Pixies

If you are viewing bright planets, forget about dark adaption. I keep the kitchen lights on and occasionally look up. Some actually use a white torch on a sheet of white paper to desensitise their eyesight!

Accepted wisdom is a prism is better in slow scopes and a mirror in fast ones, I think?

15 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

If not then the centre focus bar version may work if it'll fit onto the hinge and not obstruct the prism housings when you adjust for your IDP.

I have one of these for an old pair of 10x50s. I doubt it'll work with such a heavy pair, as the 2 sides will probably twist down, bringing the IPD really close.

Modern big binos have a shaft that runs the length, attached at either end,  and allows you to adjust the balance at the mounting point:

what about something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333434041534

or a DIY version?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61911047

I do like the look of their domes:

https://binocularsky.com/binoc_reviews.php

These always get glowing reviews (never used them myself) as posted above:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/classic-binoculars/opticron-adventurer-10x50-t-wp-binocular.html

Bear in mind, with 10x50s, planets won't appear much more than bright stars. Jupiter a tiny disk with the Galilean moons; Saturn will be oval and you might make out the phase of Venus. Globular and open clusters are little fuzzy blobs in most cases. Some open clusters are better in binos than scopes. The bright star clouds in the summer south are great.

I love my 10x50s. In a really dark sky, they can be all you need for a night's observing.

If this was a nice refractor, we'd be talking sandalwood cases and Louis Vuitton bags. But it's a dob, so mucky blankets and bits of string!  

Yeah - if you are only short-sighted, you can observe fine without glasses and let the focuser do the work of your specs. It'll also mean you don't need to worry about finding EPs with longer eye-relief.  

As others have said, you have a big choice. Eye-relief is not an issue and neither do you have to worry about paying for super-corrected optics with an F12. Also, if you aren't going to be needing a wide low powered EP to help you find objects, or require a wide FOV to keep objects in view while manually tracking, your choice of a FOV is purely down to aesthetic preferences. 

You might want to consider a 24mm-8mm zoom eyepiece, which will give you a great range of magnifications (100x - 300x), although the lower-powers have quite a narrow FOV. It'll use up most of your budget unless you can find one secondhand.

Otherwise, 4 EPs (say 25mm, 17mm, 12mm, 8mm), that'll be 4x £60. I think it'll be hard to beat BST Starguiders at that price point.

or 3 EPs (say 25mm, 15mm, 8mm), 3 x £80. Consider something like Celestron X-Cel LX

The above are all 60deg FOV EPs. There are loads of other options, and I'm sure you'll get lots of advice. Contact FLO as well. 

OK - those things in the picture are only supplied to get you going. We all have them in a box in a cupboard, somewhere.

When you say you have glasses, is that purely for short-sightedness or do you have astigmatism, too?

And the mount - are you using a Goto/tracking mount, or will you be finding things and following them manually?

A slow scope like your Mak will be very forgiving on eyepieces, so you won't have to spend a fortune on fancy glass.

That 2nd pic looks pretty good. A star-test will confirm, but I'd be happy with that. The lock nuts can knock things out-of-whack. Some people don't use them at all. Others, like myself, use them as a final fine-tune; tightening them up just enough to take up the slack and checking the collimation still. One recommendation is to replace the springs around the main primary collimation knobs with much stiffer ones, then the locking screws aren't really needed!

Hi @col. For a star test, as @bosun21 said, you need higher magnification. You also need to only shift a small amount either side of focus. You are looking for diffraction rings, not an image of the secondary/vanes. The best article I've seen about star-testing a Newtonian is: https://www.astroasheville.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/No-Tools-Collimation.pdf

For Saturn, in my 8" dob, I find the best eyepiece for reasonable seeing, is an 8mm. This is 150x magnification. If the seeing is better, going up to a 6mm is possible.

For a star test, I look to Polaris (doesn't move much) and start at 12mm and see how much higher I can get. 4mm on a good night.

