badhex

A quick follow up session a few nights ago on the same Orion targets as above. I had just selected EPs and started to locate the first target when a huge thick cloud rolled in - literally the only part of sky it was blocking was Orion! It ended up taking about 15 mins to clear, leaving me a mere 15 before the majority of my intended targets disappeared behind a building. I looked again for Struve 754 but was unable to split it. I have read that it can be tricky so I will have to try again when I have more time. Iota Orionis A and B were a much easier split this time, with separation seemingly wider. Not sure if it was due to the pair orbiting that it seemed wider? With Orion rapidly disappearing, I moved on to Altinak and friends for a few moments. Again I have never really spent time on this lovely collection of stars and I do not understand why. Hopefully there will be plenty more occasions to spend time with this group. Although all my planned targets were now hidden, it was still clear elsewhere so I grabbed a couple more doubles - 38 Lyncis and Mizar/Alcor to round off a short session.

Not sure I've posted this here yet - the TS-Optics version of the Starfield 102 F7 ED. Exactly the same optically and physically but just with a boring logo instead of the snazzy Starfield one.

Great image @Ags! I was also poking around that bit of sky a few days ago (I suspect lots of people were). Sometimes when observing I do wonder how many others might at that moment also be looking at that particular patch of the night sky.

Glad you got it sorted - at least for now! 😱

I do exactly this as well Lee. I have an older phone I use just as a handset for this mount, with a bike phone holder thing attached to one of the tripod legs.

Sounds like a bit of a nightmare! I cannot speak with any authority on the EQ mode setup as I don't use it - @Ags and @AstroNebulee have much more experience with EQ mode so they might have some tips. The only thing I can say is that Skywatcher have publicly stated that EQ mode is *technically* not fully supported even through they released firmware for it and loads of people use it. I guess that the buggy behaviour might be the reason they don't make any promises. All of that said, your best bet is to ensure you've got the most recent EQ mode firmware etc, and failing that - point and track mode seems to work remarkably well as @Ags will attest!

Don't worry Lee - I'm sure there will be clear skies before you know it, and while you're out under them you'll forget clouds ever existed 🙂

Amazing to read about everyone's experiences this evening - it's only a shame Berlin is cloudy so I can't join in 🙂 to be fair my last session was boxing day so not that long ago (report was too long for this thread so have posted separately). Really glad so many in the UK are getting clear skies for a change!

Great report! Really pleased you've managed to get out and try the setup under the stars!

Side note, I only put two and two together a few months back: "prima luce" is "first light" in Italian 😬

I have two of the PrimaLuce saddles you linked to on my Skytee - they are quality! Given that together they cost about as much as the Skytee I figured they'd be an investment!

Hello all, Thought I'd share a report of my last observing session of 2021 on Boxing day. I had planned to pop out for an afternoon walk and a cheeky Glühwein from the stand in the park and realised that the just below freezing skies were almost completely clear, so put my 102 ED on the balcony to cool in anticipation. It was still clear when I returned home, and I finally had access to the shared roof terrace again, allowing me a much bigger window of sky. I was hoping to catch Jupiter for the first time in my 102 ED before it disappeared amongst load of rooftops. By the time I was up and running I got about 5 mins of poor seeing before it descended into thick murky bands of heat from a nearby chimney - wobbling out of the FOV in some cases! Better luck next time. As Orion was now well placed above the giant crane behind my flat, I spent some time with the nebula, again using my Astronomik Oiii to bring out the detail but experimenting with various eyepiece combinations; Panoptic 41mm, Morpheus 17.5mm and 4.5mm, XW 10mm. I've read reports that sometimes orthos can show good results with some nebulae + filters, so thought it might be interesting to try my BCOs. Aside from the usual eye relief issues, a quick go with the 10mm gave pleasing results. More investigation and a side by side comparison needed I think. I also found that despite the good to excellent transparency and the sub-zero temperatures (-8˚C) , seeing fluctuated between below average to good, but a clear night is a clear night! Backing down the magnification and dropping the filter from the optical train, I spent the next while poking around the edges, studying NGC1980 and NGC1981, to which I'll admit having previously paid little attention. NGC1980 was particularly fascinating and I had recently read that there were a number of doubles to be found, so again changing up the magnification I found and split the three components of Iota Orionis at 71x with the XW 10mm. Initially I actually spent a little while assuming Iota Orionis to only be a double, but after a short time (and confirmed by a quick bit of research) I realised there where in fact three visible components, with what I assume to be component C being quite wide of the other two. Seeing was still a bit of a challenge at higher mags, and I found that the split between the two closest components A (and I assume) B became a little less clean. I picked up quite a strong orange hue to component B. Whilst in NGC1980, I also spent some time on the nearby easy split Struve 747 and slightly trickier Struve 745. I am not sure at this point if I knew Struve 754 was in the area at all, or if I searched for it and couldn't find/ couldn't split it. Another one for next time. The temperature was starting to become a bit of a challenge so I finished with a couple of favourites and the Pleiades was pretty high up at this point but still fairly well positioned. To be honest, I don't know if it was the cold, the slightly uncomfortable viewing position, or just getting used to the changes that more aperture brings, but for whatever reason I found it a little less impressive than usual. I stayed with it for a while before attempting the double cluster at near zenith. Short story - I couldn't quite locate it - perhaps a combination of the altitude, LP, my rusty star hopping skills and the dawning realisation that I really need a RACI finder to complement this setup. Regardless, at this point the scant warmth from my hands was creating little clouds of condensation on the scope and mount which instantly frosted over - a sign to call it a night!

