DaveL59

seen this on the bay and it's not so far, defo not a skywatcher I think but clearly quite vintage https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-skywatcher-telescope/363024867492 Any thoughts on what it is? Am almost tempted tho not so sure I really need another long scope, that'll need a refurb too perhaps.

once the F1 race finished I took a look at fixing the parts with epoxy, roughed up the surfaces lightly with a file and then wipe over with degreaser. Once dry mixed the 2-part Gorilla epoxy and fitted the parts together. Likely the screws will be held with the epoxy too, perhaps not so good but its done and set now lol. I popped in a dimple for the IPD index then after a test fit realised it's too close to the hinge, hence there's 2 - yeah measure once and all that rather than take a guess. It'll be hidden tho so who'll know Will file/grind back the epoxy to level once it's had a long while to set and then this part can be prepped for painting. Prior to this I test fitted the whole thing back onto the body with occular and eyecups, pleased to report it ran as it should and alignment was looking good when scanning the rooftops and aerials. So far so good...

are you going to admit to a day with the chainsaw removing all the other tree's to get that one lovely image

cough... Unistellar eVoscope... runs and hides from the "proper scope crew" - oh wait, I am one lol Seriously tho, I've no affiliation nor have one of these, there is a thread on here somewhere on it. Depends if you want an EEVA scope all-in-one rig and drop that amount of cash. If I recall correctly tho it pretty much does what you're asking out of the box, someone else who has one may chime in with more info.

Happy to give pointers on removing the occulars and so forth, it's not so hard if only doing minimal basics. Messing with the prisms tho can be, overdo it and you risk chipping them for example. Add in lots of patience to make small adjustment and check and repeat, can get frustrating. I guess the key things would be having the right tools tho like a small jewellers screwdriver for the locking grub screw in the hinge pivot screw, lens spanner to undo the rings holding the objectives etc. The trim/coating sections over the prism screws likely just prise off but may well be quite brittle but you might be lucky. If you do unscrew the objective tubes, best to mark the relative position body vs tube and which side so you can refit to the same side and position as that can mess up the alignment also. You may even find that just removing them and swapping sides may get the alignment to be good enough 😉 I'd offer but at the mo I'm supposed to be staying isolated and then of course won't be up to very much after 21-Jul for a few weeks, especially if messing about with someone else's gear...

judging solely on the last pic they likely have prism tilt screws under the mismatched coloured circles (indicated) Have you checked both objective tubes are tight and also square? Not uncommon for a slight knock to jump a thread and leave collimation out. Fairly simple to unscrew and refit, with care as the thread is quite fine and easy to cross thread. Problem would be to achieve collimation rather than just an alignment for a specific IPD which would need proper gear which I don't have. No sign of fungus so likely just a bit of hazing which should be easy enough to clean up. Again though, once you pull the prisms to clean them you'd need to mess with getting them aligned or you're back to double vision. I doubt these will have eccentric rings in the objectives so should be simple to strip those out and clean both sides. Might be a simple clean of the occulars and objectives inside and out will be all it needs and perhaps the prism faces that are accessible when apart.

Sorry to read of your issues, I imagine that can be quite restrictive in what you're able to do and doesn't sound nice at all. With regard to what's showing, there's also this website - lighter on the PC I find than Stellarium for a quick look at what's up at the moment https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php Does sound like weight of kit would be a potential issue which could limit you to smaller apertures and thereby the amount of deep-sky you'll get to see. Once you get to bigger scopes the mount itself can be quite weighty and with Equatorial mounts there's the counterweights to consider too. Something like an 80mm on Alt-az mount may well be a good choice but only you will know your limits regarding weight and flexibility. Best of luck on the new hobby though, I'm sure you'll get plenty of helpful advice here

