M40

My simplistic way of looking at things is that you have 44mm within the dslr and the T ring gives you an additional 11mm giving you your 55mm backfocus between dslr sensor and the next piece of glass. So your field flattener bolts immediately after the T ring. As alacant says, if you need to add spacers to getfocus, they gobetween FF and telescope. All the best. 

I swapped from a 200p dob to a skymax 180 a good few years ago now because I knew one day I was going to drop the dob. The skymax is excellent for solar system stuff, similar ota weight but far more manageable.

Can I suggest, start with the mount, then look for the longest focal length, biggest aperture the mount can take and work from there. Interestingly a quick look on flo and you find maksutov's, classical cassegrain and newtonians of a similar size are very similar in weight, who knew that one. All the best.

Just to add, without the star sense you will need to polar align the telescope, I  can’t help you with your handset as I have never used one of those but someone will be able to help there. But just to speed things up a little once you have it aligned, put some marks on the floor where the tripod feet go as it will help the next time you set up.

I am sure I have seen one pop up on here from time to time, just keep your eyes open 👍

You need to add a couple more things to your shopping list. The lenses have a coating on them so normal cleaning fluids could damage them, so please don't be tempted to clean them without the proper solution. FLO sell the cleaning solutions and a little puffer thingy to blow dust off. 

Don't worry about an off axis guider, I doubt you will ever need one. I think start nice and easy and go for a target thats easy to spot, that way you will at least know the telescope is pointing in the right direction. Don't use the barlow, just bolt the camera in and select the moon or jupiter or mars. Focus using your motorised focuser on your tablet or device and see what happens. You will be able to get it all talking indoors during day so youknowwhat to expectat night.

The moon will likely be very bright so a moon filter is the only thing you might want to buy at the moment.

One question, did you get the starsense with your telescope?

All the best.

Well done tezz, topman for decision making 👌 Now all you need is the same thing we all want, a few clear nights. Keep us up to speed, and pictures speak volumes, there is a topic in the astro lounge titled "what did the postman bring"  😉 

All the best and enjoy. 

A great start 👌 and as for a dampener, how about installing some wood around the existing slabs and slab base, pour your concrete, remove the wood when dry and then just back fill it with pea shingle.

Hello bosun21,  which brand of sct is it? I know that celestron have one. An alternative that I carried out on the skymax was to change the visual back and stuck a dual speed focuser on the device to which I added initially a lakeside focuser controller and handset and very recently replaced it with an asi eaf and handset. For visual, this was an excellent upgrade.

Just a thought tezz, do you have any South facing windows? Its not ideal to view from indoors but it has been done. 

Out of interest and you may already be aware, the nexstar can be fitted with a remote focuser allowing focusing from a tablet.

Hello tezz and welcome to the site 👍

Excellent replies above, take your time, ask questions we are only too pleased to help. All the best 

Hello Navydive and welcome to the site 👌

I use a similar red dot finder to yours plus I also use a rigel quikfinder. The rigel does have a smaller dot plus its got a bulls eye type view.

If you decide to go for one of these, I do recommend the optional battery pack. All the best.

31 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

Please don’t talk about them BLACK caps!! The lens caps are what I drop and just don’t look for them now until morning.

The black cap reminded me of this old but gold thread.....

Enjoy

11 hours ago, Veloman said:

I've had my 'scope a couple of months longer than you and can sympathize !

Learning to use your telescope in the dark, without kicking the tripod, knocking the instrument while changing eyepieces etc. will come with practice and the rewards are well worth the effort.

Wrap up warm and be patient.

ATB

Rob

Don't forget dropping the telescope cap. How else do you get grass on the mirror/objective/corrector plate? 😉

12 minutes ago, Taichou said:

 Do you think that I would need a barlow or is the magnification with the included EP good enough for planets? Can you suggest a good moon filter 

Have a look at this link from first light optics which I think is the telescope you are looking at.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az-gti.html

The Dew shield and moon filter shown are perfect. I also have a more expensive moon filter but I prefer this one. A red head torch would also be a good buy. I wouldn't worry about eyepieces or barlow until you have your hands on it, starting up the supplied eyepieces are fine. All the best.

17 hours ago, Jimbo64 said:

Sorry about the formatting on my post, does this work?

 

About a 1000 times better than my first shot of orion 👌 I also started off with all the software you mention, but then I decided to go super simple and took the laptop to the mount and just used the asistudio stuff and the mount handset. All the best. 

