Nugs

Theres a lot of useful info in this thread....... 👍

Speak to the vendor. As its brand new and doesn't sound fit for purpose, they have a duty to exchange/replace under warranty terms. 👍

Absolutely love this, what a fantastic image. 🤘

Fingers crossed @John, although cloud cover map not looking good past 2000hrs. 😞

Judging by the downpour we've just had in Weston...... look through the end that the water is pouring out of. 😉

Cheers @Zermelo, your use of the term 'versatile' with regard to the Skymax does have appeal, and looking through the FOV calculator using the EP's i own, the shorter focal length would be of benefit on most of my intended targets (being a newbie, bigger is better) Am i correct in thinking that the faster a scope is, the harder it is on your choice (quality) of EP's? Oh, and now I've gone down this rabbit hole, i still haven't ruled out a bigger refractor (4") as i'm led to believe that the colour rendition is better with a frac'. I do realise that the considerable weight and price increase has to be factored as well.

So, i have decided that i want a compact portable scope for lunar, planets, and brighter Messier object visual fun. Having settled on a 5" Mak-Cas, the choices seem fairly limited between the Skywatcher Skymax 127 (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html) and the Bresser Messier MC-127 (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bresser-telescopes/bresser-messier-mc-127-1900-maksutov-cassegrain-ota.html) Celestron do have a 127, but not available as OTA only, and from what I've read and heard, the single arm mounts on cheaper Celestron products are less than desirable, plus i already have a Skyguider Pro and CEM25p. As i already own a good diagonal, and a set of BST star guider EP's, im not too concerned abut the supplied accessories, but some real world feedback on the performance of the two scopes would be useful, especially around what makes the Bresser worth £40 more. I would imagine that the lions share of reviews would be on the Skymax as they seem very popular (for a particular optical reason or purely the price point?) Anyhoo, over to you...... 🤔

Don't get too hung up on the idea of a higher MP count always being superior. The tried and tested Sony A7s only has a 12MP sensor, but those large pixels just gulp in the photons. 😉 The venerable Canon 6D also has large light gathering pixels at 20.2MP.

Very nice David, some really nice colours in there. 👍

Another alternative....... https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-60ed-imaging-refractor-11664-p.asp

Will have a play in a bit and see what clearance I've got, i did intend on using the RDF and PPB to counter balance the SestoSesto, but it is a bit of a lump away from centre. If all else fails, it may be OAG time. 🤔🤑.

Good shout @Budgie1, i can relocate the finder fairly easy....... but the guide camera, thats a different story. Will try to slide the guide scope as far forward as possible and see if it works. 🤞

So i decided to take the plunge and have added a Sesto Senso to my imaging setup (Ioptron CEM25p, WO ZS73ii, PPB, and AA269c) Fitted yesterday, and mounted to CEM25p, but when trying to achieve balance, the weight of the focuser (circa 300gr) is always pulling so the focuser lies downward. As everything else in my rig is mounted through the central axis, do i need to counterbalance the weight of the focuser to achieve balance? (If you know the Sesto Sesto, it does stick out quite a way from the central axis) Any help appreciated, as it looks to be a clear night tonight. TIA, Dave

Depending on your camera manufacturer, some sell a hot shoe mounted RDF (I have one for my Olympus), alternatively, by fitting a L-bracket to your camera, you should be able to attach a generic RDF via arca-swiss mounts. Peter Zelinka did a good tutorial on using an auto-guider with a DSLR, the mounting principles would be the same for guide scope or RDF. https://www.peterzelinka.com/blog/2019/4/auto-guiding-with-the-skyguider-pro n.b. The L-bracket version will be more stable than the hot shoe mount. 👍

Having upgraded from a DSLR to dedicated OSC, will the focus be in roughly the same place on the correctly back-spaced OSC as the DSLR and adaptor. Its obviously much easier to get focus nailed with DSLR Live-view as opposed to capture software. TIA, Dave