bosun21

The central obstruction on the CC at 58mm and primary mirror size of 153mm is a 14% obstruction. The light grasps (area of mirror or objective in a refractor) are 8167mm/sq for the refractor and the CC is 18376 minus the 14% which leaves 15803mm/sq. So from these calculations i can’t see how the 102 refractor beats the CC for contrast when it’s approximately half the light grasp.

No it’s the Altair dielectric and I always check the insides. This one is matt black inside.👍

They are said to be back in stock 7-14 days

Postman delivered my Mak 127 focuser kit, 3D printed all the way in Portugal. Vasco makes them for all maks, for both 127 types ie: focuser in line with the dovetail and the other at 90 degrees. No more vibrations at high magnification on the planets and moon

Agreed, but a little bit on the pricey side.

Have you removed the clip on cover over the mirror?

I get on just fine with my 15x70 binoculars on my pistol grip tripod and even sometimes my 20x60 Pentax. I can cover the majority of the sky okay but anything near the zenith is a no go. My neck hurts just thinking about it. The tripod I bought from Amazon is working well and thankfully my spring is just fine. I do enjoy my short bino forays at the night sky

The reflector that he is talking about is a bird Jones for which you have to strip the focuser down to remove the lens that is doubling the focal length of the scope. Best avoiding this style of telescope in my opinion. A standard reflector is another matter, and the big scary word “collimation” should not put you off. I am also recommending a pair of astro binoculars and a tripod or monopod. A pair of say 15x70 would show you a multitude of targets to observe. Good luck.

Before you start observing you must polar align your mount with Polaris the North Star. I recommend that you look up polar alignment on YouTube and watch a few videos. Once done everything in the sky will be rotating around the axis of your mount. The motors are set to run at the speed required to match the rotation of the sky.

Another postal delivery from FLO. A Skywatcher electric focus kit and a 4Tronix focus controller.

Poor(tight) eye relief means that you have to place your eye really close to the eyepiece in order to see the full field of view.

The 9mm is one of my favorites in the Morpheus range. Another great one is the 17.5mm which came out well after all the others and apparently took several years to perfect.(which they did)

I thought that i may as well jump on the Sir Patrick Moore bandwagon, and a Synscan WiFi dongle. Both delivered today by my friendly postman.

I bought an iPhone SE for myself for just that reason. It’s got all the gizmos and fits in my jacket pocket. It’s the newest version and works with my starsense despite being loose in the clamping mechanism. I decided to just buy a large screen Android for my starsense (Blackview BV9900 pro). This works a treat.

You should invest in a Baader semi apo filter. This fantastic addition will remove the majority of chromatic aberration without giving your images a yellow hue. I have a 2” semi apo filter more or less permanently placed in my 2” dielectric diagonal. I tend to forget all about it in my Skywatcher Evostar 120. Another fantastic filter for the elimination of chromatic aberration is the Baader contrast booster.

That is strange and it would be good to find out how.🤔

The Starsense app has nothing to do with phones operating system. It’s simply using the phones accelerometer and magnetometer etc, therefore updates will have no affect on it

Mine is supposed to be arriving today as well (before 8pm) but I won’t be holding my breath.

LT70 is the smallest I could find to buy in order to cannibalize the starsense unit from.

Coincidence?? I have just placed an order for a Skywatcher electric focuser and also the 4Tronix FocusRF. I didn’t like the look of the control pad provided with the focuser as only two speeds didn’t seem to offer the accuracy i wanted. After placing my order I came across this thread which confirms that I made the correct decision.

These are soft silicone and pliable so should be okay. I’ll pop one in the freezer for a bit and see if it becomes brittle.🤔

Postman bought me two gifts today. A new 2” Hotech laser collimator and a bahtinov mask

Just a new Cheshire and 2”-1.25” self centering adapter

I give up with the weights online as your 6.7mm is said to be 280g on the FLO website. @Louis D was correct in that the online weights can be well off.

I have most of the Explore Scientific range apart from the 24mm that’s why I was looking at them both. I’ll check the weights and dimensions on the other sizes (apart from the 6.7mm) which you have already done. It’s just that 160g isn’t just a little.