Carbon Brush

I made this 10+ years back. Specifically to keep eyepieces warm, and remove dew from used eyepeices. A plastic (thermally insulating) box. Contains a couple of resistors to provide a bit of heat and a small fan to stir the air. Runs from 12V. The Hyperion eyepieces give you an idea of scale.

I have one of these cameras. A nice little 'power on up and running out of the box' device. Not much money to chance. It performs nicely on a scope, or a camera lens - I have a Canon adapter. Good luck with the sale. David.

@Tiny Clanger Left field. Out the box. Call it what you will. It is a great idea. Usually when people ask about first scopes, the budget is much smaller and they don't want to risk too much, and they want one scope. But this time.... For the younger. Take a look here at small dobs.... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html For a small refractor consider Startravel 80, either table top, or AZ3 mount..... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/startravel.html The ST80 is good for all round use. Land or sky. I used to own the slightly larger ST102 with alt-az mount

Excellent contributions from the above. I hope the number of options is helping you more than confusing. My example of a long tube refractor was to show an extreme. However, when your budget extends to buying 'decent glass' you can get a short tube refractor that won't have 'rainbows' on the edge of the moon. Chromatic aberration is the proper name. When I suggest spending ££ gives no chromatic aberration, I mean so little you won't notice. A short refractor has the benefit that the eyepiece doesn't move around too much when you have a tripod mount. An 80mm short tube refractor ca

Yes dobs, and the base are big. I think you might be better thinking of a scope that can be packed away into a small space. Also not necessarily buying the scope and mount together. I don't know how much you know about scopes, so apologies in advance if I'm pitching at the wrong level. In terms of a stand, you can go two ways. Tripod or pier. A tripod is height adjustable for 5yr/10yr/adult height. A pier is fixed height. So for you a tripod is better. Think about using a traditional long tube refractor scope. Looking near the horizon, the eyepiece is near the tripod he

How old are the children? Are they the sort of kids with 5 minutes attention span? Or do they get engrossed for hours? These is are important considerations when choosing a scope. If the children are small, the eyepiece position on an 8" dob is going to be mean step stool time with the associated arguments and push off! I think leaving an MDF/chipboard base dob outside permanently, even in summer, and the UK climate are contra-indicated. Tell us a bit more about the users, and location and then you can get a more complete recommendation. A couple of years back I bought a

@geeks. On one scope, years back, I used to fit a barlow on the front of a DSLR. Until changing the focusser, it gave me the travel I needed.

@NenoVento Yes your fuse box shematic is essentially correct. Given the low voltage and low fault current (tens of amps) automotive fuses are fine. The benefit of these is that you can easily buy them. Maybe even pick up a power distribution box to suit your needs. Whether you go for a fuse box, or a fuse & switch, or even with led indicators, is your choice. Here are examples (though not the best choice) of something I saw a few days ago. https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/powerpole-fused-dc-connector-box/ https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Qiorange-Blade-Holder-Circuit-holder/dp/B0752H5DC6/r

Yes please, I will take it. David.

May I make a few suggestions on power supply choice? Visit the manufacturer (not seller) web site. Is it a professional appearance? Or are they an 'under the railway arches copy' of something else? Is it a known name that has been around for a while? Does the manufacturer list safety and EMC (electrical interference and more) certification? If in doubt, it should be in the downloads area, as well in as downloadable data sheets. If he is selling into the professional world, he needs this. If he sells (potentially unsafe and unreliable) product to the hobby market...... There hav

Yes a bargain. This amount of mirror degradation won't cause issues.

Thanks for posting. I like the idea of setting a minimum load current to suit the powerbank.

Well spotted Stephen. This is a really good price. I have used jump start lithium packs (a similar appearance to the Aldi kit) for scope power. I would add a cautionary note about the Aldi pack. Specification is sparse. However, it looks like it has a switched mode suppy in there to go from lithium cell voltage to 12V. This has a low limit (1.5A) on current delivery. This limit might be exceeded when slewing some heavier mount/scope combinations. If this happens, the 12V output will drop, leading to the scope controller shutting down. A small mount (able to run from AA cells) t

I remember as a child in early 60s being shown a daily newspaper (very small) entry telling us when and where to look for what was (I think) a high altitude reflective weather balloon passing over. One of very few objects that moved in the night sky. I think there may have been two of these ballons? About 10 years ago I invited a few friends around to watch the August Perseids show. The intention being to have a list of satellite passes as the 'warm up' act before the meteor show got going around midnight. I think there were something like 80 satellites that were visual or small binos b

Thank you Shaun. After reading your report I just had to take a look at the mount & scope. Plenty of retailer adverts but no stock and no customer reviews Bresser kit does generally produce favourable comments from SGL members so they appear to have slipped up here. I just hope you are still within the returns window. Thanks again for the review. David.