Alkaid

Sounds good. It would work quite well I think. No real difference from a skype call other than other than the webcam / phone view is through the scope? Could use a wifi extender from a ground floor room, that should be able to cover the garden. I think it's a great idea. Cheers Steve

I loved mine, gave very sharp views. The figure of the mirror is very good. Do not let the ‘spherical vs parabolic’ debate sway your decision, as at F7 the spherical mirror has a long enough F ratio to work very well. The mount is great, like a rock. It’s an excellent scope, but for imaging you will need the version with the motor drive.

Excellent report, going to take a look at this area next time.

That’s fantastic Mike, wow, all the way to ‘h’ - brilliant. Good stuff!

Mak 150. If you'd have asked for a more general use scope, then I'd have said C6, but for dedicated solar system then it's the 150.

Some fantastic images there folks! I'm going to try s slightly lower power next time to improve the seeing. I am captivated by Plato - what seems like a boring flat floor in a smaller scope actually presents some very interesting challenges in a larger one. Fabulous.

Hi Geoff, I used a Celestron Xcel 9mm which gave x222. At first I didn't think the seeing would support this, but it just turned out to be the OTA cooldown that was the initial issue. After cooldown, I was getting good hard views, with a little image shimmer. I also use a good quality diagonal (TAL). Have fun with these, they really are great to hunt down. Out of interest, how are your viewing & seeing conditions in Melbourne? Do they differ form the UK (lack of jetstream??) My sister lives in Melbourne, tells me it's a nice place to live.

After what feels like months of poor weather, finally got my C8 out last night. It was a cold crisp evening and cool-down was a little longer than expected, but once acclimatised I spent an enjoyable amount of time hunting down my old friends, the Craterlets. Plato was fully illuminated (76% waxing gibbous phase) and there was some, but very little shadow relief to help me out. Craterlet A - seen immediately and easily. Craterlet B - Seen last. Had some trouble with this one, but got it in the end. I feel that I now need a bino-viewer, as this would no doubt help somewhat in the detection process. Craterlets C & D - seen after a long period of squinting. As they are both very close together, they're not too difficult if you put a bit of time in. I'm sure you've all seen the link below from a sister forum, but I really like this guide and you may find it very interesting. Best of luck with the hunt! https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/34841-guide-to-plato-craterlets/

If you're going down the SCT route to better the Vixen, I would step it up a gear....go for the C8. In good seeing it will beat the Vixen. The image will not be as 'clean' but there will be more information there. In poor seeing, you can revert to the ED80. Form factor is good, the C8 is quite a manageable scope and I suspect not much harder to mount up than the C6.

Perhaps a little mak, with a driven mount. A good diagonal and 3 good eyepieces to suit low, med & high power. Maybe....a 127 mak on the AZ GTI mount if just for visual? Not sure how steady that is, but there's got to be a review out there.

Which bit is the scope and which bit is the eyepiece? (Grin!) I’d really like to hear how the Meade performs Michael, thanks Steve.

Looking forward to hearing more on this, do let us know your experiences.

Okay! 1. Skywatcher 114 EQ1. The scope that got me started. This one was fine at low power, but had an inbuilt barlow in the focuser, meaning that collimating was troublesome. Had some nice nights out with the scope under winter skies and it really got me hooked. Sold it as it didn't like powers over x100 so wasn't great on the moon. 2. TAL-1. This restored my faith. A sharp scope, delivered very good, sharp clear views of the moon at it's max of x169. (It had the older push fit eyepieces so normal 25mm ones wouldn't fit). Heavy, bombproof construction, would outlast humanity. Gave it to my father-in-law when space became a bit constrained. I'm annoyed with him as he still hasn't used it.... 3. Skywatcher Evostar 90. Bought for my Mum (who never used it). A very good, underrated 3.5" F10 frac. Very light. Sharp images of the moon and planets, with a little CA. Got it back from Mum and kept it as my grab n go lunar scope. This scope has been on more than one UK holiday and I really enjoy it. 4. Orion Optics VX6L, 1/10 PV. Bargain buy, great optics. No planet was safe.... Gave me my first GREAT view of the GRS. Sold the scope as unfortunately too long to manage. If one of these comes up and you don't mind the length - buy it. No question. 5. TAL100RS. A good scope, with a little CA. Sharp optics. Nice focuser. It was around this time I became interested in the Plato Craterlets, but the 100mm aperture played havoc with my eye-floaters. I managed Craterlet 'A' but that was all.....I think the rest were more limited by aperture than my eyes though. GRS was seen, but I was underwhelmed......more aperture needed. One of the things I never did with it was low power star clusters, I think it would have delivered beautifully, but as this wasn't my 'dark sky scope' it was never used in this regard. The scope suffered the same misfortune as the VX6L - the length was too long for my small home and in the end I was sorry that it had to go... 6. Celestron C6 Newt - bought as a DSO scope for UK holidays, it did very well in this regard. Compact enough to travel on a parcel shelf and big enough to deliver great views of the Virgo galaxies from a dark sky site. A truly good scope, if one of these comes up (and the frequently do) - buy it. I only sold mine as I also wanted terrestrial views whilst on holiday. 7. Celestron C8 - I wanted a large-ish CAT for a long time. This one came up and the seller advised that it had 'very good optics for a C8'. He'd just upgraded to a C9.25 and that was the only reason for the sale. I bought the scope, but took the comments on the optics at face value. Anyway....cue first light on the moon after a good cooling session and OMG. With a 9mm Xcel at x222, Copernicus was incredible. Tack-sharp, central peaks viewed individually and clear as crystal. The extra aperture cured my floaters....no distractions at all. My only annoyance is that Jupiter will not be well placed for some years now....just going to have to wait it out. The scope also performs well at dark skies, giving me the best view of M57 Ring Nebula I have yet seen. My next purchase will be the F6.3 reducer, as this will no doubt improve the DSO viewing. This is my main telescope presently. 8. Skywatcher ST102 - cute little scope, punches well above it's weight on DSO's. Delivers really nice low power views of the Milky Way, really enjoy star-sweeping with this. Most DSO's are small though, you need to find the object at x20 and then up the power a bit to around x40 to frame the DSO nicely. At x20, this little scope delivered the best view of M31 I have ever had. It is ok on the moon at x20, but terrible at anything over x40 due to the CA, so don't bother trying to up the power on lunar. The scope also works great for terrestrial use, spotting ships or landmarks on the distant horizon is great fun. Just keep the power nice and low and the scope will be very happy. This is my current holiday scope.

