M40

Looks like you have done a fair amount of work already 👌 biggest challenge may well be that street lamp but a bit of screening later 🤞 Looking forward to see how you get on.

Hello Mircea and welcome to the site 👍

Loving your planning  👌

I feel your pain with the concrete; I recently went into B&Q and bought 10 bags of the same stuff, which I must highlight was down to you guilt tripping me to move myself, anyways, I got covered in dust by shifting a large number of split bags before I got to some good bags. 

ta da.... 😜

All that's needed is a couple of clear nights now 🤣

Thought it would be worth posting this as I have found a small design flaw in what is otherwise an excellent product.

These are the top components of the HEQ5 extension. Note where the azimuth adjustments hit the North peg.

I found the North peg to be loose on a couple of occasions so I just tightened it up but then realised that the thread inside the North peg had stripped.

A close look shows that the North peg retaining screw only goes into the peg a short way into the peg and not the full available length. Combine this with where the azimuth bolts hit the peg and it was always going to happen. 

The solution is relatively simple and I suggest that it's carried out before the thread strips. 

Simply get a longer M5 machine screw together with a couple of M5 washers. The above picture shows there is plenty of room for maneuver so there is option for either the screw with washers to go inside the hole or alternatively a much longer screw with nut and washer outside of the hole (my choice). The peg retaining screw will then extend the whole distance into the peg and not just the first few millimeters.

Hope it helps. 

After moving house, I really missed the pier I had built at the previous place, so planning started for pier Mk2.

We have a small garden so compromises had to be made, with the mount here, I get 10' to the East and West, 20' to the South and 30' to the North. 

So I dug a hole, stuck some metal in it and let it set solid. It doesn't come out well but the studs are 450mm long.

.

200Kgs of cement later and we get this.....

A few days later, a touch of Hammerite paint and this is where I am at the moment....

Next step is give it a few more days to fully cure, then stick the mount on top.

I do have a bit of "modification" work to do though as I bought an RVO HD Pier adapter. Whilst the HEQ5 fits, the North peg is not in the correct place so a touch of drilling is required.

5 minutes ago, ArmyAirForce said:

From what I've read, concrete will be set in around two days, but doesn't reach its full strength until around 4 weeks.

I have other excuses...... 🤣 

Superb 👌 The only problem I have with your build is that you are making me feel extremely lazy. I have made the pier base for my little project and I am dragging out the cement drying time for as long as I can 🤦‍♂️ According to the info, the cement should be left for at least seven days.......but I keep losing count, I think I am on day 3 🤣

2 hours ago, ArmyAirForce said:

two 12 inch diameter by 39 inch long, thick cardboard postal tubes

Novel idea, concrete has some weight to it, do you think they will be enough to support the weight or will you be taping them up in some way?

Hello Baldy45 and welcome to the site 👍

Hello v4cascade and welcome to the site 👍 enjoy your new telescope, any questions just ask away.

So we have tree's, Victorian engineering bricks and tennis elbow a great mix 🤣 still, we do like a challenge. All the best and it will be great to see how you get on 👌

That's a superb present, so my thoughts would go down the line of what would I not normally be able to afford during the normal upgrade route? Mount is in the mix, but just to throw it in there, have you considered night vision? 

Hello and welcome to the site 👍

Hello spcookiee and welcome to the site 👌 ps we all start out with eyepieces that suck 🤣  start saving your cents 

Adding to some excellent information, I see nothing wrong with buying second hand. I bought a used EOS100D from an online market and it works a treat. Maybe I was lucky, but you are after results, not necessarily perfect results. Backyardeos is also excellent. I think I spotted that you do not already have a DSLR, please note that there is quite a learning curve to the DSLR too. If you choose to stick with the DSLR, you can always get a better one later. An ED80 to me would be a great telescope, I was on a wait list with no used ones for months before I switched and bought an alternative. I then bought a ZWO. In my opinion, it was far easier to get that first image than the DSLR and since I have had it, the DSLR is collecting dust. I have absolutely no intention of moving the DSLR on though as using the same telescope, it gives a completely different FOV to the ZWO, it really is all about your targets. I currently use my laptop local to the telescope, so I see your biggest challenge is power supply. Me and batteries have a love hate relationship, they love to fail just at the wrong moment, which I hate, so I built a portable unit which housed a power supply so wherever I stuck the mount, I merely moved the power supply to the mount. Hope it helps.

I would be interested to know, does anybody use the Baader flip mirror OAG? I have and use the flip miiror and never having done guiding, I keep thinking about it. I might add that both the Baader flip mirror and OAG would be within Stuart's budget.

As Carbon Brush said, is the mount part of the budget? If the mount is part of the budget, then +1 for the 127 Mak.

I moved from the 200P to the Skymax for exactly the same reason as you as I knew that sooner or later I was going to drop the 200P. There is the argument that there isn't a lot of difference in weight, but the Skymax is far more manageable.

Also look very closely at the StellaLyra range. 

Yet another link for you that you may find useful.......

I don't currently do guiding so have a careful read of Malc-c's and Raff's posts. There are so many options as to how you achieve things it's a bit of a minefield. My current setup is to leave the handset in the system so I star align using the handset, but my next step is to learn plate solving and that's when I will be ditching the handset. 

There is a good write up here...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/blog/eqmod-controlling-the-heq5-neq6-and-other-mounts-directly-from-a-pc.html

If I understand it correctly, the description identifies that using eqmod is more accurate than using the guide port. Hope it helps  

Well I hope that you have some clear and moonless nights during your stay. We stayed in mid Wales a few years ago and I spotted the milky way as we were lucky enough to have a few clear nights during our stay. Get outside and make sure that your eye's are nicely dark adapted. If you are in Bortle 2 the sky will be very dark then just look around. The stars will jump out at you and then you will realise that one area of sky appears lighter than an adjacent area and the more you look, the more you will be able to define lighter and darker regions. That's what you will see or at least, that's what I saw. Can I also suggest that you take binoculars with you. If they are in the right place, you will be able to see M31 and M42 through binoculars with ease. Enjoy.

Welcome back 👌

Hello Paul and welcome to the site 👍

I think your reasoning is quite sound; it's as you say an affordable telescope, you have an expectation of what you will see through the telescope, any upgrades can go with you and you have thought about moving it around.

The one thing not mentioned in your thinking is storage. Whichever telescope you go for, it has to be stored somewhere safe and they are all larger than what you think. I started, like banjaxed, with a 200P dob and that did need some storage space but at the same time a very easy use device.

Here's a thread that is well worth a look... 

A few clear nights and some good views of the moon and you will be hooked like the rest of us. 😜

The Dob really comes into it's own for ease of setup and use; been there with the technology challenges as I am sure most have. No point in the coulda shoulda woulda, it's all a learning exercise and hopefully it hasn't put your friend off. 

Hello and welcome to the site 👍 There was recently a star count where they asked people to count the number of stars within the Orion constellation, not including the four main stars. So there you go, go outside at night with a comfy chair and a warm coat, find Orion, count the stars when you first go out there and then after having 30 minutes plus of your eyes getting used to darkness, count them again. Weather permitting, you will hopefully see more. Give it a go, you never know, you may even see a satellite shoot past.