badhex

Hello all, Due to the long delivery time of my widefield scope I'm considering making my C5 a bit more multi-purpose with the use of a reducer for visual use only (at the moment). I know a few people like @Ags have had successes doing something similar and some reports seem to suggest that the overall outcome is actually slightly better optically speaking. So far I know of two which work well the C5: - the Celestron branded 0.63 reducer - the TS-Optics 0.63 reducer The TS one is about 20eur cheaper and available in Germany direct from them, as opposed to having to import the Celestron from Amazon US. Can anyone say whether one is better than the other, or if there are others I should be considering? Some reports seem to suggest that many of these reducers are actually the same optical components with specific branding. Can anyone confirm any of this? Thanks!

Yep, that's the one I understand from @John and others that these were supposed to be originally based on the TMB Paragon - the 30mm and 40mm at least - so I wondered if there was a vague link there. Regardless, it's an unusual choice of naming!

Exactly - hence my thinking that it's just generic branding rather than specifically chosen, but 🤷

You are correct. This came from Teleskop Service but I don't know if it's a model name they chose or what, probably just from the factory like that?

Indeed! I did a double-take when I opened the box! Note the trademark-defeating single R at the end 😉

So in order: I have never used it but the Utility > Identify function will let you point to a random area of the sky and it will tell you what is nearby but you must do alignment properly first and there are a couple of other things to consider, see below The pre-selected stars are usually the brightest i.e. easiest to find/identify stars in your region, but you can technically choose whatever you want to align to. I have found the north-level alignment to be really good, because broadly speaking once the app knows the time, your location and which way north is, it will usually be pretty close to whatever stars you choose for alignment and only need minor adjustment. To do a north-level alignment: Make sure the app can find your location (lat/long) properly using the GPS feature of your phone - on android you may have to manually allow the permission as it doesn't seem to prompt you to enable it first time you open the app With the mount ALT clutch disengaged, level out the scope to be horizontal, then re-engage the clutch Disengage the AZ clutch, then point your scope as close to north as you can manage, then re-engage the clutch Select north level alignment in the app and follow the prompts - you will be asked to level and point to north which you've done already, then pick two stars from the list to align to IIRC the list is in order of apparent magnitude (i.e. brightness), so the first few on the list should be easiest to find It will tell you the compass direction, azimuth and altitude of the stars; not sure if it makes much difference but I try to pick two in different areas of the sky as I assume it will be a bit more accurately aligned After slewing to a star, it will ask you to manually centre (i.e. using the directional keys in the app); try to be as accurate as possible - turn down the manual slewing speed if needed Once you've completed alignment, if you want to be able to point the telescope manually at any point by disengaging the clutches, there's a setting in the app you should enable This will enable a sensor in the mount which allows it to know the position of the axes, so it can understand where in the sky it is pointing and maintain alignment Turn on under Settings > Advanced > Enable Auxiliary Encoder Be aware that this slightly lowers the accuracy of the mount pointing for that session/while enabled, so you might need to do a touch more adjustment when slewing to a new object Hope this helps!

Final update: Sadly my scope has been delayed for ages (mid July earliest) but I managed to find competitive pricing on a 35mm Aero ED (the TS-flavour) so I decided to take the plunge, as well as the above mentioned Starguiders. Everything arrived in the last two days, so the lightweight kit is now complete! Worht noting that I was pretty much bang on in my estimations of final cost for the BSTs after customs and shipping etc - they came in at EUR66 each, compared to the best price I could find of EUR82 each from mainland Europe. I actually also did a quick calculation of what they've have been to import from @FLO pre-brexit, which would have been EUR65 - so in the end only one euro difference!

Completing my lightweight/travel EP set are these two! Order Monday night from @FLO, through all the German customs guff, paid the charges online yesterday and arrived on my doorstep this morning 🙂

Great, thanks for the update - looks great!

Curious to know how you get on with the L bracket. What will the setup consist of?

Just arrived from TS via the postie! A lightweight/travel friendly lowest-power EP for my travel kit... Shame the scope is now delayed until mid July 😱

The Morpheus 17.5mm is a great eyepiece - I have the same and it does not disappoint! As it happens, the first expensive EP I bought was a Meade 18mm UWA, quite similar to the Morpheus (but not as good I might add!). I did the same as you, and built up from there.

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.