oscar_camilleri

Yeah i know, Same applies to Taks, My GF is Japanese and she was explaining to me that altough we consider them as prime scopes, back in Japan Takahashi was considered an average scope manufacturer, same as we consider celestron or meade over here. Meaning they are not held in Awe or worshiped like most of us seem to do. Same with prices, for example if you were to buy an FC-100dz it would be around £1850 in japan, whilst in the UK the same scope retails around £2500.

could also bee the usual Black Friday tactic of hiking the prices up for a couple of weeks and then saying , was £133, now its £97 - Grab yourself a bargain.

So yesterday evening I was sifting through some astro classified ads when I saw someone advertising a Baader Hyperion eyepiece for £99. now I knew in the back of my mind that these usually retail for around £97, so I was going to politely message the seller that he might have overpriced the item. I went on my usual supplier website to check on the price and to my horror I discovered that the price has shot up by around 20% on most of the Baader Eyepieces. Hyperions are now at £133 ( previously £97) . The Morpheus range, which I have my eye on has also had similar increases. Previously was around £185 and now they are £223. Does anyone know, is there currently a shortage in the marker for Baader eyepieces hence the new price, is this a temporary thing or are we going to keep seing increases long term?

I'm looking for one of these. Few people mentioned ironing chairs ( used to sit whilst ironing clothes). Apparently they are the same thing without the astro mark up on price.

8 inch dobsonian all the way

this should also help. He also has another video on installing it .

might have found the issue. It appears that the mounts digital encoder might have gone bad. Just checked the get RA-Dec settings and when i'm moving the alt negative nothing is registering. Ohh well , lets raise a ticket with celestron.

Not sure, there is the usual resistance when I try t manually move the OTA and the issue also persist when i remove the OTA from the mount. I have updated the HC and control board to the latest revisions. As i said its weird that all other directs work fine and at the appropriate slew rate, but when i press up, it just goes at the maximum slew rate , irrespective of what slew rate I'm currently on.

Hi Im wondering if anyone has experienced this before and knows how to fix it. As of yesterday, my mount started experiencing issues with what I understand is the alt negative motor or gear ( up key on the HC). Its running at full slew speed irrespective of what slew rate i select. For example if i choose slew rate 5 , all of the other directions work fine, but when i press the the up key , it just goes at full speed ahead. I also noticed that its affecting the tracking as a result. As soon as it tries to make a correction it just slews way off target. I did some research and the advice seems to be that it could be a loose clutch, but want to make sure before i go and start opening things.

Also make sure its daylight savings time.

I have the 7-21 version. Haven't compared it to anything else but here are my taught. Fov can be a bit restricted at the lower power. I mainly use for planets, moon and some bright dso. Contrast is a bit lacklustre, when compared to fixed eyepieces and sharpness is compromised at higher mag.

Hi Lee, please note that I haven't taken offence with headline or insinuate that you trying to mislead anyone. I think we did get a bit lost in translation here. My point was that like any other headline its there to catch your attention or pique your interest.

Hi Lee I can appreciate that a reputable journalist would ensure that his facts are straight, however please be aware that its the editor who finally has the privilege of deciding the headline on an article , and whilst press articles about the JWST would have been fact checked by countless scientists, it will be the editors intention to big it up as much as they can to make sure they get more hits on the article or sell more copies of the relevant publication. lets just say that a particular person is running for presidency and he lets out that when he was a kid he nicked a chocolate bar from his local shop once. To an editor the headline " Shoplifter has a chance to run for president"" will attract more views than " John Smith is a candidate for the next presidential election". Technically the shoplifter part is true, but then again it is taking liberties with the available information to make it sound more interesting to the casual viewer than it might actually be. So in simple terms its just clickbait , yes the maths behind the JWST will most probably mean that it is indeed 100x more powerful than the Hubble, however the statement is subject to interpretation ( how is it 100x more powerful ? is it visually more powerful ? etc? ) and was purely selected to get more people interested or curious enough to read the article

Its for the same reason you see statements saying " the universe is at your grasp" or " marvel at the countless galaxies, nebulae ,etc"" on boxes of cheap £25 rubbish toy telescopes which are barely good enough to show the moon. Because statements like these make the product , or news or whatever sell more.

To add to this, recently I purchased a wifi dongle for my mount. And was impressed how much better the alignment and goto functionality was when control from my ipad. Everything was smack in the middle of my eyepiece. Usually its either towards the edge or i have to hunt around a little.

I'm in pinner, and usually go to Ruislip lido. Its a bottle 6. But if you don't drive it will be tricky. Not sure how heavy your kit is.

Where are you based ?

The instructions are wrong. Ignore the finder scope bit. You can locate via the finder however also make sure the object is also visible in the eyepiece , than press enter. Then finetune the allingment to make sure the object is in the centre of the eyepiece and hit align

This sounds like you might need to fine tune the backlash settings . I have the the an 8se. My Allignment procedure is as follows You can do this part during the day or at night using a star. Make sure the scope , finder and telrad are all aligned. I prefer to use the auto two star alignment as i find it more accurate. I select polaris as my first star - locate through the telrad and finder and center in the eyepiece hit enter. Then i change to either a high power eye piece or a reticule eyepiece , center the star again and hit align. Once polaris is done i do the same again with acturus or capella. If im correct with your mount its important that the final two movements to align the star are Down and Right , this mimics the movement the scope takes when performing its final goto functions so it prevents backlash errors. Therefore if you off shoot the center when aligning, put the star back in the top left corner and start doing down and right movements to center it. Now if you mount is slow to respond when changing directions from left to right or up to down, it means that you need to fine tune the backlash settings. Go to menu - Scope Setup - Anti backlash settings - You should have 4 settings alt + alt - Azm + & Azm - . Set all of them to 20 . Then put the slew speed to 5 and hit left until the scope starts moving , stop and now press right . If there is a pause for example 2 or 3 seconds before the scope starts moving , increase the value of the azm+ by 5 , if the scope is jumping decrease the value by 5. Keep increasing or decreasing the value until there is hardly any pause when changing from left to right. once its all done repeat the same process from right to left, up to down & down to up.

