AstralFields

Spoiler Alert. Long story short, yeah, the 15$ Celestron Omni 2x Barlow & SVBony 3x is absolutely nice to use even with premium eyepieces like the Explore Scientific 11mm 82 degrees.

12" DOB with a Sony IMX 415 4K camera Full Res: 3071x1567 https://flic.kr/p/2qigvms

If you look real close on the full res picture, there is a small worm like structure to the left. It is a big ditch called the Hadley Rille, which was the main object of research. So yeah, that was a bold mission. Not only they had to avoid the mountains but also this big ditch. I am very happy I managed to capture it. I just watched it last night visually again.

Moon - Super Res - 10500 x 10500 Telescope - GSO 12" DOB Camera: Sony IMX415 security cam 4K 20 frames taken from a 10 minute video Composited as panorama in Microsoft ICE Finishing touches with FSViewer Full Resolution Pic: https://flic.kr/p/2qcCgq1

I wouldn't say it is easier to build than the typical EQ platform design with segments (all made of plywood without aluminum segments - I have built 4 of them). This looks simple but the top portion with the rods is quite a precision work that I wouldn't be able to do with a simple jigsaw in my garage like I do the segments. Also not sure I can source that motor and transmission on AliExpress But I would say that for lower latitudes this could maybe be a better option. It would be interesting to see one for 33 degrees where the classic design struggles. Either way , looking forward to see this complete. Great project.

August 2024 300mm Dobsonian with an EQ Platform + Sony IMX415 security cam @ 4K. Processed in PiPP, AS3, Registax6, FastStone FullRes: 3595 x 1565 https://flic.kr/p/2qcrnXZ

300mm Dobsonian + Sony IMX415 security cam @ 4K. Processed in PiPP, AS3, Registax6, FastStone Full Resolution: 3448x1864 https://flic.kr/p/2qbYtWE

Btw.. I agree about the Zooms. In my view anybody and everybody should have some kind of a Zoom eyepiece, not just beginners. They are just too much fun and not at all expensive. I put out a video just few minutes ago on that topic recommending the SVBony SV191.

First, getting an 8" is a very safe bet. Even if you buy it new and sell it few months/years down the road, you won't lose more than about a 100$ on it. Buying it used, will in the end cost you zero as you sell it for the same money. My first telescope 2 years ago was an 8" Sky-Watcher. I should've bought the GSO/Stellalyra as it is cheaper a bit and has a lot better accessories. Few months ago, I upgraded to a GSO 12". It is better in each and every way but I would never have survived it as a first telescope. The 8" honed my skills both in observing and equipment so that by the time I got to the 12" I knew exactly what I was doing and am now able to optimize my experience and handle the extra weight / focal ratio well. I wouldn't touch a Dobsonian without wheels on the base (you can mount them yourself) and carrying straps for the 12". Makes things so much easier with handling the 12 and even transporting with my car. Check my channel below for the 8" review, the 12" comparison and some budget friendly equipment.

Got a better improved shot for 2024. 2022: Was just starting out with my new telescope. Hand tracked (drift method) with an 8" and a FullHD camera through a 2x Barlow (very tough!). Not enough exposure and by the time I figured it out , I couldn't get another shot. 2023: Upgraded camera to Sony IMX415 , 4K with no Barlow through my 8" , hand tracked (drift method) 2024 - few nights ago: Upgraded my telescope to 12" f/5, this time on an EQ platform. Got Saturn relatively low in the sky at 30 degrees (didn't want to wait around an extra hour). Looks like this is as good as its going to get. Used ideal sampling with a Barlow 1.5x (the camera has a pixel size of 1.45) The lack of ADC is very visible in the RGB shift and later fixing it in AutoStakker is not as good as the real thing. The lack of light sensitivity of my camera means I have to shoot at 15FPS - 62ms exposure. The average seeing around here and the low Altitude of Saturn in the sky for my latitude is also not helping. Lastly, the camera shoots with MJPG compression .. not bad for a 50$ camera but a raw shooting camera would also improve the situation. All being said, I am primarily a DSO / Visual observer so I have no plans in doing any more upgrades. Just felt like sharing about all the stuff that can still be improved. I do like imaging the planets once per year though.

