AstroMuni

Join an astro club and you should be able to borrow equipment to try out. Another option to consider is binoculars. These are cheaper and a good way to enjoy the sky. A decent 10 x 50 will be a good starting point. And ref your expectation of what you can hope to see, this site gives you that simulation https://www.stelvision.com/astro/en/telescope-simulator/ Most of the images on the web are based on many hours of data and post processing.

Hence my suggestion to get data from many users with same mount and collect the stats. And at the end of the day we need to know how mount performs in a real situation, not lab conditions. Its a bit like rated MPG vs actual 🙂

I feel that if you ask several folk to attempt this at night and give them the parameters to stick to, you could collect the data and get an averaged out data per type of mount. I dont reckon seeing noise is going to impact this as we are just seeing how well the mount stays on track with a particular star. So as long as the star is visible in all frames then we are good 🙂

Can this not be done simply by attaching a camera, pointing to a star and get drift plot results after a set period. Ensure that PA is within x arcsec of NCP and compare results?

Already posted my opinion Ed

+1 to that advice. @Alexmar what is your budget. I can see that Celestron does sell in Brazil https://www.celestron.com.br/telescopios

Here is what you can hope to see with the various scopes you have listed. I have assumed you are imaging with a Canon 600D. But you can change your camera or eyepiece and see what it does to your image.

Welcome to SGL. You are partly right. But if you have a camera your 'zoom' is only defined by the FL of the objective (as there is no eyepiece in between) and as a result some objects may not fit into your view at all. Hope this makes sense. As they say get the largest aperture that you can buy as you need to gather as much light as you can and FOV is a factor of both aperture and FL. Here is a tool to help you visualise https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

Helps to be in UK atleast to receive AN earlier 😉

Hi and welcome to SGL. Pls post an image of your scope so we can help you better. The only time I have seen such double images is if I am viewing from inside the house through our glass windows. As others have said look out for any reflective surfaces in the optical train. This could be lenses or reflective surfaces.

Great article on Mounts, btw 👍

One reason I can think of is that an EQ mount can be readily converted to an AZ mount. Read this post

As you are using it for terrestrial viewing the 20mm erecting eyepiece works best, but has poor eye relief. The other options said above eg. BST and other wide angle eyepieces are great but on their own would invert the image. You can ofcourse make use of the erecting prism in your 20mm to help convert these to right side up images. Check this video

Its great to see M27 from a different perspective. You have captured the gas bubble very well.

If you purchased this new, it should have come with nosepiece adapter. Atleast mine did.

If I were you I would stick to the 130 and put money into getting a good stable mount, something like the SW EQ5. I personally would NOT opt for the 90SLT unless you are after imaging planets where it maybe better than your 130. Read this review on the 90SLT https://telescopicwatch.com/celestron-nexstar-90slt-review/

I agree its not the most intuitive of software, but hey a lot of software is just that way... I simply followed the steps in https://siril.org/tutorials/tuto-scripts/ before it started making sense.

Sorry to hear that. Did you read the tutorials or went straight for it 🙂 Have a read here https://siril.org/tutorials/

Dont worry, you should get pretty decent images with what you have. SW & other vendors have enough models to confuse us folk 🙂 I have a Celestron Astromaster 130 and if you read its reviews for AP they say its useless. But my experience showed me that its not too bad after all and I continue to use it. See my signature link for details.

I use a free tool called Siril for stacking and processing my images. Here is their tutorial for this https://siril.org/tutorials/rgb_composition/

Its looking good now. Try the new GHT (generalised hyperbolic transform) tool in Siril rather than the Histogram transform. You have better control and can get better results.

I use Siril

I was about to suggest something similar.... @imtrappin Use an app on your phone to check if the scope is pointing in same general direction as what the app says. I like an app called SkEye which has a push-to functionality but you can use any app of your choice.

I am guessing its the ASI120MC-S that you are using. I have the ASI224MC which has a backfocus of around 12.5mm so I would guess that yours would be in similar range. I use mine on my Astromaster 130 which again is quite similar to your SW 130 so you should be able to achieve focus by moving the focuser knob during daytime. BTW, I dont need to add spacers but yours may need them as it uses a shortened tube. Dont add the diagonal, just attach the camera straight on to focuser. Use the ASI provided software or Firecapture/Sharpcap to help get a continuous view.

Just go ahead. Plenty of folk around here to help 🙂 Also post an image of what you managed to achieve with PI