doublevodka

That's a steal at $500 if it's in working order, seen OTA's alone go for more recently

I second the recommendation of https://www.nexstarsite.com/  very handy!

13 hours ago, steviebee said:

l managed about 45 mins before they rolled in. Did as you suggested and all seems to be OK. Thank you.

Excellent news! That's 45 mins more than I managed 🤦‍♂️🌧🌧🌧

So, I did some more digging, seems you can get the top off with a bit of a faff, is there any play in the top? Maybe if you could tighten slightly youd get the extra turn of thread you'd need

7 minutes ago, steviebee said:

Double vodka, thank you l will give that a go tonight. Looking good here at the moment but l can see a band of grey fluffy stuff heading my way lol.

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?

22 minutes ago, steviebee said:

The solar align method you sent the link to is the method l have been using. Finder scope first them eyepiece, but posters on a Celestron site have said that is wrong and it is Eyepiece first. l have the CPC800 and l use solar align and always centre  the finder first. Totally confused now. 

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 

1 minute ago, Murray06 said:

I saw that one too, only reason I was put off was the expected delivery date of Feb. 
im slowly realising I will never make a perfect choice, only that I need to make sure I don’t make a bad choice. 

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 

15 hours ago, steviebee said:

No problem. l have been unable to get out due to the weather but l asked the question on another site and 2 or 3 people said the instructions for Solar align were wrong. No chance tonight either as the sky is full of big Grey things and its threatening to rain.

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

On 02/10/2021 at 09:00, steviebee said:

A fully charged Skywatcher power pack.

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?

12 hours ago, going-supernova said:

Thought I’d share my progress on how I’m getting on with the 150P Virtuoso.
I managed to use the telescope briefly on the first night but had issues trying to get the alignment to work correctly - I thought the app would be more intuitive.  Thankfully @Astro_Dad pointed me to the instructions for the app but I didn’t have clear enough skies to try it out.
That was until today!  It was a reasonably clear night so I went out to give it another crack.  I should mention first that I was using rechargeable batteries as I’ve not got round to purchasing the mains adapter or decided between a power tank or something like a car battery jump starter which a lot of people seem to use as its cheaper.
Following the instructions this time and now understanding what the flashing up/right arrows on the app mean I managed to get the alignment correct and working.
I was able to observe Jupiter, including the 4 Galilean moons with the included 10mm.  If I looked carefully I was just able to make out the banding.
I then moved over to Saturn, with the 10mm still on it was visible in the eye piece which I then cantered with a bit of fine tuning.  
I was able to make out the rings around Saturn which was super exciting, I know my daughter would be thrilled to bits to see the rings as it’s her second favourite planet (after earth of course).

I then turned my attention to M31 where I was able to make out the fuzzy patch in the sky with the included 25mm, I think I needed it to be darker to make it out more clearly.
Overall I’m super happy with my first real experience using my first telescope, I’m so glad I finally took the plunge.  Thank you to all for the tips and recommendations.
Its already got me wanting more, I’m already thinking about adding an alternative to the 10mm eye piece so I can get closer up to Jupiter and Saturn to make out more definition on Jupiter or even the Cassini division.
I see the BST StarGuiders come up consistently in the recommendations on this forum, has anyone had any experience with the 5mm on the Heritage 150p or is that a stretch too far for this scope?  Or would the 8mm be sufficient and/or with a Barlow?
Another recommendation has been the Svbony SV135 zoom 7-21mm.  Again any advice from anyone with any experience using this eyepiece on the 150p would be hugely appreciated.
I also now realise I have a lot to learn about DSO's, what I should be looking for and what I should be able to make out.  Now I have the tools I look forward to this.
 

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

47 minutes ago, yuklop said:

It could well be. Scope is permanently mounted in an obsy, so I thought I’d be fairly immune to that. But perhaps not. It might just be clear tonight, so I’ll check it out! Thanks for the idea.

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

1 hour ago, just looking up said:

Thank you everyone I have just ordered a go to scope after racking my brain as what to get for the best, I will let you all know when it arrives l@@king out for parcel man as we speak lol  maybe Monday or Tuesday  watch  it be clear skies this weekend, I have told supplier I DON.T want the Free clouds, ;o) 

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

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

It seems like a natural move for more mounts to integrate smartphones as Celestron has done with their StarSense system.  Between cameras for plate solving and various sensors and cell tower triagulation, it should be straight forward to figure out where you're pointing, where you are on earth, know the exact time of day, and show you star charts and object info.  As such, it would help to keep down the cost of a computerized mount by not having to duplicate all of these things that you already have in your pocket.

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...

14 hours ago, Andrew_B said:

A 10 Micron mount and a Tak 120 would still require you to research and buy all the other stuff then spend what could be a long time getting it set up. That effort is only free if your time is worth nothing and much as I enjoy astrophotography, the truth is there's an awful lot of messing around in the hobby that gets in the way of actually taking photos.

There's a reason the traditional camera market is almost dead when I can take a photo with my smartphone that's better than any compact camera was in the days of film, then quickly edit it on the phone and save / upload / share it instantly. Compare that to using a standard digital camera then having to wait until I get home to save images from the SD card onto my computer then load them into editing software, etc, and there's no comparison in terms of ease of use, time saved, and convenience.

A lot of astrophotography is way more complex than it needs to be and the best thing the equipment can do is to get out of the way of the user.

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

2 minutes ago, Goose0211 said:

thanks all, I think its best to get something that made to be on a specific mount, will look at the P150i as an option, or as mentioned also the 150 virtuoso, the trouble is, when i do that i'll start to think bigger...

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...

7 minutes ago, LondonNeil said:

Thanks, if I but new then I'd thought about 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skywatcher-Skyliner-250PX-Flextube-Dobsonian-Telescope-SKY10157-/233897156869?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

I've not seen a new 8" for much less.

 

Is there much that can go wrong with a scope that isn't immediately obvious to a newbie?  Ie, is used kit a bit of a minefield, or just the usual 'beware of the unscrupulous' that always applies to any second hand purchase?

 

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