wulfrun

Luckily my vision remains excellent, so far - especially night vision. I can easily make out Kochab and Pherkad too. On a good night, maybe a couple in the handle but not often. I can still see Alcor and Mizar and just make out Epsilon Lyra as a double, naked-eye (as 2 not 4!) One saving grace is that we're on the edge of the West Midlands conurbation so we don't have to traipse halfway across it to darker skies. Pretty much anywhere west-ish brings improvements!

Yes, the name's a bit of a giveaway eh. I'm pretty close to the racecourse, makes the light pollution even worse when the floodlights are on. I'd imagine Bilston would be marginally worse than here but not much to choose.

I also made a first attempt at this tonight and found it successfully. Didn't last long though, thanks to cloud - just faded to the "eyes" after a few minutes.

No chance here. It looked clear in the main earlier on but there was a haze and light cloud at lower astronomical altitudes. I had a peek at Saturn, which was wobbly and washed out. Jupiter showed me a disk and three moons but almost no detail, barely discernable brown-ish banding being about it. I tried my luck at higher altitude targets and swiftly got clouded out there as well. Oh well, it happens. I did manage to locate the Owl cluster and got a brief view before the cloud spoiled things, so there's a positive (never seen it before).

Almost certainly. If the pack has only two contacts (+ and -) then yes, must be integral. If it has multiple contacts, it could be in the device. Lithium ion and LiPo are generally the same thing, I ought to have used the same term you did.

One thing to be cautious of, you must never discharge a LiPo below 2.5V for ANY cell in a pack (and even that is pushing your luck, 3V is safer). If the pack has a built-in battery-management system, you are good to go. It should cut off if discharged to "empty". If it doesn't have such circuitry, I'd advise against it very strongly. Chances are a vaccuum cleaner or bike battery etc does have a management system but I would be finding out for sure first.

W10 updates are a pain, the "Microsoft knows best" attitude is irksome. If all the suggestions above fail, one I have tried (suggested on here, can't remember off who) is to set the Internet connection to "metered". They know that downloading updates over a metered connection could cost arms & legs so it stops them happening unless you authorise it or set it off "metered". EDIT: does it actually need an Internet connection when imaging? If not, just turn it off.

If it's too cumbersome, presumably that means you don't use it as much as you'd like. Not being smug but you have answered your own question, yes sell it on and find something more suited to your needs. As for what, what do you like to use a scope for? Answer that and I'm sure the suggestions will be forthcoming...

Yes, that one. It might be worth asking if the scope is available separately, should you not want the extras. Maybe it is or maybe they'll only sell "job lot" but no harm in asking. The main downside to using Ebay and their ilk is that you could end up with a bargain or a lemon! Caution required but yes, it may work well too. The advantage of astro-dedicated sites like this is that the vast majority of our members are decent, honest folk who look after their gear and will declare any damage etc. You can easily do your homework on their post-count/content etc and be pretty sure they won't scam you.

There's a 200P up for sale in the classifieds on here, not far away from you if you are in London, as your name implies. Again, on that same assumption it's worth bearing in mind that the majority of galaxies and nebulae will not be visible from inner-city, light-polluted skies. Planets aren't much affected, likewise the moon. Finding stuff, beyond the obvious, may also be a challenge. Not wishing to dampen your obvious enthusiasm, just pointing out the pitfalls.

I've been thinking that I could maybe see more than just Titan previously, so I've made a concerted effort tonight, due to good conditions. With a 150PL, 2x focal extender and 16mm EP (= x150) I can see Titan easily but also managed Dione, Rhea and Tethys fleetingly, with some confidence and averted vision. Confirmed with Stellarium but not sure if the averted vision & fleeting aspects count as "seeing" in the context of the OP question!

The 150P Virtuoso is very new to the market, so that aren't many owners with opinions yet. You might try the likes of YouTube for reviews but exercise some caution since they may be sponsored to say nice things. I have a version 1 Virtuoso and I also have a Heritage 150P (non Virtuoso!). The old version Virtuoso works reasonably well and the Heritage 150P is a highly regarded scope, so expectations would be good. Clearly, you understand that it's not going to be up to the standards of the scope you looked through but with that in mind I doubt it's a poor choice. One thing to bear in mind, as far as I know the 150P Virtuoso can only be smartphone controlled, it does not have physical buttons to move it around - the version 1 does have but is not go-to without an add-on handset/wi-fi. No buttons may be either a good or bad thing, depending on personal preferences but be aware of it. Astrophotography is a whole different ballgame (and price-tag!). Yes, you may be able to get smartphone "snaps", through the eyepiece, of the Moon and maybe the bigger planets in the 150P but you'd need far more serious kit for anything more. No doubt you'll get other opinions shortly, maybe from a new owner of one of these with first-hand experience. EDIT: be sure to read this too:

