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doublevodka

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Everything posted by doublevodka

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. 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 🤣
  4. 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
  5. @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.
  6. 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 🤣
  7. Use the 60 as a finder for the 120? 🤣
  8. 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
  9. 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.
  10. 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 👍
  11. 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/
  12. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/1-25-telescope-eyepiece-case this looks quite neat if you know anyone with a 3d printer?
  13. 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
  14. Yes that's the one, many people change it as it's not the most sturdy
  15. I have a AZ-GTi and a short tube 120 scope (Helios brand but it's almost identical) the GTi itself seems to cope with the weight ok, but the standard tripod is not up to the task as that's all I have, shaky would be the word with all that weight loaded on one side. It may be better with the stainless steel tripod, but I've not tried that yet.
  16. It seems to be a popular option in the US, but FLO started stocking it a while back so thought it may come in handy 👍
  17. Personally, I've been using this stuff - https://amzn.eu/d/6xYdvUW yes, it's not technically flocking material, but it's a lot better than the grey paint in most OTA's, it's cheap and in A4 sheet size so quite easy to work with, although if I was doing a large OTA I'd probably invest in this as it looks easy to use and similar to the methods mentioned above - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescope-flocking-material/protostar-flockboard-flocking-board-10cm-increments-custom-cut.html
  18. Try this guide from Astrobaby, it should help - https://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/simple-polar-alignment/
  19. Don't know anywhere specifically, but It might be worth dropping FLO an email via https://www.firstlightoptics.com/contact.html I've seen on previous threads on here that they can be quite helpful for this sort of thing 👍
  20. Apart from the price tag, this make my inner geek very happy 😂 Can apparently lift 20kg too, be a lovely addition to a portable imaging rig https://edelkrone.com/en-eu/products/tripod-x
  21. Have seen a few posts of people wrapping a dew band around the bottom of the device while in use in cold temps, seems to help so maybe work a look for a cheap usb one that can be run from a powerbank? Have read on the official group on Facebook that ZWO say no issues with the gears, but they don't recommend it due to the risk of toppling @powerlord thread above on the Rosette is quite informative 👍
  22. @GasGiant if you like a bit of DIY, Sky at Night has a whole section of their site dedicated to it, interesting read if nothing else - https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/diy
  23. If you could give an idea of your budget @GasGiant it would definitely help. However as others have mentioned, an eq platform may be a good shout DIY version - https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/build-a-dobsonian-equatorial-platform There are commercially available ones too, but no one seems to have any stock currently which seems odd. Alternatively, you'd be looking at a large SCT to get a similar resolution, which is going to get expensive fast
  24. I thought I'd post a quick review of sorts about www.astrocooker.com and my dealings with Dennis who runs the site. So from the sites FAQ firstly what is it? "Formerly known as FITS Scrubber, it has been renamed to Astro Cooker as it can now process other file types. Astro Cooker performs basic post-processing on an image file, ideally a raw file taken during an astrophotography imaging session (sub) or stack. The original use case was to preview a single (raw & unstretched) sub before setting off an imaging plan." I'd come across Astrocooker on Facebook and seen some pretty impressive results from pictures taken with the Seestar S50 and some brief bits about how easy it was to use which seemed right up my street, for a little bit of context my free time is pretty limited so anything that can make my astro life easier is a winner in my books. I'd planned to use it to process some of the night mode images that I had taken with my Pixel phones over the last couple of years, however, it didn't support the native raw format - DNG from my phone. I faffed about with some file conversions and got some ok results, but I decided to get in touch with Dennis to see if he could expand the formats - from the site FAQ. "I cannot upload my raw file. Currently, these image formats or file extensions are accepted: fit(s), tif, jpg, png, arw and rw2. Let me know your image file extension or type and if the raw library can process it, I'll add it to the list." I dropped Dennis a quick email at around midday yesterday, just after 8 pm he'd come back asking for an example file to test, and before 9 pm it was all up and running, which as an IT guy I can tell you is pretty much unheard of in the software world 😂 Dennis was very helpful throughout and as a bonus, I now have a nice easy processing tool to play with, my photo's won't win any award, but it's nice to be able to quickly get some more out of the data 👍 Example image below for reference, I've done nothing else to it other than run it through astrocooker.
  25. Maybe keep it simple and post a wanted ad for someone to swap a set of 8's for 10's, worth a try?
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