Celestron Travel Scope 70 on ebay - cheap finder/guider ?

[pilkinn]

I've just bought a Celestron Travel Scope 70 to use as a finder. I bought it off ebay for a very good price of £39.95 + £6 postage. I see there's only one left now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230843819533?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_1138wt_1397

I've fitted it to my WO refractor using some ADM rings I already had. I had to remove the supplied dovetail and I dispensed with the finder it came with. Just tried it out tonight and it provides remarkably better views than I thought it would. I'm first used it with a WO diagonal and an Orion 20mm reticle eyepiece (as I'm using it as a finder) but even the supplied prism and 20mm cheapo eyepiece actually works very well.

[pilkinn]

Picture of the Celestron 70 on top of my WO FLT98 (this is with the WO diagonal and Orion eyepiece) ....

[pilkinn]

... and with the supplied erect image prism and 20mm cheapo eyepiece ...

[x6gas]

I know - surprisingly good optics for the price I think. I sort of regret selling mine eve though it was only gathering dust...

[solarboy]

i notice you have an older hitecastro hub the one without the USB;s like mine where did you get and what make is your 4way USB block

i have bought 2 differant makes of USB 4 ways and thay work for while then pack up

thanks pete

[solarboy]

sorry 6 way

[pilkinn]

Hi Pete. It's actually 7 ports (the 7th port has a bluetooth dongle in it which is hard to see as it's black). It's a 12v powered hub by StarTech called the "StarTech.com Mountable Rugged Industrial 7 Port USB Hub". I used to use a 4 port powered hub (5v dc-in) but found it unreliable when I used all the ports - the Lodestar guide camera wouldn't work all the time. Plus the fact that I had to have another device to convert 12v down to 5v. I also found 4 ports just wasn't enough (EQMod module, filterwheel, guide camera, main camera, HitechAstro hub, motor focuser) so opted for the 7 port model (they also do a 4 port version also powered by 12v). I've used it for a handful of imaging runs and so far so good - with everything connected.

It isn't exactly cheap but I found a company on ebay who sell it for the best price of £58.46. They're still selling them at this price ...

http://www.ebay.co.u...#ht_1043wt_1397