Tellurian

Explore Scientific have a pretty good forum that has lots of users with a wealth of knowledge and information. It can be found here https://espmc-eight.groups.io/g/MAIN and the various subgroups listed via the Subgroups link. It's a strange sort of forum that is more email based but I find it works well. If you look in the Files section of each group, there are several very useful items.

Thanks all. Good to meet you all.

Hi All, Thought I'd better introduce myself as I've been a lurker here for a while. I live in the middle of a small town in South Wales, UK and have had a long time love of the heavens. I did hope to follow a career in astronomy many years ago but my course was cut after the first year of my degree and I ended up in IT. My wife bought me a birthday present of a Skywatcher 130/650 on an EQ2 mount a few years ago but after a few sessions I let it lie until a few months ago when I dug it out and the passion was rekindled. I've been setting up the telescope in my backyard every chance I have had recently and have been gradually gaining knowledge from using it and applying things learnt from the fabulous resources that are out there on the internet these days. I know that my scope and mount aren't the best but I have always been a great believer in learning how to get the best out of limited tools before moving on to more expensive gear. That way, you are gaining the basics and I believe that understanding how to do without technology will be beneficial when you are trying to work out why the tech isn't doing what it should be. Saying that though, I'm not against using the latest tech have been enhancing my scope with the odd thing but also trying to get the best out of it. My most recent triumph was to achieve accurate polar alignment on the EQ2 and a repeatable process that seems to work with a very low-tech method (a big screwdriver) combined with Sharpcap's polar alignment tool. So, I hope you all don't mind me bugging you with questions and I hope I can eventually contribute with something that others will find useful. All the best and clear skys. 🙂