bosun21

I wish you the best of luck when you receive it. There’s plenty of great videos on YouTube explaining everything. May you have many happy nights with your son. All the best Ian

I agree, The only the thing that appears offset is the dark reflection of the secondary holder, but for some reason to your eyes it appears that it’s the bright reflection of the cap/donut that is offset. But that’s obviously not the case as verified by the Cheshire crosshairs being perfectly centered with my donut. Thanks for taking the time to explain this in a more detailed manner. ATB Ian

Regarding the EQ5 pro with the asiair. Once I have polar aligned and set the home position. It will return accurately to this position if asked throughout the session. I can usually attain 0.7-0.9 for guiding. Another point is after PA I slew to a different part of the sky and plate solve, then sync to the mount and return to the home position. Target acquisition is a breeze.

I wholeheartedly understand the art of collimation and actually meant the green ring as the red is the reflection of the primary mirror. I know what everything should look like. It’s the offset of the reflection of the collimation cap I was wrestling with. Every other diagram I’ve seen the offset is towards the open end of the tube like mine is. Yours shows the offset towards the focuser tube? I have done numerous tracked star tests and on Polaris and they are virtually perfect. The mystery continues. Thanks

I can remember constantly begging my parents to let me stay up to watch the Sky at Night as it was past my usual bedtime . They always gave in as they saw it as an educational program. I was hooked so young.

I would just use an asiair mini with your guide scope and 120 camera. As long as your guide scope is aligned with your main scope then it will work just fine. Then all you need is your phone. No laptop required.

For what I have read it’s nothing to do with auto guiding but rather target acquisition. I agree with the others in that I think he is trying to run before walking. I was merely giving him an option that would eliminate all the software he is getting problems with. Nothing more.

My first upgrades for my 8” Stella Lyra dobsonian was all the Starguider eyepieces apart from the 3.2mm. I was unimpressed with both the 18 & 25mm in my f6 dobsonian but they were decent in my 127 Maksutov. I found myself using the 15mm for DSO’s and the 8 & 12mm for the planets with a 2x barlow. The 12mm barlowed 2x gave 200x which was my planetary workhorse. I think I only had one occasion where the seeing and transparency allowed me to barlow the 8mm for 300x on Mars.

My advice to you would be to learn about collimation of your telescope. It sounds scary but it’s a bit like adjusting the mirrors in a car so that they are all pointing where they should. I would replace both the eyepieces that came with the telescope as even the 20mm has a built in erect image corrector and isn’t the best quality just like the 10mm. For viewing the planets you can buy a 3x barlow of decent quality relatively cheaply and a couple of Starguider eyepieces, again not expensive. An 8mm and a 15mm BST Starguider would give you all the magnification you need for Mars with your 3x barlow. As you already bought a 2x barlow this will increase the range of magnifications available to you. Good luck with your new endeavor.

I started off with just the ZWO camera and no guide scope or anything else. Just unguided EEVA. It doesn’t need to guide. I learned the basics and added the other parts one at a time. First the guide scope and camera, then the filter wheel and EAF auto focuser. So I was never swamped with everything at once to learn. I now just download from my SD card or thumb drive to my PC. I don’t think I would gain anything from changing to a PC based system.

Pot calling the kettle black me thinks😂

They are the same optically made by JOC

You only need a ZWO camera to use the asiair plus. The rest you can do manually like focus and change filters etc. It doesn’t rely on anything else.

I thankfully avoided all this dilemma and bought an asiair plus. Without any astrophotography experience I can now polar align without Polaris, slew to target and plate solve, centre the target, get perfect focus with my EAF, control my filter wheel and plan my auto run. Best little box I ever bought.

Another massive thumbs up for the Baader Maxbright II binoviewer. I bought a set having never used a binoviewer previously. I had no trouble merging images and could change eyepieces mid session also. I started EEVA and AP and sold them. I think I’ll be buying myself another pair when they are available again.

I always took the red ring to be the secondary mirror that’s why it’s centered in the focuser tube. and can show the reflection of the primary mirror. And the central dark area is a reflection of the cap or the poorly reflective surface of the cap/Cheshire. If I’m wrong please explain to me how you get a secondary shadow please. Or is it the shadow of the secondary as seen by the primary mirror?

That’s only because I bought the custom cases with all the foam cuts done for me. I’m kinda lazy 😂

I appear to be quite lucky in this respect, as regardless of the eye relief I simply move my eye in or out to obtain the full FOV. Using your scope during the day fixed on a distant target let’s you achieve the optimum distance for your eye to hit the sweet spot easier. After repetition with your eyepiece collection it becomes second nature. HTH

Lovely set of bins you have there Gary👍

How come??

When I collimate my Stella Lyra 8” (200mm) f6 which is the same as your skywatchers optical design the reflection of your cap or Cheshire should be offset towards the open end of your scope. This differs for different telescopes f ratios. At first I wasn’t adept enough at collimation to achieve this every time so used it the way yours is. Practice makes perfect and before long you will wonder what all the fuss was about. I now never need to touch my secondary mirror and only tweak the primary with a HoTech laser before every session.

Here’s my two cases, one with my Morpheus collection and Explore Scientific 24mm 68 degrees and a Baader Aspheric (now sold) and my other with my Nirvana x 5 , Vixen 2x barlow, Explore Scientific 2x tele extender, 7-21 zoom and two Celestron plossl’s 32 & 40mm and a 17mm Vixen plossl.

Hi there, to be perfectly honest for £100 you would be better to buy yourself a decent pair of 10x50 binoculars and a book like “Turn Left at Orion”. The Opticron Oregon 10x50WA are great value and have a favorable write up from our Binocular guru Steve Tonkin. Both these items are available from First Light Optics for under £100. In dark sky areas there’s a multitude of targets to keep you busy and enjoy. This will open the astronomy door for you and you can then decide whether you want to take the hobby further. Good luck with whatever you choose.

The simple answer is if you are long or short sighted, myopia etc then no glasses required. If on the other hand you suffer from astigmatism then yes to correct for this. The focuser will compensate for all the former shortcomings.

Hi there 👋, Welcome to the lounge and a wealth of knowledge.