Carbon Brush

The TAL scopes generally attract good comments. I owned the 110mm variety for a while. It was very well built mechanically, with good optics. Unlike a lot of newer scopes, they are not under-mounted. Generally the age and absence of bells, whistles and goto put some people off. If the 120 has mirrors that look in good condition, it has to be worth a go. Keep us updated. David.

Just to be awkward...... A reflector gives more view for your ££ spent than other options. Collimation is not half as bad as some make out. Very much over thought in many cases. A 6" reflector is easy to handle. Many on SGL use a Skywatcher 130 (nearly 6") for photography. Why not buy a used 6" reflector and have a play? That will give you feel for what is involved. If you don't like it, then you can sell it on for little loss. Welcome back and enjoy the choosing. David.

From a fellow Equinox 80 owner. Sorry to hear of the problem. I'm afraid I can't constructively help as I have never had to do anything to the focusser on my scope. Hope someone who can help comes along soon. David.

Apologies if this thought to be wandering off topic. Warranty period applied by a manufacturer is not (in my view) necessarily indicative of quality. I am speaking as someone involved in designing and building for B2B sale, not retail. Some years ago I visited a car battery manufacturer and had a chat with their production engineers. Having recently been through replacing a battery that I thought had failed early, I was interested to know the construction & chemistry differences between their batteries. Some retailed with one year warranty, some up to 5 years warranty. I was told that they were all exactly the same product. Basically there is a preceived/calculated risk of failure, increasing with time. Balancing this is the car not being with the original purcjhaser when the battery fails, or the paper trail being lost. So battery with one year warranty sells for £50, 2 years £55, 3 years £63, 4 years £70....You get the idea. When deciding on warranty period, you also need to look at what your competitors are offering. I recall 30 years ago a lot of USA consumer/commercial electronics came with 3 months warranty! Nobody in the UK would consider anything less than one year. With something like a scope mount, the original owner & paper trail factors should apply more than time related failure. HTH, David.

On the 'no user serviceable parts' comment. Yes the statement is sometimes true. But not very often. Opening voids warranty is a valid label on some equipment. Sadly 'contact tech support' often means spend in effect the cost of a replacement on equipment with a 3 digit price tag. I have found that almost every Skywatcher mount/drive/scope I have encountered has benefitted from my (meddling?) fingers in there. Whether adjusting backlash on a motor drive, or adjusting a clutch, or adjusting a focusser. Then we all know about grotty DC sockets with broken joints to the PCB. Fixed in 10 minutes using a soldering iron. The worst recent case I had was a Skytee2, going in to tighten loose internal grubscrews - to remove significant backlash. Constructive comments (like those by the OP) on design/construction limitations, weaknesses, or failings, are therefore very welcome. Clear Skies, David.

I have wondered how how some of the newer mounts could be made so small, for the price. Thank you. Warning heeded.

A simple in line power meter, or a different power supply will identify the cause. Sigh of relief it is only the (low cost) power supply or lead. Good luck. David.

Another cautionary note on the 12V hair dryer or car heater type of product. At switch on the motor takes a high pulse current. Depending on your 12V source, you may have problems. A big car/leisure battery will be OK. A small 12V lead acid battery in a powertank will dip momentarily. The dip may upset the mount electronics, causing datum loss or other effects. A small lithium battery in a powertank type product will suffer a similar dip to the small lead acid. However, it may also trip the overload protection circuit, requiring a power off/on cycle to reset. Assuming you survive all of the aove, the next potential issue is when you switch off. The magnetic field in the motor collapses, generating a large negative voltage spike. The 'sell for £1 less' products from China and the like do not have suppression components. Hopefully things like the low resistance heater element in the hair dryer absorb the energy. But, if you put a big negative spike on mount electronics or a computer, you may upset it, temporarily or permanently. The only way I would use a 12V hair dryer around a scope is powered from a completely separate 12V battery. HTH, David.

