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Interesting! Might have to give this a go if I fancy a quick session and haven't left everything out prior - thanks!

Hello all, Quick update on this. I finally got to do a limited amount of testing and it worked okay, but ultimately I have decided a RACI will be a better option. As mentioned, I can only ever get a maximum of about 4° of sky with the travelscope, which is okay but I'd prefer to have the option go wider. According to my calculations a theoretical 7.8° could be possible in the RACI finder with the same EP as above, although I suspect that might not work in practice. It's also a bit more flexible having a finder shoe, as I can use it on multiple telescope setups and not only on the Skytee-2, although I imagine will construct an adaptor with a vixen dovetail at the bottom and a synta/vixen finder shoe at the top so I have lots of different mounting options. Anyway, thanks for all the input as always!

I am 39 in a few weeks and already genuinely looking forward to switching to 4 days as soon as humanly possible. Work to live not live to work!

Thanks Stu, it's a very pleasing scope so far. Definitely going to try for Sigma Ori again as soon as I can, and some of the many other doubles in Orion!

Thanks @SunshineFingers crossed for clear skies for you soon!

I had an inkling it could be GSO as I've seen others like it (TS amongst others) , and the coatings do look reasonable so that fits. Good news!

I have just realised that I have a cheap 2x Bresser barlow - it has a detachable nosepiece which I believe gives about 1.5x. This would be 238x on the 4.5mm Morpheus, so I'll give that a go. Depending how it performs, I could look at upgrading to the Baader later. Thanks!

Thanks @wookie1965 it was a nice night. Hopefully you can get out soon as well!

Thanks Dave, it does indeed have nice optics - I'm very impressed! It's essentially the same scope as the Starfield 102 F7 (and Altair, SVbony etc.) but TS branded. I'm still somewhat in awe that it took 397x so well. You're correct, the Barlow is a 2.5x GSO I've had for years and is pretty good, albeit not often used until recently. I have looked into the nose piece trick before but it is a lens assembly which screws *into*, rather than a nose piece which screws *onto*, the barrel, so I'm reticent to unscrew it (would require a lens spanner also) so I don't think it's an option. I do have a BST 3.2mm which would give me 223x - I didn't enjoy it so much with my F5.9 ZS73 but perhaps I'll dig it out and give it a go in this scope.

Unfortunately not. If anything the storage space is probably one of the warmer spots of the house 😬 I do have a balcony where I usually put whatever scope I'm using outside for a good while before a session so it can get down to ambient outside temperature, and this usually works out well. If I don't have as much time, for either of the fracs I leave the focuser end cap off (2") and pointing upwards, to allow the warm air to rise out more quickly. The two fracs are pretty quick to cool down anyway. Unfortunately the SCT design obviously does not lend itself to letting warm air out of/cold air circulate in to the scope body very easily, and I really just rushed things. I'll have to be a bit optimistic and put the C5 outside if it even hints at being clear so I can ensure it has a couple of hours to cool.

Thanks, yes as per the link above but not quite as bad. On the few occasions it has had use previously it was outside cooling for a good while prior to use - will have to test again as soon as it is clear.

So, nowhere near as bad as that but yes, quite similar. I guess that is sort of a relief? Except for the knowledge that is now almost certainly miscollimated! Thanks for the reference. Not something I've encountered before but this is the first SCT I've owned (I used to have a lovely Mak 102 years ago) and have apparently forgotten that CATs take a lot longer to cool. TBH, I was in a bit of a rush due to having only a short window in which to observe.

Soooooo might have made a rookie mistake here but I am here to learn! I have only really used my C5 a few times last year and for the 2020 great conjunction and the rest of the time it's been sat in a case and occasionally moved, partly because I never got on with it, having also a very fine (now two!) refractors. Wanting a brief high power doubles session the other night on a whim I got out the C5 only to find that the views were absolutely hideous, completely impossible to get anything like sharp focus. I had initially assumed not enough cooldown time, but when out of focus it seemed to be terribly miscollimated - definitely not concentric circles, and in one direction (not sure if intra- or extra- focal) the circles themselves seemed almost teardrop or pear shaped. Unfortunately, at this point assuming it *must* be miscollimated, I made the mistake of adjusting the collimation screws - to no avail - rather than just being patient and waiting to see if cooling was the issue. Bear in mind I've never collimated an SCT but figured it can't be that difficult it you adjust carefully and methodically. Regardless, I did not make it better - nor worse. All in all feeling a bit silly and in the cold light of day wondering if I took a collimated, but thermally unstable, SCT and foolishly miscollimated it for no good reason.

Thanks Nik! Yes, I imagine it was conditions (very thin high cloud I guess) so will certainly give it another go. I can get 179x with my 10mm Pentax XW / Barlow combo so I'll try that. If I can make out a peanut or figure 8 I will see if I can squeeze out a few more mags with a different combo.

Yep, it was me and T30 Torx will work, at a push - have used one a few times. Obviously it's not best practice, so caveat lector as they say. @Apprentice Regarding the counterweight in alt-az mode: whilst it is a reasonably sturdy mount for the size, pretty much *any* mount will prefer the centre of gravity being close to the axis, even if that means having a bit more weight to move. Also, if the centre of gravity is closer to the middle of the tripod (which is also the AZ axis of the mount) the whole setup will be more stable. All of that said I do not use a counterweight for my tiny ZS73 (3.5kg with accessories) as it is not really needed. Try it out, and if you think it feels unsteady then maybe consider a light counterweight to move the CoG closer to the AZ axis.

