Pixies

The dob has a nice alcove in the kitchen by the back door. The Vixen SP and tripod can live in the garage, too. It'll only be the fracs / Manfrotto tripod / AZ5 / EP cases that will llive upstairs.

After 16 years, I get my old 'study' back! Well, that makes it sound a bit grand, but the old spare room that became a nursery in 2005 is now empty again. My younger daughter has annexed the nice back room! Anyway, the little room upstairs is now empty and will gain my desk and PC, plus sofa and xbox/telly (for the kids). It's also still got the old wardrobe. It's going to be tight, but i have plans for astro-storage, books, pictures, etc. But I'm wondering about the longer refractor that I have. The f11 80mm Vixen laguishes on a table in the front room. Looks nice there, but the wife wants it out! No problem, now I have my astro-study! But what is the best way to store such a scope: Horizontal or vertical? Resting on its rings, or suspended? Can I just sit it end-down on the dew sheild? Cheers

I'd recommend a proper astro shop (real or online) rather than Amazon. You'll get proper advice as well as support. Lot's of junk out there for the unwary!

I use a few short Orthos in my F6 200mm dob. At high power it can be a little hard work trying to keep up wirth the target. However, there have been quite a few cases when trying to split tight double-stars that I've found them more successful than some modern eyepieces.

The obstruction caused by the secondary mirror in a newtonian (and Mak, SCT, etc.) affects the contrast of the image. Maths here: http://www.astrophoto.fr/obstruction.html

If the weather is going that way, I think it'll be obvious to you!

I live about 20 m from the sea. It's all fine. I wouldn't go on or near the sand, and I'd avoid an onshore wind if the air is at all 'damp'. Is you scope a reflector or refractor? I'd worry more about mirrored surfaces, I think.

Sorry - yes, I meant to say that. The only time I ever needed to collimate my Mak was after I had it in bits!

http://www.mira.org/ascc/pages/lectures/collim.htm

I did it to remove that odd halo/ring that appeared to expand out when a bright star passed outside the field stop. I can;t say that I saw a difference with contrast for astronomical observing, though.

Flocking the baffle tube shown here: I did similar for a Mak90. I removed the backing and stuck it against the inside of the baffle tube, rather than letting it rest in place. I found the best way was to wrap it around a pencil, sticky-side out, and then press it against the inside of the baffle tube and run the pencil in the opposite direction that you rolled the flocking material, pushing outwards as you go. The FLO flock isn't too sticky and makes this easy. Didn't need much!

Looks like one of these. Bargain! https://www.pramcentre.co.uk/high-chairs-feeding-c13/high-chairs-c99/stokke-tripp-trapp-chair-beech-wood-p59

It's hard to see from that picture as it's overexposed. The black dot (the eye hole in the collimation cap) can't be seen in the picture, but it should be inside the 'doughnut'. Adjust the primary slightly, do that it's central. The secondary mirror looks fine.

Once you see that any number to the power 0 = 1, it makes more sense. Multiplication and division of numbers can be represented as addition and subtraction of indices. For example: 4 x 2 = 8 is equivalent to: (2^2) x (2^21) and is: 2^(2+1) = 2^3 = 8 So... 2/2 (=1) equivalent to: (2^1) / (2^1) 2^(1-1) = 2^0 = 1 (have just been explaining this to offsping #2 for maths homework)

Same here. I'd much rather write up a report before I hit the sack, although sometimes it's just too late.

There's a thread around here somewhere that suggests turning the worm shaft around, so that the bent end is out of the way, and the gears/clutch can be attached to the other end. Found it. It's for an eq5, but might still apply:

Here are a couple of useful videos. A bit of a cheesy style, but he does explain it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx6XXDgf2E&t=18s&ab_channel=EyesontheSky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HVDKAZ6eM&list=PLLM5fRxAaC_fxTiSQxQ_csdXof0LG4zh7&index=3&ab_channel=EyesontheSky First one is alignment, second is actually using it.

True. I'm not sold on wide-field views. I have an 18mm version of the often recommended Nirvana 82deg EPs , but just don't get on with it. It's like sitting too close to the cinema screen!