I have trialled wind generators in other applications. Again retail vs industrial gives a huge difference. An absolute failure was a generator bought from Amazon, along with the charge controller/dynamic brake. Supposedly for putting near your house, on a boat, caravan, etc. It was definite chocolate fireguard stuff. You needed a gale to make it turn. The controller ate the battery power when it was idle. The (fail safe) brake relay being energised all the time. The cheapie chinese manufacturer had used low cost automotive relays - where power consumption takes a definite second to cost. He had not even though about reducing coil current after pull in. Definite kitchen table standard bodge design. In the end the whole lot was junked. Now this is a very good product I have used. https://www.leadingedgepower.com/le-v50-extreme-vertical-axis-wind-turbine-12-24-48v-1486339.html Suffice it to say, the Leading Edge turbine is fit and forget for years. In my application it is sitting on top of a power station cooling tower. It won't be accessed ever. Brought back to ground only when the tower is demolished along with the rest of the power station. But not hobby pricing😁 HTH, David.

In my experience small panels sold for retail, think in terms of obtaining 10% of the claimed power output when averaged over several days. Yes the panel performance has improved in recent years. But the claimed power often is more than reality! The figures claimed are often correct for a desert near the equator, at noon, with the panel correctly angled. With a Northern Europe solar intensity, fixed panel angle, clouds, etc....... The reduction in power is quite significant as soon as a panel goes off perpendicular to the sun. If it generates 100% when perpendicular to the sun, it drops to 50% for a 30deg solar angle - whether in alt or az. In other words, if the panel could produce 120W at noon, it would drop to 60W by 3pm. Actually the reality is worse due the panel going out in both alt and az. If you look at panels for professional use, the manufacturers make more realistic power claims and recommend mounting angles based on latitude. My feeling is that you are going to be using scopes more in winter, when the days are shorter, the sun is lower and there is more cloud. If you think of Netherlands being about 53deg N, the noon sun is at this angle at the equinoxes. At the winter solstice is only at 20deg. It might be a lot easier (and cheaper) to bring a 12V battery from the house. HTH, David.

Absolutely. Most cars are designed and built for worldwide sale. Take the same basic body and engine. Make a few changes for the region. Steering wheel on the wrong side, engine pre-heater for cold regions, airbag combination, etc. Even the dashboard switches tend to use symbols rather than words to minimise build differences. The owners manuals always show engine power in KW. Coolant, oil and fuel capacity in litres. Which is just as well as in most of the world fuel and oil are sold by the litre! If I want a horsepower value for my car, though I can't imagine why, I have to convert the KW value. 1HP = 0.746KW. Horsepower equivalent was useful to size (animal replacement) steam engines in James Watt time. Think here of horse driven gin wheels operating mine pumps. For any machinery, horsepower has long passed its use by date.

Although I have cleaned quite a few mirrors, my only OO experience has been with their older scopes, fitted with agricultural cells. Where possible, I leave the mirror in the cell as it eases handling, and more options on storage for water run off. Not having sight of the fan, I would say remove to avoid getting it wet. Some fans are very basic brushed motor types (100+ years old technology) and will dry in an hour or two. However, if it a brushless type there is a (hidden somewhere inside) circuit. This may not be waterproof and could take days to dry out without a lot of heat. There is also the matter of water in bearing sleeves for any fan. But if the fan fails at some point, they are not expensive. HTH, David.

In other words about 5% of the world population do not use metric measurement. Not a bad majority for metric.🤣

Good suggestion form @wookie1965. The weight has been my standard holiday accessory. A water bottle filled with sand. There is often a little play between tripod legs and top plate. Depending on the situation you can just tighten up. Or add a washer to fill the gap, then tighten. Not forgetting to loosen the screws if you need to fold the legs for storage. With practice you will learn how to turn the focus without putting much force on to move the scope. You will also learn how to hover just off the eyepiece to avoid moving anything. I won't talk about solutions involving a focus motor or long eye relief eyepieces as these cost far more than sand😁 Enjoy the scope. David.

