DaveL59

and that post just as a film about exorcism starts on the TV 😮

One option might be the JWST images that are being aired on the web? Not quite the same but is something and likely way better than we'll see from on-planet. Not so real-time tho and no interaction with someone who is sharing an EEVA session that would maybe give some commentary.

well I guess one upside might be the adrenaline pumping might tighten the membrane over the cornea and sharpen your vision, giving cleaner sharper views in the eyepiece in the brief moment before fight/flight kicks in, or you get eaten 😉

only thing you need to make sure of... that you can run faster than the other guy 😉

Doubt we'd get to see anything this far south even if the clouds cooperated. Street side would give my best N aspect and all LED lighting so no real chance anyway I expect.

Having seen the marks on yours I just took mine apart to see if its the same. Seems its different and the metal tabs stay within the earth/shielding tracks: A relief, but seems its a different (earlier) version to your one. Also hasn't breached the varnish layer.

Artemis: Nasa readies giant Moon rocket for maiden flight - BBC News Scheduled to go on 29-Aug, wonder how much extra junk it'll be leaving in orbit or will they have set things up to de-orbit nicely?

I have the older EQ5 upgrade kit rather than the already fitted one but is essentially the same and its been fine. Light stays steady when there's enough volts/power, I run it either via a 12v5A switched mode PSU or a car starter LiPo pack fed via a 12v5A buck converter to prevent the voltage risk of frying the board since at no-load that pack sends 16v. As to the scratches, yeah I can believe that, is very poor manufacture to assemble a board into a casing where metal brackets can rub away the varnish and then short sections. They should've put a gasket of some sort in there or designed the bracket so it stayed within bounds of the earth/shield area.

hmm that makes me want to check mine out now too as this one that metal bracket could almost certainly bridge the thin track to what I presume is the larger earth/shielding, probably wouldn't be a good thing. The other corner probably less of an issue since that's all the eartl/shielding and looks like is intended to connect to the plate hence the silvering around the mounting hole.

handy thing to have, so long as the battery is alive when you need it. I tend to take the battery out now and put it back when using it even tho I've a fair few of that type kicking about spare. Bring back proper on/off switches I say!

for me, hopefully starting a new job so late nights will be limited anyway. With luck tho some clear evenings to view the planets now they're starting to rise before silly-o'clock will happen 🙂

If it helps, under the end-caps of the hinge that are really just trim you'll find something like: The red arrow points to where a tine set screw should be that locks the large screw once tightened to the required level as I'd mentioned before. Finding a suitable screwdriver for that large brass screw can be harder as its brass so easy to chew up. I use an old woodwork screwdriver as its an ideal fit. Take care with the set screw however, old and may well split the slot head if too much force is used, they you'd need to find the size and order a replacement, or as I did, re-tap and use what you had available...

ahh I have the same caliper, do you find it has a habit of turning itself on when stored and then you've a flat battery next time you want to use it? I tend to use the lock screw to stop the sliding part moving now as that turns it on when you don't want it to.

I've a couple bits that have a compression ring, rest is thumbscrews and only a couple eyepieces that have undercuts. Have noticed that they catch if I don't back the screw off enough but never had one end up jammed. Now I initially lift them gently and if any resistance back the screw up a bit more. Not seen a need to get a click-lock as not sure of the benefit for that price and having read of a couple that did jam decided too much trouble for me thanks 🙂 Might give the copper foil tape trick a go tho just so they're all evened up 👍

Hi and welcome to the forum 🙂 Some lovely shots there and even better to come I bet with darker skies. From those you sure seem to have picked a nice setup and how to use it, well done!

Not in this thread old chap, no experience of Tak other than what I've read here extolling their virtues. There's plenty like Stu and others who've had several in the range that can offer way better advice than I, so I'll sit in the back and take notes in case I ever get close to obtaining one 🙂

As Ian has said, if you set the OTA so it points downward before removal that'll prevent more falling onto the primary, before reassembly tho I'd run a vacuum cleaner over the DIY shroud and velcro fixings to get as much loose fibre off, in fact I'd have done that before first fitting but too late to suggest that now, one for the next time perhaps. I do the same when flocking too as there's always some loose stuff that'll find its way where you don't want it to go. No need for max-power, low would be fine and using one of those attachments with a brush at the end will prevent getting the shield/flock sucked in and crinkled up.

I once went where they didn't want me to be too tho no bits of paper. I blame the mini-cab driver that got himself lost, crossed the M4 and drove us into an army base. Of course we were then stopped a few hundred yards in by several folks in green and carrying guns! What a fun start to the day and getting to the IT course I was suppose to be at, tho the tale did amuse the other students and instructors greatly 🙄

