dd999

Yes it does take 2" eyepieces - my 28mm is a 2" My skies are probably not dark enough. But as John mentions the biggest challenge is knowing what you're looking for even if you have it in your FOV. I found the same with M101 and M51. I need to dust the cover off my copy of Turn Left at Orion. M31 is relatively easy as the 'smudge' is very apparent in the FOV - but others, not so much.

Nice tip - will take the bins out with me next time!

I didn't really look or notice. Wasn't particularly visible from memory, as I didn't really notice it.

Thanks John I've struggled with M101 too. I tried with averted gaze in the eyepiece, but couldn't see. I'll have a look through some images and diagrams to familiarize myself with the 'four star' pattern to help locate first. I think I will try more with my dslr. Only managed a single shot before the clouds started rolling in. Will give it another go the next clear night (whenever that may be atm!)

I had a relatively clear night last night, and was trying to find M33 using my goto mount. I'm using a 5" SW 130PDS, and a 28mm EP but (and it's the 2nd or 3rd time I've tried) I can't see it. For something that's just about naked eye visible in the clearest of dark skies, I would have thought with this scope and low eyepiece I should have seen it. I attached my dslr to the scope, and with a 20sec sub I could see it (it was in the corner of the image), so assuming the dslr FOV is not greater than the 28mm EP (?) I thought I should have seen something. I can see M31 quite clearly (alt

I've just researched mine, and it is a cheaper sub £20 Barlow - so will take the plunge with the Star Guider.

Wish I had read this before. Having had the same Barlow for about 10 years, after making a purchase to upgrade my eyepiece today to a BST Star Guider 8mm - I bought at the same time, what I considered to be, an upgraded 2x Barlow - the BST Starguider 2x Barlow ( https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-2x-short-barlow-lens.html) Have I just wasted £50 that I could have spent on something else? My existing Barlow is a Seben Achromatic Super Barlow 2x that I picked up with a 2nd hand scope a few years back.

Hi All, Having spent the past 4 hours looking through videos and researching as much as I can about using the AZ GTi in EQ mode (after some disastrous attempts the last cloudless night) I 'think' I have every piece of info I need, apart from the answers to the following. Can anyone help me fill in the missing pieces of the jigsaw? - In EQ mode should the Azimuth Clutch Knob be loose, or tight as it should be in AZ mode? - If it should be tight, I can't see what benefit the counterweight is giving to it (?) - In terms of polar aligning, is having Polaris in the FOV of the te

Haven't tried M33 - but I doubt I'd see the Hercules Cluster naked eye, even with averted gaze. Moonless night on Thursday - I'll give it a test run.

My town says Bortle 4 too on both Light Pollution Map and CO (maybe its just the same data). Although on a moonless night it can get reasonable dark but for all you other Bortle 4ers - what mag can you generally see down to with naked eye? I tested last night. With averted eyes I can just about make out Andromeda - and again with averted vision can just about see the two brightest stars within the Square of Pegusus (both Mag 4). Looking though on Wiki at it says I should be able to see mag 4 objects in Bortle 9 skies!! Only went to get my eyes tested last week, and they'r

Perfect!!!!! - it answers why I need to have it nearer to 35 ...... thank you!

Last night I tried again. I pointed the scope due North, and set the wedge to 50 degrees as per my location. Unfortunately I wasnt even ballpark for Polaris. I had to set the wedge location to 35 degrees for Polaris to be in the FOV. I started the wedge at 35 degrees instead. Unfortunately accuracy wasn't great. Ballpark but target not in a 25mm wide view FOV. Poor enough accuracy that I had to find DSOs using my red dot finder rather than the goto! I've added some photos of my setup but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong?! Original setting degree to ma

When I tried I did have the wedge for my location (rather than 45 degrees) - I used a compass for due North.... I didnt check the FOV, but assume Polaris would have been in the FOV. Yes this was my starting position before starting alignment. Thanks for the link - will have to try again

The mount is the AZ GTi mount

Thanks for the reply. As for 3 - if I did have Polaris in FOV is the 'close enough' as per 2?