Dario

Hi everyone! I will be travelling to Cornwall this coming week and have the opportunity to be under recognized dark skies sites. I'll bring my equipment with me hoping in clear sky (that is uncertain 😢) I have: - skywatcher mak 127 (with basic eyepicies coming with scope) with Az gti mount - celestron skymaster 15x70 binoculars Which sky objects would you suggest to get the best from the location as I am not so fortunate to being often under dark skies? For planetary I believe can spot mainly Mercury and Venus, not sure of Mars right now. What about deep sky objects? Any suggestion of the objects from which I can get a good reward with my equipments and tips of which of my instrumentation will perform better on such objects? Thank you

Very good pictures! What camera did you use for that? And for how long did you track? I never tried imaging but I want to give a trial soon and have the same scope and mount than you. I have a smartphone adaptor so I will tried that as first. Getting something similar to these pictures would be great!

Yes, thought of the batteries but I have feeling it is a faulty one. I am taking a bit of time to test it in ideal conditions, and in case I am going to ask for assistance to the seller. This is a bit annoying above all if needs to be sent out as probably it takes time. I said that because if more reviews are experiencing similar problems it could be an aspect to take in account (waiting times can be annoying). For the stability, I believe you are correct, should be alluminium. However in my opinion is more solid than it looks in picture. Because of the fact this is my first mount I have no elements to compare though.

Hi, I got a skywatcher 127 as first scope recently and before buying I made some researches and was considering the celestron model too. At the end I went for sky mak considering the models were equivalent as performances but the az gti mount was more attractive. Unfortunately cannot tell you if the optical performances are really similar as I never tried the celestron. I am happy of how the mak performs on the Moon, bit disappointed about planets (at least with the higher magnification eyepiece). I want to say something more about the experience with the mount (But be aware that I did not try it a lot until now). A feature that you did not mention that I find very useful is the possibility of using it without power like a simple az mount thanks to free encoder Tech. I find the mount also quite stable and solid. However I have serious problem when I use the app (also thinking to send it back to check it). Tracking is not precise and I believe having also connectivity (or functional) problems as allignment procedure stops with the scope pointing at completely wrong positions. I have used 8 batteries AA unti now, and I will give few other attempts with a different power supply before seeking for assistance as I was never happy of the performances. I read some similar complaints around on different forums and wondering if there is a real issue with this mount or I was just not lucky. I read also very good reviews of the mount, just want to underline my experience with it. Forgot to say, A potential benefit from the AZ gti was the possibility to update to equatorial mount. I do not know that much of this though as I did not make researches

Hi everyone, I got recently as a gift skymaster celestron 15x70 binoculars and wondering if I can attach them somehow to my az gti mount. Any suggestion? In addition, as I never did imaging before, could I expect nice (let's say accetable) results adding to the configuration just a smartphone adaptor to image the most bright deep sky objects? (I.e Orion Nebula, Pleiades etc) I would use the same with sky max 127 to get some shots of Moon and planets without investing in expensive astrophotography equipment for now.

I have to agree about the fact that Mars was maybe not the best target to start testing the scope. Yesterday I was lucky to be back from work just before that the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn were out of my field of view from my place. I tried the scope pointing the Moon and the view was great and very detailed (although the difficult observing conditions). Maybe it was better than expected. However it was not that great, I have to Say, for Saturn and Jupiter (no details unfortunately) but of course better than Mars last day with the shapes of both planets (including Saturn's rings) well defined. I will try to improve the observing conditions (and in future upgrade, I agree that the 10mm eyepiece provided with the scope is not very good ) to try to have better results, good to know that the problem is probably not technical

Hi everyone! As I said few days ago in my presentation I recently got my first scope (skywatcher 127) and over the last days I tried to test It. Due to impossibility (temporary) to bring the scope in a decent location to make observations, I had to test it from home through a window (and under the sky of London - not the best at all). So i know that quality is of course affected. On the other hand, I am sure that the performances are worse than I could expect also under these conditions (maybe you will correct me) and would asks for opinions to improve. As a (mainly) planetary scope, I did not have a lot of choice: no Moon, Jupiter and Saturn out of my field of view. I pointed at Mars. First sight, I see the very big central obstruction. I played with the knob of the focus to get rid of the big black spot in the centre of my target and here you are the issues that I would like to talk about: 1) the target became very small (ok) but still was not focus (very blurry and not a lot of clues to get atleast the shape of the planet well defined - can imagine to find any detail on it ) 2) Also the colours did not convince me as no other colour than a light yellow was visible 3) Changing the eyepiece (10 instead of 25) for a magnification of 150x did not improve the situation: probably the image was even worse, more blurry with more irregular shape than before, no ability to focus at all. Differences from before : bigger (but still much smaller than expected) and very little variation in colours (I believe I saw a bit of orange). To complete, later, I tried the scope to stars: Orion costellation was visible from my place and tried to all the stars. Although still a bit blurry (the brightest stars), I had impression of more sharp view, differentiation in colour and better shape (stars almost like a dot). Moreover, to give you a final idea, Mars (at the best focus I could get) did not appear that much bigger than Betelguese. What do you think I can do to get better results? Could be a scope problem or some adjustments needed? Unfortunately I have no comparisons. Thank you, Hope I was not too long 😅

That's correct. I will have to update the profile as well! I live in London by the way

Thank you very much to all of you guys for the warm welcome and the first tips😉

Hi Paul! After looking at all the main features of scopes within budget I opted for one that I believe I can use more for now. A mak 127 (skywatcher). I read this could be limitating for deep sky objects but I believe can be a good start also due to the difficulties to move during these times. Let's see if I enjoy it☺

Hello everyone! I am new to the forum and decided to register after that I have already "stolen" some advices and opinions from this forum just googling things like "first telescope" etc Now I got one and about to start to observe first time with It. I hope to get some tips while learning (I already have few doubts) and as soon I will know more about this word I am happy to give my opinions, reviews and tips as well. Happy stargazing to everyone!