Matt Ikaruga

Thanks @Zermelo - have been eyeing them, at that price a bit of a no brainer!

As a relative beginner myself, albeit with a few short lived times with scopes over the years, I can share your frustration but let me try and help from a very naive perspective. My first scope in the modern era (crappy one as a kid, did nothing much useful!) was a poor Celestron. But I managed, somehow, to find and view Saturn after a couple of nights. It blew my mind. But I felt flat. The rest of the stars were just a mess of points in the sky to me. I didn't know what to do next, I'd seen the most visually stunning easy object so what else was there to look at. I literally went back to the drawing board, reassessed the whole hobby. Realised the scope had too many shortcomings and I needed GoTo because I have other hobbies therefore time is limited. I got a SW Heritage 130p as a stop gap while I sort something more eye catching out. And was wowed by the clarity even with the bundles eyepieces, but got even more frustrated with sweeping around the skies trying to find targets. I found a few certainly but I ever more wanted GoTo. I looked about I managed to get a great deal on a Nexstar 5se from Tring Astro in about 2016/17. Putting it mildly I regret selling that. I bought some lovely eyepieces and used it a lot. And I finally found what I'd been after. Globular clusters and small misty patches. They blew my mind. Even a target like the Plaides absolutely rocks in the right eyepiece. Sadly I often fall out of love with my hobbies and I sold it to a gent from a club. It went to a great home. I kept the eyepieces I bought though, the T-adaptor I'd used for a spot of astrophotography (that I did very badly indeed!) and the Heritage 130p because I knew the passion would come back. Late 2021 and the bug hit me again. I'll keep this short, I bought an Astro Fi 6. Finally this would answer a lot of my questions I thought, would show me the sights I wanted to see and be a breeze to work. Frankly I got so annoyed with the alignment issues I was getting (not to mention the first mount needed replacing because the wifi was borked on it) that I packed it away early 2022. But on the rare occasion I got it aligned, it showed me some wonderful sights. Cue July 2023 and the bug has me good & proper again. I've since removed it from the loft, had a few nights in the last week with it, got it aligned and worked out some of it's quirks to the point that I can be up and running in less than 15 mins aligned and ready to go. I can't wait for the darker nights now and to see those wonderful globular clusters again. And I even managed to bag M81 and M82 on Monday night on a whim of hopefulness. Again, they blew my tiny mind. I could just about make out the features. Just. Beautiful. I'm awaiting the darker skies now, experiment with the 130p tube on the mount and get a better understanding of the skies. My overall point of this jabber is that this can take time. it may take a number of setup iterations to truly 'land' but it is about taking your time, some subtle upgrades as others have mentioned and learn your scope. I was looking at that myself in 2021. Try to find other thread of people chatting about the scope, any photography done through the scope and then learn your tool. Really learn it. It will deliver even if you have to have a little reset of expectations again.

Great info folks - thanks!

Thanks all, really useful and down to earth (...!!!!) responses there which puts me off the scent. The GoTo, I'm still getting to grips with accuracy. I put it all away after my initial honeymoon period in late 21/early 22. It's back out but obviously not dark skies at a reasonable hour yet but already having much better luck with aligning. Almost to the point of face palming myself with how the hell was I getting it so wrong before. @josefk think you've nailed it in your last paragraph really. And further than that, if it's missing by a country mile then I need to look at how I'm setting up (level etc) and aligning in the first place as it should be reasonably accurate most of the time. And @Ratlet sounds like a very similar use case to me so reckon the 32mm may do me for now while I get more nailed on with the GoTo and any quirks in my set up.

No doubt this has been done to death - apologies in advance. I appreciate that a Finderscope (depending on specs) should give me a wider FOV, but are there any other benefits I'm missing over a wide field EP? My use case, Celestron Astro Fi 6" SCT and I do use the GoTo but seemingly like I read all over the place GoTo's can be less accurate sometimes so a wider field view would still be useful in finding targets it misses. I've got no issues with the RDF for visible objects, works a treat but as I'm a GoTo'er and not someone who can star hop easily I'm looking at ways to help out. I have a lovely 32mm plossl (looks like the Celestron Omni but has no branding - no idea where I got it but the views are glorious) which gives a fairly wide-ish view but I'm also away the OTA type means a tighter FOV anyway. Thanks in advance folks.

In terms of the finderscope, how does that differ from - say - a 40mm eyepiece apart from being 50mm? I assume there's significant benefit as so many folk use them.

Thanks Zermelo - appreciate the response. Does seem to have some benefits. I guess I'm lucky that the slewing noise can't really be heard by neighbours and I'm a pre-10:30pm visual observer (my eyes can't hack it any later!) so I'm not going deep into the night. Optical finder, such as a Rigel or are you suggesting a finder scope bolted on? Cheers

Thanks Geoff. It’s a fair point on not knowing although I am using SkyPortal so can find the basic direction. A quick practical experiment last night and actually the slewing round allowed me to reposition chair, take stock of what I was just about to view (info in the app) and take a moment to not trip over everything! Maybe speeding that up isn’t a good thing for me.

Hi all I’ve currently got a very underused Astro Fi 6. When I bought it a couple of years ago I discounted the SW p150i 6” scope for the slightly more compact Celestron. However I get slightly frustrated with the slew rates. Does the Freedom Find really add more convenience to a gazing session and even more so does it add ease of use as well. My thoughts are to trade mine in and find a second hand P150i instead if there’s genuinely more to be had. Bearing in mind I can currently store the OTA of the Astro Fi neatly under my desk. Cheers!

The bigger benefit for me in terms of mental health is realising how vast the skies are. Along with peace & quiet (like many of us, once the neighbours are quiet and the many dogs stop yapping - please let them in folks, they bark for good reason!), fresh air and observing something quite phenomenal I also get this feeling of vastness and how tiny I am compared to this vastness, a magnitude of difference. And while it's easy to say that my problems are trivial - sometimes they aren't - it can put some perspective on things, be it just in that moment or actually can allow your mind to rest. When the mind rests it can solve problems, it can get creative and it can heal. I like to listen to calming drone / ambient music sometimes under the stars too. They suit each other like spuds & gravy, or strawberries & cream, or tea & cake

Thanks Geoff. There are certainly some DIY solutions out there. Would love to see more if anyone here has done it. My DIY skills on the other hand..! Leave much to be desired.

I’ve found a couple of threads elsewhere (not sure if I’m allowed to reference CN 😉) with DIY tripod upgrades to the Nexstar mount, and I will assume the Astro Fi uses the same type of mounting tray… along with the SW SynScan as well I think. Has anyone done similar with theirs here, changed the legs for sturdier ones or found a direct replacement?

Wanted to thank everyone for your responses, advice, friendly opinion. Still working on the final solution, whatever that looks like but this thread has opened up avenues never explored, I may be a little less certain than before 🤣 but all the more informed.

Interested in following your progress on this, as I'm in the market with some great advice from this forum and swaying towards keeping my 130p tube on a Goto mount which would leave the door open for something like a 127 Mak or similar as another tube to use.

I'd started having this thought actually, as it could a) be all I need right now with the 130 on it b) if a=true, I've saved £200+ c) if a=true & b=false, then yes absolutely spot on I've got a decent amount to spend on another OTA... sorry couldn't help getting a bit geeky on the trues & falses there! Just checking @Tiny Clanger you're refering to this goto mount in your suggestion? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-az-gti-wifi-alt-az-mount-tripod.html Assuming you are based on the costs you give.