Dimitrisanagn

Great! Thank you all for helping out the newbie!

I tried it a bit and improved it slightly,  but I think I'll live with this offset error.  I also read a collimation guide that suggests that it is very common for F/5 and faster scopes to have this kind of offset error.

Thank you again for all your help! 

Thank you for looking into this. It seems that there is always some offset of the secondary mirror position compared to the focus tube edge, as I can only minimally pull the secondary away from the primary...

Would this be more acceptable then? 

I'm not sure how paranoid I should be on getting this perfectly aligned. 

On 28/11/2023 at 23:25, Naughty Neal said:

 I thought it was the lower power 24/25mm EP thta was being  enquired about ,  then the OP buys a 12mm EP.

I think for the 12mm then the 13mm Nirvana from OVL would have been on the short list. 

I was actually looking for both, but the 10-12mm one was the priority. 

However I just managed to win an ebay auction on a 25mm BST Starguider so will get to use and compare both eyepieces!

On 27/11/2023 at 22:44, bosun21 said:

The BST Starguider have rotating eyecups.

Oh..I didn't realize that. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

Trying to check if my heritage 130p needs collimation. 

Here is what it looks like now. Some minor adjustments done with a help of a collimation eyepiece. I got a laser one as well, but it just draws circles, no matter how much I try to align it. So for now, all I can use is the collimation eyepiece (cap).

Do you think it needs further adjustments?

Unfortunately we have cloudy skies these past few days, so I can only test with daylight targets..

Thank you!

Thank you all for your comments and helping me out here.

I decided to get the Celestron X-Cel 12mm from AliExpress. Almost at the same price as the BST, but it has a rotating eyecup that should make it easier to find the perfect spot while wearing glasses , if that's required

22 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

Ah, sorry, I just looked at your post count and you may not be able to access links to the internal marketplace just yet.

 

Thanks you, but unfortunately I can't access the classifieds section yet. I'll do check astrobuysell though. It might pop up there as well.

5 hours ago, Zermelo said:

This is an important point. You may already be aware of this, but if you wear glasses only to correct for distance, then the scope's focusing mechanism will normally take care of that. Though it may be a pain if you're sharing sessions and need to refocus all the time; not difficult to test out, though. However, if you wear glasses because of strong astigmatism, then you will need to use them for observing too (leaving aside some very pricey accessories). Even then, you may find that you can get away without them when using higher magnifications (shorter eyepiece lengths).

The Starguiders mentioned above were my own first upgrades, and work very well in my F/5 reflector, though I don't wear glasses.

If you are happy to order from abroad, then XCEL-LXs mentioned above by @Naughty Neal are good performers with a proven design, and normally retail for twice that price. I'm not sure about their eye relief, though.

For your longer eyepiece choice, I agree with @cajen2 that the Vixen NPLs deliver great views. I have the 30mm and use it all the time, even though I have an excellent (and more expensive) UFF. They also do a 25mm.

Yes, I often view without glasses, especially at higher magnifications. 

It's more of a need for my daughter, as it is easier for her to view from a distance - and avoid touching the eyepiece/scope.

I don't mind ordering from abroad, so the XCEL is a prime candidate here.

30 minutes ago, Naughty Neal said:

I over looked the fact that your scope is F5 and also 16mm may be a bit tight for glasses wearers, I  don't wear glasses so can't say if they will be an issue.

That said some who wear glasses are able to view without wearing them.

For 60 degrees and a 50 odd quid budget one is limited to what is available .

 

The UFF 24mm will likely be a bit better at the F5 but one will need to shell out a lot more pennies because of the faster scope focal rate.

 

 

Thank you. TBH I thought that there would be more options available, but I guess the fash scope is challenging.

52 minutes ago, Naughty Neal said:

Aliexpress BF deals, xcel lx 25mm.

Celestron X-CEL LX 2,3 мм 5 мм 7 мм 9 мм 12 мм 18 мм 25 мм бинокль 60 grados telescopio gran угловой небулоза бинокль planetario - AliExpress

From this seller £51.32 ,  it is £5 cheaper then the total price I paid a few weeks ago. 

Interesting. Thank you!

Given that they state the same 16mm eye relief as the Starguider, would you find their design comfortable for glasses? 

1 hour ago, AndyM001 said:

I purchased the 6mm, 9mm, and 15mm SVbony 68 Degree Eyepieces a few month ago and I think they are quite good for the price, so much so I've just ordered the 20mm. They come in at around £20 each direct from China.

I read conflicting opinions about these ones, specifically being bad at the edges. Do you think it is bothersome even to the unexperienced eye? 

Otherwise these are tempting indeed.

Thank you!

