are a stuck with AZ4/5 mounts to upgrade to (or pay a bit more to skip the offerings from Skywatcher et al) would be fantastic... If I'd had that option I would probably not bought a used Celestron AVX for visual.

Yea the processor compatibility list is pants. I'm not spending £100-300 upgrading my perfectly decent for 1080p gaming and every day tasks, overclocked & liquid cooled AMD 1600x cpu just to upgrade to Windows 11. When the B350 gaming mobo/1600 cpu/Nvidia 2060 gfx/16gb 2666mhz ram starts struggling to make 60-75 fps at 1080p I'll make the move.

Have owned the AZ5 for two years and as demonstrated in the previous post, tried several different telescope types on the mount. I'm far from 'picky' otherwise the mount would by now be well gone. Several owners on SGL have reported similar experiences, so I consider it helpful to provide honest feedback so the opening poster can potentially avoid making a poor purchasing choice. There are better mounts out there for those wishing to use a 7.7kg ota plus accessories.

That's exactly the problem, "it's just in the Alt movement". The heavier and longer the scope gets, the more the alt slomo struggles. With a 130PS reflector and Skymax 102 the alt slomo was fine, with a modifiied P150i there is an issue overcome by tightening the the clutch further. The heavier ST120(fully loaded) struggled even more, often requiring a nudge to move in the alt axis. Similarly with the 102mm f7 refractor, although not as much. The mount is obviously best suited to shorter instruments weighing less than 5kg, but does work with decreasing effectiveness with heavier scopes and at longer focal ratios past f6. Reiterating joyninderby's view; focus vibration also takes longer to settle down the heavier the load becomes.

Congrats. In my not so expert opinion, fantastic quality for the price. A few weeks ago I had my best view of Saturn with this scope and a Vixen LV 4mm for 178x, riding on a Celestron AVX mount. A lunar and planetary session was cut short last night by cloud, however I managed a decent view of Jupiter with an easily discernable GRS. Recommended.

You have stated 'used would best', however have not stated a budget. So below are linked some of the lower cost at new price GOTO mounts and telescopes great for 'occasional dabbling', are relatively easy to set up, and won't massively break the bank: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/sky-watcher-star-discovery-150i.html Add to the cost a small power brick for approx £50, a power cable costing £3-£20 and extra eyepieces (lets say two) £100. Plus a decent book £25. After some practice, set up and aligning to a couple of stars using your mobile phone as a controller would be around 15 minutes. Get confident and start controlling via a third party planetarium phone app.

The forecast says clear. My eyes say no. I've not managed an observing session for weeks so fingers crossed!

Maybe the leak of this chart is a cunning plan by unknown dark forces to sow discontent amongst the better off refractor owning community? Is Mr Yoshida really Trevor Slattery ?!

An ST120 with 50mm RACI finder, 2" diagonal and eyepiece was OK on th AZ5 and steel tripod however I suggest this was at the very limit of realistic useability. I would not dare try a 7.7kg ota. You will have problems with focus wobble and slomos not working correctly. The 102mm f7 refractor does work a bit better on the mount than the ST120 did, but it's not perfect.

Assuming one is wearing an eyepatch yes, as wearing an eyepatch and closing the other eye while moving around could be dangerous. 👍

During the winter I pull my coat hood over my head and the ep. It does the job. Summer I shield any stray light with a baseball cap. Another tip I haven't tried but you may find useful is using an eyepatch to cover the eye you're not using. It's supposed to reduce eye strain. Also if you are observing at home and really need to go indoors, keep your observing eye closed to help preserve your night vision.

Too much information. I was very honest with my council and kept things simple. I stated I am an amateur astronomer, a specific LED lamp approx 20m from my rear fence was shining sideways into my garden causing intrusion and I would they shade it please. (I also included a photo) After two attempts several months apart, one evening I noticed the garden was darker than usual. I looked across the fence and the lamp was shielded. 👍

Great post. I can't imagine giving up this hobby. Being outside with the mount silently tracking an amazing object really does help to put the cranky sods I work with in a mentally sealed box! Astronomy has also given me something extra to look forward to on retirement. If the body holds out for many more years, I'll be happy to be found frozen solid & slumped over the eyepiece when my time comes... 😆

Fantastic vid. 👍

It maybe time to change the tent. Go the extra mile this time though!