DaveL59

I see John has answered re when. Just for you, Venus thru my SW130, managed to take a couple pics with the phone at the eyepiece before it dropped below the fence. Must remember my glasses to get the focus right for the phone next time, doh! 20mm eyepiece: and 10mm eyepiece

yeah I won't be out either, will wait till they're better placed later in the year at a more suitable time

nooo! oh dear, so often the way, I guess out front of the house its still obscured too? Here my view south is obliterated by an oak tree, pretty much ESE-SSW lost behind it and of course N-E is roofline. Still there's lots to see but Venus you're pretty much needing a view west at the moment. Around 2-3AM you might see Jupiter and Saturn to the south east tho they'll be low in the sky

have fun, venus is visible now A plane just tracked across the sky here, catching the red sunset glinting off its underside, making it glow red for a short time which looked pretty neat. I really should try for those John listed, usually the house roof gets a bit in the way but I really should tell the goto to go find me some other things to look at

I've not really looked for one so far, but really should do I guess. More moon, planets and the odd nebula so far when I've had the chance to play

Way too cold oop norf for me, tho it's not exactly warm down here at the moment either. No harm getting the scope out there and roughly aimed toward the setting sun or a little left and up from it. At least it'll be in roughly the right area of the sky when you're ready to take a peek

hopefully will stay clear here too John, there was a cloud formation over to the west a moment ago that looked a bit like Nessie but sooms to have been short lived at least.

down in the south east, north kent You?

well I decided to be lazy this time around, bought some paint stripper and removed off the old paint layers, smoothed off and now primer coated Will check in on these tomorrow now and tidy anything that's needed, then it'll be black hammerite smooth spray and hoping for a nice smooth finish.

ahh the frustrations of a new scope pointed at the sky, the cloud attractant gets released as soon as you open the packaging Hopefully it'll suddenly pop into view, out of the blue as it were once the sun is a little lower, can't quite see it here just yet either.

I expect that's the other issue a newbie with an EQ mount. They do take a while to get used to so worth playing with in the daylight so you can see what you're doing. You basically need to unlock (unscrew a little) both RA and DEC clutch knobs so the scope is free to move in all directions, and then rotate around RA so the counterweight bar is horizontal, and then move the scope tube up/down on the DEC axis and adjust the RA angle as needed. Once your target is in sight you can tighten the clutch screws and fine-tune with the SloMo controls. Hope that makes some sense... You'll likely find that you will then need to rotate the scope in its rings to get the finder and eyepiece to a more comfortable viewing position. Just loosen the ring clamps a little and turn the tube, trying to keep it from slipping down so you retain the balance. Then tighten the tube rings, con't forget that bit

you'd need a RDF with the correct foot that secures to your scope as that one looks like it doesn't come with a foot so won't be much use on its own. Does the current finder bolt onto the tube or slide into a shoe on the scope? A pic might help but here's a few https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/celestron-starpointer-pro-finderscope.html (doesn't get great reviews tho) https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-red-dot-finder.html (you may be able to get a Synta foot for £5 if that's the one for your scope, best to ask) https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/baader-sky-surfer-iii-red-dot-finderscope.html Best to check with the retailer as to fit for your particular scope You could also take a look on astroboot.com as you might find one at lower cost there.

the finderscope is lower magnification (6x-9x typically) than the main scope (30x-200x or more), so gives a wider view of the area which should then help you to home in on the object of interest. Then you switch to using the main scope with the lowest mag eyepiece (larger focal length printed on it) which will have more magnification and a narrower field of view. A bit like looking through an open doorway and then through the keyhole. Once you have the object in view (may need to tweak with the slo-mo controls) you can then move to the higher mag eyepiece if desired, again you may need to tweak the aim. This all assumes of course that the finder is aligned, which is where you seem to be struggling. I read a comment somewhere (can't find now of course) that the finder on this scope can be limited in adjustment range and a wine cork was used to improve the aim. Basically find an object with the main scope only and low mag eyepiece, get it centred and maybe then use the high mag eyepiece and adjust further to centre the object. Now without moving the scope tube (tighten the clutch bolts if not already) you adjust the finder so the cross-hairs are on the same point as the main scope. Re-check the main scope hasn't shifted and repeat making small adjustments to the finder aim. Try not to have any of the finder adjusters very loose as the finder will just shift about aimlessly, but you will need to loosen one or both screws on the side you want it to move toward then tighten one on the other side to make it move. If your finder bracket has 2 rings with screws then you need to consider how the finder aim changes according to which ring you are adjusting. You may need to adjust both to get the required change of angle of the finder to get the view aligned with what the main scope is seeing. Moving the rear ring to push the finder away from the scope and the front to push the finder toward the scope will bring the finder view down toward the scope and same the other way around, if you see what I mean. After much muttering and turning the air blue with frustration, hopefully once you have it aligned, tighten the finder screws gently if they need it and check again and of course repeat if needed. Leave the big hammer in the shed tho, it won't help Tedious and time-consuming for sure but once done life gets so much easier when trying to locate objects in the night sky. An alternative to consider might be a red-dot finder (RDF) as others have mentioned. You use these with both eyes open, one looking through the RDF to see a target painted in the sky. Can be harder to set up in bright daylight tho as the dot can be hard to make out even at full brightness, in which case a shroud (old toilet/kitchen roll tube) cut to slide over the finder helps a lot

