NorfolkGazer

My personal favourites are Turn Left at Orion and The Backyard Astronomers Guide. I've just purchase the fourth edition of the latter and it's a cracking resource, starting as already said with naked eye viewing. A decent planisphere is a definite to get your used to what you're seeing above you.

After reading this post I ordered a few bits from them and I am not disappointed. I ordered two heater straps, a controller and a telrad heater, ordered Thursday and delivered Saturday. Haven't used them in anger yet, but they look and feel fantastic quality, very happy.

So I couldn't get the conversion from TS as they didn't have any stock and couldn't give an expected date, so I ordered the Baader clamp and a piece of aluminium to create my own mount bar. The original plan was to tap the aluminium and screw directly into it, by my tap set shredded the bar, so I had to resort to nuts and bolts instead. The plan is to finish it off with hammered black Hammerite type paint to match the rest of the mount and remove glare. Assembled it with the OTA on and it balances perfectly with the existing counterweight, all in all a success I think. Thanks again for everyone's inout and advice, it's much. appreciated.

If you are using iPhone and have the wired headphones, you can use the in-line volume control as a shutter release as well.

I think for me it was age 12, when one of our science teachers announced that he was going to bring his planetarium into school one day for those who were interested and willing to give up a lunch break. I think I was more intrigued at the time at how he was going to get a planetarium into the school hall, but lo and behold this inflatable dome appeared in the hall. I was hooked from that moment, laying back and gazing up at this projected image of the stars and constellations, everything so clear. There was a bit of a gap from there (ok, about 30 years gap) when my wife bought me a Skylux refractor for Christmas and the spark re-emerged. That got me back into stargazing, to the point where I upgraded the scope a few weeks ago for the 130P reflector. Along with a healthy enjoyment of StarTalk Radio and pretty much anything by Carl Sagan (Contact is right at the top of my favourite films, alongside the book), together with Moore, Hawkins and Cox. Oh, and @Zermelo I had that Ladybird book as well, that picture brought back a lot of memories.

Thanks all for the recommendations everyone, I wasn't sure looking at the different options what would fit and work so this is a fabulous help. @Laurieast I saw your post before you deleted so thank you for your recommendations as well.

Is it possible to convert the EQ2 mount for the SW 130P to a dovetail mount. Out of the box, the OTA rings are bolted to the mount, so the OTA has to be removed from the rings rather than leaving the rings in situ. I've looked through the various sites for possible modification accessories but can't see to find anything. Has anyone successfully modified the EQ2 to a dovetail mount at all?

Cheers Stu, I'm sure I will, looking forward to what I'm going to see with it.

So my new scope has been staring at me since it arrived on Wednesday (yes, it is sat in the front room waiting for sky time). I opted for the SkyWatcher Explorer 130P as the upgrade from the Bresser I was using, and I couldn't wait to give it it's first light. Scope Nights was showing a little window of clear skies last night, but I'd been up since 0430 and on shift, so could I really be bothered to get the scope outside and try it out? You better believe I could. This was literally the shortest observing session I have ever done. I literally took the scope outside, not even bothering to wait for it to acclimatise, and pointed it towards Jupiter, which was bright in the sky. The red dot finder was slap bang on target and I'd managed to do a good job of aligning it, as when I looked through the EP, the she was, bright and clear. A little tweak on the focus motor and the belts came into clear focus. I was a kid again, giddy and excited at what I could see. This was my first time using an EQ mount (the 130P having an EQ2 mount), but it quickly became obvious how it worked, so the next job will be to calibrate the RA setting circle on a night when I have more time. I'm in no doubt that I've made a good choice in this scope, and there will be plenty of nights observing ahead, so whilst this was literally a 10 minute session, it was the best 10 minutes of scope time I've had to date!

You were right, after tentatively removing the screws, it was indeed a cover and the collimation screws were under there. Not sure why this wasn't in the manual, but probably more glad that the primary didn't fall out when I took the screws out 😅 Cheers for the reply.

This may come across as a daft question, but looking at the base on my new Explorer 130P, I can't see any adjustment screws for the primary mirror. All I can see are three separate screws as per the photo before. Am I missing something? This doesn't match any of the illustrations in the manual that came with the scope.

Scope Nights has Monday night crystal clear here in Norfolk as well, the new scope may get its first light with a bit of luck!

This was ordered mainly in anticipation of ordering the new scope, which will be ordered at the end of the month. (There was a lot of ordered's in there 😁)

After reading this I've just pre-ordered the 4th Edition of the Backyard Astronomers Guide, cheers all.