bosun21

Your photo is a mirror image of my skies at the moment as well. Sure is depressing.

How much processing did these images require please.

And if he uses a 90 degree connector with this method it’s virtually impossible to fall out throughout the night.

I haven't had a glimpse of a clear sky for over a month now and it's beginning to gnaw at me. Still waiting for first light on a new SW150 Maksutov/ADC combo. Depressing stuff indeed.

The solder has been blown off the C1 terminal (red and black wires) That's the pool of solder slightly down and opposite the terminal C1.

That won't help with finding the polarity.

What size is the sensor in your camera?

Hi there 👋. Welcome to SGL.

You won’t really notice the difference if you go for the 9.25” over your existing 8”. The 11” on the other hand you will definitely see the difference.

The 17.5mm was released several years later than the others in the range. It’s never been redesigned and in my opinion it’s the best of them all (by a whisker) The others are also excellent eyepieces and are the mainstay of my observing.

The screws on the red ring just look like locking screws to me. I would message FLO with your questions as I can’t find any definitive information on this scope.

Congratulations Kostas. Your images of Venus were fantastic.

Looking at it, it appears to be just a screw on fitting to the telescope tube to allow the focuser to be mounted. If the screws you are referring to are three flat slightly recessed screws then they are for centering the actual focuser drawtube.

An 8mm and a 25mm BST Starguider eyepieces would be cost effective way of upgrading your existing supplied eyepieces. The BST 2x barlow is reasonably priced and good quality also. These upgrades will improve your views and provide more choice of magnification.

Yeah good idea as I don’t think that there’s a pier extension for the AVX.

What mount are you using it on please.

I really must give this sketching a try. That's a really nice drawing.

This thread has put me off from buying an EQ6 in the future for sure. Do the motherboards have a vulnerability that the other SW mounts don't?

The 150PDS will comfortably do both visual and astrophotography. A barlow could be used for visual to achieve high magnification. Good luck with whatever you decide.

The EQ5 would hold either of these scopes easily and feel solid. I have two of them and they are a good mount. If however you are thinking about getting serious about doing astrophotography then I would go for the HEQ5 as has been previously recommended. The EQ5 will certainly allow you to do astrophotography to get you started as many have done before you, however for serious results you would need to upgrade to an HEQ5 at a minimum. Good luck with your new endeavour.

My thoughts are that they’re probably closer to 8.5x so labeling them 8 or 9 will suffice.

You could also look at the Skywatcher 150PDS which is designed for astrophotography but can comfortably do visual as well. Your existing scope is a bird jones design which isn’t really suitable for either for several reasons. The 150 PDS is a capable telescope and being a smaller diameter than the 200 won’t be so much of a wind sail. Your cameras will also be able to achieve focus. If you are considering a reflector then you will need to learn how to collimate it. If you don’t want to be bothered with having to collimate then a smaller ED doublet refractor would be the way to go.

My area forecasts say that Saturday will be my first chance of clear skies. I’ll believe it when I see it 🧐.

Thanks once again Steve 👍.

I give my scopes about an hour to cool down before dark. I then start observing and at the first sign of dew on the tube or mount I power up the dew heaters at about 50%. I will then increase/decrease the power depending on the severity of the dew formation.