Lowest temperature mine has seen is around zero or maybe a touch below and didn't have any issues. That said, erratic mount behaviour is sometimes a symptom of undervoltage or other power issues and alkaline batteries are generally considered to perform poorly in very cold weather. I believe that -18°C is at the lower end of the recommended operating temp for alkalines. As a first troubleshooting step I would certainly try a different power source as you suggested - one that is already proven to work correctly in those cold temps.

I think lot of the issues also seem to be related to firmware updates failing, which (according to skywatcher and other's experiences) can be solved by using a USB adaptor or FTDI cable rather than WiFi to update.

Hopefully you won't need the instructions! I strongly suspect that the black puck on mine was just attached wrong at the factory, I did do some searching but couldn't find any posts on SGL with the same issue. Easiest way to tell without taking anything apart is just to look at the orientation of the tapped holes on each side. If they look the same orientation, you're probably alright. If someone else has the newer or TS version adn added a saddle to the side with the end cap, they might be able to chip in with whether they needed to do the second step I mentioned (with the grub screws) when aligning two scopes. I am yet to get two scopes set up under the night sky so have only adjusted it by eye for now, but I imagine I'll need to fine tune it. I should add that I discovered this solution for myself as I couldn't find specific instructions on SGL or CN - so someone else might have a better way to do it than me!

Hello Stu, One thing worth noting is that even if your version has both T ends tapped already, you might find that when you try to attach a saddle, the two sides are not aligned in the Alt axis. The long side of the T (i.e. the white puck) does not have an adjustment wingnut like the very top mount point so requires a little more work to adjust. To be clear, the long side doesn't really have a puck, it's more of an end cap. It has three grub screws around the outside of the cap and loosening these does give you a few degrees of rotation after which I could not rotate it any more. (I have read that you can fully unscrew this for maintenance but you may need a strap wrench to do it.) I've rather crudely annotated your picture for clarity. I needed to do two things to get the two sides aligned on mine: 1. The short side of the T with the black puck has three hex bolts separated by 120 degrees securing it to the mount head. I had to remove the saddle, then unscrew these three bolts, then rotate the puck 120 degrees to line up roughly with the tapped holes in the long side end cap, and finally reattach it. 2. This was still out by a couple of degrees, so I loosened the three small retaining grub screws on the outside of the end cap on the long side and this allowed the end cap to be rotated just enough for the tapped holes to line up with the short side puck. I hope this makes sense! You may not even need this, presumably this should have been aligned at least roughly already in the factory but perhaps mine slipped through the QC, if there even is any 😂 Oh BTW, I used PrimaLuce Labs saddles which are hideously expensive but extremely well made with dual losmandy/vixen fit and two separate clamps.

Thanks Stu. I had a quick go with it and the 24/68 earlier in the daytime and not sure I could see any vignetting, so I might give it a go and see what happens, I don't have anything to lose I guess! 4deg. of sky is not loads for a finder but it will stop me needing to switch EPs at the very least. I'll report back how it turns out. If it doesn't work out I will perhaps investigate the dedicated finder option!

Thanks for the pictures, very helpful to see the different setups! I like the lower profile of the RACI mounting.

Agreed, the main use case for me is the correct image. Since returning to a non-goto mount I have spent a reasonable amount of time faffing about with charts, trying to mentally flip star fields and it is not much fun. I do have an amici prism diagonal knocking about somewhere which I would use with the travelscope if I went down that route, but I have a feeling it strangely has a smaller aperture somewhere in the light path which would cause vignetting at low power. I believe you have the TS finder - the one in your profile image?

Thanks all. A lot of love for the RACI! To be honest I'm not *against* the idea at all, it's just that I will have to purchase the RACI plus some other bits to make it work, and feel like having the 70mm scope sat around doing nothing feels like a waste. I do like the look of some of the mentioned finders; I was also looking at the TS 50mm finder which seems to get quite good feedback. Maybe it's worth me setting up the travelscope anyway as a test (it won't cost me anything after all) and seeing how I get on? I've also seen that SVBony do a 0.5x focal reducer which is an interesting prospect - with an 18mm BST that I have already I would get 5.4 degrees of sky and a 6.3mm exit pupil!

For me it has to be the Zenithstar 73 - such a powerful and versatile scope for its size. I have seen the stars through it from four different countries and often much darker skies than I have at home!

Bought one of these for each of my parents' Christmas presents and after 3 hours observing in -8°C I decided I might as well pick one up for myself!

I have the BCO 10mm and 6mm - both great EPs for planetary. I actually even tried out the 6mm with my Astronomik Oiii while viewing the Orion nebula and was pleasantly surprised - I will have to have another go next time I have clear skies!

I have the 102 in storage - cracking little scope and punches above its weight IMO - so I can only assume the 127 does as well!

Skywatcher do sell the AZ-GTi as a separate unit so hopefully it won't be an issue just to swap out the mount. Fingers crossed 🤞