Couldn't wait

[tom714uk]

Well binoculars are nice enough but I keep wanting to see more and I'm not getting a serious (ish) scope until my birthday in a couple of months. So I jumped at the chance of a 90mm Mak on Astrobuysell for £100 and happily was given financial clearance by Mrs! I'm going to pick it up on Friday evening and am somewhat impatient to look at Jupiter, clusters, planetaries etc. through it...

It's a Konus Motormax-90 and I may well sell it on again when I get the dob but then again, if having a small scope turns out to be handy, I may not! We shall see.

Reviews of this scope usually mention the peculiar flip mirror arrangement as a bit of a downside, because the 90-degree option involves a low-quality diagonal and some awkward positions for the eyepiece, but do say that you can replace the 45-degree prism at the back with a normal diagonal if you get handy with some plumbing supplies (and buy a new diagonal of course). Has anybody done this?

Also does anybody know what batteries the RA motor takes, and how long they tend to last?

Cheers!

Tom