Tiny Clanger

I own both the heritage 150 and the 127 mak on an az5, can't say I've ever found the 150 at all shaky, but I do place it on a purpose made very sturdy three legged table . The 127 mak is good for planets and the Moon, but as it has a focal length double that of the heritage, if you don't mount it well on a good tripod you will see plenty of shaking ! I'd not personally want to carry either 'scope very far, the heritage is an awkward shape as you are aware, and weighs about 7kg . The 127 mak weighs 3.2 kg , an az5 is 2.3kg, I don't know about the skywatcher steel tripod you would want to have it on , I use a manfrotto tripod which weighs in at a little under 3kg, so I'd guess the steel tripod is similar. 8.5 kilos, plus a sturdy rucsac with a frame and/or padded back and hip belt , another 1.5kg minimum. Torch, eyepieces in a case, sundry accessories at least another half kilo. That's 10.5 kilos, rather heavier than my summer backpacking camping kit base weight ! Unlike my tent , sleeping bag etc, the mak is going to be less forgiving of being dropped, banged or slung onto the luggage platform of a 'bus , and will need the kit to be assembled when you arrive , presumably in the dark ... Its a lot of faff , and I'd be worried it would just be too much trouble to do often. If I was looking for a 'bus friendly , one evening at a time trip out 'hand luggage' solution (rather than, say , car based camping for a weekend) , I'd go with a 102 mak (under 2kg) which can go on a lighter pronto mount, (the quoted weight for 102 + pronto + tripod 5.85 kg) or it could even a photo tripod as shown on this site which has some good comparison photos of the 102 and 127 in their bags and on various mounts http://www.waloszek.de/astro_sw_mak102_e.php Then I'd spend the money saved on some decent 10x50 binoculars for wide field stuff !

Hope they are interested in the mirror. Maybe 90 minutes is a bit optimistic for the trip from Leamington tho' , driving times within Herefordshire seem to take me around double what I'd expect throughout the rest of the midlands ! Heather

If they want it, deliver it in person , Herefordshire is a lovely little county for a visit ! It has loads of great little towns & villages with old half timbered buildings, excellent walking, interesting geology and the cathedral is a cracker, I love the human scale , ground level statue of Elgar leaning on his bike. I had a return visit planned last year , on my previous stay the weather was so good I was out walking to take advantage of it, so I didn't get to the little Violette Szabo museum as planned, neither did I need to exercise my rainy day option of several hours in the bookshops of Hay on Wye ... Watch out for the SAS tho ...

I bought some closed cell sheet foam from a company to make a dob. shroud and dew shields, and the company I got it off (who sell all kinds of packaging acoustic & upholstery foam) sell this stuff to glue it https://www.efoam.co.uk/foam-spray-adhesive.php I didn't buy any though, as I only wanted to stick a small area , for which a spray can seemed a bit OTT.I didn't buy any, but tested every kind of glue I had lying around already, and a few types of gaffer tape too. To my surprise the only glue that worked was hot melt glue gun stuff, it didn't melt the foam as I expected it to . The cheap silver gaffer tape (aka duct tape) I had didn't stick for long, carpet tape did reasonably well, 3m gaffer tape did better, but the best was gorilla brand duct tape.

"Hereford Society for Aiding the Industrious " 🙂 Brilliant, you couldn't get a more Victorian sounding society name ! Heather

GH With gets a passing mention in the first paragraph on Geo. Calver here: https://britastro.org/iandi/instrument-93.htm and more info here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/2QROVOrWRtWN63hv6RbMMg

Yep, I linked to that yesterday, and said : "Shame this identical second hand one is in Derby and the seller specifies collection, but maybe you could arrange something ? " ! 🙂

Ah, well your profligate brain really shouldn't be told the 127 mak itself is a very neat little package (it even comes with a handy padded bag ...) ,and I've hardly ever set up both it and the heritage 150 (only had the mak since November, so this may change later in the year when it's less cold & muddy out) . If there are planets to see , or the Moon is up, the mak goes out, if no planets on the menu and the sky is not illuminated by the moon, little dob it is. Honestly from what I've read the smaller 102 mak would probably be just as nice for lunar & planetary stuff, and being lighter could go on a lighter cheaper mount too. I suspect that the pair of 'scopes I own are limited partly by light pollution , and partly by user ineptitude ,so I should probably stick to the free upgrade route of getting better at observing, while eagerly waiting the opportunity to drive down the road 10 min's to a darker rural spot when 'these unprecedented times' ease ...

