Tiny Clanger

Why would anyone push a table to the front of a balcony then lean out over a railing to look through an eyepiece ? A table placed a little way back from the front of the balcony so you can stand next to the eyepiece at the side of the tube opening , near the rail of the balcony makes perfect sense. Completely extended the heritage 150 is exactly 71cm long, and you stand beside it. That is the maximum front to back space you need, no tripod legs to trip over, no worrying about if you can fit behind it to look through, just sit or stand next to the eyepiece.

I concur with Stu, admittedly the az5 is my only actual experience of using an az mount, but I bought it because of the slo mo controls ( really important to me for a narrow field scope) and partly as it has a weight limit which will take pretty much any 'scope I'll ever be able to afford and comfortably physically carry outside. I was surprised by the weight and sturdiness of the thing, it's about 3kg on its own . Do take care to buy a 'scope which has a mounting rail on the right hand side as you look along the tube from the back end though, or one which can be rotated inside rings, or the design of the az5 will I suspect ( and I'm only guessing here, but can see it could be an issue) get in the way of pointing a long 'scope up at nearly overhead objects . FLO ought to be able to confirm if your mount.'scope choice is a good one. I'm a longtime photographer , and always err on the side of over heavy sturdy tripods and heads, even for small cameras. I have the az5 on an old Manfrotto 55 series photo tripod, it is held steady and the tripod closes down to a nice compact size. (wanting to replace the 55 for photo use, I looked on the internet for a second hand one with no head, just the legs, recently, they seem to go for around £70-£100 ) There are plenty of other photo tripods around, but the vast majority are not up to carrying the weight of anything but a tiny 'scope. I did look at the skytee mount, and rather liked it, but the jump in price was a bit too much, and I knew if I bought a mount designed to take two telescopes it would cost me even more, as I'd soon feel the need to buy it another 'scope to wear 😼 Heather

OP is going to view the sky from a park in South London, if he goes away from the scope for a while, and the 'scope is still there when he comes back, that would be a magical thing by itself ! 🙂

Arrrrr, me laddy ....

Perfect, that gives you plenty of choice second hand !

Yep, eyepieces are the small lenses which go in that tube that sticks out of the side of the top of the tube at the (now) open end, the one with the knobs which should shift a tube in and out . As Dave said, you need to know the diameter, I bet it is 1.25" , which would be good as it will mean an eyepiece or two should be easy and cheap to get hold of 🙂 Just for illustrative purposes (I'm not specifically recommending any of them !) here's a page of cheap ebay eyepieces to give you an idea of what they look like https://www.ebay.com/b/Unbranded-Fully-Multicoated-Telescope-Eyepieces-Lenses/29954/bn_2454541?rt=nc&_sop=15 as you can see, the listings give a size in inches, you want a size to match your eyepiece tube. Ignore the barlows for the moment, nice to have, but an optional extra.. The eyepieces also have a size in mm, which is to do with their power . The 'scope box says it came with 4 and 8mm eyepieces of a kind which are pretty poor, so you're not missing much by not having them 🙂 I'd suggest you have a look on ebay etc (and maybe go back to the shop the 'scope came from now you know what the eyepieces look like, you might be lucky again !) and see what you can get (in the right size diameter) at 10mm or a higher number, anything up to 32mm . If you can get two eyepieces , one around 12mm, the other around 25, that would be great. A slightly better type of eyepiece is plossl (not a trade name , but a type) so if you can get plossls rather than one labelled MA or H that would be ideal. The higher the mm number here, the lower the magnification. At higher magnification the 'scope has to work harder, so best not push your bargain too far, it and the mount it is on have limitations which will show up at higher magnification. Which is why I say 10mm or higher number . Is your head spinning yet ? 🙂 Heather Phew ! In normal use, open the whole thing up, you won't often want just the small cap off apart from maybe for a dazzling full moon ! Can you see the mirror which should fill the bottom (far end from the opening with the spider) of the tube ? It will probably be a bit dusty, but that's OK, as long as there are no cracks, gouges or major lumps out of it all should be well .

Snap ! 🙂 I just want to know if the primary is OK next ...

