doublevodka

Just came across this - https://pegasusastro.com/products/smarteye/ - no indication of price yet, but could be interesting if priced sensibly and works as expected. Short version is that it appears to be an integrated camera and eyepiece which does some sort of live stacking on the fly, but also can be used as a camera.

There's some good advice here - https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/how-to-clean-a-reflector However, as Olly said, best advice is don't, cleaning always comes with a level of risk. For visual observations, a scope can be surprisingly dirty before it affects the views, so try not to worry too much. A good first start is something like this - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-optics-cleaning-protection/jumbo-silicone-hurricane-blower.html to simply blow the surface dust off of the mirror without touching it.

You are definitely doing the right thing, one thing I would add though is to point the scope downwards when you bring it in. This should minimize any airborne dust and debris collecting on any dew on the optics. On particularly bad nights you will find the whole scope covered in it, worth leaving the focuser/diagonal uncapped too, but pointing downwards if possible. You could even gently warm it with a hairdryer, although this is generally frowned upon by other members of your household late at night P.S. you will never stop dust getting on there completely so don't worry about it too much

I found SGL after a brief stint on the other forum and I love how mostly positive and helpful this place is. It really seems to be full of like-minded people who want to help each other out and I've learned a huge amount about various interesting topics which really appeals to my inner geek 🤣 The only problem, my kit wish list now far exceeds my budget 🤣

Make sure you just have the diagonal and the 20mm eyepiece, with no Barlow to start with, then as above it may take many turns either way to bring it into focus, keep going till it stops (don't force it) and if unable to focus, go back the other way. Also bear in mind that when you are getting close to focus, you will need to go slower, you may laugh but some users will use a clothes peg attached to the focus knob for fine focus

@cards47 have a read here for some useful information - https://optcorp.com/blogs/astronomy-gear/how-to-attach-telescope-accessories The newer HEQ5 mount has a saddle that will accept Vixen and Losmandy dovetails, so should fit the CGE type dovetail bar, if you have an older type with only Vixen compatibility, then you might need to purchase a Vixen dovetail bar, for example - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/celestron-cg5-vixen-style-dovetail-bars.html Hope that helps a little, the replacement bar may be easier that swapping between the two tubes.

Biggest regret so far I think was buying an 8 inch Helios reflector on a sky scan 2001 (eq3-2) mount with a flimsy aluminium tripod, shaky as you might imagine, which was a shame as the tube itself provided good views, but it was unbearable on that mount. Also, selling my Nexstar 4SE, it was my first "proper" scope and performed very well for its size, had better views of Saturn and Jupiter than my current Skymax 127 with it, although I think partly that was down to luck with seeing conditions. I also regret my bank balance not suiting my aspirations for kit 🤣

Use the 60 as a finder for the 120? 🤣

I've seen in the past a figure of around 200 times magnification quoted with the average seeing conditions in the UK which would make some sense. There are nights when more is possible when the seeing, transparency etc all behaves, but these seem to me to be getting a bit more rare, although the weather over the last 12-18 months has been particularly rubbish in my area at least. That looks like a lovely little Vixen frac by the way, although I definitely have a bit of a bias toward more retro-looking kit. I have a bit of a random selection of kit a the moment, but the fracs always deliver something a bit different, maybe it's the increased contrast, maybe it something else, but the view is just more pleasing I guess

It's possible, and something I considered when I had mine but as pointed out above there are limits just because of the way the arm that holds the ota is above the center of the mount. Some more information here for you to read - https://www.nexstarsite.com/OddsNEnds/MountingOtherOTAs.htm (not my site, but useful for nexstar owners) You'd probably just about get away with a short tube 80mm, but may need to set an altitude limit in the controller, so in the end it'll be fore you to decide if it's worth the hassle. I've since moved to an AZ-GTi mount which is a bit more versatile, as the ota sits to the side of it, although I do still miss the little 4SE, it was surprisingly good and often overlooked due to its small size.

So very true about the shopping, or windows shopping at least lol, I like to think it gives us something to do when it's cloudy 🤣 Maybe you could start here and look at examples taken with the kit to see what suits you? - https://app.astrobin.com/equipment/explorer/telescope?page=1 Personally (and I'm no expert) I love the pictures I've seen taken with RASA's, because they are so fast they really pick up some incredible data, dust round nebula etc. However, to play devils advocate if you have the budget the EdgeHD can be F2, F6.3, and F10 which gives you a lot of versatility for a large range of targets, it really depends on what you want to image, and you might not know that yet. The good thing is, your mount should be capable with any of the above equipment, so you've started in the right place 👍

this will help you get an idea of the size differences at least. It will definitely have more light gathering power, but it will be a bit more bulky as you will see. Instead of an altaz mount, what about something like this to stand your existing dob on to give it the required height? Nice and stable with 3 legs, works for my little starblast 4.5 https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/kyrre-stool-birch-60416925/

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/1-25-telescope-eyepiece-case this looks quite neat if you know anyone with a 3d printer?

There have been scopes in the past that had rotating rings (Meade I believe) but they would be fairly expensive to produce and so fell out of favour. There is another solution here - https://www.astro-baby.com/articles/rotating rings/Rotating Rings Project.htm Just need an additional ring and some diy

Yes that's the one, many people change it as it's not the most sturdy