DaveL59

I guess there's also differing needs according to the scope used. A lot of the older scopes were "slow" but the short fast scopes these days put different demands on the eyepieces so there's a lot of options now out there.

For many of my older ones I've had them apart for cleaning the glass surfaces and where not already, blacked the lens edges which has made a slight improvement on the views. The teeny tiny lenses in some of those sure were a pain to work with tho!

if your phone has a pro mode for the camera you could try turning down the ISO and increasing the shutter speed to tone down the over-bright areas and show the texture across the surface. Case of try different things till you find what works but a nice first shot to get you hooked 🙂 

ahh Roy, I did look at trying to accumulate some of the Zeiss ones, but I'd so go bankrupt in a flash looking at the prices they go for 😮 

Seems the better route would be to buy a telementor with some of them already included, not that those are a budget buy either.

11 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

In the final photo, what is that strange alien eye piece top left? Very strange I may add!

In all serious, do any of you use these older EP’s and if you do, how do they compare to your modern purchases, if you have any.

We all assume that newer is better but in some areas of life this is not always so. Just a question, to get a grip on how much we have improved or not. I take it that TV Nagler are the best. (generally right now) 

Has this always been the case, or are there times when different EP’s were the choice with scopes of the day? I understand that sometime ago scopes for amateurs were not what they are now (no reference to quality) but the choice now is amazing.

Marvin

ahh the kidney-bean shaped one? Tis a moose (wireless) and the one above and to the right of the eyepieces is a vintage Zeiss Sonnar 180mm f2.8 or rather the hood only in view.

The newest eyepieces I own are Vixen NPL 20 & 10mm and the Svbony 8-24 and 7-21mm zooms. I don't count the kit ones that SW and Celestron supply 😉 I more generally would use the TAL plossls, the zoom and Vixens on the main scopes, but for the TAL-M I use the originals as the 1.25's don't come to focus unless barlowed and tbh they do give good views up to x139. The 0.965's are used in the vintage frac and are good, tho I do sometimes pop the 1.25 adaptor in and use the more modern ones too. That said, the old ortho's give nice sharp views so on the right night I'll use them for planetary as well.

Hi there and welcome to the forum and a Merry Xmas eve too.

For the RDF there should be 2 adjuster wheels which you can tweak the aim left-right and up-down so that you can get the star under the dot to correlate with the eyepiece view. It is far easier tho to do this in daylight on a fixed target such as a reasonably distant street lamp (which you can also do at night) or a building/aerial. Reason being is that it won't move while you are making adjustments where a star/planet will do.

As for magnification that will be largely dependant on seeing conditions but always good to start with the 20mm for lowest magnification then work up to the 12. The SR4 sadly aren't usually very good when supplied with modern scopes (which do you have by the way?) and you may find the view is better with the 20 and x3 barlow, perhaps the 12+x3 barlow. That would depend too on the quality of the barlow which may not be too great - is it a plastic bodied one?

For Mars, it is quite small as are all the planets but you should be able to see it is a larger orange-ish disc compared to a bright dot that stars appear as. More magnification may tease out a little detail but how far you can sensibly go will depend on the scope being used too. Ideally an upgrade to better eyepieces would give a better experience but again Mars would still appear small.

Have you taken a look at the "what can I expect to see" thread? It gives a pretty good idea of what to expect when using a scope, sadly a crash to reality for many new scope owners who are taken in by the pretty images on the ads and box. At least it may help correlate your views to what you perhaps hope to see 🙂

Wow I seem to have collected a fair few in the short time I've been dabbling in this hobby. The vintage 0.965-inch set

The older TAL 32mm fit from the TAL-M and TAL-1

and then there's the TAL 1.25-inch ones along with a couple old ortho and of course the brass plossl from 1950's (0.965 inch) that came with the vintage scope I bought a few months ago

3 hours ago, Pryce said:

Followup.  Would it in that case be OK to use a 12v plug that branches out to two sockets or would that cause issues?

Be careful with the multi-outlet adaptors as you often find the plug used has the positive (centre) not fully recessed so it is very possible to make accidental contact and short stuff, especially if the end makes contact with the mount body - a few tales of woe on fried mount electronics on here. Best to tape over or cap any plugs that you are not using just in case.

For the PSU, all the 12v gear you could in theory run off a single PSU if it has enough capacity. Best to add up what your load is and then add 50% or better double it and buy that rating. More expensive but you should see less issues esp during surge loads like slewing. My EQ5 goto is in theory max 2A during fast slew so I run that off a 5A PSU brick with no issues. I'm not imaging or using dew heaters tho.

As David above says, the newer tech batteries are better than lead ones, the LiFePo ones are much lighter for the same effective capacity and are not as maintenance sensitive, as in you do not need to keep them on a top-up/float charge. Downside is they are very expensive by comparison, at least at single unit pricing. I have thought to phase out the lead batteries in my UPS units but the LiFePo costs are a few times that of lead, tho they may well last the equivalent of 3x the replacement cycle (3-5 years) of the lead ones.