I'd like to make a small tribute to my first ever and in my view, the best all around telescope a beginner/intermediate can hope to have. Some key thoughts on why I believe the 8" DOB is such an amazing instrument. At about 23kg of total weight, it is very easy (well ok, relatively easy) to transport and use. It allows to comfortably sit during the entire viewing session on a simple drummer collapsible chair. It was quick to store in the car and drive outside of the city for a viewing. The price of 550$ brand new with shipping is a really nice price for any semi-serious hobbyist. I've spent more on three day skiing trips alone. I am selling it now for 400$, so the telescope has cost me only about 150$ for 2 years of semi-heavy usage. Like maybe 40 sessions under the stars. With a nice 2" focuser and the telescope operating at f/6 , I could buy a ton of budget eyepieces for like 600$ and learn a ton about telescope equipment. That knowledge has allowed me to later cull down all that stuff and buy few premium eyepieces for my f/5 12". I wouldn't have done it in any other way. Especially in the first few months/year , I couldn't care less that the stars at the edges were a bit smeared. I was too busy hunting down the whole Messier catalog Even though I couldn't do any DSO imaging, it was more than capable to get most of the Solar System. I enjoyed getting my first ever images of the planets, the Moon and the Sun as well. It was relatively easy to design and operate an EQ platform with a single motor, unlike the 12". The Sky-Watcher offering is not bad but knowing what I know now, the GSO (Stellalyra) is so much much better because they offer a double speed focuser, it is a better focuser overall, a fan at the bottom, better Azimuth bearings and a 30mm SuperView eyepiece which alone costs like 90$. Goodbye my dear 8", the time has come to part ways. The 12" is of course a much more capable telescope and I don't really mind the extra weight. But deep down I know there will be nights where I will miss just sitting at the top of my 8" and enjoying some wide field open clusters. Those were the most amazing in the 8". Full review:

The plans you see here are from this thread: They use a different design with Aluminum so I did not include them in my build.

The three colored circles represent different Dobsonian bases sizes and how they would be put on the platform with their respective circular bottoms. You can find more of the theory here: https://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.html?/Plattform/plattform_VNS_e.html

Hello, They are in the description of both videos If you would like to build your own, please follow this guide https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xg4LBCNtED23_Ha50-la0b70z4_xOGFb/view?usp=drive_link You will need to install Libre Office Draw (free) to ensure printing of the segments at scale. Additionally, you could try with the PDF version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vaq1xYoLOoWMC4bgHCmyJTn5w97NLlUx/view?usp=drive_link Make sure to post some pictures here of your completed platform

It was an unintentional mistake caused by an extension in my browser (Dark Reader) that modifies every website into a dark mode, even those that don't need it. I turned it off for this forum and fixed the text. Thanks for raising it.

