badhex

Lovely pictures Paul. What's the setup used?

Quick update from TS, they have asked me to send the whole unit back for repair or replacement, so fingers crossed it all gets resolved soon.

Thanks John, definitely worth investing in a few replacements/spares!

Ouch. That was actually my fear, and why I was reluctant to use tools. My assumption was that the either the threads of the screw, or a poorly tapped hole in the barrel were to blame - according to the state of the screw tip it would seem to be the former which supports your point about poor quality screws being used, so I'm glad it's a least still in one piece. I can only hope that either the thread of the main barrel are still okay, or that they replace the damaged parts completely.

Paul, sorry I meant to reply to this to say thanks for the offer - very kind of you! Hopefully TS will sort it out but thanks anyway 🙂

Have emailed TS to see what they say. Also tried calling but they seem to be very busy. Hopefully, they can just send me a new EP barrel/thumbscrew part rather than having to return the whole thing. In the meantime, I have at least been able to use it if careful, as it's quite a snug fit with both the 1.25" adapter and the 2" EP I have with me. Would have been pretty annoying otherwise given that we specifically came to the middle of nowhere for dark skies!

Cheers Lee, will get that in the watch list!

Very sad. I only own the one TV but it sounds like he had a huge impact on the world of EP design.

Haha yeah, I've removed the barrel before doing anything. TBH I'm reticent to do much more as I think this is surely a warranty job. Quite annoying as I don't have any tother diagonals with me! Thought I'd just posted this but seems like it didn't. I did manage with some effort to screw it in further, in case that loosened the whole thing up but as soon as you unscrew it, it tightens up again. Clearly something wrong with this end of the screw - looks rather dishevelled.

Unfortunately I'm literally in a cabin in the woods, in the middle of nowhere! So I don't have much stuff like candles etc. I did think about a dab of cooking oil, but once I get home I can get something like contact cleaner or wd40 on there if needed I reckon.

Thanks both - actually I realise I wasn't very clear, but the screw is very much still stuck in the diagonal! I only managed to unscrew it just enough to be able to remove the EP. I suspect that the screw and or diagonal screw thread are somehow damaged, but it worked fine up until this point and then just seized completely out of the blue. TS should in my opinion be replacing either the whole diagonal or at least the EP barrel (which unscrews and could be replaced), its just a bit worrying that the thumbscrew is visibly damaged due to me using pliers to get the EP out.

Thanks! Good to hear you have got on well with it. Maybe one to put on the wishlist then!

Hello all, Unfortunately my new TS Optics / GSO 2" diagonal has developed a bit of a showstopping issue. Last night whilst observing, directly after locating my first target with a 2" 40mm EP the thumbscrew in the diagonal completely seized out of the blue, preventing me from removing the EP. I tried with fingers and even a bit of rubber sheet (removable rubber grip from my torch) to gain some traction but eventually and reluctantly had to resort to gripping the screw with pliers (plus a paper towel to try and prevent damage). I've thankfully managed to unscrew it enough to remove the EP which was my main concern, and I don't have another diagonal with me but I can still at least use it with the EP just snugly dropped into the barrel (carefully and not at zenith) for the next few days until I get home. Frustratingly, the pliers have caused a small amount of damage to the screw head. I have only had this diagonal a few weeks, always thumb-tightened the thumbscrews (clue's in the name) and the screw has never been loosened enough to come out of the body so crossthreading is not the culprit. I really take a lot of care with my astronomy gear as do we all, so it has to be either a shonky screw or an issue with the tapping in the hole. Anyway, I'm going to contact TS but I'm a bit worried in case they point to the damage on the screw head and won't replace it, even though the damage happened as a result of removing the EP which was obviously necessary. Not sure if anyone else has any other advice or has encountered something similar? Thoughts and/or words of encouragement welcome!

Slightly off topic, but had a chance to give the Lacerta 40mm a bit more of a workout in my F5.9 ZS73 and I suspect it actually does not perform as well as the 35mm - im sure it's worse at the edge. I haven't had a chance to try them side by side in this scope but maybe F5.9 is asking a bit too much, whereas the 102mm is F7 and therefore a bit more forgiving.

Have you had chance to use the wedge much @Carbon Brush? I've had a few hours with my solar film filter again recently which reminded me of this thread - wondering if you've found there to be a noticeable improvement (I'd assume so).