If you can keep the battery off the ground, perhaps in an insulated box, that may improve your runtime results a little if the battery was warmed up to room temp before you started.

Batteries lose performance in cold conditions so you would find it'll have apparently less capacity. Assuming it is a lead-acid battery from the 17AH rating, you'd also see voltage drop off once down below say 60-70% so in effect your 17AH would be more like 8AH in those conditions, perhaps. I may help if you can keep it off the concrete but even so the cold temps will still have its effect on performance.

yeah its plastic unfortunately so if teeth have been lost then warranty replacement will be the way to go. Given the time left to the holiday I doubt they'll be able to do anything nor will the postal services, so if you can now reach focus, may as well have a couple days use out of it before sending it back...

you may find that the tripod column is 1/4 once the head is removed, just a thought 🙂 

16 minutes ago, Mogra said:

I think this is a pinion /rack problem. Will be sending scope back to Celestron for repair / replacement.

does sound like the best option considering it's a new scope so warranty should cover getting it sorted.

what's the screw thread in the base of the mount you're looking to fit, 3/8 or 1/4-inch?

If 3/8 you can get an adaptor, assuming the head on the Braun is removable (likely but worth asking, perhaps) unless you plan on mounting it on the ball head.

well done, hopefully less cold on the hands when using them and doesn't look so bad. Heck I'd not be in a rush to get them re-done at cost so long as they look reasonable and are usable 🙂

I think the issue you'd have will be stability on lightweight tripods, esp with a 5KG load. A carbon fibre one might work or one designed for video use but the latter won't be compact or light and either won't be low cost. Perhaps a lucky used find might land you something but I'd expect even then you'd be looking at £80+

3 minutes ago, Alan64 said:

 

I have that same oddly-designed focusser on my "AstroMaster" 70EQ, and I despise it.  I'm always looking for a conventional, traditional replacement for it, but I haven't found one yet.

What's the travel on the focuser like tho Alan? As short as the OP's pics?

I'd expect it should hit focus with the erecting diagonal, ok not the best for stars but focus should be possible and this seems to be the problem they are having.

ouch that doesn't look like much travel at all, a different focuser to the one on mine so hopefully someone who has direct experience with one of these may be along to advise further. For sure you'd need the diagonal or an extension tube.

Are you feeling that it gets closer to focus as it hits the furthest out it will go?

If that's the case what you could try is unscrew the lens off the barlow and fit that into the scope first as an extension, then the diagonal and eyepiece and see if that'll reach focus.

any chance you can post a pic of the focuser at its furthest out and as you have it set up for use?

My LT70AZ drawtube gets focus at around 2-inches and can go much further. This was on some treetops around 150m away.

Not sure if yours has a locking screw as mine doesn't, but there's no clicking when extended. Almost sounds like you've racked it back off the end of the rack but I don't think that's possible from the design as on mine the end of the rack gearing is an un-machined/formed block which would act as an end-stop. Is the focuser very slack to turn or quite firm/tight?

welcome aboard.

Is it the RA motor or the gearbox internals that are worn?

UK based but they may be able to rebuild if they are still in business, or there may be someone in the US that can service the gearbox
AWR Technology (Astronomy - Electronics) Telescope Maintenance

nice build, I'd just say the heatshrink is to help with handling in the cold nights if anyone asks 🙂

ahh no chance with a scope here esp with those trees, I'd need the scope at head height to stand a chance for where they are from here. Sky does look nice and clear tonight tho, for a change.

I can see them, kinda

sadly thru 3 sets of trees from my garden. Shot just now with a 300mmAPO & x2 TC. Defo getting closer together, that gap would fit in my little fingernail and I've relatively small hands.

drat missed the chance listening to the latest new conf and suddenly skies cleared. Can just make out a single bright dot but well down in the treetops and moon behind the oak. Looks lovely but no point getting the scope out for it now.

Just dropped off a few mins ago...

a classic aus Jena Sonnar 180mm/F2.8 lens with Pentacon six to M42 adaptor. A tad dusty and I'll need to service the focus and aperture but considering this dates from around 1964 its not in bad shape at all 🙂

as per my signature, a few lol.

The Celestron is the LT70AZ Starsense explorer, a pretty basic scope on a wobbly mount, but purchased for the Starsense license for the app. It can be used on other scopes with a little DIY to sort a mounting method. Only thing is that the phone app has a smaller database of objects compared to the full starsense rig that has its own camera, but it makes a useful guided push-to setup to quickly find things in the sky.

A model with the starsense guider system would probably be the easiest, since that'll use an on-board camera to plate solve the area of sky in view to determine where it is. No need then for you go have to go thru a star alignment and the need to be able to pick out alignment stars etc. Just turn it on and let it do its bit then you're good to start. I've no experience of that setup as the starsense I have if the cheaper bolt-on phone-app type on a low end scope which works pretty well, but I'm sure others will be along to advise.

welcome aboard by the way 🙂