Hi Andy, unfortunately i cannot offer any price guides as there will be a lot of variables. So it will depend on the insurers risk appetite ( how much they like to gamble) , how knowledgeable is the underwriter, the probability of the event happening and the probability of a total loss. But in the end it will boil down to the underwriter calculating the risk and your requirements and quoting a price. Then it will be up to you to weigh your options and whether the expenditure is worth your peace of mind. In an ideal world, you will need an underwriter who either has good knowledge about insuring astronomy equipment or is patient and willing to spend some time looking into your requirements and asking the right questions. My advice would be to prepare a spread sheet with a breakdown listing all of the equipment in your rig with retail prices and 2nd hand prices. Then contact your insurers let them know your requirements and if possible ask to speak to underwriters directly ( preferable someone who has experience in calculating risk on insuring astro gear away from home). points that should be discussed Is cover new for old ( if broken beyond economical repair, will the insurer replace with new? if no longer available to buy will they offer a cash option or can you change to something of similar build, quality, price range?) repair options ( does it need to go direct to manufacturer? is repair option available in the uk? can it be repaired or are parts no longer available?) is it covered whilst in transit between home and dark site? example if it got damaged in a motor accident In the event that the equipment is knocked over or dropped, will the policy cover the cost sending the equipment in for testing even though there is no visible damage? will they allow you to send the ota, mount , camera , eyepieces, etc in for testing to ensure they are still in good working order? any special terms or requirement whilst equipment is not in use whilst away from home. Example does it need to be locked in the van or car ? does it need to be completely hidden from view whilst locked in the car ? do they offer breakdown cover ? example if the mount breaks down or there is an electrical short ? unlikely that your standard home policy will offer this, or if they do expect special terms like having to send in the equipment for a service or maintenance check every so often. What perils ( incidents) are covered whilst away from home ? accidental damage , accidental loss ( left your expensive eyepiece behind) , malicious damage , theft . any special terms with regards to theft away from home ? does forcible entry or exit need to be present ? does threat of violence need to be present ( mugging) ? what about theft by trickery or deception ( one distracts you whilst his opportunistic friend pockets that expensive eyepiece/runs away with your rig)? will there be a bespoke policy excess ? for example £250 when using at home but increases to £500 when away from home. The above list is not exhaustive but hopefully should give you a good idea on what to ask and discuss. my time is limited, but if anyone out there does obtain a quote which they want me to look at for them. I will be happy to do so free of charge unless you live close by and want to treat me to a coffee or a large single malt. I must make it clear that i will not accept any liability for the insurance that you will purchase, but i might be able to provide some clarity, so that you can make a more informed decision.

Steve it will depend on the terms of the policy. Most policies would have a clause citing there needs to be signs of violent entry or exit with regards to theft. So if in the obs and a padlock is cut or broken it would qualify for a claim. With regards someone jumping over the fence and taking it during a photo session its a bit more tricky. Best would be to refer to insurers as they will most probably refer to their underwriters for guidance or special terms. I work in claims, but as an underwriter I would be interested in the following. How long is it left unnatended. Is it in an easy to reach and highly accessible area like a front garden where anyone driving by can see it How easy is it to steal? Much easier to run away with a small refractor than a 13 inch dob. Then it is going to depend on the underwriter whether he wants to take the risk or not.

Luckily I work in insurance. If you have a home and contents policy, you should be able to add it as a specified item against an agreed value for example astronomy kit( telescope, mount, camera , etc) £4,500. Just check that the cover is also for accidental damage, malicious damageand theft whilst away from home. Value should be based on cost of replacement on like for like basis on current retail prices. Would also be advisable to take photos of the kit and file any receipts and serial numbers

I live in Greater London (pinner). I have a celestron 8se. Setup is roughly 30 minutes and I do it in 2 stages. I level the mount when it's still light , then leave it out to cool. When its dark I do my star alignment which takes around 10 minutes. Like others said faint dso are tricky around here. I can barely see m13 and m31 as faint smudges . Travel wise its a bit bulky, but can be taken apart. I use a case for the ota and a separate case for mount, eyepiece and other bits. Tripod goes under the footwell of the back seats.

Knowing my luck, after trekking for 12 hours and hauling all of my equipment up the mountain, I'm sure it will be the only day in the year where the skies will be grey. Then again my partner is Japanese, and it is on my bucket list to do an observing session from the top of mount Fuji.

Know the feeling, think was back in April. Dismal weather through most of March so decided to send my mount to Celestron for a service and a tune up ( which was going to take around 3 to 4 weeks). As soon as the courier picked up the Mount , clouds parted and we had 4 weeks of absolutely crystal clear skies. Damn you sky gods