Hello Taichou and welcome to the site 👌

Of the three, my recommendation would be the skymax. Whilst the others have a larger aperture, the skymax has the eyepiece at the base of the telescope and will probably be easier for your son to use. It will have a longer cool down time but at the same time you will hopefully never need to collimate it. You will definately need a dew shield and can I also suggest a moon filter. All the best. 

Seeing as how we can't talk you into getting a second telescope after 7 days, maybe I can help you spend your money in a different direction. 

Instead of eyepieces, how about the Baader Hyperion Zoom? You don't need the barlow, it covers a good range of eyepieces and once you've found your target rather than changing eyepieces you simply zoom in to suit. It has the added advantage in that as you upgrade, you take it along the journey with you. I've found that I now tend to use a low power eyepiece and the zoom and I am more than happy. That should get the discussion going

The big question though is have I helped or hindered in you spending your money 😉

Hello 123Star and welcome to the site 👌

You've chosen a great starter telescope, easy to use and store. As mentioned above, I would wait until you have your hands on the telescope before ordering accessories like eyepieces, but there are a few things you may want to start thinking about. Living in Norway I am sure you already have warm clothing but how about a red head torch, a phone app like stellarium to help you find stuff, a dew shield and maybe a moon filter. I did a quick search but couldn't find one but I believe you can get a sock that will go around the open section of the telescope, that will help with dew and stray light. All the best.

1 hour ago, woldsweather said:

Ahem! How do I pu this? The mount wasn't powered on

Sounds like the sort thing I do, I have recently been sorting myself out with an asiair, I can't tell how many times I  forget to turn the mount on 🤦‍♂️. Glad its sorted

Oooh, good question, I seem to remember a few challenges too. I think I tried just putting in com port numbers until i hit the right one. I shall look back and see what notes I made. All the best.

Didn't make any notes except for this link...

hope it helps

Hello fullmoon and welcome to the site.

Starting with beginner resources, this site has to be up there, ask away with any questions, we've all been there.

Get your planisphere, set the date and time, find the tiny mark on the planisphere that indicates the position immediately above your head map facing down ( on my one it's a tiny blue cross), face north and set the planisphere north facing north, make sure the mark is above your head, then bend the planisphere so that it aligns with the horizon. The centre stud which is polaris will then be in front of you at about 50'. Phone apps like stellarium are excellent, but the advantage of the planisphere is that it can be picked up at any time to see where the brightest stars will be. 

On balancing, you are balancing your telescope in two planes, with the weight at the lowest point, release the clutch that holds the telescope only and spin the telescope gently. You are trying to balance the telescope itself so that each end is roughly the same weight. Tighten that clutch and release the other so that both the telescope and the weights spin around an axis. Again shift the weights until both telescope an weights balance.

Hope that makes some sort of sense. All the best.

12 hours ago, Leti Theobald said:

Hi, not sure you will know this, I really want to just keep the 4000d but I've tried everything I cannot do longer than 30 seconds exposures unless i keep pressing the button in bulb mode. The canon app won't allow me to go over 30 seconds either or do more than 10 frames at a time. Am I completely missing something? 

Looks to me like your exactly right in that you are limited to the 30 second timer or as you say continually pressing the bulb button. Not ideal at all if you want to get into processing. In the short term you could look at solar system stuff which would use multiple short exposures, at least you would then be able to get used to using the software. No idea if you can do eeva with a dslr, not something I have tried, don't see why not, just a different set of software. If you want to get into AP proper, it looks like a camera change. All the best. 

Hello advinnie and welcome to the site.

The 200p is basicaly a long tube with the mirror at the bottom, so, try to avoid facing the tube straight up. All the best.

bosun21 beat me to it 👌

Coincidentally,  in sky at night feb23 magazine,  there is a section on dslr camera settings for beginners thats well worth a read. Just to add, the astro modified cameras have the camera internal IR filter removed, not really necessary when starting out as there is plenty to take pictures of with a standard camera. All the best. 

13 hours ago, Leti Theobald said:

So, I’ve just started Astrophotography and at the moment I’m using a Canon IOS 4000d which doesn’t work that well as I can’t use a remote timer with it and it’s quite a beginners camera.

Looking at your camera spec, it seems to be a few steps in front of mine and a few years newer, a major difference seems to be yours is only remotely controlled from an app. Does the app not include an intervalometer? Also if you've not found it yet, have a look at backyardeos, great piece of software for a Canon. All the best.