badhex

Hello @Stephen_M Lots of great advice above, and you might find the below post helpful as a good rule of thumb to get you started in terms of what focal lengths to select when building up your kit. I found it extremely useful when starting out and having very little money to spare. RE fixed EPs vs zooms, as @Tiny Clanger and other mentioned it's often personal preference. Some people love them, some people don't. I have one but find I don't use it much at all. So, if you're planning on looking into getting one you might not want to splash £350+ on a top-of-the-line zoom only to find you don't really like it. If it works well for you, you can always upgrade later. Of course, this is true of all astronomical equipment to some extent!

Looks like the date is accurate 😱 Considering whether I need to cancel and look for something else or a different supplier 😢

I believe so Stu. They are normally pretty quick, I'm in Germany too so it's domestic delivery. I ordered in the first week of April and the original estimated delivery listed on the website was 15.05, then it changed to 30.05 last week, and yesterday it changed to 15.07! 😭 Not sure if this is the date for new orders, and existing orders will be fulfilled sooner or what. Waiting for an update from them to confirm, fingers crossed its just for new orders and not mine 🤞

I'm imagining Rutger Hauer saying this in Bladerunner! Perhaps in yet another hitherto unseen cut of the film 🙂

In the end, I took advantage of @FLO's lower pricing and 10% discount on 2+ items from the same line and bought the 3.2mm and 5mm starguiders. As the VAT is also removed by FLO if shipping outside the UK, this should hopefully mean that even after customs, shipping etc. the two EPs should come in at around EUR65 each which is still at least EUR20 cheaper than the cheapest option plus shipping direct from Germany. 🤞 I did enquire about a price match from a mainland European retailer but apparently they will not match prices from "countries outside Europe". Appreciate that the UK is no longer part of the EU but last time I checked it was still on the same continent 😂

I'm not sure yet if it's accurate but it's possible the lead time on the TS Optics 70ED I'm awaiting the arrival of has just increased by 6 weeks 😭

No worries,. There are plenty of folks more knowledgable than me who have already replied with great advice, but I hope the scope specific info is useful. I've used this scope a lot since I got it as it is very compact and quick to set up, and surprised at its performance given how inexpensive it is.

Hi @Maideneer I have this same scope, I think you may have seen from another thread. Sorry if I bamboozled you at all with my explanation, I hadn't realised that you were just starting out so I may not have been totally clear! I found that all the accessories supplied with my Travelscope were pretty poor, but once I put half decent accessories with it, the actual scope itself was really quite good. 1) The eyepieces that come with are indeed Super MA and pretty basic. They will be okay to start but you should consider upgrading them one at a time, finances allowing. The BST Starguiders linked above are extremely good value for money and would represent a significant upgrade for the cost. This scope works best at medium to low power views so the 25mm Starguider is a good shout, as is a Plössl as mentioned. Worth mentioning, I have a 17mm 76° eyepiece that gives great views through this scope, and I imagine the 18mm Starguider will also work well, albeit with a slightly narrower field of view. 2) Regarding the diagonal: I would consider this a candidate for replacing quite quickly once you can afford it. The one that comes with it is very poorly made and mine was not even a completely flat mirror, which leads to distortions in the image. I've replaced mine with one very similar to this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/stellamira-1-25-90-di-electric-diagonal.html Although this may be out of your budget, it would represent a good investment in the longer term as it can be used in other scopes and is good quality. See if you might be able to pick up something like it second hand to allow your budget to go further. 3) You don't need any other attachments or anything to use this with a AZ-GTi, and it works very well, although once you get a better diagonal and eyepiece in there you may find it difficult to balance - i.e. Getting the weight evenly distributed from the front to the back of the scope. Balancing is less important with this scope in the AZ-GTi motorised mount as it is so lightweight even with attached accessories, but you should try to get it as close as possible to make sure the mount does not have to work harder and potentially shorten its lifespan in the long term. I'll see if there is a good tutorial or article on balancing. Hopefully you saw my picture in the other thread, but basically the small dovetail will work perfectly well in the 'saddle' - the bit on the mount that the scope attaches to. 4) I can't really help with the smartphone adaptor, but I'm sure other will have some ideas. 5) Ditch the rubbish finder, it's completely useless. As already mentioned, once you have a lower power eyepiece in you may not need one at all, especially if you are using the AZ-GTi goto function.

I have a half-ground 10“ mirror the same!

Completely agree. 100% chance of me eventually getting a c9.25 to go on my EQ6-R pro in 5-10 years 🙂

Exactly this!

