Carbon Brush

An F5 newtonian is going to be 'picky' on eyepieces. Sorry, I have no experiece of the APM eyepiece, though it does appear to be intended for a fast scope. Hopefully another member can contribute. Do you have the opportunity to take your eyepiece t try in another (similar focal ratio) scope? You might be interested in this thread. Good luck, David.

There are nights when the atmosphere just won't take high magnification. You will read about 'good seeing' when this is discussed. A bad result one night, or at one time does not mean a bad scope. If I may give an example? A few years back an astro club about 20miles away from home was holding a public evening to view Mars through their 12" scope. I loooked at Mars before setting out and thought the evening would not yield much. Mars was little better than an orange blob in my 7" Intes scope that was new to me, but I thought to be good. Mars through the club scope was a different experience altogether. Polar cap easily visible, hint of shading, etc. At first I thought my own scope must have a problem. Returning home I opened up my scope again. Reassuringly there was Mars with polar cap, hint of shading. Two sessions at home about 3 hours apart gave completely different results. Stay with it and there will be good evenings. spend a bit of time on easier targets to increase the enjoyment while building on your skills. Most sky objects will be there tomorrow or next. Just keep trying. HTH. David.

Can you identify the model of scope and eyepiece please?

If you are spending significant money, then go for the known names. Buy from an known astro retailer. Not a department store or general online seller. If it is possible visit the shop. They won't sell you a lemon if they know you will be back stamping your feet and frightening other customers away. They also want you to come back to buy something else. Happy customers mean they don't have to spend a fortune on advertising and sales pitches. I could spend all evening telling you about specific 'just like brand-X' bargains that failed. Sometimes in a spectacular manner. Usually made in China. A significant proportion of my earnings comes from people who have got their fingers burnt and need the job doing properly - in the UK by UK skilled staff. This ranges from software, to bespoke electronic design, to production build. Let me put it this way. A hypothetical scope factory from 9 till 5 makes scopes as a subcontractor to a known name. It could be any of the 'proper' names. Lets call it Taklunvix. The product has to meet TakLunVix demanding specifications or it gets rejected. What happens to product that TakLunVix reject and return to the factory? It may be rebadged and sold for a lower price. Overnight the factory is idle. This includes all the Taklunvix tooling, moulds and test fixtures. Why not make it active and produce your own brand of scopes? To save money, instead of high quality glass, melt down old milk bottles. Or use glass that has impurities and bubbles that Taklunvix would reject. What about the ali sheet for the newtonians that sometimes cracks when rolled because it is the wrong spec? Well it is OK. The paint fills the cracks, until it has been temperature cycled a few times. I'm not saying it happens all the time. But it does happen. Clear skies, David.

Hi Merlin. The key word here is 'discreetly'There are idiots who misue anything and we all suffer for their stupidity. But if you use an appropriately powered pointer correctly, nobody notices it. All the laser pointers I have seen are essentially 'room temperature' devices. When chilly, they increase their intensity over several seconds as things warm. I haven't had one outside on a cold night for long enough to establish operating limits. Just arrange a watt or so of heating and put a bit of insulation around the pointer, leaving just the switch and shiny end exposed of course. A decent size powerbank will keep the package warm for the evening. But maybe you already have a decent size battery for anti dew on your binos and mirror? HTH, David.

Buying off the peg is easiest, if you cn find one. But why not 3D print a lens cap? You have choice of colours - including glow in the dark HTH, David.

Yes I mean ebay. Occasionally items come up there that get included in SGL threads for amusement. Shed finds that are extremely corroded described as needing 'slight attention'. Descriptions of scopes with 8 foot mirrors and more. The incorrectly assembled scopes being a dead giveaway of the sellers knowledge. But there are sometimes decent scopes from honest sellers. These can appear in SGL threads as a heads up. Astrobuysell gives less opportunity than SGL to identify the seller and check history. Sometimes a seller will include a real name, SGL name, etc. I have bought a lot from there with little problems. A phone chat, maybe more than one, and extra photos are a good idea. Sometimes sellers put 'collection only' in their adverts because of the problems of packing for shipping, or arranging shipping. It is always worth asking about shipping in case you can help them out. For example I have a couple of times bought 'collection only' using UPS to collect a parcel that the seller has packed. Emailing the shipping labels to the seller. I regularly arrange shipping for work, so the effort of going through the 99 questions (including grandmothers maiden name) for remote pickup is familiar territory. I also have a few flight cases in the shed that are battered, but solid. I would happily (costing me less than £10) ship one to a seller, including bubble wrap, parcel tape and address labels. All the seller has to do is sensibly pack using the materials provided, close the case, lock it using the supplied cable ties, then put the labels on. On shipping, be wary of the insurance, or lack of. Some carriers in effect say anything glass=no cover. Making no distinction between a refractor in a transport case and a chandelier in a carrier bag. Some carriers say anything used is worth only scrap value of a few ££ per tonne. Regardless of actual condition. And yes they still charge you for the insurance. I could tell several stories of incomptentent carriers and how they avoid insurance payout. We have the situation at work now where we have shipping insurance as part of the company general insurance. I generally regard carrier insurance as not being worth the paper it is written on. The UK Post Office are more upfront about cover and have always (in my experience) paid up on a lost parcel - eventually. If you do a bit of research you should be OK buying remotely. I have bought quite a bit of kit with only a cursory glance if the seller seems honest. Maybe I am stupid? Lucky? Good judge of character? I think that in the astronomy community most people are basically honest. Though not everyone. Much of my collection, since the early 2000s, has been bought secondhand. Allowing me to 'play' then move it on with little net loss. I once sold a scope to Ireland. An Orion Optics 200 newtonian - and it arrived intact. Keep asking the questions and keep looking. David.

