DaveL59

epoxy/araldite would be better, superglue will break down eventually from moisture. If the whole thing has come off what's the end of the bolt like, you might be able to file a flat/square end and get a small T-bar fitted onto it, maybe even silver solder it on yourself...

seems to be M8x1.25 pitch checking with the tap&die set I have. Tho an M8 isn't going to go all the way through to the smaller hole where it meets the shaft. Only the back end where the thumbscrew is is threaded, the rest of the shaft is reduced to 6.4mm for 53mm of the start of the bolt.

depends how you define tonight... Saturn and Jupiter will be low but rising in the SE from around 2AM (not that I'll be out at that time lol)

kinda thinking to do that with mine James so I can put the 222 or get another ball head to use on the EQ5 for the camera. Tho I'm not so sure that the old S100FS is really up to it after last night's experiment - not easy to find focus on it...

I think that's the standard part, I've a long dovetail bar on one rather than that part, so the OTA rings are spaced further apart for stability and to allow more movement when balancing. I guess that part was put aside and had vanished by the time I bought the scope lol.

does look like the one on my EQ5 that fits in the saddle for the tube rings to fix onto

in the motor trade we used to get cost+5%... tho I guess the margin on some astro gear isn't all that high, sure isn't on computer hardware these days.

was having a try but thin clouds have started to drift over. And it seems a focus problem, not so easy on the small rear screen and it seems to get a noisy shot every 2nd/3rd. Like this I can see I could see stars but not like pinpoints that I saw on the display lol That was just off the end of Ursa Major (plough) - was hoping I might pick up some of the detail up there. Another night maybe, days like this I wish I'd gotten the Sony A350 with a proper viewfinder who I doubt it'd have helped. Will have to try harder next time Lens was set at 200mm

so you feel it moves too free and overshoots perhaps? You don't want it too tight but on the back of the focuser where the shaft is there should be a plate with 2 screws. If yours is the same then tightening the screws just a little should make the focuser less slack, loosen to make it more. Hope that makes sense, post a pic of yours and I expect someone who has a celestron may be able to comment.

it'll come, with practise, just make small slow adjustments and fine tine till the image becomes as sharp as you can get it. Is the focuser very slack or a little stiff? as that won't help but can be adjusted.

you'd need to tweak the focus to get it sharp in the view, the white blob shows you're out of focus. When you switch eyepiece you often need to adjust slightly. But reality is its always gonna look small, tis a long long way away after all Hoping it gets reasonably dark in a while as I might try the camera on long exposure to see what it can pick up... wind is picking up here now which could be a pain

well done! Not easy trying to get a pic at the eyepiece tho huh. Been meaning to get a holder so it can be consistently aligned just haven't got around to it and of course stocks are low these days after all the closures etc.

phew, that could've been expensive otherwise

My set is mostly TAL Plossls both older and recent with a couple kellners (42,15) in there too. Also have a Vixen NPL 20 & 10mm. No WA EP's but I'm quite happy with the ones I have. The Vixens to give a brighter image in the main, or perhaps just a little easier to use so seem that way. My mounts a couple can track (EQ5-synscan and EQ2+RA motor) the others are manual (EQ5 and TAL) but I don't find that an issue.

missing collimation screws 😮 Sure hope the mirror isn't "floating" about in the bottom of the tube especially if transported on its side. Or does it not have a collimatible primary or perhaps a cap covering the bottom end of the tube hiding the screws?

no prob, it'll become second nature eventually, you're at the start of a learning curve is all, and I expect it's looking pretty steep, just take it slow and you'll get there. Lots of very helpful folk on here to assist when you need it

no take a look at the pics of my scope I just added, the latitude doesn't need changing at all. Just put the scope in what's known as the home position - weights/bar down vertically and scope pointing along the same direction as the RA axle. Then you can turn the head in the tripod (easier than trying to wrestle the tripod+scope) so its pointing roughly North and you're there...

no the front faces north in that pic If you set the tube so it is parallel to the RA axis, so that the weights are down, then the scope needs to be facing northward. So you just move the tripod or undo a little the big bolt holding the mount head and turn the head and tighten the bolt. excuse the mess around it as mine's in the conservatory at the mo but this may help If you compare the direction the scope is pointing to the compass you can see the scope/head are pointing approximately North hope that helps a bit

you'll still need to move the scope on both axes to get onto target otherwise there's not enough degrees of freedom to get there. But once you have the target and locked the clutch screws, you should find that only RA needs adjusting to keep tracking it. It is in some ways the hardest bit to grasp with an EQ mount but once mastered it's not so hard and becomes second nature. No harm setting up in the day, then pick a target like a tree or aerial on one direction, get the scope aimed correctly. Then choose a different target and go again. You'll see how it all moves relative to where you want to aim and hopefully it'll click as to how you make it work for you (just don't go aiming for the sun!)

have a watch of this video, if you have a compass, some string and a stick... it'll be reasonably good enough for visual But yes you do need to set the lattitide to 53 for your location too.

with that eyepiece selection the barlow won't really give much flex, since they're approx. 2x apart as it is, so would be a waste of funds IMHO. If you only had the 32+9 then yes, but having a 15 in the middle it won't gain very much in real use. You'll likely find the 9mm+barlow (giving 4.5mm) would be too much magnification for the 114 aperture. Laser collimators can be very hit and miss, quite often the latter as lower cost ones aren't always well aligned. A collimation cap and maybe a cheshire would likely be adequate to start with on this scope, you can always move upmarket to the more exotic tools when you've a bigger scope, since the cost for those also jumps in quite big steps too. As to setting up, no reason you can't during the day but probably best as the sun is low so the scope isn't getting heated up, it'll need to cool to get the best views. You can polar align reasonably well with an app for the phone - PolarAlignerPro, which you can lay on the mount (OTA removed) and it'll give you an impression of where you're pointing. You want the OTA pointing parallel to the RA axis before removing it so that the phone is pointing in the right direction.

tend to agree Neil and it'll perform a lot better than the T7C most likely too Plus its a known brand that will have good support and more members here able to assist you further. My thinking when I looked at it was an easy low-cost entry to play and see it it was something I wanted to explore further, then lob it into the sky-cam when upgrading But to be honest I can't see myself spending the time till the wee small hours imaging, nor leaving the gear out unattended, am content to do visual and grab the odd snap at the eyepiece where I can. Will likely have a try at some long exposure shots with the proper (well, bridge) camera at some stage to see what that's capable of.

The T7C is a clone of another better known brand, do a search as there's a few here that use it I believe and it's apparently not bad, was thinking to get one myself at some stage. Can't say how it'd perform for deeper sky objects but should be fine for planets and maybe as a guide camera. The all-sky lens you wouldn't use in a scope but to use the camera stand-alone to get a wide-field sky view, tho at 50 degree it won't be particularly wide and you'd ideally want 150 or more for that purpose. edit: here you go: At one stage they were £75 and I was very tempted but something else needed attention. Like most things prices do seem to have gone up lately with this current situation.

hopefully a reasonable one then, probably the Celestron Omni 9mm plossl? Best bet is give it a go and see how it performs, you'll see Venus a bit more magnified with it for sure and should be better than the 20+barlow.

yeah a common problem with general CCTV if the IR is built into the camera but handy you can reach them easily. I've only 2 that have that issue as the others I have separate IR which avoids that, tho occasionally you get a spooky mega spider shadow being cast My skycam's are on the shed up by the roof, so a 2-step gets me high enough to give them a wipe over and I tend to give them a RainX finish to help the rain slip away from the view area. Sort of works, in the main.