Neil H

What a really lovely chair , if you start taking orders can I be first please

Hi and welcome to SGL the best forum by light years 

Hi how about putting some double sided sticky tape on the coma corrector so you have a bit more grip the only down side is cleaning it off after 

Welcome to SGL nice dark skies up your part of the world 

Very true I use the weekends to master setting up polar alignment , so when we can get out there and enjoy the hobby I am a bit more ready , Sunday is ment to be good fingers crossed

Hi enjoy your new scope but you do know the weather is going to be bad curse of the new scope lol

I love the weekends it the only time I can get mine out roll on the summer nights

That's look good to me as well , just check after its cooled down and just adjust as need are you using a Cheshire I had a skywatcher 150/750 F5 and with a laser it was always miles out so I got a Cheshire and also followed astro baby got is spot  then popped the laser in and it said the Collimation was miles out t did star test and it was spot on so laser went in the bin I find the Cheshire is a really great tool and easy to use 

Hi the skywatcher 150 on the EQ3-2 is a nice set up , I know what has been said about the weight but your not going to move it fully set up , I also strip down mine after use it does not take long  and when you go to set up the time it takes goes toward cool down time of the telescope

The EQ3-2 can have the go-to kit added at a later date if you want to , if you go this route you can add a polar scope to the mount as well 

If you get this one get a Cheshire collimator don't waste money on a cheap laser

I just wonder in the summer if  it would blow out the hot air from the OTA 

Hi make up some Wilcox rings so you can have the main telescope rings loose , all there are some plastic trunking 16mm from screwfix then from eBay some cut to length jubilee clips , you only use the top of the trunking wrap this around the tube held tight with the jubilee clip make one for each outer side of the rings this will stop the telescope from dropping out of balance when main rings are loose if you want photos let me know 

Hi all hope your all keeping safe , any way I decided to make a lead for the fan in the back of the mirror , as I have used a variable fan speed unit and a 12volt power pack

Hi if it was me I would go for the skywatcher 150 on the EQ 3/2 it's a good scope plus you can at a later date add go-to , I showed you the photo of my 200/1200 I am 6 foot my wife is 5 foot 4 and we both use it I made up some wilcox rings cost £8 these let you have the telescope mounting rings loose so you can turn the tube so the eyepiece is always at the right height for the user, the eq mount sounds hard to work with but once you use it a few times it gets easy the hard bit is the meridian flip  but once you have done this it's not hard either

As for visual you don't have to get the polar alignment 100% this is more for photography I sold my skywatcher 150/750 and sort of miss it , it was a really nice telescope 

Hi Adam welcome to SGL I am New as well using this time to get use to setting up and using the telescope

Hi I found with red dot finder if you move your head the dot moves as well , so keep both eyes open but try and get your head in the sane position every time  I used to rest my cheek against the telescope

Hi I just want to add one thing in the mix were are you going to be viewing from ? What I mean is how level is the site , this what made me go for the EQ mount most of my sites have unlevel ground so it's easy to level a tripod than a dobs base 

This photo was taken with my phone with out phone holder

plus 1 on the EQ  mount I have had 3 telescopes a 114/900 then 150/750 and now 200/1200 first two manual mounts took a bit of getting used too but after a few goes got easy to use , my telescope I am on now 200/1200 on an HEQ5 go-to mount , may be look second-hand your get a lot more telescope for your money this set up cost me £700 in total

New is about £1400 

That's sounds like it may be worth a go

Hi John mine is open like your but fan is a lot bigger about 1/2 the size of the mirror

I will apologise John it's the same size now I had a good look at it 

1 hour ago, John said:

I think mine works off a PP3 battery.

I don't use it though.

Hi John are they not worth getting it working 

32 minutes ago, Second Time Around said:

It's 12 volts.  I recently bought just this small battery (that I velcrod to my rocker box) from Amazon: 

Yuasa NP1.2 – 12 UPS Batteries

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000V3S86Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

To connect the battery to the fan I then bought this from Amazon:

JENOR Dual Red & Black Test Leads with Crocodile Clips Alligator Jumper Cable Wire 105cm

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MZ1JC1F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hope that helps

Hi that's cheap battery that's a good idea 

Hi everyone  does any one know what lead i need to plug in to fan ?

Also i know the fan is 12volt but i am sure i read some were a 9volt pp3 works ?

Hi the telescope is long 1200mm so the tripod legs are at there lowest , it may be what Wookie1965 said M81/M82 were over head , the only extension I can find will add loads of height , so I will try and get the telescope balanced higher I. It's rings by moving the dove tail 

Hi I have an Orion Optics 8 inch telescope they are really nice and do hold Collimation well

10 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

I dont think so have you extended the legs 6-8 inches should suffice. can you post a picture of your OTA in its rings they may be too far forward leaving the back end lower than it should do.

Hi Paul the OTA is back a little in its rings to balance it ( you do balance it with the heaviest eyepiece in )or is that wrong , the only thing I can think of doing is to add weight to back end so the OTA so it will balance more towards front of rings 

It hits the top 1/4 of the leg . I can't change leg angle because of the leg spreader

40 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

Sounds like you need a pier/tripod extension.

Hi thanks that may be a way round it but I need to be careful I don't make the telescope to tall as my wife uses it as well 

Hi all I hope your all well and keeping safe 

tonight I asked the mount to go-to M81 as it slewed round  it got to a point where the telescope bottom hit the leg of the tripod so messed up the alignment 

Will adjusting the slewing limits stop this ? I am worried about adjustment as I may mess the mount

Hi I have the HEQ5 mount , I use polar alignment pro app , first go to compass mode place your phone on the floor get it on North then place the front leg marked North on the north 

Now put on the mount go to polar alignment on the app click on daytime alignment fit your phone to the mount and adjust to get it polar aligned , now your ready to check alignment once Polaris comes up , the app is fairly good it's only ever about a deg of so out 

The app does everything , North compass , level to level the tripod , polar alignment daytime and night will show you the position of Polaris in the polar scope