If you observe in very dry and dark conditions, you don't need the shroud. Use only in dry places excludes anyone in the UK and a lot of other parts of the world too. One benefit not yet mentioned is that it makes it harder to drop anything into the open top of the rigid tube piece. OK, if you're exercising normal precautions that shouldn't happen anyway but still, accidents happen. An eyepiece cap would be annoying but it could be worse. I followed the video above and purchased the same foam as @Tiny Clanger but I stuck it to the existing plastic shield opposite the focuser, rather than velcro-ing it to the top part. The hardest bit is making sure your rectangle is "square", so you end up with a neat cylinder. For the time and cost, it's well worth the trouble in my view. I did try it without the shield, on a warm, dry evening. I can promise that, in my urban backyard anyway, there's a certain, well-known, law that says whatever object you choose to point it at, it will correspond with some house or streetlight also lining up perfectly on the secondary and spoiling things!

I actually have one that I've used for a while, in an f5 and an f8 reflector. I'm sure it won't be as good as a premium EP but actually I don’t notice anything particularly bad to criticise it for. For the price, I think you'll find it works quite well.

I think you need to be more specific, good for what? As a compact, visual-only scope where portability and easy storage are needed, yes it's a great scope. It has a couple of minor irritations that are easily solved (a wobbly focuser that can be fixed with plumbers Teflon-tape and it benefits from a shroud to cover the open part) and being a tabletop mount it needs er, guess what, a table of some sort.

I had the Heritage 150P earlier and was watching, with a 5mm BST in. I clocked Europa appearing around 9.40/9.41. Quite eerie to see it pop into existence from nothingness! Maybe 5 mins later it was "normal service".

Usual advice is use the eyepieces that come with the scope at first. It'll get you started and you'll figure out what's lacking. Most SW telescopes come with a 25mm EP that's not too bad a quality and a 10mm that few people like, it's not a good performer but it does work. Best to plan what you need for your interests and based on your personal experience. A Barlow may or may not figure in your plan.

Apologies if this is too obvious...doesn't the 200pds have a 2" focuser?

No it's not just you. However, I tend to just keep quiet...sometimes it's an innocent mistake (or, more annoyingly, an auto-correct induced thing).

Not an expert on that particular scope, so others will no doubt give you better advice. Some things to realise though: Depending on what you're looking at, daytime isn't optimum for making a judgement. Haze, thermals, wind etc can all spoil the view, so better to wait until using it on the night sky. The Skywatcher 10mm lens is mostly not considered good quality, I've seen a few comments from folk saying it's OK but not many. The 25mm isn't too shabby but neither of them is intended to be much more than to "get you going". You'll probably want to upgrade both BUT use it for a while first to decide what your next ones should be. The threads on the back are for attaching camera mounts and other accessories. If you can achieve focus you probably aren't doing anything wrong.* * wait for someone more knowledgeable to confirm this, I've a feeling Maks have a "visual back" that goes on first? (EDIT2: I missed the bit where you said you're using it)

That's correct, mine certainly has the socket anyway. The video above states that it doesn't but they may have added it later in production, I don't know about that. One small caveat, the mount needs to be level to work properly (and the more accurately, the better). Put it on a tripod and you lose the ability to do that via the adjustable feet. You'll have to adjust the tripod legs instead, which is more fiddly.

As someone who owns the 114P version, I'd also say go with the Mak in this instance. The Newtonian doesn't do well at higher magnifications so it would sort of duplicate the refractor, as said above. The Mak version would give you something different.

Unfortunately, some of these connectors aren't well thought out. If you can plug a 2.5mm plug into a 2.1mm socket, the centre post (that's the 2.1/2.5mm figure) won't make proper contact, if any at all. You need the correct plugs and sockets to avoid problems. EDIT: It shouldn't be possible to plug a 2.1mm plug into a 2.5mm socket, the centre pin won't allow it.

Can I lay claim to discovering a new planet then? I spotted one recently (on a rare, clear night). It's bright and had 4 attendant moons. If it wasn't Jupiter, I'm bagging it first!

Sheet bend would be more secure but if yours fails it's more of an annoyance than a life-or-death thing 🙂