AstroMuni

That is definitely a must with the stock 130EQ tripod One idea that I have used is remove the plastic tray and hanging a used plastic milk bottle filled with water at the centre of the tripod. The plastic tray is not that strong so wouldnt trust it to take any weight

Just drawing the rays on a piece of paper helps for me

I thought most software can figure out the location based on your Wifi (assuming you are at home)??

So that would suggest if you rotated it so that the finder is on the top, the focusser would end up on the left hand side, correct? Looks like you may need a stool or platform to reach the finder! Send pics pls. EDIT: I re-read your post. Did you mean that when you are looking at certain parts of the sky the focusser and finder end up in incovenient positions? If so, that is normal in the EQ mount. You just need to rotate the scope to a position that suits you in most positions. And in those inconvenient ones, you can rotate the scope in the rings.

Did you mean you see the image on the flat face which has the reticle like markings?? I think there was a logic behind NOT doing it this way....this would mean the light returning from secondary would go via the barlow (again) and thus blow up the image giving less accuracy.

Over and above what Richochet has mentioned, it helps compensate for any wobble in the focusser. This figure taken from book Astronomy hacks may help explain it better...

What is the model of the scope? If its held in the OTA rings, you should be able to rotate the OTA so that the view finder is in more convenient position.

I dont think there would be a handicap for visual usage as astrophotography puts higher demands on the optics than visual observation. If you are used to Dobs then this one would need a good mount (EQ or AZ). The other option could be that your present dobs mounts maybe capable of taking this scope on.

Waiting for the missus to sanction budget The HEQ5 pro created a dent on the pocket already, so this ones going to be harder But jokes aside, its not a bad scope and does give very decent views. Havent tried astrophotography other than with phone camera. Lots of basics to learn and this scope is a good starting point. The HEQ5 just makes life a bit easier!

Your tutorial is great This covers the Windows version. I was trying to understand the difference between this and the equivalent INDI version.

Here are the changes I made... I have added PFTE tape to the focusser. Its stuck lengthwise down the barrel (in my case the base opposite the R&P) as thats where I had the wobble. I have also added Flocking behind the secondary. I dumped the RA motor drive as it got in the way for quite a few views. The red dot finder was useless, so ended up using a Telrad. The mount was shaky and I now use the HEQ5 Pro.

HTH

The setting circles can be used to help set the home position of the scope, but beyond that their use is only if you have a manual mount and use the RA/DEC circles to actually help point the scope. I have written an FAQ for the newer reticle that you may find useful...

There are clubs in Reading and Basingstoke, so in your neck of the woods

Besides the ones you mentioned there is one other parameter - direction of polar axis. You are theoretically close to achieving alignment if the Polar axis as shown in a diagram in post above is close to the true Pole. With these parameters the mount should be able to get close to objects. But as we are looking at these objects with high magnifications the field of view (FOV)is quite narrow and this needs to be more precise. Otherwise what tends to happen is that the object is close by but not visible in the eyepiece Once the object is in our FOV, then comes the business of tracking this object as it moves across the sky...If the mount is not properly aligned, as the mount attempts to follow this path, it slowly but surely becomes out of sync with the object. If you are a visual observer you could gently nudge the scope to bring it back into view. But if you are attempting astrophotography over several minutes/hours, this becomes harder to achieve and you start seeing smear marks on the output. HTH in your understanding of this issue