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I need a collimator for my 130mm F5 newt, however I'm on a really tight budget. Can anyone recommend any really cheap collimators (a lot of people say Cheshires are best, so I'd probably be looking for that type)

Hi all,

I've been struggling to learn how to collimate my scope (8 inch dobsonian), and I gave it a go a while ago which sorta uncollimated it and have never been able to recollimate it since.

The issue I'm having is that the secondary mirror appears kinda oval?

It means that when I line up the primary mirror edge with the edge of the secondary mirror like the left side of this image, there's still a bunch of space on the right.

What am I doing wrong? Do I need to move the secondary first to get it to be a perfect circle?

Thanks everyone!

I can pick one up used for £80, in very good condition, but is it a good beginners telescope. I do know how to work and equatorial mount, but haven't got any experience collimating. Before anyone suggests a dob, there's very few used for reasonable prices. Also if anyone has any recommendations for really cheap collimators that'd be useful

When using 3 star align the tracking is pretty damn good for visual, but not good enough for AP. So I got a starsense autoguider, it has a whole load of issues just doing an alignment, but sometimes it’ll work out. And then I can get like 3-5 60s exposures with pinpoint stars, but after a bit it’s like it just gives up, takes a shit. My god I regret getting Celestron stuff other than the OTA.

Anyways, anyone delt with anything like this?

yesterday my father gifted me a telescope ( mentioned ) , from my childhood I had interest in astronomy but this is my first time using any telescope , pls advice how can I use it to its maximum potential ??

I’m wondering if this is still safe to use for the eclipse (April 8) or solar use in general. I tested using a flashlight and no white light got through, all I saw was a dim orange ring but I am concerned for my safety if use this for the sun.

https://preview.redd.it/sfsdj35xuyrc1.jpg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90defa612d23a2ea39598de7db7271ce5d2d2ed1

As mentioned in the title, I have a Telestar DS-114 from Meade (probably over 20nyears old). It has a little computer, and alignment motors that run on a battery pack that takes 10 AA batteries. I'm looking for a cigarette lighter adapter to use for this to get it back up and running.

This is kinda time sensitive, as we're leaving for a road trip to watch the eclipse at the end of the week, and I need to get everything hooked up amd working before we leave.

I used the Purchasing Question for flair, though I'm not looking for a telescope, just a part. I can change it if need be.

so I bought an ad8 and it’ll be here wednesday and i’m brand new to dobs. my other telescope is a celestron starsense explorer 114 which is pretty bad and from all the research i’ve done and the recommendations from everyone here the ad8 will be much better but what should i expect? will the ad8 blow my mind?

I have a telescope Bresser 60/700 AZ and it should be fine enough to see planets I guess. When I look at any object in the sky it's just light in different color like red and so on depending. I can never see detail because it's just light. Could this be a light pollution problem or is it a telescope problem? Also when I look through an ocular I see some microorganisms as from a microscope when I look at a side. Something is reflecting, is it my eye or something dirty I don't know.

I work in the repair department of a large photo/video rental house, and we just recently bought a competitor, which has added a few things to our inventory, including the Celestron 6SE. I've read about cleaning the corrector plates in the manual, that you want to go from center out instead of in a circle, and I've seen some videos showing the process as well as posts here. My main question is, are these corrector plates any more delicate than a photo lens front element? I've been at this company for 12.5 years, I've probably cleaned 10s of thousands of front elements and at least several thousand camera sensors (this is not hyperbole in the slightest, if you could see our inventory and shipping numbers). In that time I've probably scratched three or four front elements and about that many sensors. None of the scratches affected imaging or flaring at all, and you'd probably be horrified watching me clean either because of how fast I go. My point is, modern lens coatings are fairly sturdy, and good technique and tools take a lot of the fear out of cleaning these things. So of course it's my job to figure out cleaning protocol on the new (to us) scopes. Can anyone tell me why I should go straight line inside out instead of in a clockwise spiral out like I would on a photo lens? Are the coatings more delicate? Is there a difference when cleaning the inside surface vs. the outside surface? We used to carry a couple of legacy mirror lenses, and we didn't do anything special with them. Seems logical to me that this should be similar. Thoughts?

Alright so I've decided on a telescope from the heritage series. In about a week I'm finally going to pull the trigger and depending on my budget. Its either going to be :

100p 130p 150p

Now if My budget allows for the 130p, but the 150p is overboard, is it worth convincing my parents to let me buy the 6"? If so, how? How much more will be visible/better through the 150p.. is it worth the upgrade?

Also if anyone has any cheap mount/tripod recommendations as I would prefer a standing mount since I don't have a stable table to set it on.

Thanks

This is my 3d printed scope of my own design! Same specs as a Hadley but a lot more robust. Cheapo AliExpress mirrors for now but if it works well I'm planning on investing in better quality ones!

I inherited an old 4" Meade telescope but there's no model number on the telescope or tripod. Can anyone tell me the model number so I can open the right manual? Photo attached.

The unit does not have a normal equatorial mount. The rotary tracking platform is mounted level. The implication is that I can't simply setup on polaris to track sky movement. As a minimum the internal software will need my latitude.

Anyway, as most Meades have equatorial mounts I really need to find the right manual to get this baby working. Thanks!

Way to go Celestron with your April Fools joke…

I finally got a chance to observe this magnificent object and knew that I needed to sketch it. It took about 45 minutes to make sure all the details were captured accurately.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/7117670863/how-to-photograph-the-eclipse

Key quote for me:

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But unless you're a seasoned landscape photographer or astrophotographer, Dr. Nordgren thinks you might be better off not photographing it at all and just enjoying the view. He quotes Warren De la Rue, a pioneer of astrophotography, and the first person to photograph a total eclipse. "He wrote in his journal afterwards, that if he ever got the chance to see another one, he hoped to be able to see it without any equipment at all."

In short, "See your first eclipse, photograph your second." But if you're unconvinced, Dr. Nordgren does have some advice.

​

If I won a lottery, my eyes would be on Celestron NexStar Evo 8 with all Baader Morpheus Eyepieces. Moon, UHC and OIII filters, dew shield carrying bag and other necessities would be also included, of course. And a chair!

Finally got the right amount of time and solutions to take a nice stack of M81 this is my first legit project and deep sky photo and I’m pretty happy with it I learned a lot through these couple of nights and are ready for the next project

so I made this solar filter out of the lens cap of my celestron az 102 and solar film taken from NASA eclipses glasses and duct tape and clear tape. And it turned out like this I tried making sure the film was straight and I've tried it before and it works.