DaveL59

what 9mm eyepiece do you have? In effect it should be better on its own than the 20mm in the barlow you have, which would be 10mm as a combination but likely a degraded image.

the other fun thing you'll be having to deal with, keeping the dome clean for the best image and of course the bugs that think it's a great place to set up a web etc

an interesting field, lot of demand for it too I expect re more expensive bits, you might be better with an RDF or telrad which is the more highly regarded of the two. When you're happy you know your way around the scope and eyepieces a good upgrade would be better eyepieces and barlow. The BST starguiders are oft recommended here as a step up. The barlow in your pic is pretty poor to be honest so a Celestron Omni or similar would be much better. But best to get familiar with what you have and then decide if its a hobby you'd like to stick with before sinking too much into it or it quickly becomes a money pit chasing more aperture etc

Which science degree do you have out of interest? I started with engineering, switched to math and got bored with that so finally did computing, probably only attended about half of that one but did walk away with a degree at the end

Upside was living on other countries and enjoying the adventures and opportunities that offered. Downside is you (well I did) develop a 2-year itch and then when you finally return for the last time you're subconscious clock it telling you it's time to move, which played havoc where it coincided with the exam cycle. Wouldn't trade that for anything though

yeah, Warrington back when it was in Lancs. Lived there twice in fact though only a year or so each time before heading off elsewhere. Army brat so we went where we got posted so was lucky to grow up around the world

ah just a song that used to play on the radio in the school coach when I used to live up your way, along with the locomotion and several others. A long time ago now lol. For setting up the mount, this may help http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/simple-polar-alignment/ For the EQ2 we don't have a polar scope to get real accuracy but a good near approximate does make things easier in use

that's right, the RA would be all you'd need to adjust, assuming you can get the mount lined up to north reasonably well. That's when the motor comes in handy as you then won't need to touch anything once focused on the target. Means you can relax and there's no touch induced wobbles in the scope Just looking at your userID, after Jennifer Eccles by any chance?

does sound that way unless you buy a cigar to EQ5 cable but connecting to the screw posts would be more reliable

the bench one looks to have a cigar socket outlet, do you have a car lead for the mount? I guess you could then use an octopus type connector to that to give multiple plug outputs but watch that you cover the unused ones as some aren't too well short protected as the centre electrode can be a little exposed. https://www.amazon.co.uk/BW-Power-Splitter-Security-Cameras-Black/dp/B004UKINPU

more made me think of... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1641252/

When you set up the EQ mount, you set the angle of the RA axis to match your longitude which I guess is 53.3 . That sets the rotation of the scope to match the way the objects will revolve around the sky for your location, relative to north (well, polaris). So for the mount to be most effective you want the RA axis pointing up toward north, for the EQ2 type mount a compass would get you approximately right. Now when you've locked onto your target, you should only need to adjust the RA sloMo to keep it in view.

Ah they do work, just the way it fits on my skywatcher EQ2 its the wrong side of the big gear wheel so needs to run the opposite way. Once on you'll figure out if you need to set N or S as it'll be obvious pretty quickly once the target stays in view or drifts off to the side in the eyepiece. Once you get the hang of getting the mount pointing to N and level they do make for a more relaxed viewing of a target as you don't have to be adjusting the RA to keep things in view.

The best bit will be, depending on how it fits to yours, that you get it all set, turn it on and it tracks the opposite direction And yeah, that's exactly what mine does if you set it to N for northern hemisphere like what we should. I have to set mine to S and then it goes the right way

I use this site on teh PC which you can set date and time and it'll show you what would be up to look at https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php At the moment Jupiter and Saturn would be rising early hours, like 2AM and be quite low in the sky and quickly overtaken by the dawn tho you should still be able to view if you can track them. You have a RA motor for your mount I think you said, which would help once you've got the object in view and the RA axis pointed north.

as to finding uranium glass, the bay is a treasure trove of antiquities, for example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Art-Deco-Brockwitz-uranium-glass-footed-bowl/224008285426?hash=item3427ef2cf2:g:aJwAAOSwVOteus4I

sorry, thought best to check as its a common mistake, focus way off, a bright ball of light and a black circle in the middle... But sounds like you got there after the frustrations of getting the finder set up AND saw your first planet with your own eyes! When you do get to see Jupiter and Saturn I'm sure you'll be blown away, as we pretty much all are

of course you do realise the nuke police will be bursting through your door in the middle of the night now...

doh, always the way huh. Don't go for a smoked dome though, but then you can always get a clear replacement which is what I did. If it helps this is what I did with my cheapo build

yeah I did think that after I posted, the crescent extends a way around when I was seeing it earlier low in the sky, might give the impression of a black sphere in the middle slightly offset.

ahh always the way. Mine's a note-10 plus, not sure what camera app there is for the iphone but does yours offer a pro mode where you can set focus etc manually? I tried the other app to see what it does but find that since mine lets me do all that with the in-built app I didn't see the point to buy another just yet

My first test with a cctv module I used one of those, but since repurposed a dud dome PTZ that I got for a few quid off the bay and adapted to run upside down (dome up). So long as you can get a good seal (thats the tricky bit) it works fine and gives a clear view with no distortion.

and old uranium glass bowl, even some camera lenses, maybe an old luminous watch?

I'd like to hope it isn't broken, how far is the focuser racked in, do you get to the point in the focus where Venus shows as a sharply defined crescent that's quite thin especially at the tips? My images are a little out of focus for the camera so bloat a little, not to mention its a very bright object against a dark background. Are you able to take a pic to show what you're seeing? Not easy but phone against the eyepiece might just do it. Ideally you need the camera focus to infinity and manual settings mode (pro mode on mine) or try the FV-5 lite app. We'll have more of an idea of we can see what you do

Well done!! if you're seeing a black dot then you need to adjust focus a bit as that'll be the secondary mirror you're seeing. Adjust until the image is at its smallest which should then be a sharp thin crescent in Venus' case.