sorrimen

Given it a few hard whacks into my palm and no movement. Thing seems real glued in there which just adds to the mystery of how it got there. Think I’ll heed that warning carefully, Dave, and see whether it has an effect on views before even thinking about disassembling. As an 18mm in an 8” dob, it’s restricted to DSOs and lunar, the latter of which annoyingly will probably make it the most visible, but the former will hopefully tolerate it well! Thanks all so far, and if anyone has any more suggestions/knows how easy Starguider disassembly and dreaded reassembly is, please stick them here!

I had seen the idea to smack it and tried briefly to no avail, but will try again with more effort. Very much appreciate the tip, Louis. It’s a BST Starguider 18mm. I’m tempted to think it’s got it there very recently as I’ve cleaned the eyepiece before and find it super unlikely that I’d miss something this visible. That’s what’s left me so confused, and my own newbie conclusion was that perhaps it was something on the eyecup threads that got in when I screwed it back down, though I doubt the threads would be in open contact with the lenses so I’m stumped.

https://imgur.com/a/UOFICG4 Wasnt letting me upload media.

Hi there See the attached image. Small hair/scratch looking thing inside the eyepiece. Have used the eyepiece a couple months then after last night’s observing (didn’t actually use it much) it was quite obvious at a certain angle when I looked this morning. Whilst it looks scratch-like, the fact that it is within the lens(es) leads me to think some sort of little hair/fibre instead of a scratch. I’ve bulb blown both ends, removed the lower part of the eyepiece which is a barlow and blown the lower lens (it’s definitely between the lower and upper lens of the actual eyepiece). Sorry if my terminology/knowledge is a little off, I’m still relatively new! What can be done and how the hell did it get there?! TIA Ross p.s. reason for multiple images is so that you can that by the angle it’s visible at it can’t be on the surface.

Oh wow, I never realise any of this. This has been a great help and I’ll try it all out. Thanks so much!

Hi there Just got an asi224 for my 8” manual dob (far from the norm but have got decent results as below). So far I’ve been using a 2x barlow, but with my limited experience and knowledge I think I should be imaging at around f/18 instead. A 3x barlow would be perfect for this. Is all of this correct? I’m aware that tracking would be harder, but with 2x I’m only dropping ~10% of frames from lack of object in frame (with a fairly small ROI) so I think it would be manageable. If I am correct, are there any budgety 3x barlows that would be acceptable? Not looking to spend much more than £50. TIA Ross

I imagined everyone would have different experiences, but didn’t gauge how light pollution and different levels of dark adaptation would make the question so hard to answer; my mistake! You’ve kind of matched my thought train at the end there though, as I’ve seen some people say they take dark adaptation extremely seriously and to me that means no lights at all. Do people then just find all their targets by memory, or does everyone just use dim red lights?

Quite right that that would be the best bet, but with cloudy skies for a while and my observation site not being quite out of the dark, I would still love to hear others’ experiences! With my limited experience, I’ve only got 4 or 5 targets I can comfortably find without a star chart so I’m essentially weighing up if it’s worth spending a precious clear night restricted to those targets but getting fully dark adapted, if that makes sense. The dark cloth and snorkel mask ideas are really helpful, thank you!

Hi all I mainly observe with some slightly visible streetlights a couple hundred metres away and most of the night use my phone for stellarium to find objects. As a result, I’ve never got truly dark adapted and am really intrigued to see the difference. Does anyone have any sketches or edited images that highlight what difference you guys see? Even a written comparison e.g. could see no spiral arms, then adapted could see them would be really helpful to me! TIA

Yeah just got my filter today, will follow this advice. Thanks!

Oh interesting. Knew nothing about threading before this so it’s quite good I’ve got it out the way early. Still a little frustrating they label things as M42 when they’re actually T/T2!

Yeah unfortunately I bought it off someone. They didn’t mention it was missing, which was slightly irritating, and for £20 I wanted to find a cheaper alternative.

