bosun21

Here’s a few photos of the Lumicon OIII filter. What do you honestly think?

Hi 👋 and a warm welcome to the lounge.

The one I have is not delaminated nor oxidized and is pretty decent considering how old you said it was.Next clear night I’ll put it to the test properly.

Yes it’s a used filter that I picked up from eBay as I had heard good things about them. This being my first venture into the world of filters i have had nothing to compare it to. I may now just go for a modern Astronomik OIII filter or equivalent.

He has an EQ5 pro

With your liking of the planets and moon then it’s a no brainer that a 127 Maksutov would fit the bill perfectly. They are fantastic on the planets and moon and pretty decent on the brighter DSO’s. They are also very compact and as a rule doesn’t require any collimation. It’s a win win.

I pay no attention to the numbers as I just treat it as a clock face and position Polaris at the position and hour highlighted by my Polar align app. A bigger pain for me was centering the polar scope reticle. When I bought the mount new the reticle glass was actually loose inside the polar scope. Once it’s set that’s it set forever.

I can set my go to Mak up with a two star alignment and sometimes a three star if targeting across the meridian for increased accuracy. The leveling and alignment takes about 15 minutes and has become second nature. This is of course dependent on the equipment working. I have two go to mounts now. One equatorial and one alt/az. Though I love using my Dobsonian I would never get rid of my go to’s now as I have become somewhat spoiled.

As @Budgie1 has just said have you changed the daylight savings time to ON. As the BST just started last week and your mount was working fine previously. If not then this will account for the errors you are experiencing. The mount should be in the home position when you first power it on. This gives it a set starting position each time.

I just ended up buying a bunch of 1/4” 20’s from Amazon and they fitted perfectly.

@PatrickO I will give you the steps that got me through my first polar alignment. Ensure that your mount is perfectly level and your counterweights are pointing to the ground and NORTH. This can be done with a compass on your phone and spirit level app.(or actual tool). Ensure that the mount is set to the correct latitude for your location. (I check mine with an inclinometer app on my scope or saddle) Polaris should be in the view through your polar scope. Check the app for the position of Polaris in the reticle and with the aid of your lat/longitude bolts and Azimuth screws on the base of the mount, place Polaris in the same position as the app shows. You have completed your first polar alignment. There are more fine tuning steps, like perfectly centering the polar scope reticle and drift etc, but simply get used to the basics first. HTH IAN

You should try the tap the scope technique. Just give the tube a very slight tap with your fingernail whilst looking through the eyepiece. The slight movement can bring unseen objects into your visual image. This is what you are doing by slewing 👍

I thought the ASI224 MC was strictly a planetary camera that had a high frame rate and would be too noisy on longer exposures?. This is what I have been led to believe. Is this not the case? Thanks

Here’s my solution to Dobsonian mobility

I also just bought the Synscan upgrade kit for my EQ5 and so far it’s working fine for me. I got much better accuracy once I centered my polar scope reticle as it was moving a lot when I rotated the RA axis. I don’t think that two of the upgrade kits will be faulty in succession and would be looking closer to home

In my experience galaxies are best viewing without any filters whatsoever. Apart from maybe a light pollution filter. But that’s just my opinion.

Buy a book like the highly recommended “Turn left at Orion” This will show you a multitude of things to look at in the sky and where to find them. Good luck 👍

You are not alone in this 😂

I think I’ll have to try one myself. It sure sounds as though it hits the mark. Thanks 👍

Thanks for that. That’s what I thought 👍

Have you centered your polar scope?. It’s something that a lot of people overlook. If it’s off then that and a bit of backlash would do it every time.

With this being my first EQ mount I have heard that it’s advantageous to have the RA axis slightly biased to one side. Which side is it?, and is it worth doing?. Thanks

It’s these ones

My apologies @Skipper Billy

Thanks for that. I had an inkling that it was M6. I’ll order a few.👍