AstroMuni

I was assuming you would do the adjustment of the secondary in daytime, hence my question about red filter 🙂

Is there a reason for the red filter?

Main differences are - EQ3 is manual, less payload capacity EQ5Pro is a Go-to with higher payload For AP, I would go with one that can track objects. So you have the option of adding a tracking motor on the EQ3 if it meets the payload capacity that you are planning to load it with. Gut feel says you are better off with the EQ5 series. Good luck.

Sorry missed that. Good luck with getting the reticle back in place and held flat. I had to use a pair of dividers from my kids compass box to hold it it place while I adjusted the screws to centre it. Mine has the tiny grub screws so harder to get hold of

Are you looking at this site? http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/ Does seem odd that yours is reporting a totally different version...

Great news. What did you do to fix it? That info would benefit others who maybe in similar situations.

I have the HEQ5-Pro and the Polarscope is similar. As others have said yours may not have the built-in light to illuminate the reticle, but otherwise the same. You should be able to see the reticle in daylight! Be careful when you rotate the polarscope eyepiece. If you overdo it and remove the eyepiece, the reticle is likely to fall out into your hands. As you bought the polarscope separately and attached it yourself, I would suggest you remove it from the scope and that way you can easily point it at bright lights to see the reticle, get it into focus etc. Once that is done you can install it back into the scope and then do the alignment. I had written an FAQ when I went through this journey myself and its here ... Good luck.

Hi, I have the same scope and the two eyepieces that come with it are not that great. I purchased a Barlow (the Baader 2.25x https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlow-eyepieces/baader-classic-q-225x-barlow.html) ) and a couple of eyepieces and that improved my viewing. A quick method to slightly improve the quality is remove the erecting prism in your 20mm eyepiece. 🙂 But even with the 10mm one that came with the scope you should be able to see the banding on Jupiter (albeit quite faint). I can see this from my garden in Bortle 6 skies with street lamps etc. If your collimation is off, the image may not be crisp but you should still be able to see the hazy details. Sometimes you have to keep staring at it for quite long before the details leap out, so have patience. Do the stars show up as dots rather than blobs? If so thats a good start and you can enjoy seeing DSOs while you sort out the eyepieces for observing planets. Suggest looking at the Double cluster in Perseus, Andromeda galaxy and the Globular cluster in Hercules to start with. Good luck

If you are looking for something to view objects that move around quickly like drones, helicopters - you are better off getting a pair of binoculars. Suggest something like a 50x10 (thats aperature of 50mm and magnification of 10x). You can get more powerful ones specially built for astronomical objects with 20x etc. but you would need a tripod to keep them steady. For the planets you need the higher magnification that is possible only with telescopes. Otherwise you wont get to see the details that you would expect. Good luck

And it allows you to add alignment stars to correct for any Polar alignment errors or the way in which your phone has been mounted on the scope. So your phone can be mounted with its back to the OTA as well.

The 1200pl is quite long as well, hence you will need to have a sturdy mount that wont shake too much with the wind.

Looks like your existing mount (70AZ) has a Vixen type dovetail, so you should be able to upgrade just your scope (eg. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel/skywatcher-startravel-102t-ota.html) which has a the same dovetail. The mount obviously needs an upgrade if you have trouble with it atm and sturdier mounts are expensive. But do look at the 2nd hand market too (eg at Astroboot.co.uk)

Its the exit pupil that will be the limiting factor besides the maximum useful magnification (MUF) for a scope your size. With a 3.2mm your exit pupil will be 3.2/5 (F ratio) = 0.64mm. And at 50x 5 you are getting pretty close to your MUF with 203x. I have a similar scope and using a 4mm I can see great views of the moon, but with the planets the crispness is lost (but that may just be because of my age and hence smaller pupil) HTH.

He would probably be better off adding an erector for his finder scope and using that. Wildlife moves quite rapidly and not always in predictable directions 🙂 unlike stellar objects. So it would be quite hard to follow them with such a high magnification which is typically there on a 6" Newt.

Could you not just calculate DEC of Polaris -90 to get the value that should be in the centre of your reticle? It should read around -0'd 44' 9" given that DEC of Polaris is +89d 15' 50.8". The RA would remain the same i.e 02h 31' 49.09"

And an eyepiece that gives a high enough magnification to generate an airy disk I have come across many a post where folk have confused the out of focus white circle with the shadow of secondary + spider vanes to be the airy disk.

Lesson 7 is not entirely correct 🙂 but yes, you could build a collimator at home with a piece of tubing, etc.

The Mak 127 suggested above is good for what you have mentioned above and it should give you decent views of the brighter DSOs. It also comes with a GO-TO mount so easier to find and track objects. On the other hand the Dobs you have suggested has a far bigger aperature so will give you ability to see a lot more objects. On the downside it doesnt come with a GO-TO. The Dobs is a bit heavier to carry around than the Mak, I think. Assuming you need to move them to a suitable site for viewing. Set aside some money for buying a couple of good eyepieces. They can each cost anywhere from £50 upwards. Hope this helps you decide. Good luck! 🙂

Could you let us know what mount its on and pics would also help.

I would extend that to the night as well, as there is always stray light if used in urban areas.

I have the same problem and cant see Polaris from one side of the house. What you need to do there is use an App like Skeye (only on Android) or the Pro version of Skysafari which shows a reticle and place your phone on the back of your camera. Get your camera to point to Polaris (ofcourse you wont see Polaris in your camera 🙂 ) and move the tripod around until Polaris is in the middle of your reticle in the app. You can do this even during the day. Also read this https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/daylight-polar-alignment/ (the video link doesnt work) and

They are just curious and sometimes want to test why dad wont let me do this

Agree..but as grandad is too far away, suggested the bins.

Have you considered getting him a pair of binoculars? Based on experience with my kids, I feel they like to participate rather than go out on their own and explore. So considering that you are 150miles away, you will need to keep him engaged in a different sort of manner!

The reason I mentioned is for a new user who is unfamiliar with how to use the scope and is learning from videos, I personally found it easier to copy what was being done in a video rather than figure out what is convenient for me. Once you have learnt the techniques each of us tends to make our own changes to suit us.