Whilst not new to the astronomy caper, I'm new to this forum.
I've recently been given a new 8SE and I've had a chance to play with it over the past few nights. The optics are brilliant, even with my poxy Plossl's, it's far beyond what I was expecting. Jupiter and Saturn are very clearly defined, the bigger clusters coming up a treat.
I've managed to test out prime focus photography (Jupiter and Saturn for now) and they come up a treat. I haven't tried stacking yet but for single exposures, I'm impressed. Eyepiece projection though hasn't worked thus far as it's hard to determine where to place the eyepiece in the adapter so that the image is in focus on the sensor. I've got a 25mm piece with a decent eye relief but I haven't been able to find the bugger.
I've been feeding it 12V via mains and via a small 30Wh battery. What I've found is that the battery pack whilst saying it can provide up to 3.5A, was not up to the task. I'd find after an apparently successful Auto Two Star alignment, the alignment was off by about 20".
I have a few questions.
Would fitting a decent wedge be worth it using the 8SE mount (for photography purposes)? Or am I better off getting a decent EQ mount?
Is there a battery pack available small enough and with enough capacity (100Wh+) that doesn't cost the earth (I'm looking at you Powertank)?
The provided red dot finderscope seems decent but feels flimsy. Better options?
The Saxon Cielo range eyepieces, any good?
Oh and I've posted my two piss poor Jupiter and Saturn efforts
Edit 1-10-2019:
The mount when run off the little battery was off by a whole degree, not 20" as indicated above.