Accessories external to the Telescope and Mount
These are accessories that do not come into contact with telescope, mount or tripod, yet they are useful: typical examples are binoculars, compass, red torches and star charts.
BINOCULARS. A pair of good 7x50 or similar-power binoculars is of great help. National Geographic binoculars and similar ones are good and relatively affordable, but at almost 1 kg of weight they are not something to hang from your neck at all times. I have had for decades a pocket-size ultra-lightweight Tasco 8x25 binoculars. Hoping to get something better, I bought the “Bushnell Essentials” Tasco 10x25. As per the specs, there is indeed a very slightly larger magnification, but the image is noticeably less sharp than my good-ol' one, and further as soon as you look away from the centre of the image you notice a very significant chromatic aberration. I decided to keep using my old Tasco 8x25. Really-good binoculars are expensive items.
LUMINOUS MAGNETIC COMPASS. This is essential for Polar Alignment (click to go to the webpage) and sky object searching at night. After some search, I bought an affordable "military" model: I received a sturdy and beautiful piece of kit, the sort of stuff teenager scouts love, but it was very heavy and the dial (in spite of what was advertised) was scarcely luminous at all. So I decided to keep in use my excellent old RECTA DP 6G Compass, now available at €78 as the Suunto MB 6g Compass.
POCKET RED TORCH. You need it to fiddle with your telescope accessories without disturbing your eyesight once accustomed to the night darkness. I bought the lovely Explore Scientific Astro R red torch, pocket size with AA battery.
HEAD READ TORCH. Sometimes you need both hands, and a head torch is handy. There are many inexpensive models in the market. You should select one that has separate switches for red and white lamps.
LENS CLEANING KITS. Inevitably eyepieces and even sometimes the large Maksutov front lens will get soiled. I got the convenient Ares Photo Cleaning Set. You will need lens pens, dust blowers and the like. Use them with the utmost care (it is very easy to scratch diagonals and even eyepieces while cleaning them!) and only when you see a significant peck of dust, fingerprint or eyelash smear.
ACCESSORIES TRAY. The SkyMax-102 AV has a tray in the tripod. The main purpose of this is to ensure the rigidity of the tripod's open legs. It also doubles as a tray to put one or two eyepieces: not too many, and not too safely! This is a pity, because you really need a temporary storage for 1.25" items (eyepieces, barlows, diagonals, camera) that you take out of the telescope but may need again later during the night. Telescope-tripod trays used to have 1.25" holes to locate these items: no longer, because they detract from the rigidity of the tray. The solution is to superimpose over the tripod tray a second one with holes: unfortunately these trays are hard to find, are individually made, are very expensive and are mostly not fit for the particular size and shape of our tripod tray.
A solution is DIY. It takes just a minimum of skills with tools and woodworking, a small piece of plywood about 1/8" or 3mm thick, a drawing compass, an electrical drill with a few accessories (for wood sawing, large hole cutting and sanding), a few screws and plugs, a few hours of hobbyist's fun and a vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess afterwards. See below how I started with an old plywood piece and tools, and the piece sawed and sanded to shape.
At this point we should cut the holes and insert screws with plugs, allowing to place this tray as a removable item over the tripod's tray. Now we can use the new tray for eyepieces and other accessories as needed.
STAR CHART. For the Moon craters Philip's Moon Map is very clear and exhaustive. For the solar system you do not need one, and for advanced deep sky searching you will use a laptop computer, yet a printed chart is sometimes handy. Not all of them are practical. Having ditched an old one, I am happy with my present Orion DeepMap 600, which includes all the Messier objects. I also have one of those nice rotating sky planispheres, The Night Sky: they are very practical for naked-eye constellation watching, showing you the night sky at a particular point in time. Unfortunately, they are also less than practical for the amateur astronomer at the telescope, because these planispheres come in almost-pocket size, and thus cannot be used to locate deep-sky objects.
