Carbon Brush

A steel wire armoured cable should be OK buried for years. It is affordable. Mains electricity will still be in use. If you are bothered about getting it 'signed off' just have a chat with your chosen electrician. Basically you bury the cable, pin to walls where required, etc. The electrician terminates at each end and tests. Most electricians would rather be involved in 'clean' jobs. Not working trenches. The only problem you might find is that some domestic electricians are out of their depth when involved in outdoor cabling or anything 'non house'. If the electrician says it can't be done, it is worth asking for a second opinion. Data cables are another matter. You can buy multicore data cables with steel armouring. If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it. Money is better spent on scope kit! I would be tempted to use 'drainpipe technology' for data and control. Buy readily available water pipe or drain pipe. Don't be afraid of going up on size. It will be hidden. It is all cheap and cable requirements have a habit of breeding as new devices come along. Run a length of good quality rope through the duct. Every time you pull a cable through, run another rope. I would start with 2 off CAT5/6 network cables and a low power (not armoured) 6/8 multicore screened- as a minimum. It is not expensive in the grand scheme of things. The multicore cable can be used for simple heating or dehumidifier on/off control. Use low voltage relays to isolate the mains. It can also report intruder alarm status, etc. Hope this helps. David.

Suggestion that may keep a roof over your head and avoid surgery. Buy a used PST. This can be about 50% of new cost. It is as near to 'grab and go' as you are going to find in Ha solar. See how you get on. When you sell on, the loss should be small. My PST kept me from further spending for several years. For Mercury transit in the work car park I had my LS60 alongside a colleagues PST. He had the easier setup and equal view. On the day the sky limited the view rather than the scope. David.

Slightly off topic. But prompted by Vlaiv. I have seen instances of heatsinks debonding from integrated circuits (chips) following a transatlantic air freight journey. This prompted me to look into the shipping conditions. They are quite worrying for expensive scope parts. Imagine taking a room temperature item and boxing it for shipping in the UK winter. UPS/DHL/TNT/Fedex collect it from you. It spends the rest of the day in the back of a van - unheated. Taking the parcel to near freezing. After a short time in the depot, it goes onto a trunk vehicle for delivery to the airport, again unheated. At the airport it is in an unheated warehouse for a short time. It may even spend time on the tarmac in an aluminium cargo container. By the time the parcel gets onto the flight, it is definitely around 0C. Many cargo flights have an unheated and unpressurised hold. Presumably no money (weight) is spent on insulation. We all know the outside air temperature at altitude is -35C or even -50C. We know that flights follow great circle routing (give or take war zones, politics, etc). This means a transatlantic flight (8 hours or more) spends several hours in really cold air. Transiting over Iceland, Greenland, Northern Canada. Your delicate optical or electronic parts are going to be chilled to -40C or cooler. Further, the pressure at altitude is only about 20% of surface pressure. This means any sealed components containing air are at almost 0.8 bar above ambient pressure. Pressure change is no problem for a Lunt pressure tuner. What about other things? Unintended air bubbles in assemblies? I took a glance at the Lunt and Coronado web sites. Telescope storage temperature and pressure limits are not specified - unless this is hidden somewhere. This means you can buy a new scope, store it near absolute zero and take into space without problem! As for me. On cold days (sub zero) the probability of solar viewing is quite low. With the sun a 26deg above the horizon at noon mid winter, and a clear sky......... David.

Please tell us more.... Are Lunt saying the scope BF may be damaged by extreme cold? Or is this just dew prevention? I can understand keeping the grease warm and O rings pliable.

I will compare with my cg5 this evening. It may be that prying off the black cap will allow internal access to the terminal. David.

Good input from everyone. A short tube refractor is good - though I would suggest alt az mount. The ST80 glass quality is OK for this application. CA will be acceptable for low magnification viewing. The 130 flextube, or slightly smaller, or rigid tube version are also good choices. A small dob needs (or has the benefit of) a table top and chair for comfort. Table for a book, etc. No need for an unwieldy tripod. Chair alongside garden table? Or garden table + bench one piece? More difficult to knock over than a tripod. A 90 Mak is good again. Decision...decisions.....

