Second time around

[MattsGazingAgain]

Hi,

I'm matt from the UK, essex to be more accurate. I had a skywatcher 150p around 8 years ago and had some amazing moments with it, Jupiter being one of the highlights despite the 150p's declination towards DSO's. Unfortunately due to some financial problems at the time I had to sell it. Astronomy was a hobby I locked away to a quiet corner of my brain until my very wise other half helped me realise how much I missed it. 

We have just bought a skywatcher 150pds as i want to focus on astrophotography this time. Its currently on a eq3 pro mount with synscan. Not the ideal mount, i plan to upgrade to the heq5 as soon as possible, but its perfect for me to learn and practise on. 

We bought the scope and mount second hand in an amazing deal, coming with the coma corrector, all 3 sky panorama uwa lenses, the canon t ring adaptors and a clubman flight case for £700. Everything in perfect condition, although the mount has some stickiness and i think maybe some binding in the gears, so I plan to strip it down, de and regrease and reassemble as soon as possible.

Have only had the opportunity for a couple of hours viewing so far, during which I very unsuccessfully attempted to polar align and then 2 star align the mount, but loved seeing it slew. I did get some amazing manual visual observation on the moon, but was surprised that despite my previous experience with a very similar scope just how much I don't know. Am very eager to learn as much as I can and am very excited to be back in the hobby, as you can probably tell from my extracted and probably boring welcome message.

Anyone with any experience of this scope or mount with any tips or little known tweaks I would be exceptionally grateful for any advice. Or any tips in regards to polar aligning and star aligning, especially in a class 6 bortle or similar. 

One problem I struggled with was gaining any focus on any lens I have while using the barlow lens. Am sure it is either my error or cheap equipment but I gained a very nice focus with the 28mm supplied lens and the panorama range but struggled gaining focus with the barlow and said lenses.  After looking into this though I'm wondering if it was due to me not accounting for eye relief?

I look forward to meeting like minded people on this forum.

 

Many regards

Matt

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by MattsGazingAgain

[jiberjaber]

Welcome back Matt!  

[Guest]

Welcome back.  I'm sure someone will be along shortly with answers to your questions...

[barkis]

Welcome back to SGL Matt. The 150pds  will serve well as an AP instrument, It is designed for that purpose.
I think you will find Astro photography tough going initially.   An HEQ5 Mount is also better suited to Deep sky AP too.
One of SGL's Mods did some splendid work with a Skywatcher 130pds , and put that scope on the popularity map I'm sure.
Best of luck on your journey, and much help is available on the forum should you need it.
Best Wishes.
Ron.

[Xsubmariner]

Hi Matt, welcome to SGL. I hope you get the mount sorted and commence your journey into Astrophotography.

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome to SGL, and welcome back to astronomy Matt. I've been away from astronomy for 17 years and it's surprising how much you forget. But you soon pick it up again. Your old friends are still there in the heavens awaiting your gaze... and camera.

All the best with your astrophotography journey, I'm sure it will be very rewarding.

Cheers,

Mark

[banjaxed]

Hi Matt, welcome to SGL.

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have a happy return and lots of success with the AP. 🙂

[sloz1664]

Hi Matt and a very warm welcome back to the Lounge

Steve

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Matt, welcome. 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Peter in Bedfordshire 🙂

[Dogmaticdrongo]

Welcome back Matt, I'm sure it's all going to come flooding back. Let us know how you get on with the EQ3 mount. I was thinking of making the synscan upgrade but thought if id save a little longer I too could jump to the HEQ5.

[Gfamily]

Hi Matt

I can't give a definitive answer about the problem with using a Barlow, but one of the things that a Barlow does its to move the focal plane further out, so it's possible that (for the PDS scope) the Barlow moves the focal plane too far out for the focuser to be usable with an eyepiece. You may have more luck with a higher power eyepiece (though less need to use one with a Barlow of course!)

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Gfamily