sputniksteve

These are great. I didn't realise Mars span so quickly, actually.

15 minutes ago, inapottingshed said:

Thanks. Not a bad idea. I'll have to measure up though as I think it might be on the small side. 

Cheaper than paying £40 or whatever for something. There's probably garden furniture covers too, but they may not be so cheap.

How about using a barbecue cover? 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-Charcoal-Kettle-Grill-Cover/dp/B071H9G1NF

Where did you buy it from? They've been naughty I'd say.

It would have been pretty low. I recall having to really squeeze the break tight to stop the tube dropping. Although - I had that scope for a few years and pretty sure I can remember views of Saturn and Jupiter higher up. But my memory of stuff is generally shot to pieces.

9 minutes ago, Louis D said:

That 12" must have been miscollimated or had a terrible mirror.  My most memorable views of Jupiter were through a 12.5" Mag1 Instruments PortaBall with a Zambuto mirror on an Osypowski equatorial platform at a star party.  I could make out all sorts of festoons and barges in the belts with ease.

It's probably my memory tbh. It was well collimated and a great mirror. 

I'd also suggest that seeing and sky quality etc would have made a difference. I'm in Bortle 5. 

I've not yet a good view of Jupiter with the 127. I do recall that looking great through the 12" though.

11 minutes ago, nfotis said:

Check the second hand market if you want something quick. Maksutovs are very tolerant of eyepieces, compared to fast scopes.

I would suggest looking for something around 7-8mm for planetary observation.

N.F.

Yes - 7 or 8mm is exactly what I'm after. There's an X-CEL on astroboot at £40 currently which I'm tempted by.

Yeah, similar here. Was clear with some cloud at around 20:30 so I get my 127 GOTO out. By the time I'd plugged it all in and got it pointing at where Jupiter should be - cloud. Jupiter occasionally popped through just enough for me to re-centre it and see that my scope wasn't tracking properly. But the planet looked very poor indeed. I went in, had a cup of tea and watched Des. Came back out around 23:00 to solid cloud. Slewed to Mars in the vain hope that it might clear but alas, apart from one brief flash of appearance, nothing. Packed up and came on here for an hour instead! In fact, I still need to go and dismount the scope etc because I just plonked it in the garage still mounted. 

Just need some decent eyepieces ...

I've very recently picked up a 127 on the old AZ GOTO mount. My longer term plan is to get a refractor to compliment it. I might well upgrade to the AZ-GTi at some point too, but I'm wondering if a small frac would work well on the older mount that I've got. 

On 14/09/2020 at 09:13, happy-kat said:

A better face on photo would help

In the handset menu I think you can find out what version it is on

So, it's version 03.08. Would there be much point in trying to upgrade the firmware?

Do you any of you good people have an opinion of the Celestron X-CEL LX pieces?

10 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Hete’s the results from the Televue eyepiece calculator using the actual aperture of the Skymax127.

They say max mag of 281x

 

281x would put us at, what, a 6mm? That's what I've thinking - between 6mm and 8mm is what I'm aiming for I think.

No, I very much doubt I'd use anything below 6mm.

My best current view (of Saturn - which looks great) is through a Series 500 12.5 using the stock x2 barlow. With this in mind, I imaging the scope to be capable of handling  7mm or even 6mm. 

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

The Hyperflex zoom is very good and an absolute bargain. Very close to the Baader zoom in performance. 👍🏻

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/hyperflex-72mm-215mm-eyepiece.html

This is a great shout. Thanks. I'm very tempted  by this.

1 hour ago, Robindonne said:

You should have recognized this line!!! Great informative channel, maybe even the best

https://www.youtube.com/c/whatdamath

beyond my ken!

11 minutes ago, heliumstar said:

Do yourself a favour and get 32mm Plossl of some brand for a 'finder' and some 'wider' views and Baader zoom for everything else.

Yeah, I'd love to, but I don't think I can quite swing the outlay for that at the moment! 

So, between the SW planetaries and the BSTs?

Hello you wonderful people! 

I'm already enjoying my Skymax 127 - purchased used last weekend - but am keen to get some decent eyepieces. Obviously, I'm mostly interested in planetary observation with this, and the guy at Rother Valley recommended the Sky-Watcher Planetary UWA which retail at £39. However, I see people here highly recommending the BST Starguiders which FLO has at £47. What are your thoughts about these? 

And I'm thinking of 6mm, 7mm, or 8mm. I shall also want to get a lower power one too at some point.  

I've recently bought a used Skymax 127, and even with the mediocre eyepieces* that I got with it, the view of Saturn feels better than it ever did with my 12" Lightbridge - even with the 7mm Televue plossl that I used to own (and stupidly sold with the Lightbridge). I acknowledge that it's some years ago that I last looked through the 12", and my eye is probably better trained now too.

*There's a 12.5mm one labelled as Series 500, but no manufacturer. With the stock barlow, this is producing a nice view of Saturn. I can't wait to get hold of a good eyepiece!

4 hours ago, Pixies said:

Seeing was good. Transparency was poor but improved. Very still and damp.

8" Bresser dob. Could take up to 350x but most done at 227x

Extended periods of clarity and good resolution. Could make out some fine detail.

Disk is still obviously getting larger as we approach opposition.

That's brilliant. 

Do you use a filter? I'm finding Mars quite bright and a bit glarey tbh.

I started big with a 12" dob and, whilst i loved it, the novelty of humping it in and out of the garage and having to nudge it every minute to get objects back into the FOV wore off. One quick look at Saturn through the Skymax 127 for the first time on Sunday cured me of the nagging voice of aperture fever - even without having correctly aligned it etc. I'm sure the old aperture fever will always be there. But the advantages of a smaller scope are very appealing to me at the mo.

I'd maybe still like an 8" dob I guess.

Wow

Hi,

That's a considerable budget for a first 'scope. In your position, I'd probably be tempted to get a dobsonian, and then one or two quality eyepieces. My first scope was a Meade Lightbridge, and I loved it. I learnt a bit about the sky using that, just star hopping to locate objects of interest. Stupidly, I sold that scope a few years ago. I've just got hold of a second hand Skymax 127 on a goto. These things promise to be simple straight away, but they're not entirely - and I feel reasonably confident that I know what I'm doing. 

Having said all that, I must confess that if I had £1000 to spare right now, I'd probably go Celestron 6SE, or even push it to an 8SE. 

In normal times, I'd recommend attending a local astronomy group so that you could look through a range of instruments before deciding. Alas, that door is not open to you. However, the second-hand market is!