sputniksteve

Hello and welcome! 

I joined here earlier in the year and have found it to be a warm and welcoming place full of tremendous expertise and knowledge. 

Those binos will come in handy. Always nice to go back to scanning the skies with binos. And enjoy your new scope!

It's a bit like with Neowise the other week. Or with something like M31 -- once you've seen it in binos or a scope it's easier to see it with the naked eye. I suspect it's  probably a combination of the things you've outlined. 

Yeah, I’ve taped it up for now with electrical tape. 

Hello.

Does anyone know if this Astromaster tripod spreader is the same as the one for the Skymax GOTO?

https://www.celestron.co.uk/shop/celestron-astromaster-tripod-spreader/

Is it possible to date these OTAs? I notice pics online, such as RVO of it on this mount are black with black ends. Mine is black with white ends. 

I’ll take some pics later in the week. If I get the tracking sorted I’ll also try a bit of at the eyepiece pics on my phone. 

I’ve no idea which series handset - how would I find out?

1 hour ago, PaulM said:

lots of stuff appearing on the web stating MIT have found the possibility of microbe life in the venus atmosphere 

Yeah. This is what I’m seeing on the Twitters. 

I went ahead and bought it!

It was a three hour round trip, but I got some observing in. Need to get my head around proper alignment, but just resigned to slewing tonight. Even with the naff eyepieces, Saturn looked gorgeous. There was a 2x barlow and a reasonably nice non-stock 12.5mm. Using these together gave a great view of Saturn - really clear Cassini's division and some cloud banding.  

Just need to figure out alignment and buy some good eyepieces. 

Was a bit cross with him about the damage to the accessory tray struts through. He'd got it all set up looking sturdy when I viewed it, but as soon as I came to assemble it at home it fell apart. I've wrapped some electrical tape around it for now.

These are the seller's pics.

What would you consider to be a reasonable price for a Skymax 127 on the old goto mount, like the one here: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-goto-telescope.html but with white end bits? I have the opportunity to buy one for £200, although there is a little repair on the accessory tray.

24 minutes ago, DroneSaif said:

 

 

The only limitation is that it needs to be < 5KG to be able to use the AZ-GTI.

Thanks

From what I've read, if you use the AZ-GTi on a sturdier tripod it can actually carry more.

9 minutes ago, johninderby said:

 

The Celestron C6 is good but the price new is a bit crazy. 🙀

 

The C6 OTA is the same price as the Astro Fi version -- so, get that and sell the mount.

Nice.

What camera, mount etc?

9 minutes ago, Markyttt said:

I'd hoped Saturn would be my hook but little the white dot with possibly a ring around it didn't have the desired effect.

 

What eyepiece were you using for this? I'd imagine your scope to be capable of some cracking views of it. You might find that barlow does help, even if it's not the most expensive one out there! I have often wondered how effective it would be to use the scope with its cap on, but with the little hole exposed. I guess this would reduce aperture but increase focal length?

I got quite a bit of satisfaction out of seeing the Andromeda galaxy for the first time. It's actually a naked eye object in dark skies, but pretty tricky. Later in the year, the Orion nebula is nice. 

3 minutes ago, Nair al Saif said:

Yeah! It’s now do I buy the mak first or the dobsonian!

the one thing that I dislike about the dobsonian is that it doesn’t counter the earths rotation so tracking  at 200x magnification is difficult!

I used to own a 12" Lightbridge. I loved it, but when the kids came along I stopped playing for a while. Like an idiot, I sold the thing in 2014 (for way cheaper than I should have!) which I think was a symptom post cardiac arrest brain damage!! 

It was a great scope, but I got tired of having to nudge it every 30 seconds or so to get options back into the FOV. It was also huge, and a bit of a burden getting from the garage to the garden. In addition, star hopping was a great way to learn my way around the sky, but the novelty wore off. 

My plan now is to start with the Skymax 127 on the AZ-GTi mount, get a good quality 8mm eyepiece, or maybe a zoom ep. Later, I will get the EQ mod and then buy something like an achro which will fit on the AZ-GTi when I want to do DSO stuff. 

I've always preferred planetary for visual stuff, but might like to have a go at some photography too. 

5 minutes ago, johninderby said:

As you will have noticed most people on this forum have several scopes. No one scope does it all so expect to end up with two or three in a few years time. A mak is a great choice for lunar and planetary and an inexpense achro can be good for low power widefield and DSOs. 

So if you were to get the mak now you could pickup a low cost achro later on that would fit on the same mount as used for the mak.

Then later on if you find you prefer a certain type of observing buy a better scope that would suit you.

 

This is my plan.

Gorgeous picture.

This is basically a C5 isn't it? 

My gut feeling is £280 is pretty good -- would I be right?

2 hours ago, johninderby said:

Good scope and  good mount although it’s a manual EQ mount using slo-mo controls. New price is £399.00. Had the same OTA once (Nexstar 5 version) and really liked it and gave great views for a 5” SCT and can certainly recommend it. 

The big thing to consider is do you want a GOTO or will manual slo-mo controls be good enough for you.

The CG4 mount is essentially the same as the Skywatcher EQ3. You can fit motors to the mount to make it a simple motorised mount and I think the Synscan EQ3 Pro upgrade kit will fit as well.

 

Could I use the tripod with the AZ-GTI, and would that mount bear the weight of that scope ....

Hi all,

I've come across an ad elsewhere for a Celestron OmniXLT 127, on a CG4 EQ mount. They want £280 for it. 

Does anyone have any experience with one of these? Any thoughts, ideas, or opinions on this? Worth a punt?

Ta

s/

On 16/07/2020 at 08:50, Stu1smartcookie said:

Steve , I am delighted with the scope .. very well built .. but .. I am gutted about the weather here  I haven’t had a clear evening to test it yet .. although later on today the skies are due to clear so I am hoping that I will give it its first light tonight !  Lol I’m beginning to despise summer ... short nights and lots of cloud ! Bring on the autumn and the rise of the winter constellations eh ?

Hi Stu,

How's it going with the 127?

Hi all. 

A relative has this 'scope and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about it. 

This old review is fairly favourable: https://telescopereview.co.uk/celestron-powerseeker-127eq-review/

But this one is ... less so: https://telescopicwatch.com/celestron-127-eq-powerseeker-telescope-review/

Thanks.

Beautiful

This is a really nice series of images. Forgive the stupid questions - is the Lifecam a webcam? How do you attach it to the powermate? 

Very very nice