Hi Neil. Welcome to SGL. The best astronomy forum. Age is no barrier to astronomy. Enjoy the learning journey. You will finds lots of helpful people on the forum. +1 for 'Turn Left At Orion'. My copy (some years back) was money very well spend. Are you happy with state of your scope now you have straightened it out? I'm sure if you ask, you will find someone local to you who would be happy to check it over. David.

I have found generally that plastic/synthetic rubber life expectancy is a bit hit and miss. Not just in astro kit. The rubber tyres on the Skywatcher focus wheels are a good example of degrading rubber. I use O rings instead. I reckon that less than scrupulous manufactuers (of components not complete equipment) let it out of the door if it is the right colour and texture. Chemically it may not be up to the job. The varnish will certainly help bond things together. It may also delay further degradation by keeping oxygen and moisture off the rubber. But that depends on the varnish. HTH, David.

Can yu npost a photo of the situation?

+1 for john's comment above. I have the Vixen version. Quirky little things. Great for a grab and look. Good to take on holiday - being small. Note you need your eyeball quite close to the glass. Definitely no specs. If you have only a long/short correction (not astigmatism) then you can take it up with focus. HTH, David.

How did I miss this when it was first posted? It is an amazing video. A real wow! At 53degN the only green lights I see are from idiots shining lasers at clouds. This video should be compulsory viewing for the (word deleted) at Nottinghamshire County County Council who are gradually changing our skies from sodium orange to LED white.

For me, it is about using the minimum amount of scope heat to prevent dew - rather than remove it. That avoids the loss of focus from a hot air blast. Generally I reserve the hot air for ensuring kit is warm and dry at the end of a session. This autumn is though a bit different. The garden is really soggy and there is often almost 100% humidity on the (rare) clear nights. HTH, David.

At work for overseas shipping we use mainly UPS. But also TNT and DHL sometimes. Always through one of the 'middlemen' as it costs much less than booking directly. Provided you have the actual carrier tracking number, you can track the parcel. The nice thing about these (international company) services is that you can get a good idea of where the parcel has gone. For exmple I can track a UPS parcel from pickup to delivery in for example the USA. I can get times of events at the local depot, the outbound airport, the USA arrival airport, customs progress, then the local delivery network. As a general rule there are never any 'ask again in 3 weeks' response. Yes parcels can go astray, or get delayed, but at least you can a quick answer and nail down the event. Unfortunately usually RM does not link in with the delivery partners overseas and 'ask again in 3 weeks' is the general response to a non delivery enquiry. Hope this helps, David.

Regardless of scope type or size, you need something well baffled with a black tube. That is the best way to deal with the off axis stray light. As an experiment, to simulate light pollution, shine a red light torch across the end of any scope, just grazing the lens on a refractor, or the corrector plate on a compound scope. Or just illuminating a bit of tube in an open newt. Look through the eyepiece, and the sky background is red. Just how bright red depends on the scope. Considering a newt. If it has not-very-black paint, then the scattered light is well reflected. If it is really black or flocked, there is little light scatter. Clearly a long FL with dew shield helps. The same applies to a refractor. The difference between a newt and a refractor (or compound scope) is the ease of improving the blackening. Flocking or painting a newt is easy. But do you want to dismantle a complex scope? A more expensive scope tends to have better paint and baffling. A side by side of similar refractors will show, and the better contrast from better lens coatings. I once did a side by side of an ST102 and WO80 at 3x the price. A world of difference in contrast. Under polluted sky the smaller WO80 would have shown more. I used to own an Orion Optics UK 8" newt. Excellent glass. It gave super views. But the tube inside was best described as dark grey. Under polluted sky contrast (or lack of) made it like a cheap scope. Hope this doesn't create confusion. David.