Yep, I've been thinking .... hmm, is there room in the corner of the living room for a 200mm dob ... ?

It's the art of the possible isn't it ? 🙂 A complicated combo of what seeing conditions we have, if the Moon is out, what bloomin' trees and houses and street furniture get in the way, and what happens to be in a 'good' area of viewing from our back gardens at a time when the clouds actually roll away ... and the limitations of a small 'scope ... I wasn't properly prepared the night before last, because the forecasts didn't actually forecast 😞, I only saw the clear sky when my feline despot came in for her dinner, so it was all a speedy scrabble to get the scope out to cool and decide on likely targets while eating my own dinner. Not ideal !

I had a try at them, as Leo was in a fairly convenient easterly no-tree-or-lamppost line of sight from my garden, but it was rather low , and I couldn't see them either ... 99% sure I clocked Vesta a little later though , just as the ragged clouds began to roll in, which made up for it . 🙂 Heather

Be aware that the greater the magnification , the less time your target spends crossing the field of view of the eyepiece , so the greater your difficulty finding the thing in the 'scope in the first place , and tracking it once you found it. Also the greater the magnification, the greater the effect of a relatively cheap mount and tripod in making that view tremble. Magnification is not everything, and the 'toy' scopes you see advertised which boast huge magnifications are in practice very poor instruments. The general rule of thumb is that you will seldom usefully exceed a magnification equal to the diameter of your telescope aperture x2 . So for your current 'scope 76mm x2 =152 , 152x is the highest. Most beginner mounts, scopes and suburban skies are really going to be happier using a mag. around just their diameter in mm. To work out the magnification of an eyepiece with any 'scope, take the 'scopes focal length yours is 700 currently) and divide it by the eyepiece mm , so 700 mm 'scope with a 10mm eyepiece is 70x magnification, whilst a 5mm ep would be pushing the limit on an unusually good steady clear night. What I'm getting at is that excessive magnification will be detrimental to your view through the 'scope, so planning to buy extra eyepieces and a barlow (I presume to increase the mag.) has a practical usable ceiling beyond which you would be wasting money. What that ceiling is depends on which 'scope you buy. Basic plossls (eg skywatcher ones for around £20 to £25 )are OK, but the higher magnification (lower mm) ones are more difficult to look through. It's complicated ... Anything below, say, 10mm will be awkward for what is called 'eye relief' and Jaden may have problems getting his eye in exactly the right spot. A barlow can help with eye relief, so it might make sense to get a middling EP, say a 15mm and a 2x barlow which would have the effect of making 15mm into 7.5mm when conditions allow . Personally though, I'd hold off on the eyepieces and spend the money on the telescope alone, an extra £50 on the basics of the 'scope and its support will get a better instrument. I bet cheap and second hand plossls are all over ebay etc. , and they make ideal gift suggestions for birthdays or to relatives and friends who would like to make a small contribution .

