Scoobyroo

Thanks all for the responses I managed to grab a few hours with the scope again on Saturday (break in the clouds), but had to move the table it sits on (which is super sturdy) to a different area of the garden to get a good view of the moon in the slot I had. The ground here is most definitely less level then where I normally spot from and I did notice that my Go-To was even less accurate than it normally is. As such, I definitely feel that levelling is having a beneficial impact, regardless of calibration. My Heritage Virtuoso 150P has a bubble level (though it's very inconveniently place right in the centre of the base plate, where it's difficult to see when the tube is on 😆). I was hoping I may find the legs adjustable also (thanks for the tip Ivan), but seems they are fixed. I'll take a look around to see if I can find adjustable replacements 👍 Thanks again all... R

Thanks for this thread... had a very similar question RE: mirror cleaning on my (now shrouded) Heritage 150P 👍

Hi all. Think this may be a silly question, but I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I have a Sky-Watcher Heritage 150P Virtuoso GTi, with Go-To dobsonian table top mount. I typically use the scope on my garden table, which is super sturdy and works well. I would like to take the scope to a darker sky area not far from where I live and am considering placing the scope either on the car bonnet, or directly on the ground (on a waterproof blanket). Pro's and cons to each of course (comfort, etc), but my question is more related to if (how well) the Go-To tracking system might work? Normally, the base is Go-To calibrated on a level surface, north aligned and then uses two stars to finalise the calibration (with manual adjustments as necessary). What happens in a scenario where the surface is not level? In theory, the the 'two-star' part of the calibration should consider any 'wonkiness' of the surface the scope is mounted on - but everything I'm reading states that the tabletop mount must be level. Anyone have any experience with this? (wasn't sure if I should be posting this in 'mounts' or 'software' - mounts seemed the best fit). Txs. Rick

Beautiful image... lovely work

Glad to see that you’ve got it. Let us know how you find the new 15mm eyepiece compared to the packaged ones (10mm and 25mm I assume). 👍

Sorry, forgot you asked for this as well:

I picked up the 150p Heritage Virtuoso GTi last week. My use case is 'casual hobbyist', and one of my main criteria was ease of storage, set-up and usage. Whilst I can't talk to how a 200mm visually compares to a 150mm is real-world use, I can tell you that you that I've seen some incredible detail in my 150p. I'll also reiterate what many have said, that you can't put a price of portability! If it's 'less' practical to use / move, you'll use it 'less'... an extra 2" in no good if it's sat in the cupboard under the stairs. I can get the 150p Heritage out and set up in about 2 minutes and move it (front garden has better northerly views) in another 2 minutes. It folds down nicely, it's light enough to carry with one arm (not that I'd recommend it! - haha) and so sits nicely on the front seat of my car with room to spare. It's already visited a few family members (many oooohs and ahhhhs ensued!) Many DSO are faint smudges of light and from what I've seen in many hours of YouTube videos comparing 150mm and 200mm (video compression caveats aside), the faint smudges just become slightly less faint smudges. If you can drop a few bortle's because of ease of transportation, that'll easily trump the aperture drop. Just my opinion, based on what I've seen and read... I'm pretty new to all this myself Good luck whatever you choose.

I thought you all might appreciate a laugh at my expense... As a newbie to the astronomy world (it's my 1 week anniversary today! 🤩), I've been lucky enough to enjoy some pretty clear skies this week. One of my favourite targets already with my 6" Newt is Jupiter. I typically start on it, end on it and spend quite a bit of time on it in between lol. I was looking for a phone App to help me navigate around the night sky (at least until I get to grips with this hobby a little more) and @Astro_Dad recommended a few, including Stellarium (thanks Astro!). First can I just say, what a great App! Now have the free version on my Mac and also paid for the premium version on my phone, as it allows me to control my GoTo mount directly (rather than relying on the 'ok' SynScan software). I've spent hours with the software already, setting it up exactly as I like it and have especially enjoyed the ability to zoom in on any DSO / planet to get a feel for what I should be seeing (especially useful for when you're trying to ID a faint DSO smudge in your EP... is that it, or not?!?!). For planetary, especially Jupiter, it's great to be able to see where its moons are positioned relative to their mother and also to be able to spin backwards / forwards in time to track their orbits, when I should be seeing their shadows on Jupiter's surface and at what tiem I might be able to catch a glimpse of the GRS. Excitement quickly turned to frustration however when I pulled Jupiter into my EP view only to find that what I saw was nothing like what the App said I should be seeing. Sure, I could make out three moons (perhaps a forth), but they most certainly weren't where I expected them to be 🙁 I then proceeded to fall down a 2 hour rabbit hole of browsing forums, reading manuals, uninstalling and reinstalling software, manually entering GPS co-ordinates and adding the time / date manually to try and fix the issue... all to no avail. Frustrated and quickly running out of clear skies, I decided to take a look at the Seven Sisters (I'd heard it was a great target and it had just reached high enough in the sky over the house (roof) for me to get a good view of it). Again, imagine my frustration when it looked nothing like in the App. I mean, it was there for sure, but the view just wasn't matching what the App (and many images online) were showing me. It was at that point I had my 'ahhhhh haaaaa' moment, quickly followed by a 'groan - slap head' moment. School boy error Rick!.... yup... of course, everything is flipped in your scope Rick. Astronomy 101! 🥸 Within seconds, I'd found the view flip/reverse buttons in Stellarium and what do you know!... everything was back in its rightful place and the order of the Universe was restored! I just got chance to retrain my EP on Jupiter to see IO, Europa and Callisto all where they should be, had a bit of a meltdown that I actually now knew which of the moons I was looking at (OMG!).... and.... then a big cloud came along and sat right on top of them for the rest of the night 😆 Moral of the story... don't be a Rick!

I'll never get bored of seeing images of Jupiter. Lovely shot!...

Love these!... great work

One is red, facilitates a lot of 'ohhhhs' and 'ahhhhs' and costs a fortune..... the other one is a Ferrari!

Nice!... Will be interesting to hear what you think and how much of a step up it is

The pain will be worth it I’m sure. If it helps, I’ve only just found astronomy, so you still know way more than I do about it 😋

Nice!... had my first wow moment looking at Saturn last Friday with my Heritage (150P)... I'm guessing you were using your x2 barlow and 10mm? When you do free up some extra cash, I'd also recommend the BST StarGuider eye pieces. Still pretty budget friendly, but a marked step up in quality over the packed EP's. If you want a bit more diversity whilst keeping a pretty reasonable step up in optics (for only about £10 more), I've found the SVBony Zoom 21-7mm (sv135) pretty good (was recommended to me). FLO don't seem to stock them, but you can pick them up from their official store on Amazon... or maybe a second hand one on Ebay.

Your ISS post yesterday is a perfect example... you got quite a few responses, so I'd say that's a big tick in the box 👍