Agreed @Astro_Dad my viewpoint has subjective elements too, in part the ease of use of the StarSense kit as you also know having the dob version. Add in the low cost of the frac that can be quite easily improved from its wobbly nature it fit the budget as well as giving an easier intro to a hobby that might/not take longer term. Also then still useful after upgrading to bigger/better as one to take on trips etc being light and quite compact. Either way its someone else's choice to make once the wide amount of advice and suggestions have been digested and hopefully a new family group added to the future of amateur astronomy 🙂

no plans to start another controversial thread like I knew this would be. Thankfully we steered clear of the landmines that might have locked it tho 🙂 I thought it was useful to see why things were the way they were and hopefully find a middle ground when responding to the "what should I buy" type questions. Maybe I was misjudging some who'd replied and they did consider more than just the mahoosive dob before suggesting same, but time will tell if balance changes, not much a couple folks can do about it but we'll see... There is of course a validity to lots of aperture, just isn't always appropriate to someone else's circumstances or needs is all I wanted to get across. If money was no object something like the Unistellar eVscope at nearly 4K might have been perfect, being compact, simple setup and EEVA so you can see and share hubble like views of the faint smudgy stuff and wow the kids, but that's not in many people's budget, even used things like that come in at 2K or so. Too small for the kitties to curl up inside the OTA tho 😉

can't help either Ash and sorry to hear about your difficulties. While a great idea if EEVA users could share, allowing someone outside to connect into your network may not be something others would want to do for security reasons, tho perhaps if they could stream to a web page that is published that you could see then that'd work. Of course you're then limited to what they're looking at and if they're even looking but its something and a lot better than nothing. Another option tho expensive might be one of those all-in-one little units that you pop outside and connect to via a tablet (or PC maybe) and does the whole capture thing for you remotely. Would mean clear skies and popping out to set up and then bring in but it may work being very short duration exposure to the elements. I'm thinking something like the Stellina or the UniStellar eVscope, sorry but they're pretty pricey tho.

kinda figured as I remember us all leaping in and buying up all the LT70 starsense scopes back in the covid lockdown period 😉 It's the only one I've bought new too, same reason.

Now am envious for sure. I have a dirty great Oak tree in my direct south from my very small garden so SSE-W is totally lost to me 😢 Kidding aside tho, sounds fantastic for getting great views regardless the scope you end up getting 👍

Did you mean all but one was bought used there Steve? For me the approach was different in terms of what I have and why, but I didn't enter the hobby until a couple years back and had specific equipment in mind. Having spend time rebuilding binos I got interested again and after researching around decided I wanted a TAL, either TAL-1 reflector or better a TAL100 refractor. That was based on good write-ups but of course those didn't come up first. so settled on a SW130 as it was reasonably local and a good price and to be fair it gives good views once it settles down after touching anything. Then a baby TAL came up not too far, the TAL-M in original wood case too but tatty looking from paint scrapes over years of family use. It might be a small 80mm mirror but it gives great views but you are limited to the TAL eyepieces, thankfully good. Missing the 25mm and the eyepiece extension tube, that's an issue to watch for when buying used, what's missing and can you get one now. Still, I used this a lot and the bigger SW130 slowly shifted to the back of the conservatory. Mainly it is compact, easy to lift outside fully assembled and at the end walk it back in again, no messing about. Meantime kept an eye out for the ones I'd originally wanted as this baby TAL hooked me on the solid build and longevity. So then the big frac, a TAL100RS in Coventry so a long round trip but well worthwhile. Now I'd have stopped there but a TAL-1 came up local with the russian size eyepieces so went and got that just for the 25mm eyepiece, crazy boy! That scope has not been adapted to the regular 1.25-inch eyepieces too and I much prefer it to the SW130 regardless a slightly smaller mirror, its just more stable. I did eventually strip the TAL-M down and refurb it so it looks almost new now too. The SW130 barely sees the light nowadays tho, sadly, too much kit between it and the door being one reason lol. For what its worth tho I prefer the Frac views, even the cheap LT70 is actually pretty good and while that's here its the grab & go for quick sessions as its very light and easy. Is why I'd happily recommend it (or the 80 version) for the starsense and ease of use at low entry cost. As a newb myself back then, finding stuff that wasn't obvious was a drag esp when tired eyes after a long workday were struggling, so I quickly dropped to moon and planets. Now having bought several scope (and made a little TAL collection 🙄) I wasn't going to give up completely as the planets are fun to look at, but I might have if Starsense hadn't come along. As several others have said, its a game changer esp for those new to this lark. Much easier to set up quickly and use compared to the SynScan GoTo and no power requirements to drive it so no hidden costs once you have the scope in your mitts, well other than usual eyepieces, diagonal, barlow.... 😉

There's a certain degree of truth in that and in my case like you, learned by doing and buying cheap and fixing up. But those bressers retailed new for around £15, £20 tops IIRC so are they really worth spending £10 on when they're out of whack? There's better quality ones out there like older Swift models after all. Another reason I didn't suggest it was easy (is it, to do it right?) is that I could easily see the outcome in picture C in WJC's post, some of the ones I've got hold of cheap were just exactly like that. Sure they seemed aligned when you look, images merge ok etc, but what you see is offset from what you aimed at. For me if looking at a bino that's misaligned generally it'd need to be one that I wanted for the collection or have some reasonable worth/rarity, like the Nikon Sportster EX 8x25 that I got also for a tenner and were out of alignment. A bog standard low-end porro pair I'd pass and look for something better. In my case I picked up a mint pair of Minolta Classic sport 10x50 WP for £22 a couple years back which I think were much more worthwhile and no work needed on those at all. Unless there's an urgent rush to get something/anything then OK, but if prepared to wait and search, you can find the pearls scattered in amongst the dross. Sorry if OP feels he missed out because I suggested it wasn't worth it but that's the reason behind my thoughts.