getting there, tho the FoV may be a bit narrow unless your sky view is limited by the location/obstructions. How's the night/sky view without the lighting?

Having got a paint pad and cut it back to a suitable size, I flatted and went over the OTA carrier and focuser with high hopes the finish might be a bit flatter with less brush marks. It almost worked, but perhaps a colder day making the paint thicker (less than half left so that may also contribute) the finish isn't what I'd want on the finished assembly. Downside is to get the hammered finish you need enough paint laid on and being multi-surface of course it gathers and runs/sags after you walk away to leave it to set. Oh well, gave it a go, but I think I'll be flatting this back and then going back with a hammerite smooth black spray which should hopefully give a better overall finish. Pity as I kinda liked the slightly hammered look for these parts rather than flat gloss.

its a different scope to yours, but if you are still struggling with getting the finder aligned, from around 12:30 on this video may help

sure she's not planning to shove you into that hole once she's dug it

or exactly measure the mirror diameter and draw a square on the acetate of that dimension, then draw a diagonal across from each opposite corner and you have the centre.

yes can see why you'd be asking, after all its an exhibit to spark interest. I guess you could just say its to let the space dust out so it doesn't clog the mirror

I'd guess its to shunt heat from the electronics/imagers out the back end rather than allow it to drift in front of the mirror and create a possible thermal eddy in the image?

nice work. Must admit that I find the same, print a photo on laser printer and its dull, laminate it and somehow it just pops

I'd say so long as they've able to give the same voltage but then one will be flat before the other and that's where the damage to the weaker cell will be worsened. It'll have a faster volts drop which will then be sucking charge from the stronger one under load and then when they get to low capacity if you keep the load running one will go very flat. it's very not good to run a lead battery totally flat unless they're designed for deep discharge. If you really want to go that route, take a look at solar forums and how they set up the battery banks, of course a much larger scale from necessity but will give you an idea of the issues. Batteries in parallel as Kev says, best avoided but I guess it depends what you're trying to achieve and are working with.

lol well we'll see. Funny tho I nabbed a pair of audubon mk-II's (804 type3a I think they are) just the other week for a real bargain price too and after stripdown and clean of the optics are a lovely pair to use, just needs the focuser action cleaned up and paint touching over. This HR/5 looks to be a narrow body 804 type4b1, could be a broken eyepiece cylinder or in fact just the eyecup end ring which if present is a doddle (famous last words), looks in reasonable shape otherwise. Tho worst case if the HR/5 is otherwise good and better viewing I can use the MK2 for the spare part if what's on it can't be sorted. Time will tell how the dice roll, gotta take a gamble sometimes huh

you could put a fuse between the batteries on the +/- connected pair, UPS's like APC tend to have a 100A fuse linking the 2 batteries in series to protect in case the other 2 terminals short. But then they are usually arranged with the terminal edges facing each other because of space constraints. For batteries in parallel the wire requirement isn't any different really, using thicker interconnect would be fine, but you face other issues in terms of balancing the batteries so they are at the same voltage when connecting them together and in use and during charging. One weak battery in the parallel set will bleed charge away from the others during charge and use as it'll have a different internal resistance.

having said that I spotted this later that night https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audubon-8-5-X-44-Binoculars-Spares-Or-Repairs/124183902345?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 and dammit I wasn't able to resist, will see how fixable they are when they get here