Looks good so far ... the last photo, where you can see the secondary mirror and the 3 vanes of the 'spider' that holds it ... I suspect that the cover you took off was just part of the 'scopes cap .. try hooking a finger around the edge of the hole and pulling gently ... I think the bigger cap will come off as it should. The 'little cap within a bigger cap' design is a way to cheaply cut down light when looking at a bright thing like the Moon . Usually you take the whole cap off. Heather

I need a chair just reading that 🙂

Not exactly, but my second buy was the 127 mak, following my first scope, a tabletop mounted 150 heritage dob I have never yet used or owned a go to mount (and probably never will) . When I first got the mak I had a heck of a time trying to find things with it, the narrow FOV caused me problems. Time, patience, practise, and (inevitably) throwing money at the problem by buying an optical finder and a Rigel quickfinder to mount on the mak instead of the standard red dot finder has made it easier, but it is a reason why I'm reluctant to unreservedly recommend the 127 mak (focal length 1500mm) as a first 'scope. I'm close enough to being a beginner that when I was having my initial struggles with it , I thought it was for the best that I had the 150 dob (with a focal length of 750mm) first, and had at least some idea what I was doing. Heather

Excellent lucky bargain ! You will have a great time with the 'scope. As has been said, you have some quality extras there : the diagonal and finder in particular are very good upgrades. I have the same 'scope on an az5 and am very happy with it (even if I did have to buy my own upgraded diagonal and finder !) I made a dew shield from black foam , cost me around £10 to buy a 2m x 1m bit (an oversized purchase, originally to make a light shroud for my dob, but who can resist an extra 1x1m for a bargain price, it's handy stuff to have around ... ) https://www.efoam.co.uk/closed-cell-polyethylene-foam.php I'd also suggest some kind of cover so you can park it outside the back door to cool without worrying about a sudden rain (or snow) shower, a tough rubble sack type binbag would do the trick. Oh, and while you are in the kitchen, a clothes peg does duty as a fine focus device ! The 25mm eyepiece which came with it is the usual skywatcher one which is bundled with the 'scope, it's not at all bad, I'd keep it and use it for the moment. I've not used any zoom eyepieces , so can't give an opinion there, but the 8mm and 12mm BST starguiders work well in the mak, either would be a good purchase for the greater magnification end of the range . Heather

I'll not pronounce on the 127 mak vs frac conundrum, as I've never owned a frac . ,so not even slightly qualified ! The 127 mak takes around half an hour to cool , I've only had mine since November so there's been a fair difference between indoor (cool room) and outdoor temp.s , it may be less in the summer when temp.s are more equal . I've read folk say making the tube a cosy of reflectix (other insulating aluminium foil products are available 🙂 ) cuts the internal air currents, but I've not tried it myself . A smaller mak cools faster, and would be less of a lump to move around ( and need a less sturdy mount, yada yada ...) which is whu I drew your attention to that second hand one . Yes, but whilst you are increasing aperture, you are losing a degree of portability, it is physically bigger and heavier , also remember az4 no slo mo ...

Dobsonians are Newtonian telescopes on Dobsonian mounts, but not all newts are dobs 🙂 My heritage dob can be taken off its base and put on the az5 , no problems . You could investigate something like this .... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/all-telescopes/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az5-deluxe.html Heather

Sorry , it is the only time I've been able to share my 'scope with my 'bubble' before reg.s prohibited them leaving their part of the city, I didn't mean to rub it in ! Heather

Check the weight of the 102 , if it is under 3kg you would be fine in theory. I've a suspicion that some members have a similar combo ( Wibblefish maybe ?) and have found the pronto slipping a bit though , worth doing a search on here to read up on it . It's the inevitable problems of 'scope buying : Big aperture = big glass = big weight = big cost. Long focal length = long tube (or cleverly folded light path requiring more components = more cost ) = more weight , more cumbersome Big weight and/or long tube requires strong well made mount = big cost And that explains the popularity and relative cheapness of the dobsonian mounted newtonian 'scope ! Heather

My experience is the exact opposite : I inherited a 114 scope on an EQ mount, and found it incredibly annoying to use . In the summer )lockdown #1) I bought a little tabletop heritage 150dob, which is lovely , and obviously comes with a tabletop dob mount. Since then I've bought a 127 mak , and had no hesitation whatsoever in choosing an alt az mount to go between it and the sturdy (yob repelling) manfrotto photo tripod I already owned. Tracking objects as they move through the sky is no problem at all with the az5 or indeed the heritage dob mount , the only one which gave me a challenge was Mars which zipped through the view in a few seconds when it was at it's closest to us and I was pushing the magnification as much as I could, therefore my field of view was tiny. I've had no trouble whatsoever keeping DSOs in view with dob or alt az , and friends with zero experience of using the mount (or any proper 'scope mount ) were confidently tracking the conjunction on Dec 20th to keep Jupiter & Saturn in view with the slo mo controls . Heather

