Observing from a balcony

[DaveyLeo10]

Hi

Live in an apartment which has a closed off balcony (you can slide open the glass doors).

This is going to be my main observing site, I'm disabled so getting to dark sites would involve help from a few people!

My main concern is space (no pun intended), while there is room on my balcony it is only 150cm wide.

I plan on getting a good scope (examples include Nexstar evolution, advanced vx and celesron cpc). I'm considering a 9.25 or 11' aperture and just need a general idea of how much space that and the mount would take up. Plus if a big scope would be practical since I can only see a portion of the sky just wider than a doorway.

[ronin]

Well the tripod legs will spread to at least 1 meter diameter, so setting up the tripod will take most of the balcony space out whereever it stands along it.

Going to ask why get what I would consider a fairly "big" scope ?

All the ones listed are a reasonably sizes chunk, 11" and 9" sounds small until you have to pick one up and carry it. I can carry an 8" but it is not easy and getting it on the mount is really a 2 man job as manouvering it into the correct position is troublesome.

Another aspect is making use of the features. I assume that the balcony has a limited view and alignment could be a problem. There is a trick to aligning a Meade, at least approximately, but I am unaware of a similar workaround on the Celestrons. The concern here being if you cannot align the scope the the goto is in effect redundant.

If not already located one then are there any clubs that you can get to and visit? Seeing the equipment would I think be useful, if you have not already done so.

I also guess that getting to Coventry in early October is too far to travel - there is an astronomy show on just South of Coventry. at Stoneleigh, at that time with lots of equipment on display.

[DaveyLeo10]

Hi Ronin

You've raised a few good points. I've been saving for a while so that's why I was planning on going for a bigger scope although in the back of my mind going above 8' might be a little daunting.

Polaris is just out of view from the balcony which puts me off getting an EQ mount. My view is South/West I've looked around at the different ways to align the scope and Celestron's star/planet alignment seems like it could work.

I've not been able to find anywhere locally that sells any astronomy equipment but I'll have a look to see if there are any clubs etc because you're right when you say about being able to see the equipment in action.

[ronin]

There is or was Opticstar that sold equipment, however they "changed" and I have an idea they may not have a walk in shop any more. They still sell gear however.

It really is the alignment and goto aspects that may suffer. On a goto the scope needs to know it's orientation otherwise it cannot apply the correct amount of Alt and Az across the different parts of the sky. I know on a Meade you can get around it as everything is dependant on the scope starting out initially level and North - you can do this easily with a compass and a bubble level. The problem is I do not own a Celestron and I am not aware of similar on their products, they may have one, I just do not know. The 2 companies tended to do things differently and back then they likely "trademarked" their process, for litigation purposes.

Just checked Opticstar and their showroom is no longer operating.

Clubs: http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/

Cannot really say buy X or Y as I tend to go for the smaller refractor end, and that also means scope and mount as seperate items, not a complete one off package.

I think you will need to find out what the features concerning alignment are for the various mounts. It is one of those things that getting say a CPC 9.25 (beautiful scope) but finding it cannot be successfully aligned and so the goto cannot be used is less use then a Meade ETX-80 where you simply level it, point the tube North (even if there is a wall in the way) and almost off you go. You tell it to align and if the alignment star is not in view you can just say OK, it would be accurate enough, it is all 100% dependant then on the level and North accuracy.

I am not 100% sure how easy some of the iOptron mounts are to get running. Their "cubes" are easy as they do similar to Meade, but I think they point South not North. But the cubes have never received great reviews, not sure why.

Sometimes if the manufacturers gave the source code and an SDK many users would add useful features.

One aspect is that the scopes you are considering are all SCT's and so will have a longish focal length, this in turn means a narrowish field of view, so finding objects manually is more difficult - learnt this when I bought one. Next day I went and bought the longest focal length eyepiece I could for maximum field of view.

[cjdawson]

Don't let polaris being out of view put you off an EQ mount.  Yes, that will make it more work to setup, but as it sounds like the scope will be setup permentantly. It should still be possible to do a drift alignment to get the scope working.

I've got an 8" Meade LX-90, and frankly which uses the same tripod as the scopes up to about 12" (I think)  The as others have said, the tripod will take up all the space on your balcony.  So you'll end up standing in the room, and poking your head out of the door to observe.

Also, there is going to be alot of heat currents and things comming from the building, which will be degrade the image of a larger scope.

I'd consider the footprint of the scope, which may be too much to be practical.   Also, the weight of a large scope.  My 8" LX-90 breaks into parts, the OTA (Optical tube assembly) which comprises of the scope, and the fork mount, weighs about 15Kg, then the tripod is another 10Kg.  So, if you are intending on moving the scope once it's setup, then you'll have to take that into consideration.

If however you are planning on leaving the scope permently setup, there is a possibility making a pier for your balcony.  That will be a building project, basically, you'd be making a post, that will be secured to something so that the scope can mount on that.  It will mean that you can use less space than a tripod - just one pillar instead of three posts.  Again, you could use this for EQ or Alt-Az mounting, but will cost money.   It won't be as good as a ground mounted peir, as there could be vibrations from the building/balcony, but it'll still be better than using the tripod on the balcony.