I have been lately on a mission to find the ultimate two eyepieces for my GSO 12" Dobsonian. Everything below has been purchased on AliExpress (major sale currently going on with lots of coupons) The first one was the clear winner, SkyRover 30mm 2" 70 degrees (APM UFF). A lot has been written about it so no need to cover it again. - price 170$ for reference. The second one was my Angel Eyes 14mm 65 degrees. Price 84$ for reference. That eyepiece I already reviewed here. It is a really relaxing eyepiece, with loads of eye relief and super sharpness in the center with a little bit of Astigmatism at the edges. The problem was, the 14mm produces an exit pupil of 2.8mm. Too large for optimal performance. On several nights I did a blind test with my zooms where I would zoom in and out until the image was 'as good as it gets' to my eyes in terms of sharpness, brightness, contrast. The vast majority of times when I looked at the dial , it was right at around 11mm. The magic exit pupil 2.2mm. Even with 1.5x Barlow of the 14mm , I get to 9mm .. a bit too high. So my hunt for an 11mm eyepiece began. I didn't want to break the bank so I tried to get the Hyperion Zoom but the edges were horrible, so it went away. I've read a lot of love and hate for the Explore Scientific 82 degrees eyepieces. Mainly of course, the tight eyerelief and some people also experienced bad astigmatism at the edges in their scopes. I gave it a lot of thought but in the end decided to take the chance as I found a great deal on AliExpress with some coupons for 120$ for the MaxVision 11mm. Physical properties: This eyepiece is a real treat, 1.25", 280 grams. Just the right size for compact storage and great viewing experience. The eyecup can be folded in exposing direct access to the lens. Not sure about usage with eyeglasses but without, there is hardly any problems here. It came in a very nice box. The box looked familiar, so I unpeeled the stickers and low and behold I had myself an original Explore Scientific box. They don't even try too hard to convince you these are different eyepieces. Different they actually are. There are slight differences in the barrel and most notably the ES are Argon purged, the MaxVision are not. But the same ES eyepiece here goes for 170$. I'll save 50$ over Argon purging any day of the week. Optical performance in a 12" DOB, f/4.93 OK. No matter how pretty and nice the eyepiece, this is what actually matters. I totally understand why there is so much love and hate for this eyepiece. I think a big deal of it is simply people not being used to using a wide field 82 degrees eyepiece. It takes some skill and getting used to. The way one normally uses a huge eyerelief eyepiece like my Angel Eyes 14mm simply does not work with the MaxVision. At worst you will get kidneybeaning and you will hardly see 50% of the field. The harder you try to see the edges of the eyepiece with direct vision, the less you will actually see. Funny stuff going on at these levels of field. And if you still want to force yourself into it, you will have to literally press your eyeball to the glass. I had to read a bit online to figure out the correct technique of using this eyepiece. It is all about easing yourself into the eyepiece at just the right distance. Sight should be focused on the center of the eyepiece. At a certain range, relatively far way from the lens, just at the distance where my eyelashes begin to touch on the glass, the field stop becomes sharp and clearly visible with averted vision. The whole field is visible at this point, the eyepiece is fully illuminated evenly, and everything is in perfect balance and sharpness. If you want to observe the edges in more detail, very carefully shift the vision a little bit off center but never fully to the edge. To observe the edge directly , the whole head must turn as if looking through a big space ship window. In those cases the edges on the opposite end become invisible. They say eyerelief 15.6mm .. This is from the center of the eye lens.. so yeah, I'd say the eyerelief is very good. I have actually ordered some extra eyepiece guards with a shade to the side as I'd like to be able to press against the eyepiece with my eye.. and there is still a bit of room left for that at the optimum distance. It does take a little bit of effort, but the views are absolutely amazing. The field is sharp edge to edge with nothing but a little bit of coma remaining. The coma is so far away that it doesn't bother me at all. I am not planning on getting a CC. There is no field curvature and the view is as flat as it gets , comparable to the SkyRover 30mm. The contrast and sharpness is also very good at the center. The views of the Moon were absolutely amazing. Of course it Barlows very well , both with my 1.5x , 2x and even 3x Barlow. There was no astigmatism I could see at all even at the last 10% of the edges. With all this being said, it makes a nice pair with my AngelEyes 14mm which is very different. Double the eyerelief (also bought an eye guard to bridge the gap), very sharp field stop easily visible at 65 degrees. Takes a lot less effort to use and of course brighter and sharper due to the larger exit pupil. I will be alternating between these two. All in all. Happy to say that I am finally very satisfied with both my telescope and my eyepiece collection. Last thing remaining is to decide which zoom to keep , the SVBony SV135 or SV191 (ordered and waiting for it). But the zooms are kind of 2nd class citizens, so I am not nearly as anxious as I was trying to hunt down the perfect 11mm eyepiece.