For the above - you need a range of eyepieces, obviously. Or a zoom/barlow combi. If you are looking for new EPs, I'd suggest a 12mm and 8mm and 2x barlow would be good for the coming planetary bonanza.

In an 8" dob (1200mm focal length):

12mm - 100x and 200x with barlow

8mm - 150x and 300x with barlow. The latter only good for nights of excellent seeing, but they do happen and if the gas giants are around, they'll take that magnification, esp Saturn.

Does anyone know whether the ASI678MC has the ROI feature? I know the 178 does, but the ZWO website omits this info under the 'specifications' tab.

I'm assuming it would, otherwise it'll be lacking as a planetary camera.

Just a quick question regarding the single spike. Are you sure the scope had cooled down properly when you saw it? A heat "plume" in the tube can cause that.

I bought my AZ GTi as a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I saw someone on Facebook wanting to swap it for an AZ5. I intended to dip my toes into AP and learn the basics without too much spendy stuff (relatively). originally when I saw that the SA-GTi was coming out, I thought I might be able to pick up an original SA for a bargain.

Anyway - I'm on that slope now but will stick with the AZ-GTi and see how things go. I just want something 'simple' to have running while I do my visual first-love! 

The Star Adventurer GTi is about to become available. It's £515 mind!

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts/sky-watcher-star-adventurer-gti.html

The best advice I got from here, was to observe seated. You can then sit at the eyepiece comfortably for 10-15 minutes at a time, watching for the moments of good seeing. It's a strange effect, but over time, your brain seems to adapt to what it's seeing and the brief snatches of good seeing merge together and you piece together a detailed mental image. If you aren't going to be trying to take pictures (and I found that infuriatingly complicated), I started sketching for the first time and built up this over several months:

About to appear on the side of Celestron Powerseeker boxes!

Have a look at this thread:

It's also pretty small. It'll get much bigger as we approach opposition. It's surprising just how much its apparent size increases. See (to scale):

from: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/mars-opposition/

also:

from: http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/2022_MARS.htm

And now with mount.

I'm going to have to work out a better attachment method - see if I can get a puck/clamp attached to the old mount head.

and perhaps a heavier counterweight!

At this time of year, it's not getting really dark. You're pretty close to me (relatively) and the skies are light all night long. Later in the year, things will improve dramatically.

An 8" dob of is excellent starter scope and will show you lots. But for now, you'll be limited to the moon and any planets that you might have sight of. Jupiter and Saturn will be visible early morning if you have a clear easterly horizon. Otherwise you will have to wait a few months for them to rise earlier.

A lot of us spend the summer months observing double-stars, but that's not always a good target for new astronomers. However, double-double (Epsilon Lyrae) is well positioned now. If the seeing conditions are good (stable), see if you can split both.

I talking about he distinction between "SkySafari Synscan" and "SkySafari Synscan_Link". I can get the first working using the phone's IP and port 11882, but I believe the latter allows a direct connection using the mount's IP address and without going via the local Synscan app.

However, the latter option does not show in either SkySafari6 _6_plus or SkySafari_7_Pro (Android)

Has this option been removed, perhaps? 

First light for my new AZ GTi. Just on a Manfrotto tripod and with my little old ST80.

Not much to see - high cloud and not very dark this far north, but all worked OK. Didn't bother trying to level the mount accurately but started with scope level-ish and pointing roughly north. Aligned on Vega then Arcturus, and after that it was 100%  spot-on.

Best views were Coathanger, Albireo, double-double. M13 was invisible in light skies.

Got it working OK with SkySafari, too. A quick question, though:  I had it working with 'Skywatcher Synscan' and using the IP address of the phone, so that it connected via local Synscan app. However, I've heard people mention the 'Skywatcher Synscan Link' and connecting direct to mount, but I don't see that option in SkySafari. Any ideas?

Dare I mention EQ?

An EQ5 with a single motor will track nicely. Polar alignment for visual is very simple.

As per 'What did the postman deliver":

Perhaps he'll settle for a trip to the pub?