+1 here for a small widefield refractor. I am currently away from home myself using a William Optics ZS73 which fits into backpack along with a small mount (AZ-GTi, but something like an AZT6 would also easily fit) and 4 good size EPs (Pentax XW, Morpheus, Aero ED). Tripod is in a separate bag as I didn't fly this time, but I have a small CF tripod which folds up and clips to the side of the backpack. Scope is only about 2.5kg so no CW needed. I've flown many times with it and never had any issues, the only time the security people wanted to look was because they were impressed with the scope/setup and asked a bunch of questions about it! TS Optics, Altair, Astrotech, Svbony and others do similar 60mm or 70mm widefield scopes, with different optics to suit budgets but all at least ED (e.g. FPL-51+ or equivalent) glass AFAIK. I've posted these pictures a bunch of times before so sorry for spam - but honestly I can't really fault the setup for my use case. It's not really designed around planetary or high power views, but can still do reasonable planetary work if needed. Note that I've changed my EP selection for travel and this is an older photo, and also that the final picture is not the same tripod as the one on the bag, which requires being a bit lower to the ground for stability.

Interested to know how this turns out. Have heard they are not too bad for the price.

Shame they don't really make those Astronomy and Nature TV videos much any more, there's a some very helpful stuff there. Another video worth watching before you buy is the official Skywatcher webcast deep dive on the AZ-GTi. It's an hour, but well worth watching the whole thing.

Had a couple of mostly clear nights so far in a darker location than my usual. My ZS73, Scopetech mount Zero and Gitzo at work.

I have only used this one CLS filter so can't compare with others I'm afraid. It's early days yet, it did seem to bring out a bit more detail on the Ring but currently moon light is the biggest source of LP 😅 The true test will be in my normal observing location, though to be honest I'm not expecting miracles. Just want to experiment a bit and see if I can squeeze out a bit more performance from my setup. One thing to note, it does add a green tinge to everything which is not to everyone's taste!

Hi @Littleguy80, as others have mentioned the Solarquest is just for solar observing - essentially a modified AZ-GTi. For solar observing it is also possible to used the AZ-GTi in the same manner as @AstroNebulee and it works very well, very straightforward and pretty accurate. Although I am a visual only observer so can't speak in depth about imaging topics, it's worth underlining the above points mentioned that for any decent length imaging data capture, you'll really want to be working with an EQ mount (or e.g. the AZ-GTi in EQ mode) in which case, polar alignment will be needed in one form or another. I believe that most people using the AZ-GTi for imaging have upgraded the firmware to EQ mode. As above, in alt-az mode no polar alignment is needed. It is perfect for visual and can also work for basic AP with short exposures or planetary imaging which is often a video from which the best frames are selected. I exclusively use my AZ-GTi in alt-az mode and once you have the alignment process practiced, it's very quick and easy to set up. Again, I'm only a visual astronomer so pls take my imaging comments with a pinch of salt 😅

This is incredible! I'm no imager, so I can't comment on technical stuff, but from a purely aesthetic point of view this is really outstanding 👏👏👏

I'm currently in Bortle 4 skies as opposed to my usual LP-ridden city skies with my ZS73, and have so far managed a few hours over the last two nights, albeit with a few clouds here and there and the very bright moon. North and West are obscured by trees etc. but I can move about the property and use either the front or rear of the property to see most of the rest of the sky. I spent a bit of time testing out my new Astronomik CLS although street lights are not too much of an issue here - mostly the moon! I also tried out my 0.965" 18mm Celestron/Vixen which is very sharp on axis with a little false colour off axis, and obviously the narrow FOV. Targets have been a few old favourites as well as a few new: M57 providing a good baseline for different skies and filters etc. M56 which I can't seem to get at my usual location M13 - lovely as usual In and around Delphinus which is basically not possible to pick out with the naked eye at home, but here is clearly a breaching dolphin. In the 40mm Lacerta I can fit pretty much the whole head in the FOV! Also, a couple of open clusters in Cepheus (a constellation I know nothing about) NGC 7160 - 7-10 stars picked out NGC 7142 or possibly NGC 7129 - just a small group of pinprick stars, which I must go back and double check as I think my notes are wrong!

Great! I don't think you'll be disappointed, it's an excellent EP 😊

I too am interested in the real world outcome. I have a seben-branded version of the 8-24mm zoom which is the same as the Celestron one, but I've never really got on with it partly due to the large AFOV size change, not so small refocusing needed, and the fact that it... rattles 😱 I really like the APM 24mm UFF build and optical quality so if it lives up to that despite some of the other issues, it might be a nice if not perfect zoom option.