Laurieast

I don't think this will be a very good idea, the 2" barlow is huge and weighs 310g ! The scope will fall over 😁

I had good results with this : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Svbony-Advanced-Chromatic-Telescope-Eyepieces/dp/B07RQLQ9WN/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=svbony+3x+barlow&qid=1634916138&sr=8-2 On my Explorer 150p and Asi 224mc. I had good results the first time and then very dissapointing the second time, and it was the seeing, it was boiling. I would say 5x is too much.

Or, fit a Sky-Watcher Auto (electric) Focuser to your existing focuser and wonder how you ever lived without one. I have the same focuser as yours on my Explorer 150p, the motor locks it in the desired position, and the image does not move around when focusing. It fits the duel speed focuser as well. I have one on both my main scopes now. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/skywatcher-auto-focuser.html Your location sounds great!

A Starwave dovetail clamp from Altair Astro, so I can easily swop the guidescope from one scope to the other.

A Foucault tester! ?

Guilty! I think this is why one of my favourite threads is "What did the postman bring" 😁

Checked collimation outside with it on the mount, put it outside for over an hour, so I will know not to bother if I see it boiling like that again 👍

200% better than my attempts last night!

Hi All, I could see much better live on the screen than the results, but there was very bad seeing, bubbling. I had previously had much better on this camera's one previous outing, collimation is good. Maybe I was pushing it too much for the conditions with the 3x barlow. Explorer 150p, 3x barlow, asi 224 mc. @ 2,250mm. Stacked in ASI3, Wavelets/Gausian in Registax. This is 640x480, RAW 8, 5ms, gain about 250, over 3 minutes, and had the ROI on in the screen, I had to move it several times it as I had some drift going on. I think the quality graph in ASI3 is trying to tell me something, just a spike in the middle, but would appreciate comments. Thanks!

All set up, cooling down, wired up, plugged in 😃

Those blobs of clouds in the Midlands are building...😕 , but moving south, slowly..

No more waiting for the image to stop wobbling all over the place 😁 , Had Orion version for years, can't cope with manual focusing!

Hi All, I have had the Orion Accu Focuser for years and the Skywatcher version arrived today after a long wait for stock to arrive, but FLO got it out ASAP as usual. My question is for the day I plug the wrong handset into the wrong motor, will it destroy some circuit inside? They have the same colour wires in the same order on the plugs, but I notice the Orion can be turned (focused) by hand with the handset not plugged in, where as the Skywatcher cannot, but is that because the Orion is well used? Thank for any clues, insight.

A Skywatcher electric focuser, which I forgot to photo before fitting it just now

A proper tripod for the EQ 3-2 , one that does not wobble!

Postie arrived four hours late with a Lynx Astro handset extension cable for the AVX, the supplied cable being hopeless with a Newt as it's so short. Its about 5ft long before you start extending it, there are cheaper ways of doing this, but the mount is still in warranty.

The Sky-Watcher EQ3-2 has wobbly rubber feet, is there an alternative that would fit the aluminium tripod? Or should I just cut through the rubber and dispose of ?

Postie was banging on the door and brought me an SvBony 3x Achro Barlow £45 from a well known river. Looks fine visually in daylight through the ED80. And the sky is still cloudless and blue! 😁 Forecast earlier was ok for early evening, now the cloud has appeared, and the sky is gone 🤔

From shorter 5 min avi.

A , B is starting to look fuzzy.

Success! Only 13 frames per second, going to need a faster machine! Will try the ROI next time. Off to FLO now for a 3x barlow. Thanks!

Thanks @vlaiv, I'm going to run it again using your colour settings. I will have to wind up the Dell to make it go faster, it takes about an hour for that!

Opinions and advice welcome! I need to get a barlow on this next time, heavily cropped. My very ancient Dell Inspiron also only has USB 2.0 so it took about 12 minutes to get 10k frames. Asi 224 MC + IR Cut Filter, Explorer 150p, @ prime f5 750mm, captured in ASICAP, best 5% of 10k frames stacked in Autostakkert3, Wavelets in Registax, and slightly tweaked the tint as it seemed very blue to start with. Visually I could see none of this detail, so was surprised at how much came out in Registax. I only used one level, but I don't really know what I'm doing with it yet.

Mine arrived a couple of days ago, the part with two holes in unscrewed with the aid of a toothpick in each hole, it was not very tight.