M40

The upside down flower pot is a great move but go even simpler. Get a piece of plastic kitchen sink waste pipe, cut off three pieces at about 150mm long and once you have your mount polar aligned, bang them into the ground. Pull out the mud and grass from the pipe and drop in pea shingle or concrete. They can be mown over and no one will know they are there unless you look closely. Worked for me until the pier came along. Once leveled, at end of play just leave the tripod legs set at the levelled height. Speed is king. All the best.

Binoculars certainly have a place, I treat them as a quick grab and go look thing. There is a section within the site on binoculars plus the astronomy magazines do have a binocular tour. Just be aware that much as you will be able to see planets, in mine, that bright dot becomes a larger bright dot. In saying that, I have a set of Celestron skymaster 20x80 (not the pro version) and recently enjoyed looking at Jupiters moons through them. You will be able to see the Andromeda galaxy plus Orion is amazing. They are also heavy, so budget for a good tripod. So my shopping list would be a set of 20 x 80 binoculars, a good tripod, a planisphere and a wooly hat

That's a fair starting budget giving you more than a couple of options, so.. have you considered a FLO voucher? Your husband, I am sure would very much like to be part of the selection process and this would enable him to spend the time that we all do, having a good look around. Obviously you want to give him something now, so how about the book "Turn left at Orion" or a planisphere to go with the voucher. All the best.

Hello Polly1982 and welcome. As has been mentioned, a budget of £70 is going to be more than difficult to get something that doesn't disappoint, so I am going to be a +1 for Les Ewans post and suggest binoculars maybe a good starting point, a set of 10 x 50 will be well within budget and can give great results. If maybe you could go in with another family member possibly jump to a spotting scope? adding maybe a reasonable tripod and phone holder so your grandson has options for taking a picture? Another thing to think on is finding stuff in the night sky; a cost effective device called a planisphere is excellent for finding stuff together with a free phone app like Stellarium and he will be off and running. All the best and keep asking questions.

A few of us start off with a simple builders bucket over the mount then a TGV365 over that, it works very well. Here is a link to a similar recent thread that may be worth a read.....

It's all about mass and mutual attraction. Interestingly, I did read something recently, can't remember where, it said that the moon was far closer to us more than a couple of years ago and is moving away from us at about 1cm a year.

I would be interested to know what you use and how you achieve it. A list of bits when you have it sorted would be much appreciated.

I think the sun is going to be your biggest challenge. This is my latest version along similar lines of yours .... The front and back are clear perspex as we like the look of the thing. The sides are removeable with quick release clamps on the legs making it nice and light and I just pick it up and move it out of the way. You can't see it clearly but there are some large ventilation ways at the top on both sides, the bottom is open to air. This summer we saw outside temperatures of about 31'c and I got about 35-36'c inside the box. Looks like you expect to get much higher temperatures so I would make any sort of box bigger with maybe a solar powered fan. Hope it gives you some sort of food for thought. Just to add, prior to this, I had the same bucket thrown over the mount and pier with a tgv cover over that. It worked very well. All the best.

Mine has all the usual bits and bobs fitted including the steeltrack focuser and motor and never had a concern over the strength of the dovetail bar. I keep mine in an unheated garage so by the time I have bolted it to the mount, stuck all the stuff on it and then polar aligned it's good to go but if you are keeping yours inside I would also consider the Classical Cassegrain. Binoviewers? yes please, defo on the wish list.

Hello Murf26, welcome. Compared to Ovenpaa's seven years and my six months I am not sure that 24 hours qualifies as lurking, it's more like loitering Enjoy the Bortle 4, that's the same where we are, you should get some nice dark nights from that. All the best.

Hello Dbogan and welcome to the site. I am going to echo what Clarkey said in that no one telescope does it all, so part of the fun in this game is a bit of research into what you would most like to see or image. Have a look in resources/astronomy tools/field of view in the menu's at the top of the page and input a range of telescopes and eyepieces/cameras to see just what sort of telescope will give you what sort of image. There is a topic that's worth searching for called "what can I expect to see" well worth a read. Another way to go is look around the site to see what people are using and what and how they achieve it. All the best and keep us up to speed.

A couple of my thoughts just to muddy the water for you... The EQ5 is 6.5Kgs for imaging and 9Kgs for visual so make sure you use that as a load figure, it's all about tracking accuracy etc. When you do your weight calcs for any future kit add in things like adapters, filters, dew shields etc it's amazing how it all adds up. All these mounts have the same sort of challenges and once you get to grips with the home position, polar alignment etc it does get quicker and easier. An advantage with the EQ5 is that it does have an integral polar scope which again does make life easier. Enjoy.

One of the first things I check if nothing seems to move is the tracking rate of the mount. After that, can't really offer any thoughts as I still tend to star align with the handset at the mount. HTH.

Hello and welcome to the site 👍 ask away with any questions, always good to try and help.

Hello Ovenpaa and welcome to the site 👍 a seven year lurker, has to be a record I think I was a mere 6 months

Hello Iskov and welcome to the site 👍 trust us in that we know what clouds are, it's the blue stuff between the clouds that concerns us, not sure at all what that is

Hello and welcome to the site 👍 echoing what Floater said, we were all very new when we started so ask away with any questions. Enjoy.

If you are concerned that your existing rcd protection is insufficient, how about getting one of those 30mA RCD power breaker devices that plugs into an existing socket then plug your extension lead into that. You can get a 10mA device if you want that extra level of protection. At the far end, just as you say, stick the extension lead into a plastic box with a lid, it's a temporary setup that's stripped down at end of play, personally I would be happy with that.

That was my thoughts, lay the base, add a membrane, fit the dome, then do whatever after using spacers between dome and inner base former to create the shape you want. Flexible ply or even a bit of hardboard would probably work. I wonder if a piece of white plastic trim would be flexible enough.

Wow, what a location. Another great thread to follow. What are your plans for power?

We all struggled with the basics so you are most definitely not alone there. Does seem a bit strange with the setting scale being so far out, is the mount level? I don't have the polemaster but I do have the ioptron and the camera can be installed incorrectly (user error on my part🤦‍♂️) which does put the settings out. Once you are happy with all, I just do a two star alignment in synscan, I then goto a couple of bright stars to make sure all is aligned then goto the target. All the best.

Hello SzabiB and welcome to the site 👍 I don't know if you have found this, but it's always my goto... https://www.lightpollutionmap.info

Hello mirrorgirl1980 and welcome to the site 👍

Excellent videos Doug, thanks for posting 👍 Always good to see what people are using, not jealous of the pier tech pier at all

Very lightweight and on a roof, brilliant 👌