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  • Latest Posts

    • After I have aligned my telescope with AutoAlign, can I remove the AutoAlign gear to put my Piggyback on my 8SE for my DSLR camera.  Then, when finished the AP, do i have to replace the AutoAlign gear and repeat the alignment procedures if I have not moved the tripod (screwnailed the feet to the floor) or the telescope?  
    • The Pivotal weather site looks like it will be very useful for the eclipse and for planning trips to the dark site. I am hoping the forecast will improve for south Texas.  I plan to be near Medina, TX at a friend's observatory. Thanks for posting the link.    
    • One of these.  I already have somewhere to put it. https://www.planewave.eu/en/products/telescope-systems/rc700-ritchey-chretien-f/12 I'd need to sell the house for it to become within budget. The 1m version would be nicer but I doubt I could afford it.
    • Thanks Jeremy, it seems to be very good indeed. A bit over my budget though, so I settled on the Lowepro instead - which seems very similar in size. I'll pick it up tomorrow!
    • I am relatively new to the hobby and hope the below may be of some use to those sitting on the fence and trying to decide whether to get stuck in - or potentially stuck out if your daughters forget you are outside and lock up the house. After months of research I finally decided on buying the Celestron 5dx SCT telescope. I could say it was because I mainly wanted to see the planets or possibly because it was compact enough that I could keep it in the corner of the living room, but if the truth be known it was on a special offer and had 5 months interest free credit.  Any way for good or bad my telescope arrived and it has been out every clear night that I wasn’t down the pub and having had it 5 months now I can give a little insight for those like me who were a bit stuck. First and foremost I have discovered that having any telescope at all is much much more fun than not having one. My small 5 inch SCT is giving so much joy to me and a surprisingly large number of unexpected guests. I live in the middle of a town with pretty bad viewing conditions and limited area of sky available from a small back garden, but even so it is such a great, and slightly smug, feeling to see friends, relatives and random neighbours being astounded at their first views of The Moon, Saturn and Jupiter. Some have even got hooked and bought cheap department store telescopes which are actually much better than expected once they changed the eyepieces.  After a few weeks the spendits hit for me and I started to look at better eyepieces. The 26mm that came with the scope is pretty good but the 10mm was rubbish. Again after a huge amount of looking there appeared a deal on a Celestron zoom eyepiece. It was an accidental purchase but so pleased I did it as it has been used every night and I just love the simplicity of it. Stick it in, find your target and zoom in until you get a pretty decent view. Then show off a bit! I have obviously invested in eyepieces that are better and a good show stopper is the Luminos 7mm if only because it is the size of a small hand grenade but the good ol zoom is just great for a simpleton like me who loves to see the moon and planets - it is just a joy to use. You will be pleased to know my final observation is about taking some videos and photos to share with those fortunate enough to be able to avoid coming round. I bought a second hand DSLR camera and T ring adapter and spent many nights trying to work out the settings to get anything remotely resembling what I could see. Eventually I got bored - for me it took away all the joy of just seeing the planets. The camera is now a fairly nice ornament. Then one weekend my daughters turned up with a 3 axis iPhone holder and bingo! Within half an hour we had worked out how to reduce the phone camera exposure and were sending videos of a ‘Lunar fly by’ and a fairly good video of Jupiter and it’s moons. We even accidentally got a video of a strange shooting sometime that went straight through the middle of Jupiter. This has sparked numerous discussions about aliens and potentially a conspiracy to blow up Jupiter for cosmetic reasons. And that is it  if I were to do it again I would definitely get a small SCT again but I am sure everyone would say that about their first telescope. I have just loved how easy it is to take outside in minutes and start being astounded! I wouldn’t bother with the StarSense or motorised mount as I haven’t used it at all. For me part of the joy has been actually finding things and once you get to know a few bits you can show off a bit when sitting outside the pub. i would certainly get a decent zoom eyepiece and the 3 axis phone holder then just sit back enjoy and be thankful that someone decided to invent the telescope! IMG_8440.mov        
  • Recent Topics

  • Recent Status Updates

    • andre2  »  Zakalwe

      Hi, zakalwe .  How about the  proms with Lunt 60 and The DS 50 etalon? Assume they look better with single etalon?  Thanks.    Miertje. 
      · 0 replies
    • Earl

      grey wet and hail....
      · 0 replies
    • Hawksmoor

      The sky has ben briefly clear for a change so captured some data. A spectrum from the carbon star La Superba and some video clips of the Full Moon. The Lunar data gave me the opportunity to try James Ritson's latest lunar disc macro for AFFP02 which was in his last update. Excellent for high definition, even when using my mini rig and 66mm Altair Lightwave scope. Have put image of Full Moon in my Moon Album. Still working on processing the spectrum.🧐
      · 0 replies
    • Earl

      Grey and wet, how suprisng.....
      · 0 replies
    • Earl

      64GB CF card arrived. only had a 512mb with the camera with the space for 30 photos LOL. 350 photos took up 30GB Raw and JPG max res... thats better!
      · 0 replies
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