M40

Something tells me that your design is going to be well copied. Excellent 👌

Superb 👌 I have seen runners used once before, phenomenal idea 👍 well looking forward to see how it progresses.

I am going to have a go at a Todmorden type pier, a few dense concrete blocks later and its sorted. I can't see it looking very pretty but I am sure that it can be dressed up in some way. As far as the pier plate goes, have a look at the base of your mount and if its anything like the HEQ5, its a single 10mm threaded hole with a location for the north peg. It does sit in a cut out but other than a location fixing, I cant see the point of that at the moment so I am just putting the mount on a flat plate. The multi-bolt patterns are quite simply one pier plate fits multiple mounts and multiple piers so its one size fits all. You will likely only use one of those holes plus the north peg for the mount. The North peg in my mind is quite important as it will enable polar alignment. If you fix it outside of the range of the mount adjustments, you won't get polar alignment. Its no different to lining up the North leg of your tripod. I am going to create a space between the pier top mounting plate and the fixing plate for two reasons, the first so that there is access to the mount fixing bolt and the second to enable me to get the plate as level as possible. I have read differing thoughts on if the plate needs to be level or not, but as far as I am concerned, I need all the help I can get so by making the pier mount level, I have removed one challenge. As for pier height, I am going to make the height of the pier such that it makes it easy to view through the polar scope. Hope that helps in some small way, good luck with your build.

Oh so that's where it's coming from 🤣

Brian Cox is great but sometimes he just comes across as completely closed mind and this is another instance. How can you look at that picture and say there is no complex life out there? The only thing I find scary about that picture is knowing that there is definitely something out there that wants to eat my brain 🤪

Hello and welcome to the site 👍, I think we all did a bit of skulking before joining 👌

Hello and welcome to the site 👍, amazing pictures 👌

Just to make sure that the clouds never go away, I have now started on my pier journey. I thought I would start by making the pier top using stuff I already had, so far the cost has been about £30 plus a few bits I already had. My plan is to make it strong enough to fit the HEQ5 extension piece on top. This is the story so far, I have yet to drill the North peg but that can wait until I have it fitted to the pier, that's a few week away 🤔🤪

You can always use something like spiral band (have a google to see what I mean). It basically wraps around the cables to stop them going everywhere. Alternatively, as powerlord said, usb hub, but personally I would use a powered device if you are looking 10M plus. If you need to buy a hub, stop and look for usb over ethernet. The range goes from about 10M with a powered hub to about 40-50M and get a cat6 cable from amazon or such like. I have a startech device and it works.

Hello Trevor and welcome to the site 👍 bit of both probably but it gives you more time to look around and see what people are using and achieving. You can still get out there with simple things like a planisphere or an app, download stellarium or similar and have a look to see what is visible from your future observing position. Enjoy

Superb reply as always vlaiv 👌

Looking at the FOV calculator, using something like a 13mm eyepiece with the 127 will give you a view of the whole of the moon, so vlaiv, would eyepiece projection work? Cost of one or two adapters might be worth a try if it can achieve focus.

Looking really good and it looks like the sun is shining down on you too 👌

Looking at your mount and OTA, in my mind equals quite heavy, so you will need something substantial. How about something like this trolley which I thought was superb and a great idea. The telescope was up for sale on here a few months ago but I cant find the post to point you in the direction of the OP to get some info on the trolley. Alternatively, if you are happy to work with metal, have a search for slotted unistrut channel. There are all sorts of brackets etc available to create some sort of trolley and then get some castors on M10 stud.

Great video, thanks for posting and the way that you described the whole was excellent.

Looks like I have a year to learn how to use the camera 🤣 Thanks Stu, great pointer 👌 One of my favourite places is the FOV calculator at the top of the forum (resources, astronomy tools, FOV calculator). If you select visual mode, input your telescope and eyepiece plus barlow, select solar system and Mars then add to view, the tool will give you some idea of what to expect. If you then change from Mars to Jupiter you will get an idea of the difference in size and what to expect. Have a play with it, it's a superb tool.

When lone working, we have to set up a particular method of working, part of which may help. You can get very loud personal alarms where if you are stationary for any period of time they sound off, likewise you pull a tab and they sound off. May work on the animal front or if someone needs to find you. Additionally, you could set up some sort of arrangement where either you call someone or they call you at given time intervals. HTH

I am loving this, what a great idea using drawer runners. 👍 This may be better off in the DIY observatories section as you may get a few more replies, you could pm a mod and ask them to move it for you. And as if by magic..... ta daaaa 🤣

Superb 👌

I think Mars is a bit of white dot to most of us at the moment , so don't get concerned about seeing detail. I am more than happy when I manage to find the things I set out to find. I got really keen the other morning and had a look at Jupiter, if you fancy getting up at 04.00 and have a clear view to the SE at about 20degree's you could always give that a go. The Moon is not well positioned currently but have you thought about trying to split a couple of double stars? try Mizah or Cor Caroli, both well positioned.

Hello James and welcome to the site 👍. Not jealous of Dartmoor at all, honest.....

Like many others, I started off with the 200P Dob. I managed some cracking "lucky" shots of the moon, didn't try with the planets so can't comment there. What you will realise is just how fast stuff moves once you get the more powerful eyepiece into play but you soon learn how to allow your subject to drift into view, take the lucky snap and then realign the dob. Alternatively, have you looked at the 200P on the eq5 for £700? You could always upgrade to a goto later. It has some good reviews that may be worth a look. Enjoy.

That's a good video Pixies and well worth a look 👍

Hello a6400 and welcome to the site 👍 To fit your camera to the telescope you need two things, the first is an adapter that fits your camera and the second is a 1.25" T2 thread nosepiece. I "think" the adapter for your camera is this one.... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/borg-sony-e-adaptor.html but you will need to check. The nosepiece is this one.... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/baader-nosepiece-125-t2.html. I recommend you drop FLO an email to check though. The nosepiece fits into the standard telescope 1.25" eyepiece socket. This combined with a Barlow gets you off and running taking pictures and I would definitely spend a few pennies on some form of camera remote like a cost effective intervalometer. One thing you will need to think about with a 200P is storage, it's quite big. +1 for the planisphere and some form of red dot/telrad/rigel finder. Enjoy

I had to check but it's in there... Trust me, I have visited this topic more than a few times