Carbon Brush

To bring up the faint stuff you need aperture. Or go to EEVA. What do you mean by inexpensive? Does the budget (and handling/storage) stretch to an 8" dob? This size is (in my view) a good compromise between aperture, cost and carrying.

Agree absolutely. Reading these discussions, there are some semi-related memories that I recall. Within our family we have a set of encyclopedia, published in the 1920s. There is no Pluto. The planets (and known distant objects) stop at Neptune! Around 2004 I attended a course by a local astro society. At the time the first named object beyond Pluto had been located. There was talk of maybe another one, or two. There are now rather more! When NASA planned to launch New Horizons to flyby Pluto, they thought they ought to take a closer look at the destination. In doing so they discovered more moons. The huge (compared to the other moons) Charon had only been known since 1978! More recently I read of someone in the UK being involved in constructing a solar system model. Planets on plinths with explanations, spread around a village. I forget the exact details. The Sun was about football size and Pluto a biro ball size about 3KM distant! Just how do you find similar gravitationally insignificant, tiny and dark objects? Off topic. I think if Alpha Centauri been included in the model, the plinth would have been in California!

I worked out that a train trip to London/Kensington would work out at near £100 and result in a very long day. Assuming the trains and underground were running. Then there is the difficulty of carrying the bargain 16" dob on the underground to get home🤣 PAS is my chosen spring show. By car at a fraction of the travel time and cost. If I can car share, the cost drops further. Show organsers and retailers take note. The UK is not centred on London. A glance at a map shows it to be in the bottom right hand corner😁

I have always bought additional dust caps. Usually taking advantage of buy now bargain prices if possible😁 As a proportion of the cost of a decent scope, or diagonal, or eyepeice, they are next to nothing. They are very useful for keeping crawling things, as well as dust out of scope parts. A temporary solution I have used is masking tape over an open end. Don't forget your full complement of caps can easily become depleted when long grass eats one in the dark🤣

Late into the discussion, and only a couple of photos to look at. But maybe relevant. Circuit designers sometimes omit over voltage suppression/protection components. Either they don't think about them, or a bean counter somewhere argues about bill of materials cost and the designer tries to save 10p. Then in the real world it is realised there are more failures than expected. If not warranty claims, they are loss of company image/status when they get known for unreliable product. Oh - maybe overvoltage or reverse voltage protection is a good idea after all. The 'extra' diode mentioned by @Trickysystems may be a 1N5401 (3A rated) diodes in series with the supply. Providing reverse voltage protection. The tiny 8 pin device U6 could well be a zener protection network. These are made by several companies and find their way onto USB ports. They would help on logic level RS232 ports. HTH, David.

If you haven't already, perhaps detail the spares supply problem in the supplier reviews section? If you still need the spare part - there is the Practical Astro Show in March. If attending, thump on the counter😁 HTH, David.

If you use a carrier like UPS, they handle the parcel end to end. You can track all the way. You are dealing with one company for the paperwork. I would contact the recipient and ask about the address problems. If you send by Royal Mail, they pass it to China Post once in China. Tracking and referencing becomes more difficult. Certain other carriers who do not have a worldwide presence play pass the parcel with overseas companies. Is this an item for repair and return to the UK? You will need to ensure the outgoing tracking reference is available for the return. Otherwise you will have to pay import duty and VAT on the full price of your item. That is another agument for using UPS or similar. IMPORTANT. Use the same carrier for both journeys. If the China company have a UPS account, then ask them to book the collection from you. This is a service that UPS used to offer, and probably still do. We used to do it at work to ensure our customers used the correct carrier. DO NOT book the shipping via a parcel shop or general online service like parcel2go. This introduces another latyer of paperwork and loss of traceability. DO NOT use an agent for shipping. You may hand over the parcel and ask for a particular carrier, but he may use someone else! I have been there and got the T shirt when we used to handle a lot of repairs coming into the UK from overseas. Now it is more cost effective to just sell new product.

