bosun21

I’d definitely opt for the Skywatcher 1.75” Stainless. It was very stable with my EQ5 pro and Starfield 102 burdened with all the astrophotography equipment. Decent price to. You will have to spend considerably more to get the same stability without the weight.

Is that the 6mm LV that was on eBay?

Where’s @vlaiv when we need him 😂 Now I need clarification as well as the OP.

I understood it that it adds 1/3 of the diameter of the filter glass. I reckon we all need clarification. Anyone seen @vlaiv?

Not figuratively! I allow for the 1/3 thickness of the filter as part of my optical train. So I would still arrive at my desired backspace (55mm) in my case. So if my train was at 55mm without the filter, after adding it I would remove spacing shims to the magnitude of the 1/3 filter thickness.

A pair of Astro gloves courtesy of @Littleguy80. Just in time for tonights first light in these freezing conditions. Perfectly leaving your 3 essential fingers open to change eyepieces or whatever.

I will give it a go as £115 is a bit much for what you get.

I have always added the filter (1/3) thickness to the optical train and reduced my train by that amount to keep it at the prerequisite 55mm or whatever your set up calls for.

I bought a camping mat previously but I tried Velcro etc and it wouldn’t stay closed. What glue did you use?

I recently bought a 12” dobsonian and a 12” astro essentials dew shield. To my surprise the dew shield is several inches too short to encircle the tube. The only other one I can see is the Meade 14”-16” SCT dew shield at £115. I’m going to have a go at making my own but don’t know what the best materials would be. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks Ian

Exactly what he says 👆

I was all set to give both of my new scopes their first light tonight, when 15 minutes before I was to get set up my doorbell rang! VISITORS! I hope I didn’t seem offish to them as I was continually glancing at the clock. They departed at 10.30pm. I ain’t going out now to set up two scopes. Not too perturbed as tomorrow night is supposed to be even better. Warning! I am not answering my door to visitors 😂.

Forgot about the new replacement focuser sent speedily from FLO. You can’t fault that sort of service. All fitted and working like a charm.

For the planets I would probably go for the reasonably priced ZWO 224MC, and for planetary nebulae either the ZWO 485 or the newer 585. Remember that your field of view is limited drastically reducing your target options. However you could capture some nice photos of a few of the brighter small galaxies and such. Your capture time will be increased a lot due to the Maksutov f ratio. Good luck on your journey.

Buy yourself the Baader M63 clicklock for 2.5” focusers. The existing Axil lock just unscrews from the draw tube and the Baader clicklock just screws directly on.

I found the BCO’s to be excellent on the moon and planets but for everything else I found the Morpheus range to leave them behind.

A £3000 pound frac! (Including the scopes)

New replacement focuser arrived today from FLO. Now to get everything fitted as it’s supposed to be clear tonight.

No it’s just the money I made from my previous sales (mostly 😂)

Some purchases for one of my new scopes. It comprises of an 8” dew shield for my SCT, 8” dew heater ring for the corrector plate, 2” WO Durabright diagonal, WO SCT visual back that screws directly onto the diagonal (after removing the nosepiece) a 2.1mm male to 2 x female splitter cable, a 2.1mm to cigarette female for my dew controller, a 2”-1.25” Baader clicklock and lastly a Celestron WiFi adapter.

Forgot to mention Paul is picking up the AZ EQ6 this afternoon 👍

Which model? The Stella Lyra or another ?

Oh and I also got the 8” dew heater ring and dew shield which are a must in these Arctic conditions. If I were you Stu I would probably opt for the 8” or the 10” in view of your health. That is if the imp on your shoulder can be ignored ( which is difficult IMO). Good luck with whatever you happen to choose(succumb) to 😂

My sentiments exactly!

£80 ! that’s fantastic 😫 I am getting one made for me by David Lukehurst for £350. I got the heavy duty one incase I go bigger than my 12”.