I took these photos last year with a view to posting but never got round to it. The first photo is the tripod (it's actually perfectly level, but couldn't get the camera angle quite right) and the second is the mount - both photos taken at the same time.

Glad you raised this - I have exactly the same issue! I also noticed that the bubble level on the mount has a sort of 'point' dead centre which the bubble seems to move around, but never directly on, if that makes sense? I only ever use the mount in AZ mode, and should mention that I'm a visual only observer. I tried initially with the tripod being level, then with the mount being level, but to get the mount level, the tripod itself was not just "bubble level off" but in so far off visually that it couldn't be right. In the end, for normal usage, after the level-north alignment and very minor adjustments to the first one or two targets, the goto itself seems to be close enough that I've assumed the mount bubble level is just not accurate.

The first scope that I bought was a Skymax 102 and I loved it. It's in storage in the UK and I really missed how easy it was to set up. I suspect it would complement the AZ-GTi extremely well!

As they say @John your best scope is the one you use the most!

Sure. It works pretty well. It's hard to get it to balance as the dovetail is miniscule so it's usually back-heavy, but the total weight of everything, including a decent diagonal and heavy EP is still reasonably low so the AZ-GTi can take it. If you're confident making adjustments you could unscrew the three screws holding the focuser to the main tube, and replace the dovetail with something longer to allow better adjustment. If I weren't replacing the scope I would definitely do this.

Thanks. I know the EQ6-R will eventually get some good use but I probably bought it 5-10 years too early! 😂 I'm really looking forward to the 70ED arriving hopefully in the next few weeks. TBH I would have stuck with the Celestron for longer but whilst it's surprisingly good, there are tons of little things (no 2" EP possibility, janky focuser) which made me want to get the best I could reasonably afford in that size format. I also neglected to mention that I have a C5 which compliments it well in terms of size, but for planetary work etc.

This topic articulates something very well that I have been thinking for a while and felt a certain amount of remorse about. Great opportunity to come clean - an astronomy confessions booth if you will! For a variety of reasons (partly, the old mount I was using really struggled with my 80ED, partly as I can only observe from a shared space in Bortle 8 skies) I had been having a break from astronomy. Last year that changed when I went away to a small island with Bortle 5 skies which compelled me to buy a Celestron Travelscope 70 to use while there. It was loads of fun despite the terrible accessories. Since then, I bought an AZ-GTi for grab and go use and had planned to go to a dark site for a few days over Christmas. To ensure I had the "best experience" I decided to get an EQ6-R Pro as my "mount for life", but due to (still ongoing) COVID restrictions (and also getting COVID!) the trip never happened, and the mount has gone unused, along with my SW 80ED. It's too big/complex to set up for use in the brief windows I get to observe, and I can't move it upstairs to the shared terrace without numerous trips. Conversely - once the cheapo celestron went on the AZ-GTi and had some decent eyepieces in it, I've basically used nothing else since - it's been a total delight to use and so quick to set up or break down - I can get *at least* a solid 1.5hours observing in a 2 hour window and the whole scope and mount cost a mere fraction of the EQ6-R. If I had my time again I'd not bother at all with the big mount, and I doubt it will get any decent use until at least winter, but I feel pretty terrible for spending so much on something I can barely use. I'm cutting (or compounding?) my losses and will replace the Travelscope 70 with a semi APO version as part of a travel/grab and go kit, and I've no doubt that this setup will be my main kit for years to come.

Thanks. Yeah not sure why there is such a big difference. The Artesky version is on astroshop.eu for €79, which is better but still about 25eur more than FLO. That said anything from the UK will definitely get stuck in customs and have at least an extra 20eur on in tax and "handling fee".

Thanks! Great list, I'll take a look. I did see that there was a Starguider in 3.2mm and I understand they are very well thought of but have never looked through one myself. I'm based in Germany, I think Artesky is the branding for those here but seems to be quite a lot more expensive than the UK.

Currently the postie has not brought my TS Optics 70ED

I got an EQ6-R Pro as a christmas present to myself and the box alone was a bit of a shock, never mind when it was all assembled!

Thanks. I might look into sub-4mm as an option, as 3mm gives me 140x which is really the max. mags I think this scope will be comfortable with. I'm actually not sure what's on the market at that focal length which has decent eye relief at F6 and doesn't break the bank! I don't want much do I?

Thanks! Which one did you go for, aluminium or stainless?

Ooh mind sharing a link? I've struggled to fin the right size bar anywhere in Germany