I've had the cheap plastic cellphone adapter for 2 years now and I've not been happy with it, to say the very least. Few weeks ago I went and bought myself a the Celestron NexYZ 3-axis adapter. It was a pretty good adapter that allowed me to take many nice photos with my cellphone, including a couple of DSOs. Then the guys at MSM contacted me and asked me if I want to review their 3-axis Tridaptor. I was like, yeah but I am not making any money off my channel and I already bought one so doesn't make sense to buy another one, on the other hand it probably doesn't make sense for you to send me one for free for the whole 1000 people that will see the video. I am a small time hobby guy, not some famous YouTuber. They were like, nah.. don't worry, it is fine. We'll send you one anyway. I had seen the pictures, I had worked with my Celestron adapter and I kind of felt that they had the superior product, so I agreed. It was going to be one of my next videos anyway about the Celestron adapter. A win for everybody, they get the visibility, I get a free adapter, people get a great tip for a legitimately great product. So here it goes a summary: The cheap plastic adapter is useless. At best it is a headache , at worst it will fall apart in the darkness and drop your phone like a brick to the ground. NOT RECOMMENDED. Celestron NexYZ - pretty good value for the money, it can be obtained for 35-40$ off from AliExpress. What I don't like about it is that it is not fully metal, it is flimsy, has wobbly and loose parts so it is not possible for a rock solid fine-tuning of the cellphone camera to the eyepiece in perfect perpendicularity. MSM Tridaptor - I did not find any downsides here. The price is higher 69$ with the BlueTooth shutter or 59$ without it (If you have a smart watch with a shutter it may be the better option). You get a 5% discount if you use my code: AstralFields and 10% of the purchase goes to me. I couldn't care less for some pocket change but I figure it is good to know when buying something that you support your favorite creator. They have a lot of affiliates, so it doesn't have to be me. You can check the rest of my review here:

I already upgraded last year to Linux Kubuntu - loving it. My laptop came with Windows 11 - lasted for a whole 30 minutes until I replaced the entire SSD. For that one app that is not working SharpCap .. I just put a dual boot of Windows Tiny10 .. and I will keep on using it for that single purpose alone.. capture with SharpCap .. for everything else Linux is amazing.

12" solid tube is no issue whatsoever for me and my Hyundai i30 Hatchback. Have you heard the saying that everybody keeps repeating? "The best telescope is the one that you use the most?" No other hobby says anything like that. If people going on exotic cruises said something similar, they would end up in a boat every weekend in their local fish pond rather than an exotic cruise once a year or so. Took me a while to figure out it is absolute nonsense. I'd much rather take my 12" once per month on a clear night at a nice Bortle 3 sky outside of the city, than observe twice a week from my small balcony with some small APO refractor. So I am in the process of selling my 8" and having the 12" as my only telescope.

It is going away.. I am selling it back on the second hand market even if I lose a bit. I just find it hard to justify the 190$ I spent on it. I just ordered the SV191 new for 68$. A lot better deal and it is very similar to the Baader.. a friend has it. I may end up keeping this one as a secondary eyepiece and sell the smaller zoom as well.

