ALINGMENT SUCCESSFUL

[j.finn]

Well what can I say.......?

Today was the first day I set up my skymax 127 AZ goto with the alignment in mind. In the garden tonight about nine o’clock I aligned 2 stars like the controller asked. This was the first time for me as I have been on manual slew for the six weeks I have had the scope just messing about in the garden. Jupiter mars and the moon is about all I have seen so far but with many hours’ enjoyment .light pollutions is quite bad here for me but boy was I in for a shock.

Alignment successful.

lets go went straight for M31 and there she was ,the princess setting there all this time and I didn’t know ,many attempts to find her in the sky before with no avail, I had been close before in finding the object but now I could see the misty faint spiral galaxy clearly in the eyepiece. Joy..............

I parked the scope and saved the settings got to go and pick my daughter up I will be back out in 3 hours,out all night I think finding some more dso

[j.finn]

I went back to the garden 3.30 am it was crisp & clear perfect weather so I went straight for Saturn I was still a virgin..... Beautiful stunning view the best planet I had seen yet with some good detail.

I love my skymax

next I have to figure out how to take pictures with my canon 450d I have tried already with a t2 ring mounted straight to the scope but there’s no focus I need to keep trying I also tried with a t2 adapter which sits over the eyepiece but still no joy any ideas ?????

[Tim]

Know what? I still get a little buzz when my kit says "Alignment succesful", even though it is permanently mounted.

[Doc]

Sounds like a great night, and you have a lovely scope there. Just one thing M34 is an open cluster in Perseus you described in as a spiral galaxy, you must have been looking at something else.

[j.finn]

opps wrong number it was M31

cheers

[jgs001]

Very nice. Glad you got it all working. As for the 450d, you should be able to reach focus with the 450d mounted directly on the Skymax. I can with the 102. For Deep Sky, you will be limited to max 2 minute exposures when the target is low in the east or west, and the time reducing as you get higher overhead or north/south. Also with the skymax being somewhere around f13 (I think), will also require much longer exposures to capture images. Go for real bright targets you should be ok though. The moon should fit nicely on the chip.

[j.finn]

I have had some great pics of the moon . But now looking to grab some dso. The sky max is F 11.8 the canon is not modified and the weight of it is to much in tracking mode . I will keep trying to capture what i can . But just as i get my scope up and running i think there has to be an upgrade already maybe the scope or the mount or both. From looking at some dso last night i want more deatil pls .

My mouth is watering over EVOSTAR 100 ED2 PRO HQ5 -SYNSCAN GOTO

does anyone have one ???????????????????

[jgs001]

It sounds like you need to adjust the weight balance by shifting the scope forwards some. Not sure you'll have the leeway to do that with the standard fittings. That scope you're looking at sounds great for deep sky though. Watch out, it's an expensive and slippery slope