Happy solstice Michael. Personally I’m gutted as my favourite subjects (planets) are no-where to be seen. When I started the hobby about 10 years ago, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn were all high in the sky. Of course, now that I finally own a nice C8, no planets to target lol! Oh well, I played the waiting game with the scope, I suppose I can play it again with the planets. Merry Xmas to all!

Great post OP. I knew that the observable nights abroad were far more numerous, but this is very interesting and I think you’ve made reasonable assumptions in the statistics. It was only last week I wondered about ‘how much better’ it is in a country like Spain for this hobby. Thanks for sharing.

I will always maintain a great interest in this hobby, but sadly decided that the UK weather doesn't justify Astro as a main hobby. If I lived in Spain things would be different (!) but some time ago I decided to sell most of my scopes except the two in my signature. A busy job coupled with living in a city and with diabolical and unpredictable weather has given extremely limited observing time. I decided that I would not be spending any more money (if it can be helped haha) on Astronomy as the cost to usage ratio just doesn't work for me. Last time I observed was Sept and all being well as it is clear tonight with a 1st quarter moon, tonight will be the next time I get the kit out. I developed other hobbies to compensate and I do those every weekend, with Astro as a back-burner interest. Having said all that, the one massive positive I have gained is that I no longer spend time wondering about 'the next scope' or 'will this scope beat that scope'. I just use what I've got and gain great pleasure from the hobby when the gods allow. And I still like to engage and converse on this forum 😀

Both TAL’s I owned showed a warm tone. One was the ‘RS’ and the other was a TAL-1 newt, though the tone cast on that would have to be down to the eyepieces. I quite liked the tones of those scopes tbh.

It’s quite a conundrum is the travel scope, in fact there are quite a few threads discussing the difficulties. Thing is, by making a set-up more portable, you lose capability and also stability. The 130p mentioned by Stu will be better on DSO’s than the refractors mentioned, but I’m not sure if you can get the base into a rucksack. Also the refractors...they need a mount...if you went with ST80 you could attach a photo tripod on the outside of your rucksack. But the bigger ST102 / ST120 need something more substantial to mount them on. It’s worth knowing that it is very easy to damage a scope by putting a scope and mount into a rucksack together, the aluminium tube of the scope will get dented.

My ST102 is small, portable and within that low price bracket. It’s pretty good at low power, delivering nice wide field views. It’s particularly good on larger DSO’s like M31. Touring the Milky Way with it is a real pleasure, a mass of jewels in the wide field of view. Two things though... it only really ‘performs’ on fainter DSO’s at dark sky sites...and don’t consider Lunar or Planetary with it as it is not at all designed for this. ST120 would have a bit more punch on the DSO’s.

That mirror will be ok, although the mildew is annoying I doubt that this amount will effect the view. It’s incredibly easy to damage a mirror when cleaning so bear that in mind if you do decide to have a go. If you look at some pics of ‘dirty’ mirrors you’ll see that they’re a lot worse than yours and with minimal impact on the views given. Nice scope!

Didn’t know that, thanks. I like the hoot of the Tawny Owl, it’s a nice sound.

The most fantastic sound when out at night is the Owl. I’ve had some wonderful nights with just me, scope, stars and Owls hooting.

Yup, the Evostar range are the refractors.

Not the same as the black one then? I thought they only changed the paint.... Just had a look, a few sites are saying 8kg for the bare tube.

Awesome. Makes my C8 look like a coke can!