A lot has been said about this nice zoom everywhere online, so obviously I was very eager to get my hands on one. The most important thing that should be stated right from the start is that I am using it in a 12" DOB at f/5 without a coma corrector. If used in a different telescope, at a different focal ratio or with a CC, the performance of the zoom may be radically different. So whatever conclusions I make, are strictly for my telescope and my use case. Physical Build What can I say. It is truly a well thought out, well designed, well-constructed eyepiece. I especially love the top where you can turn the eye shield in or out depending on the changing exit pupil. But SVBony Zoom (the pricier 7-21mm) already has this, so it is not unique to Baader. The weight is OK for my taste , just the right weight. I also like the modular approach with an adjustable adapter for either 1.25 or 2". I love using my eyepieces in a 2" mode. The changing of focal lengths is very satisfying with a nice click/stop action. Truly a pleasure to work with it. Long story short, it is an excellent eyepiece in this area. This is where most of the money has clearly went in building this eyepiece. Optics Long story short, I remember reading Ernest calling the Hyperion Zoom a mediocre optical eyepiece in a premium package, marketing and barrel. This is exactly my feeling as well from using it at f/5 without a CC. Everything is relative however, you may say you get what you pay for? Maybe, or maybe not. I was absolutely shocked that my AngelEyes 14mm which cost me 83$ performed better in every way than the Baader Zoom.. with an AFOV of 65 degrees. Of course, a fixed eyepiece should be better.. but not a fixed eyepiece that is almost 200$ cheaper. So what is the problem? The Angel Eyes is sharper on-axis. To be fair, this is an exceptionally sharp eyepiece. I am talking Plossl levels of sharpness. This to me is much more important than edge astigmatism as the center is where the action is. The Baader Hyperion is a little bit less sharpt, but not by much. The edges are also quite a let down. The astigmatism at the edges compared to the AngelEyes 14mm is roughly double. That is quite a lot and very visible. I thought the AngelEyes 14mm (click for review) was a bad eyepiece, now I have easily reconsidered that opinion. It was bad compared to the SkyRover 30mm , but it is an absolute winner compared to the Baader Zoom. On the other hand, if I compare it to my SVBony 7-21mm zoom that costs 50$, there is no contest. The SVBony is notable less sharp on axis and has astigmatism towards the edges as well, only his edges are already at 56 degrees, more like 50 degrees around the 9-11mm focal length. Here the Baader wins hands down. Another bad point I see with the Zoom is that dust can get inside. At 24mm I can clearly see a small hair like dust particle which is clearly visible against strong light. It disappears when I increase the FL to 16 and higher. Which is fine as I mainly use the Zoom from 12 to 8, which will see less use as I am getting the MaxVision 11mm these days. I tried cleaning it but didn't quite make it as the dust is somewhere in the upper portion which I am hesitant to open. Conclusion In my case, the situation is simple: The Baader is not worth the 275$ asking price NEW. It is however OK buying it used for about 190$. I made the right call to wait for it for a month to show up on the local marketplace. It is very re-sellable, so it makes for a risk-free choice to buy it new.. try it out.. and sell it with minimal loss if it doesn't reach your expectations. Even though a Zoom is not my most used or primary eyepiece, I do love having a Zoom in my now minimalistic collection for many reasons. It brings comfort, quickness, ability to optimize magnification for certain objects or simply have fun on the moon. With this being said. I am keeping the Baader Zoom for the time being and will probably be selling the SVBony Zoom. As I needed to put together the bottom portion after cleaning I did manage to find on this forum the design. As can be seen, it is a mid tier design so it makes sense it can't compete with the AngelEyes 14mm which has more fixed lenses. As can be read pretty much everywhere. The main value of a Zoom is comfort and convenience. Fixed eyepieces (even mid budget) remain the king if optical performance is priority.

The only reason I would do that is for the challenge itself. Getting a design optimised so it works with the simple Celestron motor across the entire big 60+ minute segment. Only problem is, I've had enough of a challenge on this topic and it is no longer fun 😅 It is also like a 4x4 car.. even if a front wheel drive will probably do the job.. you take a 4x4 if you want a guaranteed outdoor road trip. And finally. An hour of my time these days is not that far from the 40$ the motor costs.. making it an easy pragmatic decision when faced with multiple hours of optimisation or just turning one more motor ON. 😉

As seen in the video I have plenty of replacement parts 😅 Also I plan to use it like ten times per year to image the planets and the moon. It may seem ironic but I am not a fan of motorized telescopes. 😉

In theory perhaps.. in practice I assure you the metal to wood is absolutely fine and negligible compared to the other huge forces.involved.. namely the lifting of the dob at the deep end of the start of the segment. I wouldn't bother coming up with anything fancy on that side. And if you feel otherwise you can just add something slippery at the bottom of the hole at the pivot.