Yeah it’s slightly annoying that they describe it as an M42 to 1.25” nosepiece when in reality it’s got the T/T2 thread. Got a cheap ebay one, but if that fails astroessentials it is.

You know what, I didn’t even check before I bought it but I’ve looked again and it does have filter threads. Almost saved me a bit of a headache there thank you!

Ah great thanks a lot. Yeah I think I’m unable to get enough backfocus that way, and with my barlow being 1.25” I think I have to get the adapter!

Hi all Need to buy a 1.25” nosepiece for my new asi224. The zwo one is about £20, so would rather get something cheaper. Are T/T2 adapters compatible with the camera? It seems to be listed as M42 and I’ve read that they have different thread pitches, but then the diagrams say M42*0.75 (T/T2 thread pitch size) so I’m a bit confused. Cheers Ross p.s. I know there should be one in the box, but I bought an ‘as new’ one and the seller helpfully didn’t mention that it was missing, then refused to help me with the cost of a new one, so here am I looking for the cheapest option!

Oh of course, very airheaded of me. Annoyingly my barlow requires in focus. Think parfocalising my eyepieces to each other and forgetting barlow for now is what I’ll do for simplicity. Thanks for the help as always, Don.

Hi all Right slightly niche question here. Just installed a skywatcher auto focuser (not actually an auto focuser, just a motor). Haven’t had the chance to use it on a night observing yet but the little use I have had makes me think I’ll probably want to make my eyepieces parfocal or at least as close as I can get with parfocal rings, just to cut out the waiting between swapping out eyepieces. My question is regarding my barlow; I use my barlow for my higher powers of 200x and 300x and I use it somewhat frequently. In your opinion, would it be worth getting an extension tube so that my eyepieces are parfocal to their barlowed equivalent? Also, are extension tubes normally the same size as barlows (I have a bst 2x barlow if that helps). Of course, if all barlows and extension tubes are of different lengths then they won’t be useful for parfocalising. Apologies if this is a bit of a ‘depends on how much it bothers you’ question, but would be interested to hear opinions and experience with parfocal rings. Thanks Ross

Thanks so much for this speedy response. This is super detailed and exactly what I needed, plus a bit of a lesson in seeing vs transparency etc. Given that it’s just an 8” dob a few minute walk away and I’m still fairly new I may as well just get out when it looks relatively clear, so I’ll follow your advice.

Hi all, Thanks ever so much for all the helpful replies, there are really so many! I think given that I’m restricted to these coming days with new moon and can’t do next month, I’ll settle somewhere with at least slightly more reliable weather. Probably south west coast or south downs, assuming I can convince my friends to do that! Feel free to keep commenting if anyone has thoughts to share. Thanks again

Hi all My question today is how high clouds affect seeing. On ‘Clear outside’, it’ll show conditions as red (bad) when all other factors other than high cloud coverage are good. When looking up just with my eyes, the sky looks clear and I can see stars etc. If I’m not mistaken, high clouds transmit a lot of visible light, so do they have a noticeable effect when looking through a scope? Is the effect just greater turbulence and atmospheric wobble or does it decrease apparent brightness? Thanks all! tldr; Is it a waste of time taking the scope out if there are high clouds?

Seems I missed out then! Very much appreciate the kind offer though, and if the slightly pricier pair I settle on somehow fall out of collimation I’ll be sure to send you a message.

Thanks for the detailed response, Dave. In that case, I’ll keep working towards a good £100 pair!

Hi all Sorry that this is a slightly lazy post, but I’ve seen a pair of bresser binoculars for £10 with the description being ‘slight double vision until adjusted to the bridge of your nose’. Looked up double vision w binos and saw that it’s normally miscollimation. Is collimation easy on binos? Do you reckon it’s worth grabbing these for a fun little £10 pair? https://www.gumtree.com/p/binoculars/bushnell-binoculars-10x50/1436317307 Thanks! Ross