Grump Martian

Dobsonians are good if your garden does not have high fences or bushes.They are situated on the ground The Maksutov on a tripod can give a better vantage point for viewing higher up. Maksutov's are designed for planetary observations and some smaller deep sky objects.

I really enjoy using my Starfield under my light polluted skies

The interloping star is HD 1385 in Pisces. This is shown in Stellerium at 6.45 p.m.

A brief look at the moon and then Jupiter just a few minutes ago,6.45 p.m. Nice to see the Earthlight on the unilluminated part of the moon. But what made me smile a little was the view of Jupiter. It normally shows the four largest moons. But for a brief moment I could see five. Ha, just a star close by. Funny how one's mind works. Thinking it was an extra moon for the briefest of moments. Of course it was a star inteloping with the Jovian system that we know and love. Expand the picture should show it above the third moon on the right. Please don't laugh at me,lol.

I currently have a 102 mm f7 ed refractor. An excellent tradional telescope which I enjoy using and will keep. But I recently sold my Celestron C6 OTA. I used this as a travel telescope on visits to dark skies in Swanage and Wales. What a mistake to sell it. I cannot see new ones for sale anywhere. Have they stopped making them? I once enjoyed owning a Celestron C5. I found that the C6 gave much brighter views. You would expect that given the extra size. But they were pleasingly much brighter. Oh for the addition of another C6 to my armoury. Are there plans to sell the C6 OTA again I wonder?

Crikey Stu, you'll need steps and a safety harness to get to the eyepiece

This is my Starfield fitted to a modified Berlebach Castor alt/az mount

I'm not sure the the AZ GTi would suite a longer tube length 4 inch refractor. Perhaps a Skywatcher EQ 5

I have been enjoying using my Starfield refractor on a manual alt/az mount. But finding objects in the night sky by following stars has become quite differcult. This is due to light polluted skies. I did have an AZ GTi mount. This was a good mount, but for the payload specified.But not sure that with a fully loaded 100 mm refractor would work well. That really leaves EQ mounts. I have never really got on with EQ mounts. Could this really be me not fully understanding them or giving them a chance. Perhaps rushing the setup.What mounts do others use for their 100 mm refractors? I am only interested in visual observing.

Amazing. The skills available to us in the modern age.

I have always been fascinated by the planet Mars. Views of Mars began with drawings based on observations from ground based telescopes. The top picture being one from 1879 ( a book,Sun, Moon & Stars). The second picture shows an impression of Mars as seen from one of it's moons Deimos. Painted by Chesley Bonestell in 1956. As a child in the 1960's I began borrowing astronomy books from the library. These had black & white photos of Mars from ground based telescopes. This is what we had into the early 1970's. The third picture showing such an example from my 1973 Hutchinson 20th Century Encyclopedia. Then in 1976 we had the Viking Mars landers. These provided breath taking pictures from orbit and the surface. We now have data from recent Mars rovers. These pictures are fantastic. When I reflect over the decades of my life,looking at the earliest Mars pictures, I am truely living in that young childs future. Is there no wonderment in space exploration anymore? Or are there even bigger surprises coming our way?