No worries, to be clear I'm far from an expert and there will be others who can perhaps give better answers but I do have some experience grinding mirrors. Regarding difficulty of the build, it really depends on your design but firstly there will be two of every component to be made which need to be identical, as well as possibly special mirror setups, diagonals etc to ensure you converge your light paths to each eye etc., A standard dobsonian design will be much simpler to build, and only one mirror to worry about getting right. Regarding complexity of use, again it's the same thing - a standard dobsonian reflector is pretty simple to get outside, set up and observing quickly whereas a binoscope will be heavier and probably take longer to get setup, cooled down etc.

Hi Spacegalaxy, Not a stupid questions at all. I think your answer really depends on a few things, so it's hard to say if it's better or not exactly. First thing I would ask is how experienced are you with scope building, grinding mirrors etc? If this is the first time you've done something like this, perhaps it would make sense to stick with the 6in which will be a simpler design and probably a bit more forgiving. Also thing worth considering is whether you've had experiences using a binoscope and whether it's the right thing for you (will be heavier etc., potentially more complex to use etc.)?

Managed to get out for three hours on Saturday for the first clear skies in ages. First time seeing component E in the trapezium which was pleasing, as well as Sigma Ori, Struve 761 and Delta Ori. Zeta Ori eluded me, but I'll be back for more before it disappears. I also managed an astonishingly crisp 400x on the moon with my TS 102ED F7! Rather than clog up this thread with a lengthy report, it's here if anyone wants to read, along with a phone snap of the moon:

Hello all, First session in weeks due to constant cloud cover, but managed to get a good three hours before the clouds crept in once again. I wanted to concentrate on a few doubles around Orion with my TS 102ED F7, as well as test whether my Celestron Travelscope 70 could work as a super finder, prior to potentially purchasing a RACI. First up, the "super finder" did work okay but for various reasons including alignment challenges, I think I'll get a 50mm RACI in the end. First target was the trapezium. I have only ever seen A-D so wanted to see what I could do with the 102ED F7. After changing EPs around a few times to get a comfortable balance, I settled on a barlowed 10mm Pentax XW giving about 179x, and just barely managed to pick out E after about 20 mins. Very faint, and only just perceptible, but eventually unmistakably there. It is always funny to me how time at the eyepiece often seems to will objects into existence. No chance of component F, but my skies are Bortle 7/8 and the moon was probably about 75% illuminated, so I'm pretty happy with E at least. I will try again before Orion disappears. I followed with Sigma Ori and as expected could only make out the A/B as one object. I read initially that it is a quadruple system, and fairly sure I could only make out three total objects, but have since read that it is in fact five, with A/B being the tightest. Impressive to view nonetheless, but I will try again and confirm how many objects I did see! Whilst here I also centred on Struve 761 - a lovely triangular triple, or as I wrote in my notes, an "arrowhead". Next up was Zeta Ori / Altinak, which I could not split. I tried various powers but couldn't even make out an elongated shape. I did do a sense check to make sure I was definitely looking at Zeta, and moved over to Delta Ori /Mintaka which was an easy split, so I will have to go back and try again another time. Struve 790 had been my intended next target but the clouds had now finally covered Orion to the point that only the brighter stars were visible, so I decided to call it a night. Just before I started packing up, I thought I'd just give the still-cloudless 3/4 moon a quick look. The view was so crisp at 159x with the 4.5mm Morpheus that I decided to do something really silly, and stuck the barlow in giving just shy of 400x. To my astonishment it was still incredibly sharp! I had expected defocused mush, and instead got detailed crater edges, mares and other spectacularly crisp lunar features. I spent a while whooshing around feeling really glad I decided to crank up the magnification to silly levels - a real Apollo flyover feeling! Shaky phone picture below, although it does not do it justice.

Thanks Steve! It's a great scope and I was glad to be able to have its first real workout under much darker skies than I normally "enjoy". Since I wrote this it is has been on quite a few more adventures to other dark skies!

First clear night in weeks! Got a good three hours before the clouds crept in, as seen here:

Hello Rob and welcome! Where in Germany are you based? I'm in Berlin!

You won't be disappointed! It's a great scope - I think you've had one before IIRC?

Hello and welcome to SGL - great thread. I don't have much to add that has not already been said, but I do want to reiterate a couple of keys points that others have made. The last few years have been personally quite difficult for me from a mental health perspective, and certainly I have identified that stargazing is one of the things which helps with that. The zen-like feeling of a quiet night, being disconnected from everything and engaging directly with light which has travelled untold distances to be captured by my telescope and dance on my eye is unlike anything else. Even in a bustling capital city with night time noise and light pollution, it's still possible - even easy - to shut all that out when concentrating purely on the skies. The other key point made very eloquently by @SuburbanMak and others is the feeling of scale and where one fits into that. On the one hand, the universe is so vast that it helps to put our individual problems and life challenges into perspective; on the other, we can think about how incredibly fortuitous it is that each individual - or even life as a whole - exists as they do, how many chance events had to happen in a certain way. My favourite summary of this feeling is Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" - specifically the passage in which he describes earth from the viewpoint of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, captured in an image he encouraged the NASA team to take. If you haven't read/heard this, I highly encourage you to. There are some YouTube videos with him narrating that excerpt which are lovely, but here is the text version: https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot

Great image! So good to see what can be done with a small setup 💫