We are all helping you spend, so here is another suggestion. On the SW vs others, I have been very impressed by build quality on Bresser. They are definitely worth a look. The Bresser short tube refractors I have tried are good on CA for the ££ spent, and have generally better fixtures & fittings than SW. The good news is that all the differing options & opinions show there are lots of good scopes out there😁

A good report. That is the great thing about newt reflectors an dob mounts. They are so easy to sort out. Sounds like it was one of those scopes that got used a few times then left for years. Enjoy your bargain.

For good quality prints of any sort, I go to a High Street place like Max Spielman or online services - other brands are available. They have the good quality printers available and they know to get the best from them. I can't justify spending hundreds ££ on a good printer to print a small number annually.

Alternatively - the spiders catch anything else that is in there😁. Something used by intruder alarm people on PIR detectors is a silicone polish, like Mr. Sheen. Other brands are available. Apparently the creepy crawlies don't like the fumes so spin webs elsewhere. Obviously you can't spray mirrors and you don't want the matt black tube made shiny. But a bit of chemical deterrent sprayed on the inside of the end cap before refitting, or brushed on the back of the main mirror every so often has to be worth thinking about.

You have done well with those images. Rather than upgrading the EQ3, I would give thought to a larger mount. But as you already have the onstep awaiting unboxing, why not try it? Nothing to lose. Your star drag can come from all sorts of places. Balancing a biggish newt and big camera is quite involved. Think about doing it for the part of the sky you are imaging, rather than all over. Also a bit of off balance force to take out backlash may help. Apologies if you know this. Bottom line though is you have a 150P 'sail' to catch a light breeze, on a low cost cost undersized mount. Some people strip/adjust mounts to minimse backlash in the drive train. Sorry if this is blunt, but having spent many wasted evenings chasing errors..... If you want to avoid spending on a larger mount, why not look for a low cost refractor? By having the lump of camera on the scope axis, you ease the balancing. In the past I have had 3-5 minutes unguided acceptable images from EQ5 and 200mm F4 to F5 reflectors, with a DSLR. But it took some effort and was not easily repeatable. And only on a still night. However, tens of seconds was usually well within reach. HTH, David.

I saw a selection of their products at the 2023 Practical Astro Show. It all looked very well built and finished to a very high standard. They explained some of the construction to me and it was obvious they want to continue to make a first rate product. I am not in the market at present for any of their products. However, if I need a standard, or custom astro trolley, no prizes for guessing who will get asked.

Good advice from @bosun21. Adding a couple of extra points. As the scope is used, the main mirror may have been moved up the tube. This has the effect of moving eyepiece focus out of the barrel. In other words a longer extension is needed. Or the mirror could be moved back down the tube. If you point the scope in daylight at a distant horizon, rack out the focusser and the image should improve, even if you don't get focus. Then release the eyepiece from the tube slowly pull it away from the scope, while looking through. That will give you a good measure of how much extra focus travel you need. If it is only a couple of millimetres, take a look at the back of the main mirror and see if the push/pull screws have enough travel. If you move the mirror, you are into collimation. But that is quite easy on a simple reflector scope. Especially if someone shows you first time.. I won't offer to help collimate - hundreds of miles round trip🤥. But maybe someone nearer to you? Or a local astro club? These are great scopes and it will give you a lot of pleasure. Keep asking the questions.

I assume it is this one? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/skywatcher-explorer-130m.html Plastic failures are commonplace on basic tripods. Tripods (and mounts) supplied as part of a kit are often a bit undersized. Replacing can give more stable views at high magnification. Good advice from @inedible_hulk Even if a replacement tripod isn't exactly the right profile to fit your mount, there are ways around it to fill gaps. Big washers, cut up plastic bottle tops, turn up something on a wood lathe, or 3D print an adapter. You are only trying to make a gap filler. Keep asking the questions and enjoy the scope.

