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Does help if i read your OP correctly.

Didn't know it was the L lens, yes, great lenses. I was almost going to buy myself one ( if it it were the standard 70-300 ) John

Hi Chris, That image for a standard 70-300 lens is fantastic. The only way i could think of improving on this would to be maybe try tweaking the contrast and darkening the blacks slightly. All in all, a great image. John

Hi Rich, Regarding This question, i work in the automotive industry, and specialise in Aluminium Vehicles, and they have to go through vigorous VOSA Crash testing, so from this, they pass the regulation tests, at tons of force, so i think, IMHO, it would not mater, especially at the short focal lengths of these imaging Newtonian's. Also bear in mind, a tubular construction is very rigid. Also you have the added advantage of aluminium of being lighter. This is my input, but would be interested in others views on this subject. John

I just stumbled across this post. Has there been any feedback from Grant yet Steve ? or has anyone else tried it ? John

Hi John, Welcome to SGL. And your from La Palma? you lucky thing. I love La Palma, and try and visit every couple of years. Always take my portable rig with me. Cant be the Night sky's there, especially on the west of the island. And i love to have a nice Cake and Coffe at Mirador El Time on a nice day. From Another John

Hi Paul, I am also late to this post, and enjoyed your thoughts. I, like the opening post, was looking to replace my star adventurer. Don't get me wrong, its a fantastic portable mount. The only thing wrong, even with my knowledge of the night sky, it can take me up to 30 mins to locate/align and centre my target for imaging. There are 2 lightweight travel mounts I was looking at: Explorer Scientific iEXOS-100 PMC or iOptron smartEQ Pro+ Goto. I am concerned after reading this review in the sky at night magazine https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/mounts/explore-scientific-iexos-100-pmc-eight-equatorial-mount-review/ that the mount loses its tracking if the WIFI signal I lost, and this can happen when your tablet goes into standby mode. Reading the review for the EXOS-200 PMC, they have the same issue, and they raised this with Explorer Scientific, who say they are looking into it. My question would be, when they have a solution, can this be rectified with a firmware update ? or would only be available on future Mounts. ? All said and done, we are looking at budget mounts, but I don't want to ruin a nights imaging due to lost tracking. What I do like about the ES, is its belt driven, and tracks very well once aligned, (from what I have read that is) plus, it has a 6.8Kg imaging load capacity compared to the 5Kg of the iOptron, but there again, I would only be imaging with my Altair 60EDF and DSLR, so both mounts would comfortably suit my needs. I am attending the IAS-2019, so, I hope both ES and iOptron are both on display and gauge opinion from the exhibiters. As this post is a few months old now, I'm hoping other SGL members have purchased either of these 2 mounts and can give there input to this thread. John

Hi, 5haan, As a footnote, I tried everything on here what other guests have suggested, increasing loop times, played around with other PHD2 settings etc, all to no avail. And BTW, I am using exactly the same guide Cam as you. John

Hi 5haan. Not quite the same issue but very similar, please read my thread. I tried all sorts of things, I even wasted over £200 on a new motor control board. Whatever I did, I could not get it to calibrate with PHD2. it would calibrate west, then would not east step and came up with calibration failure. I then had a brainstorm and tried an old windows XP laptop I had, due to the fact that I tried everything else. Then, et voila, it worked sweet as a nut. Are you running windows 10 64 Bit ? because in my case, this was definitely the case. At first, everything was great, but when I think back, it all started with one of the dreaded widows updates. If you have an old PC or Laptop with XP, please try this, and report back, because I would love to know I am not alone, and this could be helpful to other fellow stargazers. Regards John

As other posters have said, it looks like you have some tilt in the optical train. Try screwing the Flattener direct to Focuser Draw tube instead of using the Click lock to see if this helps eliminate the tilt. I also have the SW ED80, and frame it by using the locking ring on the focuser tube to frame my image. Just screw the camera and flattener on as far as you can until it is fully locked onto the tube, back it off half a turn, and lock it down with the locking ring, then all you do to frame it is slacken the locking ring and move the camera and flattener to your desired frame, and when your happy, lock the locking ring in position. I hope this helps. John

Welcome MaHa. Unfortunately, those Exos 2 Mounts have poor reviews. Google that mount and check it out. Maybe the new ones are OK. If you want a half decent mount in your budget, I would look at maybe this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-pro-synscan-goto.html And the telescope with the mount you shown, was very slow at F/10, so not very suitable for DSO's. As others have suggested, you could use lenses to start, but if you want to buy a scope, I picked up a second hand skywatcher ED80 for less than £400 with field flattener, and this is an excellent scope. Regards John

I have just been on the Tracer website the LifePo 12AH battery is £167 with the VAT 1400+ Charges or the 7AH version £144. https://www.tracerpower.com/tracer-12v-12ah-lifepo4-battery.html John

Thanks for the heads up on the filter Emil, will have to get one, I have heard a lot of good things about this filter. John

Hi Emyliano, I'm a bit late viewing this post. I am in a bortle 5 region. What LP filter did you use to capture the Orion widefield shot ? John

I hope you don't mind, I just had a play with your image. I tweaked the levels and increased saturation slightly John