apaulo

I will leave that advice to the guys that use them more often than i do. 

200mm smid cas

I think you would be best advised to look through some telescopes before you buy anything, if possible join your nearest astro club.  This hobby is a learning curve that begins the first time you look up, and has no ending to it. All good fun . 

A 200mm dob, a setting circle , an angle gauge, a good app,  a little practice along with 2 or 3 starguider eyepieces you will find most stuff and have fun.  Enjoy.

If care is taken when setting up any sort of pier, to ensure the top is level,  any leveling device is not needed. 

Something quite simple, have you let another another astronomer look through the starfield. Or someone with decent to good eyesight. If they see what your seeing, get it back to the seller.  If not, get new eyeballs. lol. No need for rocket science.

ive had the 152 starwave about 6 months and love it. the red to me looks fantastic. As far as weight goes, im 69 yo and dont think its heavy, i carry it about the house upstairs downstairs and out onto my pier, no problem, there must be some very weak people on here hahaha. Also i observe away from home a lot and use the scope on an AVX mount and a great team they make. Anyone that wants a 152 frac id say go for it.

I  purchased a concentre 1-2 years ago, my honest opinion of it is, very over priced . Yes it done a job, once  when needed. To collimate in the dark, just shine a red torch down the scope and use the cheshire.

Easiest way, see a roofer or builder, get a bit of lead flashing, cut it into a strip , say 50mm wide and long enough for to be heavy enough. Wrap it neatly iaround your balance bar. job done. Collar to hold it in place from ebay for a couple of quid. Or just roll it around the balance rod  tighter.

I personally have never any probs with RM  over the last 25 years in the highlands. I have had loads of issues with a few of the couriers though. A recent example of RM I posted an astro parcel to the south of england on monday morning. It arrived the next morning. Thats the service RM delivers to here as a norm. couriers lol yeah right.  Unless its  amazon prime, always a great result there to.

Nice bit of kit, but i put that in the car boot, there will be no room for my pick and spade. I supose there is always a draw back.

In reality, we are still peering through the letterbox out onto the street. We havnt even opened the door.

Lucky eacape stu. Why not just leave it on the truck 24/7.

Personally id go for an alt az everytime. Unless  you want to take  longer exposure pictures. 

I have been using the avx about 1 year now, no one has ever called it noisy, a friend of mine has a meade, everytime it slews i dive for cover lol.

Tell them to stick it up their assembly.

Well , if you cant see it, your scope and e/ps are frozen over, your toes are blue, your hands are cold and sore, you are probably in the early stages of  hypothermia  and its pointless trying to pick your nose. hahah

treat the mrs to a new duvet now you have a spare 1. nice padding for a newt to lay on, jd, and dont drive like a clampet lol

bst starguiders are a very good starting point. In my experience, cheaper e/ps do not barlow well, but better e/ps do. Morphs in particular barlow very well indeed.

fantastic stuff, i will have 1 of each at their chinese prices.

if you want fine sawdust empty it out of any wood sander bag

i have fitted lazy susan bearings on a couple of dobs with very good success. then put a bolt through the middle to add the friction required. the last dob i fitted out was a 12" f6.5. no problems.

The first time out with my avx i had the same problem. It was a simple fix make sure you enter the date,  month first then day and year i put the date in uk style. worse still was, i knew about the date , but by habit i still put it in wrong. 

Better to practice working with and setting up your gear during daylight hours. The more time spent with your gear the easier it becomes.

i have had an avx for quite a while now, im using a starfield 102 on it. So far ive had no issues with it. The mount tracks well and is man enough to do anything i needed it to do so far. No complaints. go for it.