Maybe Bristol Cameras snapped it up ?! 🙂 I'm joking, they have never messed me around. Did you get anything helpful from them ? Are their 130 eq and virtuoso really in stock ? Heather

Was it maybe a returned item ? I've had a few bargains from 'Amazon Warehouse' when they get something with damaged packaging or a return, well worth a punt if you see something of that kind, as amazon returns policy applies to warehouse deals too , so you can just send it back at their expense if it's no good. keep an eye on the az page, you never know ... Heather

https://www.celestron.com/products/astromaster-130eq-md-motor-drive-telescope The astromaster 130 isn't a jones bird, it has a focal length of 650mm and a tube length of 610mm. The scope I inherited was a celestron 114 eq jones bird, focal length 1000mm, tube length 510mm, the extra lens roughly halved the physical tube length. Tracking is the highest priority for the O.P., and budget is a major limitation, they have not stated it, but seem to be finding it difficult to contemplate spending over £200. Ideally , yes, waiting until something crops up second hand would be the best solution, but they are scrambling to try and have something in place for a child coming out of hospital. The child was entranced for hours by the view through the 76mm reflector he has had for 2 years, even a basic model 130mm like this would be an impressive upgrade to him. Heather

I'd probably never normally suggest an eq mount in this situation, except .... O.P. specifically needs a mount which can track . They have never said what their budget is, but express an interest in set ups around or below £200. So the alt az powered mounts which might do the job are just out of their price range, especially as their existing 'scope has a non-standard fixing so they cannot easily keep it and shift it over to a new mount. Really the only way to have tracking in that budget is an eq, because some of those have the facility to add a single cheap motor. The virtuoso mount would be ideal, if they can get their hands on one.

Right, I've had a little trawl round for anything in stock anywhere ... Bristol Cameras (I've bought things from them , they seem OK) have a couple of things which might fit the bill and appear to be in stock (but ask them before getting excited, the website may lag behind their stock and sales ) : https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-celestron-astromaster-130eq-with-motor-drive-telescope.htm I have no idea if the astromaster 130 eq is any good as a telescope, but it appears to be in stock, and has a motor drive included shame this identical second hand one is in Derby and the seller specifies collection, but maybe you could arrange something ? https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/361567-celestron-astromaster-eq-130/ And finally, Bristol Cameras again, but not the slightly bigger reflector , the smaller maksutov virtuoso 90 on the virtuoso mount https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-skywatcher-heritage-90-virtuoso.htm#Specification

Ask your taxman ! I posted the official government page links about importing in to the UK, I have no idea about the situation n France.

Have a look at the OPs telescope (I linked to it in an earlier post) It does not have a standard mount. I doubt the tripod does either.

The UK has a £390 pound limit for things you bring with you in person when returning to the UK https://www.gov.uk/duty-free-goods/arriving-in-Great-Britain As far as items sent to the UK goes, gifts of a value less than £39 can be imported duty and VAT free. You pay VAT on goods if they are gifts worth more than £39, or non gift goods worth more than £15. You pay customs duty on other items costing over £135 (including P&P & insurance) and possibly excise duty too for certain goods. https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty or the updated post brexit https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-directly-to-customers-in-the-uk

Welcome, and I share your impatience ! Heather

Adding a weight to a tripod to make it more stable is a well known photographers trick : there are bags made for the purpose (similar to your anglers one ) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer®-Photographic-SandBag-Manfrotto-Universal/dp/B01E5350TI But a length of string tied somewhere near the tripods centre, with a 2 litre bottle of water hung off it is cost effective and works pretty well too 🙂

So far I'm managing with just the two .... but .... 😉

I have electronic level in left coat pocket, little red torch and tissue ( runny nose in the cold for the use of) in the right. EPs go in a repurposed small padded camera accessory bag with home bodged BST sized compartments of closed cell foam on a waist belt . Keeps the EPs safe and warm, and less likely to encounter whatever debris my pockets have acquired . Also I don't forget where I put them, or kick the table over , or trip over the cat while moving to fetch them, or forget which is which ... set order, ranked by mm , lowest to the right, returned religiously to the same compartment to avoid faff. I don't like faff, it wastes time !

🙂 I had noticed your name and ' pm sent' cropping up on rather a lot of interesting 'for sale' listings recently ! Scoped out , yeah, me too. Not sure I believe it for me though 🙂 Heather