bosun21

I never knew this lunar X even existed. I’ll definitely be looking for it the next lunar session with my 12” dob.

You can select how much time you want to advance/reverse from 1 minute to months on the mobile version of SS+.

A while back I was going to buy a GSO 32mm eyepiece from this seller. He/she gave me a PayPal address for payment which I paid. I checked to see if my payment went through okay and was met with " Awaiting for seller to open an account "! I immediately retracted the payment. No more communication was forthcoming from him/her.

A good call from yourself as well as the seller. As you say you probably saved a child a huge disappointment or a beginner hours of frustration.

Nice captures Ian 👍. You are causing me to want to scratch my EEA itch again.

IMO the 30mm APM UFF (Stella Lyra and others) is superior to both the Luminos and ES. It's optically superior and physically smaller and lighter. It's an easy choice for me.

I bought a Hotech 2” laser collimator and it arrived perfectly collimated. I use a combination of the laser, cheshire and a cap. I use the laser on its own before each observing session once my scope is in situ.

I second what @Carbon Brush has already stated. Whatever you buy from FLO you have complete peace of mind. The Maksutov 127 I previously owned was great for planetary and lunar observing. It also never needed to be collimated even with heavy use. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hi 👋 Welcome to SGL.

For this exact reason I’m now looking to put together a quick grab and go set up for those quick stolen sessions between the clouds. My existing pair of scopes take a bit of time and effort to set up. I will go for a light Alt/Az mount and maybe my Starfield 102 or a smaller frac.

As has already been said either buy a new or used telescope from the US as it sounds like you are at the very beginning of your astronomy journey and some prior knowledge is highly recommended before attempting to build your own. You also don’t want to glue down the mirrors as they require some mechanism to allow them to be adjusted to attain good optical alignment. I certainly wouldn’t attempt to glue any mirror in position. Food for thought. I hope you find a solution to attaining the telescope of your choosing.

Nice capture Kostas👍 I’m really looking forward to the Jovian giants appearing in our evening/night sky again.

I have also loved the Intes Maksutov scopes. My friend has a 715 and it’s the sharpest planetary scope I’ve ever looked through. Ed Ting sings its praises on his review of one 👇

I've encountered a few Vipers (Adders) while hiking through wild wilderness here in the UK. But on each occasion they quickly scurried off when disturbed.

Great image, and you have nudged me to start some serious lunar work again.

I fitted the Starsense unit onto my 12” dobsonian as well as my 8” when I still owned one. I tried it out on my Starfield 102 and EQ5 but due to the ever changing angles of the EQ mount pointing I gave up and bought the full go to upgrade kit. I was considering mounting it on a ball head attached to one of the mounting rings but abandoned this as well due to my thinking that moving the ball head would knock the Starsense out of alignment. I may be wrong about the last point and so I just use it on an alt/az situation for which it works fantastic.

I gave mine away to someone who works with the scouts once I removed the Starsense unit of course.

This seems to be a regular occurrence for you Mike. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get some good clear nights soon. If anything you deserve it for your patience.

Same 👍.

How did you fit the Skywatcher electric focuser? I had to buy a 3D printed kit for the focuser motor. I’ve since sold the telescope. It does make a considerable difference in focusing though.

I bring my 12” dobsonian and my Starfield indoors after every session. Any moisture or dew quickly dries then I throw a plastic dust sheet over the Starfield and EQ5 pro. The dobsonian just gets the cap replaced and it fends for itself. I also fit desiccant caps on both.

I'm not familiar with the ES secondary holder but looking at it it's the large central screw that moves the mirror forward and backward. You will need to turn it clockwise to move the mirror towards the front (open) end of the scope and vice versa. You will also need to loosen the other screws to allow this movement. Once centered in the focuser tube adjust the other screws so that the mirror appears perfectly round. Good luck.

Phoenix would be an apt name for your mount since it came back from the dead.

Personally I would buy the 127 go to. I have owned this scope and I also have the Starsense unit on my dobsonian as well as an EQ go to mount. The Starsense is great but for observing the moon and planets at high magnification with a long focal length scope the go to is a huge plus with the tracking ability. Using the Starsense for this your target will quickly move through the field of view of your eyepiece necessitating constant reacquiring of the target. You will spend more time looking at your phone than you will observing. That's my two cents. Good luck with whatever you decide. PS: The 127 will also have better contrast due to its smaller central obstruction.

You are better to have a moveable counterweight IMO as the different weights you introduce to the front ie: different eyepiece weights and dew shield etc can easily be accounted for by simply repositioning the counterweight.