Andy ES

What less Astro gear??!!! Surely not ! 😂

Would be nice but China is now the “Workshop of the World”, as the workers are unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) paid about £7k per year. Not sure we could make things cheaply enough.

Dave, I’ve got the 18mm and it is fantastic to use. I've had the 24mm on order for 18 months at £220. I think FLO lists it now as £344 🤢 I have spoken to ES and the supplier many times and at the moment I am quoted as Available again “in the Autumn”. They didn’t say which one though.😬

Agreed, I think this looks like a great work of art, that a keen “amateur “ (sorry if that’s the wrong word) has achieved. I guess there are plenty of “accurate” pictures of the Sun out there already. I’d be very proud of that picture but then I’m not as professional and expert as some on this forum. 😬

Thanks, IMHO “In our time” is one of the best programmes on the radio. Well, the science editions anyway, and some of the philosophy ones. maths ones also very good... if you like maths😁 used to keep me interested on long motorway drives.

Already doing this but how do I stop them flashing?? 😂

Cheers, now 21 ... (+35) 😁

Very chuffed indeed to receive this “clock” from my lovely Mrs for my Birthday. 😁 (Legitimate post as it came via post lady!)

Upgraded fine with no problems. Also has the benefit for me of running the latest version of Fire capture, where as in Windows 10 it would crash repeatedly for some reason and I had to use an earlier version.

This will do, less painting but no land 😁 £22m or £0.45m ??

Hello Paul, I'm no expert but I have learnt a lot on this forum in the past year. Also I would recommend having a look at Ed Ting’s Videos on YouTube as there is a lot of sensible information there. https://youtube.com/user/edting Good luck with the new hobby.

😂 It’s very subtle but this might have come in handy!

Actually I don’t think I do anymore😒 Thanks very much for the review information and I hope yours is a sample of one that was built on Friday afternoon so to speak. I am sure the optics are brilliant but I don’t want to have to build a new mount, or fiddle with collimation , (which I understand is a bit of a black art anyway and going to be a nightmare if the scope is malfunctioning). Or knacker my back using it. These sound like issues that a semi newbie doesn’t need. I know someone with much more experience as you could overcome them. Hopefully other examples of this scope will be ok. If I had bought this specific example I would contemplate sending it back to the supplier stating it was defective and not fit for purpose. at the moment not sure why this is advertised as The UK's BEST 12" Dobsonian telescope!

Celestron, Baader and Mercedes Benz 😁

Success! 😅😁 Found this job was quite simple, only snag was me having to convert to metric then find the closest drill. wire connectors worked well and all fitted back in ok. flashing reticle now working fine.

Wish me luck with fitting this Telrad Pulsar!😬 Last night of observing I found I was manually dimming the reticle a lot during Alignment, so hopefully this should do the trick as long as I don’t wreck the Telrad in the process.

Agreed, never seen this before and it was the highlight of the night 👍

Today I spent the whole of the day in the garden enjoying the sunshine thinking how clear the sky would be tonight. I wasn’t disappointed and set up around 6 o’clock. This was my first visual session for a few weeks and after a very accurate alignment managed to view: Andromeda galaxy Orion nebula Uranus Pleiades Polaris Almach Double Cluster And much more Simple stuff but very enjoyable. Temperature was a balmy 9 degrees with no breeze. Also used the binoculars on tripod which was great fun sweeping the sky and finally my own eyes! it was very nice to just sit there and look at such a great sky. Also now understand why people like double stars so much! 😁

Using a Baader ClickLock 2" DiElectric Star Diagonal, very happy with it especially the click lock system 😁

Would be really interested to hear what your final EP selections are

Exactly right, while walking home through the paths at the back of our house this afternoon we saw a lot of people standing outside their houses, which was a bit unusual. Seems some kids had walked along catapulting stones and smashing about 6 houses windows. The police know where to look for them, but I doubt they will bother based on their ages. ☹️

Michael, Congratulations, looks like a great scope. What do you think are the advantages over the skywatcher 300p flex tube, other than it’s about £200 cheaper? Thanks

I had exactly the same at college , our lecturer said “this is how I’ve got to tell you how it is, but this is really how it is!” I spent nearly 40 years generating and transmitting High Voltage electricity but never really understood what it was 😳

I would maybe get there and set up before it gets dark? This also helps you in new places. good luck and keep safe.😁

Agreed it’s a wonderful book but I find it pretty unwieldy to use, shouldn’t moan really though. 😁