doublevodka

I vote for a rename, instead of astronomers we should be called cloud dodgers 🤣 Hopefully the fluffy grey things [removed word] off so you can give it a go, sadly living in Wales I spend more time cursing the clouds than observing 🌧

I have an idea... Can you remove the 3 screws marked here from underneath? If so you should be able to take the top off and replace the center screw with a slightly longer one?

I agree that step is slightly unnecessary, to keep it simple I do this (Assuming finder and scope are aligned first) Power on mount Choose solar system align Enter date, time location etc Choose the relevant object and enter Using finder slew to said object Center in eyepiece hit enter and align - job done 👍 If it starts to drift when using a higher powered eyepiece it can also be handy to realign, assuming you are on the same object Press align Then says replace object (or something along those lines) choose the relevant one and enter Re-center in eyepiece, hit enter and align Really hope the simple version helps, they can be a bit of a faff to start with, but really handy when you get the knack of it If you want to be really ocd about it you could also go down the route of an illuminated crosshair eyepiece, but for my odd visual sessions the above works fine and if I'm doing more than just the planets I tend to use the 2 star align

There is another option in that size which is pretty new to the market but has some good reports already - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-8-f6-dobsonian.html Many more seasoned astronomers than me recommend 8 inch dob as the best starter scope

The astronomers curse! Have a look here - https://nexstarsite.com/AlignmentFAQ.htm and specifically here for Solar System Align - https://nexstarsite.com/AlignmentFAQ.htm which may be a bit more helpful

I completely missed that, will teach me for skim reading 🤦‍♂️ I believe most Nexstar handsets have a "Rate" button on the bottom right, if you haven't got this all working already and are still having issues with slewing it will be worth pressing that and then say 6 on the handset, you should definitely see some movement then, it could well be that the mount is defaulting to a very low slew speed such as 1, where you will hardly notice any movement For any Nexstar related oddities I usually recommend taking a look at www.nexstarsite.com as there is some really useful info, certainly helped me out loads when starting off with my 4SE

By the symptoms described I'd be almost certain it was power related, what are you running it from?

Great to hear the scope is going well 👍 Very tempting little package that although I already have too many scopes (well according to the wife anyway 🤣) M31 is a bit like that, I live in a relatively dark area and even with the 8 inch newt it's a bit of a fuzzy patch although still a bit of a wow moment when you first spot it, similar through binoculars to me anyway Turn left at orion gives some realistic sketches of what you may see through the eyepiece - https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/pages/seasonal_skies/oct-dec/popup/in_andromeda_the_andromeda_galaxy_m31_with_its_companions_m32_and_m110/small_3-4_newtonian_northern_hemisphere

Try having the roof and door open for an hour before observing, that should help dissipate any heat, certainly looks heat related, make sure the caps are off the scope too 👍

No problem at all 👍 Calling it grease is somewhat generous tbh, more like glue and unfortunately it seems the same across the board, why use it sparingly when you can use half a tub.... 🤣 Glad to hear it's finally come apart 👍

I suspect you are right with the grease, having a quick look round haven't seen any mentions of difficulty with the bearing Assuming you are going to degrease and regrease anyway, liberal application of wd40, let it soak in and pry it off with something plastic as to not cause damage - like these - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261308052856 ?

Some good points raised already, personally I'm a big fan of the nexstars too, although I sometimes find the 4SE a bit lacking in aperture, but it's a lot easier to carry out and setup than my 8 inch newt... Do you have a particular budget or upper limit in mind? As you are in London light pollution is certainly a consideration too, are you likely to travel out to dark skies or use it where you are? In the city it may be worth looking into EVAA - https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/287-discussions-eeva-equipment/ I've not had to myself as I live in West wales so light polution is less of an issue Also worth you having a look at the videos from @rorymultistorey https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxXlxVmarXu3n340ah5xwqA he's london based so will give you a better idea of what can be done

Excellent news 👍 Unfortunately as we all know the clouds aren't optional and come with all astro purchases 🤣

This is dead on, the problem is that the manufacturers seem quite happy to carry on as is rather than actually innovate, hell most mounts communicate via serial connections which hasn't been used for computers in many, many years! Same with the mounts themselves, belt drive upgrades have been kicking round for years now from Rowan etc, but Skywatcher haven't even caught on that it makes the mounts better. We've so much processing power in our pockets now that with some good execution it could do it all 🤦‍♂️ Slightly off topic I know, but these small innovations give me some hope that Skywatcher, Celestron etc. may catch on, eventually...