Dew shields, heaters and hair dryers are cheap. Good refractors are expensive and still use metal & glass. If you are happy with the 130 (apart from dew) why not preserve the wallet? Just my random ramblings. David.

Yes - dedication. I won't mention my trivial issues with scope cases blowing over and chasing eyepiece caps the length of the work car park. A walk in the park by comparison with your afternoon.

Great! Love it!

Managed a few minutes dodging clouds at work. My LS60 and a colleague with his PST. Managed to see 'the dot' and show it to several colleagues. Most of whom had no idea what was going on. Not exactly a huge public outreach, but at least something.

Ref Lux Eterna polarity protection. DO NOT omit diode D2. This prevents a very large voltage spike being generated when the relay coil switches off. This can reach 1KV or more. It will break down the blocking diode, then possibly the scope electronics. The effect is known as 'back emf'. Small relays and the like can easily generate spikes big enough to break down wire insulation, wreck semiconductor devices and blow small surface mount resistors. If you want try it for yourself, just take a 9V battery and a relay. Keep hold of the bare ends of both coil wires and brush the wires on/off the battery. I accept no responsibility for injury from jumping or your death! Alternatively hold the insulated parts of the wires and watch the sparks as you make and break contact - a bit safer.

Fungus has to be quite bad to warrant the bin. Post a photo? Is the fungus outside, inside the tube, or between the doublet lens elements? A bottle of Baader Wonder Fluid and a good lens cloth (available from FLO and other good astro retailers) are your cleaning tools. The process is not difficult and with a better feel for the extent of the problem, the exact scope model and which surfaces need attention, members will be able to help you. By the way. Welcome to the best astronomy forum in the world!. David.

This is the first time that I have seen the innards of one of these power packs. I'm a bit worried that I can't see a fuse in wiring immediately from the battery. I assume (hope) it is somewhere along the thick red wire. If there is a short circuit in the wiring, the battery will happily deliver 200 amps and more for a short time. Quite enough to start a fire. Well actually enough to start a car engine - this battery size is often used in car start/charge units. May I suggest removing the battery positive lead while working on the equipment? After working, make up a sleeve to cover the battery postive connection. It can be insulating tape, sellotape, bath sealant (non corrosive variety). Basically anything that makes accidental battery contact difficult. When you resolder the dangling wire, cover the joint to the PCB with glue or silicone sealant (non corrosive again). Anything will do. It acts as a strain relief so reduces risk of the wire falling off when the case is next opened. HTH David.

Almost on topic. My observatory computer with Win10 operating system is left on GMT with summertime (daylight saving time) disabled. It saves a lot of confusion 😕 about the timing of astro events! David.

Ahead of you there John! My reference materials on the science of dunking, and some practical applications of materials in a Newtonian universe. David.😀

If the adapter gets stuck fast, you put a lens spanner, circlip pliers, in the holes get leverage. At least thats my take take on it. David.

A word of caution if I may. See where the kit was made, and if it has safety approvals. A bit like you do for electric blankets. Also look at the provenance of the retailer. Is it an online only never heard of? Or a known high street name? Get the kit checked over by someone who understands this elastictrickery stuff if it does not have easily traceable approvals. Last winter my wife bought some heated gloves from a seller at that well known South American river company. The lithium cells were a type that did not include short circuit or overload protection. There was no fuse or other protection in the wiring from the power cells to the glove heating elements. The gloves were made from a flammable material. It doesn't take big leap of imagination to see a wiring short in a glove causing excessive heating in the glove and hot dripping or burning fabric stuck to skin. An unprotected lithium cell can involuntarily dissassemble (tech speak for explode) if short circuited. I have seen mains powered products (though not clothing) from China that contains fake fuses, fake approvals labels and incorrect unsafe fuse/mains cable combinations. If a dubious charger, or music player, or computer goes 'pop' and you are around to turn off the power before the house burns down, fine. Disrobing when layered is something different. Anyone who has ever had a wasp sneak into clothing will understand the urgency and problems. Caveat emptor! David.