'The bay' is unfortunately sometimes where gear ends up up that has not been looked after and prices can be silly. There are honest people selling there, but you need to look out. You need to know what problems to look for, because they may be present. The 'for sale' on this site always gets my attention first. The folks posting here are generally honest. Just take a look at open descriptions of scratches, dust inside, paint chips, etc. You can identify the seller and look at their posting history. If you collect you usually find a very helpful seller who will talk you through the equipment setup and use. Why not post a 'wanted' on this site and see what comes up? HTH, David.

Sorry I'm not buying. I already have too much kit. But as a former OO newt owner (8" & 10") I had to look. Both gave stunning views by the way. Looking at the price, you appear to be selling a Moonlite focusser, with fitting kit, with a free scope. Good luck with the sale. David.

Many years ago (don't ask) I was put off astronomy by the views through a 1" (no not a typo) refactor on a table top mount, then a 60mm scope with built in zoom eyepiece. Again table top. The situation improved when I tried out a 3" long FL refractor. But it was on an undersized EQ mount and wobbled. Ridiculous magnifications offered by the eyepieces didn't help. It spent many years in its box. Fortunately for £150 now you can get something that is going to give enjoyment and tempt you to continue the hobby. The biggest difficulty is the wide choice. Hence the length of the thread!

My village has had 3 sets of street lights since I moved there in 2007. Standard (orange) sodium, high pressure sodium and now LED. Despite the very different light spread from the lights, they have left the new posts in the same places as the old. Because it eases wiring I expect. The main street is like daylight now. But like @fifeskiesthe better beam spread has helped my back garden. Why a village needs 24/7 daylight is beyond my underatanding. My local light pollution generator, Nottinghamshire County Council, seem to have unfortunately little idea of how to use road lighting. If they put a little intelligent thought into their work, instead of just putting brighter lights everywhere, they could save lots of money. But communication with them on anything road related is reminiscent of shovelling water up a hill.

I have known of this company for several years but never really looked at them in detail. Having got the impression the were more into nature optics than night sky equipment. I purchased a 2" prism diagonal. I had been looking for an affordable diagonal for a trial on a scope. Not having proof it was worth me spending Baader type money. I settled on an Ostara diagonal. The order was placed as a result of online searching in the evening. There was an immediate (probably automated) order acknowledgement email. Next morning, Thursday 10am, another email told the order had been packed and sent to the carrier. By 330pm I had an email with a carrier name and tracking number. Full marks for keeping me informed. Friday lunchime the parcel was delivered. When I received the parcel I thought it was a bit odd. The box was quite large and heavy. Have they accidentlly sent me nice ED scope or some good quality binos Would they want them back? As it happens the diagonal was in there - well packed mainly using cardboard. The extra weight was made up of Hawke, Viking and OVL catalogues. It thought this a nice touch. Very often looking at kit online, it difficult to compare - even if you print the pages. I would certainly look at buying from this company again. Given their distance from me, I wonder now why I have never visited them.

Hi Steve. Yes that looks well worth the money. I am sure it will give lots of enjoyment. I think on the strut damage (carefully hidden in the seller photos) you can sort it out for little money. But there doesn't seem to be any rush. Wait for the weather to turn bad David.

Thanks everyone for your input. I wondered if I had failed to see an affordable item on sale anywhere. I suspect I will be using my 1.25" eyepeices with a more affordable 1.25" adapter Thanks again, David.

I have recently been enjoying using my SW Equinox for terrestrial viewing. However, straight through the world is of course upside down. Using a 90deg diagonal sorts this but my comfortable viewing preference is for a 45deg diagonal. As the scope has a 2" focusser, and I have quite a few 2" eyepieces, I thought about a 2" diagonal. However, these are thin on the ground. I was wondering what choices others have made to use their 'sky' refractors (or other scopes) for earthly viewing? Thanks, David.