Surreydocker

I'm also fairly new to astronomy and I live in a grey zone. I started out with binoculars before purchasing a 4" refractor (because it suits viewing from an apartment balcony). I have managed to view some of the brighter DSOs such as M13, M31, M42, M45 etc both through the scope and the binos. With less LP and a bigger scope, you will certainly be able to see some DSOs through the eyepiece and as Pete mentions above, filters help. Stars, double stars, planets & the moon are brighter and therefore less affected by LP. There is however, a limit to what you can see in high LP areas

I have the same scope, mount, metal RDF, and a 2" prism diagonal and it all works fine. No need to worry about the weight !

I have the exact same scope - you won't be disappointed !

Amazing ! >1 billion lyrs - that is mind-boggling ! I guess I'll need to move to the country if I want to see such things myself !! Ian

Hi Rob, I'm very interested in this thread as I have the 102 ED. Were you using your 2" diagonal with your binoviewers and 102 ED-R ?

The Altair 102 f7 triplet is listed in Astro Tools and you can use the Zwo camera with the 183 sensor which is also listed to give you an idea. I have the Altair Starwave 102 and 294pro camera and in Bortle 9 I have so far seen lots of the brighter globulars and planetary nebulae (using Sharpcap). Galaxies are tougher for me because of where I live (and lack of aperture I suspect) but I'm gradually getting there (I haven't been doing this for long). I guess my point is, give it a go with the gear you have then decide which way to go. Ian

I use 3 star alignment on my AZ GTi because I read somewhere that it was better than 2 star but after reading the posts in this thread I'm beginning to have doubts - what are your thoughts ?

Thanks for your kind comments. I'm sure others here, more experienced than me, can give better advice but I use a Bahtinov mask to focus. If you don't have one handy, I have also found that you can aim at a bright star and set the camera exposure time to a short interval (1 - 2 secs) and then tweak the focus and watch the results on screen. It's then trial and error to get the best focus.

Lower rated fuses for each circuit are a very good idea but I would keep the 20A fuse (as close to the battery terminal as possible) as a safety back up.

+1 I'm fairly new to astronomy but I'm really pleased with mine.

3 months ago, I didn't own a telescope so I'm absolutely delighted with the results I got last night. On the first night with the camera (Monday), I couldn't get Sharpcap to recognise any stars so it wouldn't stack. Last night I tweaked a few settings and it all started working. I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different settings on the camera and histogram and eventually got something I liked. At this stage, I'm not concerned with getting perfect quality so much as being able to view things that I can't otherwise see in my Bortle 9 skies (and horrendous street and amenity lighti

Thanks for all your responses - very helpful. I'll be back with more questions, I'm sure !

Having done some more research, I'm going to have a go at answering my own question......... the answer is, generally, no you don't need to guide. The question of which mount is probably down to budget and personal choice as I see people are successfully doing EEVA with a wide variety of mounts.

I'm a complete novice with a 102mm F7 refractor and by chance, I had a go at this on Wednesday night at 100X and failed. Yesterday, a 4mm Nirvana arrived though the post and last night, at 180X I could clearly split both pairs, so I went back to 100X and I could see that they might be doubles but couldn't honestly split them. I put it down to inexperience and old eyes !

I'm starting to daydream about EEVA. Do you need a guided mount or will unguided work ? I suppose the answer will depend on what you are trying to view but I live in Bortle 9 and it's all new to me so almost anything is a bonus (although I think it would be great if I could see some DSOs) If unguided works OK, is it just a question of picking a mount with sufficient payload capacity for the rig plus a margin of safety ? Thanks in advance