I think the first task is to get a better idea of the circumstances to produce the fault. No questions about power supply as you have doubtless checked this already. Set up indoors in daylight. Run your stellarium or whatever on a separate device. Align the scope then tell it find targets. Using a compass and angle gauge is going to about the right places? Does fail in one hemisphere? Does it fail at particular altitudes? Much better than losing a clear night to fault identification. David.

I sold a 120mm F8 refractor a few years ago. Not a small scope that can be hidden easily. It was little used, complete with original boxes. I met up with the buyer in a pub car park, late at night, after he finished his work shift. The transaction was very hurried, no inspection, no questions, just a bundle of notes pushed into my hand. He took the scope & accessories. Explaining he could not take the boxes. He had only a few minutes to rush home and get the scope hidden inside before his wife got home🤣

Yet another reason for building an observatory🤣

If the bin hasn't been emptied, fish it out😁 A total failure has to be a broken connection or failed fuse in there somewhere. I'm sure it is repairable in the right hands. Anyone local to you into amateur radio or electronics as a hobby? Or anyone at your local astro club knows a bit about electrics?

Suggestion. Remove the battery positive (red lead) for safety. Follow the battery positive lead to the circuit board. It looks like the first port of call may be the circuit board. You can see at the left there is a substantial area of copper marked '+. Is this where the wire runs? If so, from there the battery +ve is distributed to various places via fuses. Remove the PCB (two cross point screws) and look on the other side. Several fuseholders? Maybe one has a blown fuse? HTH, David.

Presumably the kit did not work at the outset, which is why you swapped out the battery? What is the history? Owned from new? Bought used? Used to work? Left in a cupboard for a long time? Did you perform any tests (voltmeter, lamp loading, etc) to establish a faulty battery before the swap out? Do you have a multimeter to carry out basic checks on the internal wiring? Sorry if this sounds like a grilling but the thread started asking about one wire. There is obviously more going on. When my (usually overseas) customers ask for help , I always say.... The quality of advice we give is entirely dependent on the quality of the fault description and completeness of the information you provide. HTH, David.

A radio antenna does seem likely. Unless you want to start tracing part of the PCB, it is better to ask a simple question. Does the box do everything it should? If yes - use it. If no, look further and keep asking the questions. HTH, David.

Any filter is fitted after the wedge. That way it only has to deal with a tiny fraction of the suns energy. The ND filter is immediately after the wedge. In some wedges (including Lacerta 2") it is impossible to remove without dismantling the wedge - a safety feature. After that, it doesn't matter about order of filters. Unless someone knows otherwise? HTH, David.

Another vote for the wedge - not film. I use a Lacerta Wedge. Unlike others, these are a 'Brewster' Angle. This means the light is strongly polarised. I can then use a single polarising filter for extreme brightness control. If you read the Lacerta hype, you wonder why others don't do this. I have asked retailers about 90deg vs Brewster - and asked someone giving a talk at PAS. But nobody has the answers. All I can say is that I have been happy with the Lacerta/Brewster. But have not done side by side with others. Another useful filter is a solar continuum. This dims the image a little if you have a 'too bright' wedge. Importantly you start to see the granulation. Choosing a 'too bright for visual' wedge is a good idea. If imaging you can use a fast shutter to freeze the turbulence. Dimming an image for eyeball comfort is easy with a polarising, or further ND, or continuum filter. If you go for a 2" wedge, think about light path. It is something like 115mm. You can run out of focus on some scopes. HTH, David.

Wow! If you had only spent a few minutes fiddling around, allowing the star to move away from the cable, you would have been left wondering what you had done to fix the problem🤔 Glad it is all sorted.

Yes I wonder about suitability for UK use. The Dwarf spec even gives 10C minimum. UK Summer use only? Can't fault these devices as 'plant on tripod and get quick results' type of equipment. Given the number of 'new to astronomy' people who want imaging before eyepiece viewing, I'm sure these things will sell.