John

I've had a number of Synta ST80 and 102's all of which also had good optics. I've recently sold an ST102 which gave a super star test. Lots of good scopes out there at competative prices

1 minute ago, LDW1 said:

The 2” WO SWAN, 70° is a pretty nice ep for a pretty nice price, I think you would like it !

They are not that well corrected in the outer field in an F/4.7 scope though.

There are always compromises to be made though. I still feel that the old adage "low cost / wide field / sharp right across in faster scopes: pick any two" is broadly accurate.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I think the most important thing you can do is to make sure that you know how your new scope fits together and functions in daylight - much easier than fumbling around in the dark trying to work out what goes where and what knob / screw does what.

Secondly, try and get your finder scope accurately aligned with the main scope in daylight as well. Use a distant target such as a tree top or house chimney. When you have a target on the cross hairs of the finder scope you need to be confident that the view at low power with the main scope will also have the target in the middle of the view.

Thirdly, initially get a feel for observing using your lowest power eyepiece - that is the one with the largest number printed on it, eg: 25mm or 20mm. Once you are comfortable and are getting good sharp views with that eyepiece then you can try higher power using a shorter focal length eyepiece, eg: 10mm.  If the scope is supplied with a barlow lens and / or an erecting eyepiece they are best not used to start with because they can present challenges of their own.

Pick easy targets such as the moon to start with to gain confidence and have fun

22 minutes ago, Alfian said:

If that's the case my 90mm is one of the better ones.

Its the 80mm F/5 that I was referring to specifically.

I think there is a sort of "sods law" that the seeing conditions are best 10-15 minutes after you have packed your gear away, just when you are having a last peek at the sky before turning in

The other time you often seem to get superb seeing is when you get out of bed to go to the loo and peer out the window just out of curiosity.

3 hours ago, johninderby said:

The little f5 Opticstar 80mm is a smaller cheaper option and while f5 still less CA than the ST80.

http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_1_1_90

They used to do one with a dual speed focuser which does show up used from time to time. 

I've read reports of the optics in those being very variable. Neil English was one owner who ended up putting a Skywatcher ST80 objective in his Opticstar 80 tube to get decet performance from it.

I think in this case Fo_Cuss (the original poster) is simply trying to make the best of what he already has

There are a few scopes that I've owned, parted with and then missed later. Strangely the one that jumps to mind most often is my old TAL 100RT which I bought new in December 1999. It was quite quirky in the usual TAL way and very traditional in its looks but it peformed very nicely and it just so much looked the part. Even though I have two very fine 4 inch refractors now (a Vixen ED and a Takahashi Fluorite) I still look longingly at the pictures of the older TAL 100's when they come up for sale 

Some equatorial mounts can be setup and used in alt azimuth mode:

https://astromart.com/reviews/mounts/alt-azimuth/show/the-super-polaris-mount-in-alt-az-configuration

Hello and welcome to the forum

You can actually see Jupiters 4 bright Galilean Moons with 10x50 binoculars if you hold them steady so practially any scope with more magnification than that is going to show them clearly.

The moons change position and formation each night so all 4 are not always visible. Watching them pop in and out of view as they pass behind the planet is great fun (there are several tools and websites that give you the timings of these events) but even more interesting is observing the shadows that the moons cast on Jupiters cloud tops and watching as the moon and shadows creep across the disk is fascinating. You do need a scope and 80x magnification or so to see these events.

Have fun !

Great stuff Chris

I've not managed to observe in quite a while, mostly because of the weather, but I'm glad to read an enthusiastic report to show that its worth the effort when the chance comes along

I wonder how the 203mm GSO classical cassegrain would fare on 52 Orionis 

5 minutes ago, GlenM said:

Don't touch it, send it back. Removing glue is a tricky business. My thoughts anyway.

 

Glen.

 

I agree 100% with Glen - get the vendor to replace the scope. Don't try and clean the objective yourself.

Perhaps see how the vendor responds and include that in your review of their performance ?. It's when things dont go so well that vendors show their quality (or otherwise).

Put the scope on an alt-azimuth mount and use a right angle, correct image finder

1 hour ago, Buzzard75 said:

Agreed. I had to dig into the support documentation on the website to find the details when I was considering backing it a couple of years ago. They probably should have defined it up front. In any case, that's the logic behind the claim. And in case anyone else is curious, a difference of 5 magnitudes equates to a factor of 100 in terms of brightness. So a star that is mag 10 will appear 100 times brighter than a mag 15 star. I honestly haven't done any testing to confirm their calculations under my own conditions.

I guess 100 times brighter is going to have more impact than saying something like "without EV = limit is mag 12-13 and with EV = limit is mag 14-15"

Maybe it's more than that but the impact of "100 times" is going to be much more to the inexperienced astronomer.

Both Neptune and Uranus can been seen in optical finders from 30mm and upwards in aperture. They are just star-like points in finders though. At around 50x and upwards Uranus shows a disk and for Neptune 150x is needed because its disk is around half the angular size of Uranus.

Feel free to message me with any questions on my scope.

If I was going to go down the EV route, with the investment that is required, I would put together my own system from componants that I choose based on independant reports from the likes of Gavster, PeterW and other experienced exponants. There is loads of information on the web now from these early adopters and they are not trying sell anything, just share sucesses, failures and the pleasure that they have derived from the appoach. Great use of astro forums IMHO

I have seen Triton on quite a few occasions from my back garden which has moderate but not severe light pollution. My 12 inch dob shows it reasonably easily but I find that high magnifications (300x plus) are needed to help the moon pop out of the background sky. Sometimes a form of averted vision helps spot it as well. I have managed to see Triton a couple of times with my 130mm triplet refractor as well but with that smaller aperture spotting the faint point of light fairly close to Neptune needs better seeing conditions.

With my 12 inch dob I have also managed to see a couple of Uranian moons - Titania and Oberon. There are 2 others which I should also theoretically be able to pick up with that scope but I have not managed that so far. The Uranian moons are a touch dimmer than Triton and Uranus is brighter and a larger disk than Neptune all of which adds to the challenge.

It is still a great book

That sounds like the 3rd edition.

What edition did you get ?

I do sometimes get pangs of uncertainty when I decide that something has to go but, for me, seeing something not being used much or at all is much worse. I do try and move on redundant gear and take solice in the thought that the new owner will put it to use, which is what it was created for.

I agree with Mark (above). 30mm will be a much more effective focal length and the Explore Scientific 30mm 82 degree eyepiece that Mark links to is an excellent choice for your 10 inch F/4.7 dobsonian.

A 20mm / 100 degree eyepiece is even better if you observe with some light pollution around.

The AZ-4 has a similar capacity but no slow motion controls. Not sure if the AZ-5 (which does have slo mos) has quite the capacity of the Vixen Porta ?

My Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 rides very happily on an AZ-4 with a 1.5 or 1.75 inch steel tripod.

On 09/01/2020 at 07:07, Geoff Barnes said:

@bluesilver The Lumicon filters are mainly available from the USA suppliers, but many don't ship to Australia.

You could try https://www.astroshop.eu/ as an alternative, they ship worldwide.

Alas, good though it is, my Astronomik 0lll filter shows the Veil fainter than your image on the left @John

Too low on our light polluted horizon from here - very frustrating.

Sorry to hear that Geoff but at least Cygnus gets well up into the sky here in the UK so we see the Veil well. You have done much better with the planets where you are though.

43 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

That's probably the best philosophy John. Comparing eyepieces can be a costly pass time...

 

I also started to find that I was concentrating so much on finding subtle differences between products that I was not enjoying observing as much. That was what prompted me to change tack somewhat.