Some excellent points there and it's good to see a manufacturer pushing the boundaries of automation, even if it is eye wateringly expensive The thing that frustrates me about astro kit is it's generally way behind the current technology As far as I'm aware (and welcome to be wrong) no one has developed a fully automatic EQ mount and the question is why? Motors are cheap, camera sensors can also be cheap so why can't we buy a mount that you set down and it automatically aligns the RA axis to the NCP and then the scope to the sky? Surely it can't be that hard? The closest I've seen so far is the Meade Lightswitch - https://www.meadeuk.com/Meade-LightSwitch-LS-ACF-telescopes.html but then it's AltAz and not everyone wants an SCT Yes you can add on cameras and use software etc, but there's still an amount of manual work involved that I suspect the big manufacturers could easily solve Ok everyone might not like Vaonis products or costs, but personally I think it's nice to see a bit of innovation going on 👍 I'm with @tooth_dr on this one, it's gone on the euromillions list 😉

If you are happy with the binoculars I'd maybe suggest another route https://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php That way you can sit, and don't have to hold them for long periods of time A spotting scope will unfortunately have it's own difficulties because of the 45 degree angle, high in the sky objects will still require a bit of contortion, which sounds like won't be possible or at least awkward

White lithium grease tends to be the most commonly used lubricant (I vaguely remember reading something about silicon creep and that it's not a good one to use) If you are going that far to take apart the mount etc I'd also highly recommend removing the current chinese grease / glue as the standard stuff used is very, very thick!

It's very pretty to be fair, designed for the crowd that have multiple holiday homes / lottery winners etc though I think at that price This "... committed to making the exploration of the universe accessible to everyone," Vaonis founder Cyris Dupuy said" is your typical business blue sky thinking That said, they do now have a cheaper option coming https://vaonis.com/vespera and they cheaper they get the more sense that statement will make, I can see it becoming a popular option for casual imagers at that price, maybe even lower as time goes on

Do you have a budget in mind? That will help us with recommendations There is definitely more stock around now than there was even a couple of months ago, both new and secondhand so I'm sure you'll find something suitable soon 👍 This page had about 3 telescopes on it not so long ago, now there are multiple pages! https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock.html

Bigger you say... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/sky-watcher-stargate-500p-synscan-go-to-truss-tube-dobsonian.html this do? 🤣

Or, slight curveball, sell the current one and get the updated one? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-virtuoso-gti.html The original heritage 150's still go for decent money so you wouldn't lose much I reckon But if you can stretch to a proper eq mount like an eq5 etc it does give more future flexibility...

The flextube is also a good choice as it stores up a bit smaller Used can be a minefield if you buy from non astro sites like ebay etc, but I'm a big fan of used kit personally so it's definitely worth a look on the forums here and also on https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/. Bargains can be had elsewhere but it's worth getting some experience. Astronomers in general look after their kit so you are usually pretty safe, or even join your local astro society, most have a facebook group now as sometimes there are bargains to be had locally, plus they can be handy for general advice

You've not mentioned a budget so I'm going to take a bit of a stab in the dark with a couple of recommendations https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-8-f6-dobsonian.html - New 8 inch dob from FLO with a less back breaking right angled finder and some other nice upgrades compared to the skywatcher Or if you like a bit of technology, the slightly smaller option - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-virtuoso-gti.html My youngest took at interest at about 6 years old, which is what got me back into astronomy, she mastered a manual eq2 quicker than I did! Although I find a goto mount much easier with kids as the object stays in the eyepiece Also bear in mind that as mentioned above then attention span will be an issue, so it's going to be more of a daddy hobby, make sure you get something that you'll like as you'll end up using it the most

It's almost as contentious subject as what scope to get Personally I'd go for something as large as you can get away with with the space you have, but 24-27 inch is a decent size Sometimes there are bargains to be had, I picked up a 4k 32 inch Samsung curved for a bit over £200 earlier in the year, have a look here - https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/monitor Modern gaming monitors will generally fit your need, they are designed for accurate colour reproduction although calibration as above certainly wouldn't hurt either As for the 4K bit, it really depends on the resolution of the images you will be working on, there isn't a massive price gap between the two any more, so 4K should certainly be an option, although anything will be an improvement on the average laptop screen, unless you go very high end, the screens tend to be a bit lacking on laptops

If you want to go on a really low budget have a look at the facebook group "A Second Look: Reusing Old Lenses for Astronomy" My favourite budget lower power eyepieces are now the pair that I extracted from a pair of Lidls (bresser) 10x50 binoculars that were broken, fairly easy to do and just need to be installed into some suitable 1.25 inch pipe (old vacuum cleaner pipe in my case)