Managed to get a view of it in the bins and then the ST80 before the clouds came over. I'd say its dimmer than mag 4.8 Tau Ophiuchi but slightly brighter than nearby mag 5.4 HR 6686. So mag 5.2 - ish.

I thought I'd do a little subjective testing with a pair of Skywatcher starter EPs that I had in the box of unused stuff. I had the little ST80 out to look at the recently brightening nova, RS Ophiuchi. I thought I'd compare the view of the double-star Albireo with some different EPs. Now, this refractor is short and fast, so a little taxing on EPs, also I don't use my specs when observing and I'm a little astigmatic, so the 25mm EP views will suffer a little from my own shortcomings. The sky was still a little light when I started but I completed the comparisons within 30 minutes and went back over the different EPs, so there shouldn't be much difference in sky quality. 25mm: ===== 25mm Skywatcher. Very adequate view but with strange effects at the field stop. The sky was still a little light when tested, but approaching the field stop, it started to dim and to fade to black. But beyond that, some reflectivity showed as a bright ring outside the stop. Made a very strange border to the view! 25mm Bresser super plossl. Comes as the single starter eyepiece with Bresser scopes- I think this is a GSO EP? Very lightweight compared to the Skywatcher, but a similar quality view but without the odd field-stop. Both show astigmatism off-axis in the F/5 scope and my eyes aren't the best with this 5mm exit pupil, either. But the view of Albireo starts to become distorted further from the centre of view in the Bresser than the Skywatcher. 10mm: ===== 10mm Skywatcher. The (in)famous EP in question above. Absolutely beautiful view of the orange/blue double star in the centre of view. Clear and sharp and fantastic colours. But... (noting again this is an F/5) astigmatic distortion starts showing at only a third of the way out from axis centre to field-stop. From around two thirds out, the distortion makes the view worthless. Now, I don't have any other 10mm eyepieces, but for comparison: 12mm BST Starguider. Sharp and clean at the centre, perhaps slightly not as colourful as the 10mm Skywatcher, though. Much wider FOV (60 deg). Pretty much astigmatism-free but field-curvature showing in this short refractor from two-thirds out from the central axis. Re-focussing cures this and the double-star can remain distortion-free to the field-stop with a little focus adjustment. 8mm University Optics Ortho. Similar view to the 10mm Skywatcher on-axis, but a little dimmer with the higher magnification. Astigmatism starting to show from 50% out but not to the same extent as the 10mm Skywatcher. Useable view to the (admittedly narrower) field stop 8mm Vixen LVW. Yes - chalk and cheese, I know. 65 deg FOV. Sharp, bright and colourful view. No obvious astigmatism or field-curvature to my eyes. Albireo sharp all the way to the very clean field stop. What does this prove? You get what you pay for, generally. But as @John mentions, it's probably a law of diminishing returns. The Vixen LVW was £200 new, although not produced now. Is it worth £180 more than the 10mm Skywatcher? I paid £80 for it. Is it worth £60 more than the 10mm Skywatcher? When I first started, would I even have noticed much of a difference in the view between them, apart from the obvious FOV differences? That and the size and weight!

Mind you. I've used the 'starter' 25mm Celestron EP - the plastic 'terrestrial' viewing one, and the only place that belongs ceratinly isn't a telescope!

I've heard people slag off the 10mm basic Skywatcher EPs, and others say they are OK. I wonder if this is a matter of poor quality control at this price-point and their quality is variable. I have a couple somewhere gathering dust (from secondhand scope purchases). I'll need to compare them.

Looking at the specs, these look incredible value! One question, @FLO, how do their focusers behave with a DSLR trying to achieve focus?

Looking at the AAVSO chart. There are some visual observations (bino and naked eye) estimating 4.5 - 5.0 from the past 12 hours or so. We've had cloud, mist and torrential rain all day, but it's startong to clear up. Some forecasts are saying clear spells for an hour around midnight! Fingers crossed. Thanks (again) to @JeremyS for the heads-up!

That's the internal reflection within the baffle tube. I imaging the 'diamond ring' will test any scope's internal reflections!