Another Samsung galaxy A7 user. Yes photos straight to tablet, and my google drive (somehow even without clouds in the sky). I'm not going to say it has worked very well every day since buying it late 2020 as that is guaranteed to make it fail😁.

A tablet allows you to view images at a decent size and have enough space on the screen for the scope controls. I'm one of those odd people who think a phone is for calls and the occasional picture. It also avoids juggling screens if you get a call mid imaging session😁.

I fitted a motorised garage door opener having sustained a shoulder injury not long before obsy build. Little realising how welcome it would be when I was cold and tired at the end of the session.

First time I did consider a car parked nearby. Today I made sure it was far enough away. No I didn't have a big pack of neodymium magnets in my pocket🤣

Compass calibration. I was probably asked to do this when the scope was unpacked, but don't recall being asked since then until now..... Last night I was asked to calibrate the compass, which I did following the procedure on the tablet screen. The scope was on a flat top wall so rotation was easy. Moved to the first couple of targets without problem. When asking for another target, not moving the scope, I got the compass calibration message again. So I complied and then there were issues locating the target. As I was on limited time, I packed up. Today I planted the scope on the wall again, asked for solar, and was asked for a compass calibration - yet again. There are possibilies here. A daft user. A clever scope that has detected other issues but not bothered to tell me. Or a faulty scope compass. Any thoughts?

That is the best advice. If you go for easy targets, you will go back indoors happy. If you can get some hint of south facing, the evening sky is great right now. Moon, Jupiter and one of my favourites, Orion. Any scope on low magnification will delight you looking around the belt. Not forgetting the Seven Sisters/Pleiades/M45 is well placed. Great in binos. All are easy to locate if you lose patience with goto/tracking - it can be a faff.

I used to own a Startravel 102 - almost a 120😁. The views for the ££ spent were very good. If you want to push the magnification and chromatic aberration bothers you, consider a filter to narrow the wavelengths pased. This is a lower cost solution than a second scope, or an apo scope! If the object is bright (like Jupiter or the moon) consider masking the outside 10mm or 20mm of the objective. A blue Peter paper and tape fix costing pennies. That will help CA. I have used a 127Mak. Yes really good on narrow angle views, like planets or lunar. But longer cool down time. The biggest consideration with any kit scope is whether the stock eyepieces are letting you down. Typically the 25mm EP is OK. the 10mm can be anything from sort of OK to best repurposed as an astro themed salt pot. Keep the hair on🤣

A good guide on a mount for astrophotography is to buy the next size up from that offered in a scope/mount package. Another thought, given your photography background, do you have decent telephoto lenses available? A DSLR with a 200mm or 400mm FL lens on a driven mount may be a good way to get you started. Old fashioned lenses (no auto bells and whistles) unwanted by photographers give very good performance for the ££ spent.

Prompted by length of journey and all that. Do any of us (near enough) pass another SGLer house on the way? This can help with fuel cost in two ways. A tenner in tank is the most obvious. The second and less obvious is that nattering in the car you are tempted to drop speed back a bit as there is something interesting happening in the car. I read somewhere that 10% off the speed can give %20 better fuel consumption.

Well done to Powys. May I suggest a thank you note to them from anyone on SGL who lives nearby. I think showing support to counter those 'frightened of the dark' brigade is important. Maybe a local astro group will start to frequent the area? Unfortunately I live in Nottinghmashire. It is a land of sheep. The sheep being the councillors who follow 'professional' recommendations without engaging their brains. Around 20 years ago they carried out a very expensive survey and concluded switch off was not worthwhile. A few years later they carried out another survey and came to the opposite conclusion. Lights in villages started to be turned off after midnight. Strangely, murders, burglaries, muggings and road accidents did not increase. Everything looked good for council tax, wildlife, astronomy, power station generated pollution and more. Then, following elections, the front door of county Hall changed colour. Suddenly the lights came back on. With every council who darken their skies, it helps to show the remaining energy wasters how they are going into a minority.