etsatlo

I bought directly through their website using a credit card so covered as I can be. At this price it's a fair risk in my mind as I imagine demand will be high and a backlog will build up once it launches

At about 15% of the price of the eVscope (give or take), that's the stand out feature. Whilst I agree specs and aperture and flexibility can be challenged, at that price point I think they could be sat on a gold mine. Mount, scope, sensor, plate solving, live stacking, goto, tracking, plate solving, solar imaging and daytime imaging all in one package the size of some binoculars? That's worth a punt (which I have!)

Really good to hear peoples experiences and reaction to this. As some of you say, keeping one eye open is certainly a possibility though for me, as others have mentioned, the light pollution precludes that. I have tried the eyepatch idea though found it gave me eye strain after only a short while. The cost concern raised with respect to both the binoviewer and EAA camera is very valid, though as many of us have found, there is no free lunch in this game! I've certainly found the modest investment in a planetary camera provides excellent ROI and could certainly use a DSLR in lieu of that which many may already have to hand.

Something that I've not seen mentioned very often that is absolutely crucial to consider before spending any money on a telescope is to consider how much you enjoy looking at things with just one eye. It doesn't matter how big the aperture is, how good quality the eyepieces are or how dark the skies are near you, if you don't like squinting to peer with only one eye then it's all going to be for nought. If that sounds like something that could potentially apply then I would recommend looking into binoviewers or electronically assisted astronomy (so that you are viewing an image on a screen). You may also want to consider binoculars but those probably won't show the types of objects you're imagining e.g Saturn's rings. Clear skies.

Forgive me but why aren't you able to do planetary with the mount?

Oh very interesting. What's the name of the lens + adapter if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks Vlaiv, that's pretty much where I'm up to in terms of understanding so just looking for some specifics from anyone who may have attempted before

Hi all, I'm looking into purchasing a Skywatcher AZ GTi mount and it's fair to say my brain is melting with all the different software that I'd need. Here's an overview of what I'd like to achieve. For reference I'm using a Mac, scopes are an ST80, 102 Mak and 60 mm guidescope. Cameras are a ZWO ASI 224MC and Canon 550D/Rebel T2i: Ideally I would point the scope at the sky, use plate solving in lieu of star alignment and then use a planetarium or other software to find objects of interest and use that to instruct the mount where to point. I will then do Live Stacking for EAA with the mount tracking the objects from then on, probably without auto-guiding. If anyone has any experience or advice with this kind of set up it would be much appreciated! I've tried ASILive with the 224MC and that seems OK for live stacking but other than that I'm bit lost at sea. Cheers.

A shroud is almost a necessity for these scopes so would invest in some foam sheet and sticky back velcro from Hobby Craft

Well, what a depressing bunch a lot some of you turn out to be! The anti-human undercurrent of wanting to send large portions of humanity with one-way tickets, us not being worthy of another chance as we have spoilt this planet, the limiting of our ambitions to fixing this planet first before exploring others whilst deep down we know that the technology of surviving on another planet might bring to the table is immense, and the anti-capitalist vibe of billionaires being a scourge whilst being the ones advancing the space industry is quite disappointing. Is going to Mars an objectively good idea? I don't know. Will it do more to inspire generations to come than anything else on the table, give us a back-up population in case of disaster on Earth, provide untold scientific advancement or simply expand our knowledge? Yes. So whilst a portion of the posters here have an implicit anti-human slant, I say go for it. Move the boundary forwards. Those with the cynical view on the world will be pleased none the less in X years time once it's been completed and of the things we'll learn. OK rant over.

Have you attempted to mount your Newtonian on the AZ5 at all? That would be my first call before purchasing anything new given the similar aperture

Just to chime in with my experience which the OP is finding too but Celestron are appealing to beginners but the quality isn't amazing and the price is high. Like other have said, avoid starter kits and just buy what you find you need. Offerings from Skywatcher are usually better value I have found.

I would echo the short tube refractor on alt az with a red dot finder and zoom eyepiece. Would also add that you use an erecting prism diagonal not a mirror so it's less confusing

I use binoviewers a lot and the moon is still very bright when near full. Recommend picking up a 0.96 Moon filter from FLO, only £9 and makes it far more comfortable. Can't quite imagine not using a moon filter as I find it equivalent to having the optician shining the light into my eye to examine my retina!

Was that due to chromatic aberration at all? I similarly found the views less impressive through the Heritage 150p than my 102 Mak. This was using 26mm and 17mm Plossls.

If you have any form of light around you then yes I found you needed one

Not as a direct replacement but I have done something similar I have a helical focuser which attaches by T thread along with a 1.25" to T thread adapter. It does help with fine focussing using the binoviewer as it's non rotating