ok, so the m2x6mm screws arrived. Levelled off the ally by fitting suitable blocks on the file and slowly reworking that section and opened up the threaded holes in the ally too so the screws are bolting the ally section to the steel repair section. Holds very nicely now, well pleased with the change of plan test fit and the arm runs nice and smooth and level with the occular refitted. So, now it'll be degrease, epoxy the sections and once set, prepare and paint to get a good finish so it'll match reasonably to the original. I did get some 0.5mm nylon washers too so opened one out to fit the central pivot as I think that may be needed to counter the slight rock once the arm is fitted up. The steel is slightly thinner than the original ally section was and any rock with cause image alignment issues as well as the movement to jam. Still to strip and overhaul the optics and sort masking the prism damage but want too get the arm sorted first as that'll determine if its worth doing the rest

they are a lovely sight aren't they Only took a quick look with binos last night so can't confirm the moons, was going to head off to bed after a smoke you see, hence didn't attempt to lug a scope out as I'd not planned ahead, my bad. With the TAL-M dismantled at the min I've only the 1M long OTA's available to play with and they take a bit more effort than a quick lift and step outside.

Any recommendations would need to take into account the level of disability I think, as that will help determine size/weight and accessibility around a tripod, whether a pier setup is more suited than a tripod and so on. Also what are you hoping to see, moon & planets, deeper sky objects etc and if you want to travel with the equipment or use from home. The sky quality where you are will limit some of this, depending on how much light pollution you have. As IB20 suggests, a good pair of binoculars and a monopod/tripod may well be a good starting point, as well as perhaps a book like Turn Left at Orion to help find your way around the night sky, then move to a telescope once you've decided to go further. Good luck on your journey, it can be a very absorbing hobby and seeing Jupiter and Saturn for the first time is a real thrill

Nice shot Ags! Did take a look out of the front bedroom window last last night before going to sleep, but the bright LED lighting on the street made seeing anything hard going. Will have to take a look with binos next time and see if it shows as being up a hill that side does give a reasonable view toward N-NNW other than a few tall trees here and there. Of late I'm not so good at staying up till 2-3AM

Good result, well done Must get out and take a look again at them while I'm still able since they are starting to show above the rooftops around 11:30 here now I noticed last night. Others have merged 2 sets of shots, one with longer exposure to pick out the moons which is really neat and maybe worth a try.

I've an EQ5 so older model setup but it seems to work ok for me. I've so far mainly use the polar align pro app and not used the polar scope and find that so long as the mount is level that works well enough for visual. I use the handset only and the SynScan Pro app to give the correctly formatted co-ords to enter, the date needs to be the backward yankee format and you should enter time as is and indicate if DST is in effect. If a particular area of sky is of interest you could do a 2-star align in that area which should give reasonable accuracy when using GoTo in that region. You could just one-star align and then adjust using the arrows when it misses the target you select. Alternatively, unlock the clutches and manually swing the scope to the area of interest and then home in using the arrows and the scope should then track reasonably on the target. An expensive mount for that use but sometime getting some use is better than frustration when alignment isn't playing or the stars needed aren't so visible When aligning remember to end the arrow sequence with up+right before hitting enter and moving to the next target - a quirk in how the system works I believe. It can help to start with a low power eyepiece (20-30mm) and as you hone the aim switch to higher power (10mm) to get it better centered. A reticule can help here so you centre the target star to the same position in the view.

funny I've thought of trying something similar but as noted it ain't as simple as it first sounds. I've a GoTo mount which could be PC controlled, so a camera in the eyepiece and linked back to the PC sounds an easy step. But you'd likely need to be able to live stack and wait possibly several minutes to get the image and may well have to shift focus, so a remote focuser might be needed too. Add in power requirements and cables trailing back indoors (not a fan of WiFi for high data-rate links) and it might be workable. May also need to consider a pier extension so the rig doesn't hit the tripod when remotely finding an object as you may not see the impending expensive collision in time... Have you looked on the EEVA threads as that's essentially what you're trying to achieve. I guess the all-in-one ready to go solution does exist these days, if you're prepared to pay £2k and accept that it is an as-is system, so you're stuck at the hardware rev shipped to you and you're unlikely to be able to fudge your own updates onto, the Unistellar eVscope. There's a topic or 2 on here as I recall.

