M40

As Ricochet said, its a fixed eyepiece spotting scope, but all is not lost. Have you thought of getting a mobile phone adapter for it? You should get some great pictures of the moon and in a similar sized spotting scope, using the zoom, we got a great picture of Jupiter and three of it's moons. All the best.

Without plugging the lead into the mount, does the cigarette plug indicator light up?

I dabble in the simplest of ways. I just use the zwo software package and take single shots on solar system stuff. I tweak the picture there and then so its my version of planetary eeva 🤪. You will find if you stick the 385mc on your es102 and use the zwo software, the camera will work surprisingly well on dso eeva. I have moved on slightly and bought a second camera, the asi290mm for dso eeva and much as I will never win any prizes I am quite pleased with the results. All the best.

I use the 385 with a skymax and it gives out similar results ish in the calculator to your C8. I'm quite happy with it and without doubling your budget I can't see you bettering it. It looks like it works well with your ES102 too. All the best.

Sad news indeed. Many thanks thunderbird02 for letting us know. 

Hello flip and welcome to the site from an equally cloudy...... and wet, Somerset 👍

 Hello Glenbo and welcome to the site 👍

Sounds like the key was hardened just poor quality metal. 

Is any of the allen key sticking out from the grub screw or has it broken flush?

Echo what the others have said; create a template base, assemble pier, adapter plate and mount, then polar align making sure that the azimuth adjust for the mount is roughly in the middle giving plenty of room for adjustment. Mark the fixing holes on the template making sure the template position can be repeated precisely, then start digging etc

All the best and we like pictures 👌

Hello and welcome to the site 👌

10 x 50 Binoculars are very useful and as an alternative,  have a look through First Light Optics beginners telescopes. Just above your budget is the Ursa Major 102mm table top telescope which looks quite interesting. A lot of people,  including me, start with a dobsonian telescope as they are relatively simple to use and you can be outside using it very quickly. 

Can I also suggest a star atlas app for your phone or laptop, something like stellarium. A very good way to find your way around the night sky. Then add to your shopping list gloves, hat and a red light head torch, you will need them  All the best.

I'm going to echo what the others have already said; having both an 85mm refractor and a skymax180, I can say quite clearly that they are two very different telescopes and visually on the planets and double stars the difference is significant. Also please take note of nfotis point about the weight of the skymax. All the best.

I've just been sent this link that I've not seen before, if anybody is up for a paper model challenge, try this on....ESO's extremely large telescope

Eso.org/public/products/papermodels/

Hope the link works 👌

3 hours ago, wesdon1 said:

Sorry for going so off topic, but upon reading your comments below the comment and emoji "seeing double" you say "you can never have enough cables", that made me smile, because I totally related to your sentiments after I quickly learned that I need LITERALLY every conceivable cable ever invented by the human race for my astrophotography endeavours!!?? haha! Seriously!! haha!

🤣  Wait till you get a baader flip mirror.......you never have every adapter you need 🤪

Hello Kev and welcome to the site 👌

Hello sheedo and welcome to the site  👌

This is why I have a million adapters, each time I buy something, I either get the wrong adapter or just don't have one 🤣

The zwo needs a T2 male thread, I think, have a look through the flo site on that camera and it gives thread size. Anyways, i got a T2 male to T2 male and works a treat with the ZWO 290. All the best and happy new ones.

Great pictures 👌 

As to the eeva question, I think you have given the game away in your post with the word "processing". My thoughts are that eeva doesn't involve post processing and any software used is carried out the time so it's more or less as live as it could be. If you stood outside by the side of your telescope and played on your laptop there and then, and managed to get that image of M31 within a few minutes, I would say yes it's eeva. Whichever way though, I do like that picture 👍

The dew shield should be the first thing on your shopping list if you go for the skymax. It does two things, the first is helping with dew and the second is it helps cut down stray light.

When you think about the mount, add the weight of the telescope together with the eyepiece, finder scope, diagonals etc, it's surprising how the weight adds up. Make sure whichever mount you choose it can handle the weight plus some.

Next step is think about where you are going to keep it.

When I used a tripod with the skymax, I never really had any problems with cool down as by the time I got it all setup it was more or less there.

With your field of view, you will be well postioned to see solar system stuff 👌 all the best.

Hello Raychin and welcome to the site. 

I like your second choice as Maksutov telescopes are great for solar system stuff, but the upgrade path on that combination is limited, so how about an alternative using a similar telescope on an alternative mount? 

Your third choice is quite heavy so a suitable mount will be expensive.

All the best and enjoy looking 👍 

Have you considered using your 72ED with the asiair as an eeva setup? If it gives you some good results, you could always move the pro on and get the plus for the remote aspect.

As a different option, something I am playing around with is using a canon lens with zwo camera. There is an adaptor that can link the two. Hardest part is mounting the adaptor and getting it aligned. All the best.

Try chucking a plastic bucket over the mount, this will provide an airgap and a level of air movement between mount and tgv cover. All the best.

Phenomenal topic and posts. I have often described this hobby of ours as a couple of thousand hobbies under one title, keep searching imakebeer, the grin factor is there somewhere

Personally I jump between visual for solar system and doubles and then dabble in eeva. The sketches have been an amazing eye opener and what a brilliant idea by Ratlet to sketch some of your images, as someone with zero talent,  I will be giving that a try.

The trick I used was to get a piece of plastic sink waste pipe, cut three lengths of about 150mm, sink them into the ground in the selected spot, remove the dirt and fill the pipe with pea shingle. Worked a treat 👌

Decision made in my case and have just started playing with the asiair plus. Touch of real world feedback for those still thinking; with the  Asiair plus mounted outside at a distance of 14M from the tablet with just a set of French doors between, connected fine. Initial setup took a couple of minutes switching between home and asiair network and after that no challenges. Next step, clear night so about June...🤪

Come on then, don't keep us in suspenders, what did you go for?  My guess is the evolux.