My Skymax 102 has been serving me well, however with the addition of a binoviewer and 6x30 right angle finder it has become more and more back-heavy. I've shuffled the scope as far forwards in the AZ Pronto mount as I can but it's still not quite balanced fully. Looking to change the dovetail bar for a longer one I soon realised I had no idea what size the mounting screws currently used were. Easy, I'll just unscrew one and find out. Now normally I'd have searched Google for half an hour before doing anything to the scope to learn from others' mistakes but this Saturday morning I just fancied tinkering. Well that served me right. I undid one of the 2 dovetail mounting screws and promptly heard a 'ping' as the previously unknown nut dropped onto the other side of the tube. Cue minor heart attack. Fortunately it had missed the mirror and the corrector lens so all was good but now I had a loose nut floating about in the tube. I fortunately had some very strong magnets knocking about so I used a few of those stacked together to hold the nut in place so it couldn't slide around. Trying to get a loose nut onto a bolt was a pretty unenviable task. My now post-event Googling revealed that I'd need to remove either the corrector plate or the primary at the back. I got as far as starting to unscrew one of the screws on the corrector plate before chickening out and tightening it back up. I hadn't really planned on ever collimating the Mak (just as well as there are now collimation screws) and I didn't intend be the cause of it going out of collimation. After some ideas of maybe getting a wire in through the back where the diagnonal slots in; maybe trying to get a spot of super glue on the inside of the tube to hold the nut in place I resorted to trying again to gently get the bolt back in to the nut. The solution was as follows. I removed by retaining magnet I'd used and gently tipped the OTA until the nut was roughly over the hole. I then put a wooden skewer into the hole in the OTA to get the nut properly aligned. As it was the rear screw dovetail I'd undone I managed to put the OTA back onto the mount and slide it so the screw hole in the OTA was hanging off the back of the mount. This gave enough space for me to use a screwdriver to gently insert the screw try to get the two to marry up. Took a couple of attempts but eventually it bit. One very fortunate design 'feature' of the OTA is that the seam where the two ends of the flat metal sheet meet once they're rounded to form the tube are adjacent to the hole. This meant that nut had something to push up against meaning I could apply some torque without the nut and bolt spinning together. Some more gentle rotations got it to a point where it was seated enough to be able to nip it up properly. Apologies for the rambling but I wanted to offer a different solution to the world that didn't require taking the OTA to bits! P.S. As a note to anyone at Skywatcher/Synta who may ever read this, please God glue or weld those nuts in place. A dovetail is a very common thing to upgrade and using a standard Phillips head screwdriver makes it look very much like a user-serviceable part. I understand costs have to be saved but a spot of glue to hold it in place can't break the bank or add too much to labour costs.

I found seeing fairly good in general. I'd recommend a 17mm Astro Essential Plossl from FLO (£20 if memory serves correctly) as it is a nice middle ground. I too find the 10mm pushing it a bit

Interesting, I have a binoviewer and two Plossls coming in at around 800g hanging off the back and I've found the stock diagonal pretty sturdy. Maybe they've changed it recently depending on how old yours might be?

Just a word of warning, I would definitely not consider collimation until you've used the scope at night. I have the Skymax 102 and the daytime views using both eyepieces (10mm and 25mm) are fairly underwhelming due to the hazy, thick, and thermal-y air you're looking through. Come night time it's a whole different story so don't worry. Edit: in fact daytime views through any of my other eyepieces (Plossls) are much the same so don't worry about running out and replacing those too soon either.

Looks wonderful. This was my first transition I've witnessed and was very exciting to see. I had to check Stellarium to make sure it wasn't just wishful thinking!

Well, to answer my own question the result is: no. Turns out using an eyepiece straight-through produces about 30mm of back focus room meaning the circa 110mm of most binoviewers (mine included) weren't anywhere near. Putting another 2x Barlow ahead of the binoviewer put it was far too zoomed in and image poor. Having found the same scope as my OP on Amazon under another distributor for £40 I thought it may be worth keeping for the tube rings and dovetail if nothing else (now gone up to £120). Plan B, trying to use as a secondary scope using a regular, single eyepiece meant using a star diagonal. This required circa 50mm focus distance so meant I had to screw a 2x Barlow into the nosepiece of the diagonal. The binoviewer was still nowhere near focus. Whilst brought to focus this did mean it was a bit more zoomed in than planned at (2x240mm) / 25 mm = 19.2x rather than the planned 9.6x at the native 240mm focal length of the guide scope. Well last night was the first clear night to try it under the stars and see how it performed. I wasn't confident given how milky and struck with chromatic aberation the daytime views were. Needless to say I was fairly blown away. The 3/4 waxing gibbous moon (with 0.9 moon filter) was a sharp as I've seen it with craters well defined and the mare showing beautiful contrast. The chromatic aberation was now almost absent (only slight yellow tinge oddly). Jupiter wasn't great with chromatic aberation very strong on the planet itself but with the moons sharp as tacks. It is worth noting that this is my first view through a refractor (save binoculars) so the performance may not be absolutely, objectively good but to my eyes it was lovely. Saturn was a lot better (less CA) but still not a patch on the Skymax 102 Mak however the rings were visible and sharp. Titan was also just visible. After a brief sweep over the summer triangle I thought I'd try hunting down something elusive to me. I've been trying to find M13 using my trusty 6x30 RA finder and copy of Turn Left at Orion but having seen it briefly in the Mak I wasn't particularly blown away (that's saying something for some other globular clusters!). So I tried my luck starting from Arcturus up to the SW corner fo the Keystone of Hercules. A couple of hops further and bam, there it was. Clear and bright (relatively) as day sat between the 2 neighbouring stars as shown in the book. So overall, as a single-eyepiece, wide field scope riding shotgun on my main scope it is a very welcome addition and looking forward to more views! I highly recommend something like this for mounting red dot finder (broadly in the right region), 6x30 RA finder (star hopping) and the shotgun scope (for wow). Mine was same price but from a UK distributor so not sure what duties would be. The machined aluminium is very solid. All the best.

Your prayers have been answered: Starsense Explorer

I've come to the same issue from the other side. Your setup sounds wonderfully advanced whereas mine was previously too basic. What I found worked really well is (prepare for the inevitable) using a copy of Turn Left at Orion which gives really clear instructions on how to find things and sketches of what you'll likely see from suburban skies. In addition get a proper finder scope (e.g. a 6x30 right angle one, about £45 from FLO), a red dot sight won't cut it, at least not in my experience. I was able to find and view M13 last night from my edge-of-large-town location in a 60 mm guide scope fitted with a star diagonal and a nearly full moon so you should be fine after some practice. Stick with it, I promise it gets easier!