Starwatcher2001

Hi Chadonna and welcome aboard SGL. Can't help on the Mac front unfortunately. Do you have any friends with a windows box that can help you out? I've successfully updated my Celestron mount using Windows (with a few frustrations). Whereabouts are you based? If you're in the North East I'm happy to help you.

Welcome back aboard SGL Chris. All your favourites are still sending their photons for you to grab. I spent nearly 20 years away from astronomy, but it never leaves you and is good to get back into it.

This little beauty, a Feather Touch focuser for my C9.25, arrived this morning courtesy of @SplintUK. It said "Royal Mail" on the box, but Postman Pat must be on speed these days, I only bought it on Monday. It looks as good as new, is mega smooth and already on my scope (like all transplants, you've gotta be quick with donor focusers). Thanks very much Dan, including the hints on fitting it. I can't wait to get it out under the clouds^H^H^H^H^H stars.

Welcome aboard SGl Simone, good to have you with us.

Does it move back into collimation if you move it back to the original position? I'm wondering if something is shifting, main or secondary mirror?

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us. Certainly better than my point, click and hope snaps!

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us. Welcome too to astronomy. I can't vouch for your 127, but your AZ5 is a nice sturdy mount. I've got one of my scopes sitting on one and it's great for getting set up in a jiffy and no-drama observing. Good choice.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us. Your new scope will certainly serve you well.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us. Love the images!

Will the focus knob be on the left, rather than the right? Might be annoying if you're right-handed.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us.

Welcome aboard SGL. Great to have you here with us. As annoying as poor eyepieces can be, they are probably much better than Galileo had. Until you get some better ones, don't give up observing. It's a skill that you get better and better at. All the best from the other end of the planet.

Welcome aboard SGL Joe. Good to have you with us.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us.

Welcome aboard SGL James. Good to have you with us. It's never too late to start taking a look at the universe through your own eyes. I live in the light polluted skies of Teesside and there's still plenty of cool stuff to see. Mind you, you'll definitely see more if you do get the chance to venture to darker, clearer skies occasionally. I'm purely visual as I'm sure I wouldn't have the patience for the AP game. There's stacks of information on here about every facet of astronomy, so enjoy getting stuck in. You'll also quickly realise how friendly the place is and that there's no such thing as a daft question. Cheers, Mark

Very smart with a lot of very nice touches. Vey nice piece of ATMing.

Yeah, but what we need is a good book to help us find 'em. 🤣

Just to add a comment to Malc's great explanation, as the focal ratio goes up, the field of view gets smaller. A smaller FOV makes finding objects by star-hopping more difficult as there's less visible sky in the eyepiece. It also means that larger objects like Andromeda won't fit in the eyepiece. For lunar, planets and double stars, the higher magnification given by a longer focal length (eg f/10) is ideal.

I'm still working my way through your doubles book and look forward to buying this one too, when it's ready.

Welcome back to SGL Paul. Good scope to have.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with that Stuart. Those images you posted were a bit rough!

The Earth turns a full 360 degrees (thereabouts) in 24 hours. So in one hour it turns 15 degrees, and 30 degrees in two hours. Welcome aboard SGL!

+1 for light pollution being the problem. I started observing in the late nineties, then for various reasons didn't do any astronomy for twenty years. When I came back to the fold three years ago I was astonished at how much worse light pollution has become. My old notes have a good number of galaxies spotted from my back garden, now I'm lucky if I can see Andromeda's core. It's not quite driven me to AP as I'd never have the patience, but it's really changed the things I observe.

For a long time I've used cheap plossls and similar for my observing, but their limitations (mainly eye-relief) no longer work well with my aging eyes. Now the kids are gone and finances are better, I've been trying out various better eyepieces. Some work better than others for me, so it's beeen a bit of trial and error, but I've finally settled on the Pentax XW. They are just so comfortable and should last as long as I've got eyes. But what to do with the rest of the herd? I was going to keep them, but I'm mindful of something Don Pensack said about spending too much time at the telescope auditioning eyepieces. I have found myself spending more time swapping eyepieces some evenings than actually observing. So some of the collection has gone to a new astronomer, and I'll probably offer some on SGL when I get around to sorting them. I'll likely start with a few BSTs, not because they are the worse, but because they are pretty good. It will give me incentive to actually clear the rest out. As soon as I've done that I'll no doubt feel relieved... and regret it. 🙂

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us. Welcome to the hobby too, both fascinating and frustrating in equal measures. But a night under the stars watching the universe with your own eyes beats a dozen slumped in front of the television.