soldave

Welcome. I'm very new to this too! Turn Left at Orion and Nightwatch have proven to be really good buys :)

Damn that all escalated hilariously. I'll just watch the fallout from afar with my "Sky-Watcher 130M" model, 1300 millimetre/mm/millimeter diameter scope 😀. My 130 metre scope I leave for really clear nights!!!

Apologies then. I thought it was the Sky-Watcher 130M as advertised on multiple sites that I own. If I was referring to the primary mirror diameter I'd have used lower case.

Awesome. Thank you, and dumb question has been answered

That sounds about right then. Looks like I have 30 degrees of movement in the declination plane. Maybe this video will help show.

I've got a Sky-Watcher 130M which comes with the motor drive do allow for constant adjustment across the R.A. plane as objects move. I'm also a complete newbie to stargazing (tonight and last night were my first two experiences, looking at Venus and the moon, and my collimation still probably sucks!). Right now I'm manually adjusting the R.A. axis when I've focused on something to keep my eye on it. The question is: when should I start using the motor drive in my stargazing? Do you think with my newness to it all it should come in much later and I should first get used to using it manually, or do you think it should be a used from early on. Apologies for all the questions - am trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can!

Potential dumb question again here now so bear with me. The R.A. fine adjustment knob/wheel offers complete freedom of movement, which of course allows me to track an object across the sky. However, the declination fine adjustment has (from memory) either 10 or 20 degrees of movement only, before that knob goes tight or just starts spinning loose. Is that correct and proper? I get that the R.A. adjustment needs to have that full range of movement, but just wanting confirmation that declination fine adjustment should be within a limited window before I've got to undo the lock knob and re-adjust.

Good discussion, and was just going to start searching for something on this myself, as tonight was my first night in using my 130M to take a look at the moon and Venus. I've got a 25mm, 10mm and x2 Barlow. Tomorrow I'll try once more. @R.frankish good luck with your viewing. Are you going to try again tomorrow, if the skies are clear?

Thanks for the post. Even wit a Cheshire though, I think I'd still need the centre dot on the primary. And getting that primary out (or rather back in) is a big pain with my scope I believe.

Done my first bit of stargazing prep this afternoon, with the creation of a collimation cap. So I'll try and check the secondary alignment tonight indoors. The primary... well that's going to be a whole different ballgame as taking the primary mirror out of the 130M to put a centre spot on it is an absolute nightmare (https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/348759-removing-primary-mirror-from-130m/). Might have to do it by sight and then ask someone at the local Society to give me a couple of pointers. I'm also going to order Turn Left at Orion and Nightwatcher tonight, grab myself a red LED flashlight and have my eye on a BST Starguider 8mm to replace the 10mm one I've got, which seems to be the first good eyepiece move. Then all I need is Arctic gear so I don't end up looking like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining after an hour of being outside!

Welcome, fellow Yorkshireperson!

Welcome to the forum!

Hello, welcome, and very nice shot! Durham was my part of the world many moons ago when I was a uni student so I have very fond memories of the place. Good luck with the stargazing

Thanks. That second link was the thread I read was what got me worried initially about the nuts. Looks a right pain so I'm thinking maybe a Cheshire would be the way to go.

On yours, were the nuts in the tube captive?