When you say stiff, that's before the motors were fitted yes? Could be the grease is a bit claggy from sitting in storage, maybe it'll improve once the weather warms up and if you work the axes through the range a few times. I've 2 older (black) EQ5's that I bought used, one runs smooth and no stiffness where the other does have some resistance in parts of the RA movement. This latter did have the SynScan fitted and it'd seem to skip on the gears which sounded horrible. I've since transferred the SynScan onto the other EQ5 and it runs fine. I do plan to strip down the now non-goto EQ5 and re-grease etc, one day tho it works fine for manual and I've other priorities at the mo.

well, so much for picking it up again later, decided what the heck and reassembled the head Then the OTA carrier - had to run a drill through the holes to clear the paint so the pins could be refitted, just twisting it by hand tho and then a tap for the threaded section. Added some felt on the inner of the rings and saddle which should be gentler on the OTA paint than the original plastic bumps that I removed earlier. Also a washer under the OTA securing thumbscrew so we don't chew the new paint. Will try find some nylon ones later on I think. Then fit the carrier to the head and wipe down to get rid of the greasy finger marks Test fit the OTA which I've yet to finish assembly Looks pretty good I think. So really it's just the OTA and focuser to complete now, almost there. Paint finish isn't perfect but considerably better than where it started and am quite pleased with how it's gone so far

today this arrived, hopefully will be suitable to replace the 2 missing ones. Way OTT buying that many but ya never know when they might come in handy on something else So, started to look at the ALT-AZ head. Managed to free the locking screw so dismantled the AZ bearing... It's a bit gritty in rotation as a result of the sanding most likely as can be seen above, so cleaned up with a degrease wipe and added some LM2 Refit in the reverse and tighten down the clamping ring so there's no rocking but the bearing moves freely, then lock in place with the locking screw. I recall reading somewhere that one bearing was more than plain metal surfaces riding on each other but in my case both are the same. Seems to work fine, crude but effective if kept lubricated. Will pick up with the other bearing in the next day or so as I've a couple other things to sort too.

UV would kill it, tho a UV lamp might be simpler given the grey cloudy days here in the UK at the mo. I zap my binos etc periodically to prevent growth as well as storing with silica-gel sachets.

saw that episode, nice bit of work making that himself for sure and wonderful they wanted to have it restored to be treasured and used by the next generations

it's to do with the type of plug and can apply to spliiters or the PSU lead but a splitter does increase the risk as something can be powered while a spare end makes contact and causes a short. The inner +ve isn't well shielded from accidental contact on these plug design, unfortunately.

not owning anything as posh as TV nor a zoom eyepiece I can't help a lot in terms of how you disengage the rings, do they not have the usual notches or pin-holes to engage a lens spanner? One thing I would caution tho, no idea how these eyepieces are built but camera zooms are non-trivial to reassemble as you need to get the mechanism assembled right as well as the lenses set correctly. Take lots of pics as you dismantle to help get it back together after

when you say you have the finder aligned, how did you achieve this, daytime on a distant target, hopefully? If the object used was too close then in the night sky the RDF will be offset to the scope so you want something 500M or more away and then fine-tune on something like the moon. When using the scope, which eyepiece are you trying? Best to start with the lowest magnification (highest number eyepiece, 25/20mm) and no barlow which should give you some stars and the view that confirms where you are vs where the finder thinks you are. If you want more magnification then move to the lower numbered eyepiece (15/12/10mm) but you may find you are off target by enough that you won't see it any more, so re-centre if needed before switching. The object will move out of view a lot faster as you increase magnification. Lastly, sorry to ask but a common one, is the end cap removed?

do be sure to cap off any on the spider that you aren't connecting to a device. These plugs can easily short if they touch against metal and if lucky just the PSU blows, if unlucky, well... fried mount electronics etc perhaps.

I had thought to mod mine but never actually did so far, like you I'd paid £15 for it a year or so back and with lockdown did think to get another but of course prices went crazy on just about everything imported. One I might pick up once prices settle again or look to an alternative for the occasional use it'll get.

The Logi C270 can be modified to take a 1.25-inch adaptor, but the lens holder in the unit isn't a regular M12 so you'd need to sort a solution. Lots of video on youtube on that mod. They used to be quite cheap but lately seem pricey and scarce, given the global situation at the mo. Also its supported in sharpcap directly which might help getting started.