Yep, actual poster's names are in the bar above the rank by post numbers 🙂 According to what I can find, the 120 weighs 5.5kg, the EQ5 something like 12.5 kg , the 'scope tube must be around 120mm long , the tripod height (whatever it is) you can roughly halve the standing height (I'm assuming it has two section legs ?) to find about how long it will be closed up without the EQ head on. I suspect you'd need to disassemble head from tripod to pack them safely, and take the counterweight bar and weights off too , so setting up in the park will mean opening up the tripod, securing the head on it, adding the bar and counterweight(s) , putting the 'scope on, balancing it, putting in the diagonal ... all in the dark. Sounds daunting . Then reverse the prucedure to pack away ... I'll echo what Commanderfish said, a suitably weight rated alt az is going to be easier to use and probably cheaper too, the 120 is outside the carrying ability of the neat little pronto which is the one I'd go for ideally if portability was important, it has a limit of 3kg . You are going to need an az4 or az5 for the 'scope you want. The az4 is cheaper and well thought of, and it comes with integral steel tripod (which, if I recall correctly, it cannot be removed from ? Not sure where I read that though, so don't take it as gospel !) The az5 is limited to a lower weight capacity by the rubbish tripod it is bundled with, it can carry 9kg on a good tripod (eg the skywatcher steel one) and has slow motion controls, which the az4 lacks. Which is why I bought the az5, and I am extremely happy with it ! It weighs about 3kg , no counterweights to deal with, just a couple of slo mo control 'cables' (long handles) to screw on if you need them for ease of use. Good news is, any local yobs can be fended off with your tripod (I've used a closed up photo tripod in a sort of vaguely "I'm willing to hit you with this if you try anything, sonny" kind of way as a solo female out taking urban pics with an expensive camera, it worked perfectly 🙂 ) and if a scooter gang tries to nick the kit, they will probably fall over sideways or be unable to nip up a narrow alley ...

If I was in your position, I'd be scrambling to buy this bargain mak, a very portable little set up with many included bells & whistles I'd snap it up myself if I didn't already have a 127 mak ! Then I'd be looking around for a suitable mount and tripod, something like the az pronto or az4, which cost around £200 new. Heather

Hello and welcome, I can't be any help on the specifics of your question, not having had first hand knowledge of using those bits of kit, but I do think that in your circumstances you will get far more use from a setup as light and simple as possible whilst keeping the 'scope steady. A heavy , slow to set up, awkward to carry 'scope is going to get used less often once the initial rush has worn off. A previous thread on here asking about the EQ5 setup weight may be helpful: I don't think being red/green colour blind has any influence on visibility of chromatic aberration : CA is to do with the lenses in the 'scope not bringing different wavelengths of light to focus at the same point : you will still see a fuzzy annoying fringe, you just may not see it in colour ! Heather

I don't have a dome , but if I did, I'd be sorely tempted when there's a good snow covering to build a little faux doorway on it from snow blocks to male it look like an igloo ...

manual here https://static.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/90271.pdf If you have the tripod, the tube, the mirror at the bottom of the tube (aka the primary mirror) , a much smaller angled mirror near the top (open) end of the tube , and the eyepiece tube (tthat's the one with the adjusting knobs, the inner part should move in & out as you turn them) you have the most important bits, with a little luck it shouldn't be too difficult or expensive to fix the rest. A photo of the set up would help us help you ! Heather

Nice to hear you are back outside and looking up 🙂 Clear skies .... what are they 😉 The lying snow here has been washed away today by rain and a 3 degree C heatwave. My sum total astro activity : flock the little dob ! Heather

And there's https://in-the-sky.org/newsindex.php or maybe https://telescopius.com/ Heather

The header ('nebula' , 'star forming' etc) relates to your number of posts, the 'reputation' is the number of likes etc , i.e. positive reactions your posts have had. Lists of possible targets, all PDFs so you can download and use offline, or print any you wish : The Moore Winter marathon, and old but decent list, first 25 best in binoculars, second set for 'scopes. Ignore the planetary info, it is specific to the year of publication http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/skyatnight/moore-winter-marathon-guide-1-25.pdf http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/skyatnight/moore-winter-marathon-guide-26-50.pdf Caldwell (about half are southern hemisphere, so not relevant for you, at least at the mo. !) http://www.ukcloudmagnets.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Caldwell-Catalogue.pdf and what amounts to a free book https://las-astro.org.uk/docs/Loughton_List_v2_0.pdf Heather

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