Gfamily

The NWAF is online this year, currently on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8l4RECl5Wq8

I think that's 6lb rather than 6kg, so should be easily within the capacity for the AZ GTi (According to here) .

I'm surprised you don't have an Identify button. Do you have the latest version? On my version (Android v1.17.0) the Identify button is inside the Utility menu.

You shouldn't need to tell it that you've manually moved to Betelgeuse, the Freedom Find encoders should have kept track. Once you have moved it, what happens if you go straight to the 'Identify' command on the app? It should tell you that you are on Betelgeuse (or near it at least), if so, then it's working as expected.

As has been said, it's not really a valid statement to say "an image has a magnification" However, if you know the diagonal size of the sensor, you can say the field of view is roughly comparable to that size of eyepiece. So, for example, the ASI 120mm camera has a sensor size that's 4.8mm x 3.6mm, so has a diagonal of about 6mm. If you were imaging Mars with that camera, then it would have a similar field to that you would get with a 6mm eyepiece. Yes, it's not an exact match, but as a rule of thumb, it'll do

I'd second the recommendation for the Heritage 150p. We have the very similar 130p scope, which is very well put together and gives very good results. Yes, look out for apps for your phone to work alongside it - Stellarium and Sky Safari are both very popular (personally, I prefer Stellarium, but YMMV). However, what I would really strongly suggest is that you get yourself a proper planisphere. These are made up of two discs that allow you to match up the date and time and they will show you what is visible in the sky all in one go, so you can see how constellations relate to each other. One thing that a planisphere does is show how the sky changes hour by hour across an evening, and also how it changes month by month across the year. You can often get one for less than £10 from places like The Works, either by themselves or with a 'guide to the night sky', and they are really useful for learning your way around the night sky.

That's interesting. I wonder how it's related to the 'Core Cusp Problem', which (as I understand it) says that for small galaxies, the Dark Matter should have high density knots, that we don't see. This recent report seems to be a complementary problem affecting assemblies at the other end of the galaxy cluster scale. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuspy_halo_problem

Hi, I've been loaned an Altair Lightwave, and am trying to find out more about it. I have to say it's a beautiful scope to use under dark skies. Mounted on my AZ GTi it gave me great views of clusters, nebulae and the planets we were looking at earlier in the year. It's the first scope I've really been able to use with my 6.4mm eyepiece, so I'm beginning to see why people love their 'fracs. I can't see any references to it being on sale any more, so what would be its current equivalent?

When using a list for planning, you still need to consider surface brightness, as some things disappear as your skies get more light polluted, and many galaxies (for example) just get lost away from dark sky sites. This is a mock up of the difference seen between a Brecon Beacons dark sky site and my home skies (outskirts of a town). It's M13 which is one of the easier objects to pick out under urban skies, so you can see that fainter DSOs could well be more or less invisible.

I think the poster separated the illuminator and crosshair disc and flipped it, so that it went in back to front. If you have perfect vision, the final image is meant to be at infinity (otherwise you can get eye strain), but for people with uncorrected short sightedness, the final image needs to be closer than that. To move the image of the crosshairs hairs closer, you need to shorten the distance between the crosshairs and the eyepiece, and I think lack of focus adjustment made that a problem. I'd want to know more about the distances involved to be sure, but that's my best explanation from an 1970s A level physics standpoint.

I can concur with this. I've borrowed a 72mm refractor and when we were out in France at a relatively dark sky site, that scope on the AZ GTi was the most fun I've had with the scope in a long time - all GOTOs were spot on, and the dark sky meant that the targets were all easily seen. However, having tried the same set up here at home, it's clear that light pollution makes that 'small refractor' approach far less rewarding. It's good to hear that the scope can manage a larger refractor though.

The downside of the SkyMax is that it has a relatively narrow field of view, and a long focal length, which has two effects. - the narrow field of view means that you need to be spot on with your alignment or otherwise you could find your actual target is outside your field of view - the long focal length can reduce the contrast of extended faint objects There's a lot to be said for the Az GTi as a mount, and with a light weight scope it works really well - however, my experience of using it with the 127 Mak is that it's not always spot on with finding its targets, and not hitting the targets can be extremely frustrating (believe me, I know this !!) I would suggest going for a lower tech solution, and would suggest you start with a Heritage 130p manual dobsonian scope. It has a nice wide field of view, and gives excellent images of clusters, the Moon and planets (with a Barlow lens to give the extra image size). One advantage of this is that your son will be able to get it out and use it by himself. One feature of the Heritage over other 'table top' telescopes is that optics can be removed from the table-top mount and mounted onto the AZ GTi, which will give you the advantage of freedom find and wifi controls. Now, in fairness I have to say that I do have a 127Mak and it is generally the first scope I go to for observing - but I often get frustrated with it, and I can see how people can be put off when it doesn't work as well as I thing it ought to. In short, rather than risking you and your son getting frustrated by the tech, start by going for something that allows a simpler, lower tech approach to whet your interests. Hope this helps

I fear that many things included on 'Tonight's Best' tours are likely to come under the category of 'faint fuzzies', and if you're looking under moderate levels of light pollution, they may be much less obvious than you might expect. If you want to check out your scope's capabilities, start with things that are not going to be swamped out. So my suggestions would be... Start with Mizar and Alcor as it shows the power of the scope to clarify what you can just make out with the naked eye. Albireo in Cygnus - is worth looking at as a double star with different colours Epsilon Lyrae (the double double) is worth examining under higher magnifications, as it can help you determine the quality of your image - how well can you identify that each of the 'double' is also a double? Messier 13 in Hercules, should be visible under moderate levels of light pollution, but it will look better if you can get to a dark sky site. https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=11.41&lat=51.7710&lon=-2.1932&layers=B0TFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF And, of course there are the two early evening planets, Jupiter and Saturn - if you can get to a location with a good South/West aspect in the early evening, it'll be rewarding to observe them telescopically. All the best with this - and clear skies.

If you're unsure, the SyncscanInit App on your (android) phone will give you the location and the time/zone data to enter into the handset in exactly the right format

As well as using apps as others have suggested, it can be an idea to take a pair of binoculars out with you as the wider field of view can make it easier for you to get a better idea of where the scope needs to be pointed. They can be used as an intermediate stage between 'naked eye' and 'finderscope' You can also build your own star hop charts to try to familiarise yourself with how to move between the bright stars and your targets. Attached is one I prepared for hopping to M81 & M82 using Cartes de Ciel and MS Word Word

I know Mercury's best evening visibility is in February, so it's a question of whether it is still reasonably possible to observe it a few weeks later, when it's good for the Messier Marathon.

We're under a pretty extreme jetstream at the moment, so that might be affecting your view of the planets. I was out watching Jupiter and Saturn early this evening, before it was properly dark, and although I could just make out the bands of Jupiter, they were pretty much coming and going.

What's the interval between the images? Any satellite at the height of the ISS will only take a fraction of a second to cross the Moon, and any other satellites would be similar. If the moon was near the celestial equator it could be a geostationary satellite which would take longer to cross the Moon, but I don't think it would have that parh I'd say it's possibly a balloon, possibly a high altitude weather balloon.

I like to explain why Mercury is best seen as a Morning object in November whereas it's a good Evening object in February. It's all to do with the angle that the ecliptic makes with the horizon and how it varies over the year and over the 12 hours between morning and evening. With Mercury only having a small range of distances from the Sun, it's best observed when it as as high as possible above the horizon. These are for the Northern Hemisphere of course, the Southern Hemisphere has the seasons the other way around

Usefully, you can also connect to it from the Plus versions of the Stellarium and Sky Safari apps, so you can use those for GOTO as well as the SynScan apps (each around £6.50 - £7.50) You may need to adjust the battery optimisation settings for the app, but it's a neat way of using the mount. I use the Stay Awake app to keep my phone from sleeping.

That price has just been dropped from (I think) £280. I can't really say it's a case of scalping.

An alternative approach is to insulate the OTA, as that also reduces the air currents.

Under the tab

At the time, Hey was working with the Army Operations Research Group, so it may be worthwhile looking online to see if they had any establishments in Richmond Park. Hey's work on Cygnus A is associated with that of Parsons and Phillips, so you could also try searching against their names.

An advantage of the Heritage 'table top' scopes is that the OTAs have a dovetail, so they can be remounted on an upgraded mount later. Edit: There's a certain amount of setting up if you want to use a tracking scope, but the manufacturers are making it very straightforward. You could look at the SkyWatcher Discovery 150 scope, which is about £450, but the Heritage will be one that you'll probably find easier for your son to use. You will need to know the locations of the brightest stars (as you use them for the initial alignment), for which I strongly recommend getting a planisphere (you can often buy them in The Works with a star chart or guide book for about a tenner). As for cost, yes, they'll be a few hundred £££ new, but you can often find them second hand for more reasonable prices.