I suppose the 25 and 12 would make a good start since I have the barlow.

Hi everyone!

I have the well known heritage 130p F5 and I find the two stock eyepieces (25mm and 10mm) really bad, especially since I wear glasses and I also have a 7-year old having her first looks through the scope.

I received an older Televue 2.5x barlow (not the powermate) as a gift and also jumped on an opportunity to get the Svbony 7.2-21.6 zoom, but viewing any wider than 10mm gives a small fov (50o and less).

So, I'm looking for a low power ca 25mm (getting at 10mm when barlowed) and perhaps 12mm or so (getting to 4.8mm when barlowed). So I would end up like this:

25mm -> 12mm -> 10mm -> 10-7.2 in zoom -> 4.8mm

I'd prefer a wide view and long eye-relief like 60o minimum to avoid nudging a lot, especially since it takes some time to get my daughter to view through the eyepiece.

Are the planned magnifications ok? What would you recommend at a budget of no more than 60 GBP per eyepiece?

Thank you all in advance!

19 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

I had the same dilemna as you with my grandkids who live in London and chose a Starsense Explorer scope.

This is because in my experience the single biggest reason that beginners give up astronomy is that they can't find objects.  This is even more so from cities where relatively few stars are visible to help.  Starsense Explorer makes this incredibly easy.

It doesn't have tracking, but if you lose the object it's very quick and easy to re-find it - much easier than without Starsense Explorer.

It also gives you a list of the best objects for the night that you're observing, including those that are rewarding from cities.  At the the push of a button Starsense Explorer will even tell you a lot about the objects - youngsters in particular love this.

The whole process is very intuitive - my 8 year old picked it up immediately and was soon controlling everything himself.

I chose the least expensive in the range, the 70mm f/10 refractor.  Even though the next size up, the 80mm, is currently on special offer, I'd still go for the 70mm at £169.  This is because it has a wider field of view plus, as the mount is the same on both models, it's steadier.

I did upgrade some of the accessories.  I bought a much better quality Celestron diagonal.  (£45 from First Light Optics).  There are cheaper ones, but this gives a very good price/performance ratio.  The diagonal supplied with the scope isn't that good but has the advantage of a correctly orientated view for terrestrial use such as birdwatching and holidays.  This is one of the benefits of choosing a refractor.

Next I'd suggest a zoom eyepiece.  I find youngsters in particular love zoom eyepieces.  My 8 year old said it was like landing on the moon!  It also helps with tracking because if you lose an object at high power you can just quickly zoom out and it'll probably then still be in the field of view.  I chose a 9-27mm as it gives a particularly useful range of magnifications on this f/10 scope.  Those from SvBony usually cost about £50 but are often (now for instance) on special offer at about £40.

I also bought a better quality 2x Barlow lens (£27 from First Light Optics).  This is the type where the bottom black section can be unscrewed and then screwed into the filter thread of an eyepiece.  This gives an additional amplification factor of about 1.5x, and so triples the range of magnifications at very low cost.

Finally, but this could come later, I'd suggest a 32mm Plossl (£29 from First Light Optics).  This gives the maximum field of view possible with this scope of approx 2.25 degrees (the full moon is 0.5 degrees in diameter).  This gives plenty of space around the Pleiades to see their full beauty - the 1.6 degree field of view with the 80mm f/12.5 doesn't.

One final thought about the Starsense Explorer units is that a very simple modification means that you can move them to different telescopes where they fit into a standard finder shoe.  If as is likely you buy other scopes in the future this is a huge plus.  If on the other hand you don't get hooked on stargazing then the 70mm Starsense Explorer will be extremely easy to sell for a good price.

In fact, I was so impressed with the 70mm Starsense Explorer that I bought another for myself and did just that modification myself!

Thank you for detailing your experience. Seems quite similar to what I will be facing!

How easy was the tracking experience for the little one?

Hearing that such a scope could have a rather wobbly mount, did you have to mostly resort back to Starsense in order to track planets or other objects back to the FOV, or was tracking not a real issue?

I think nebulae and other DSO will be tough to find in the city, but an easy and good look of planets and systems like the pleiades would be desirable.

What do you guys think of something like the Astrofi 90?

I understand that it is at a completely different league to the ones discussed, but given our location and the targets that we could observe, would this be an acceptable compromise in favor of it's tracking system? 

Budget wise it is very attractive.

4 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

The time of transit through the eyepiece will depend on the magnification as well as the FOV (field of view) of the eyepiece used. In a general sense the 130P will definitely allow you to position Saturn at the edge of the eyepiece and then allow your daughter to watch it drift through the eyepiece. A slight nudge by yourself will reacquire the target and repeat the procedure.

Thank you. This would definitely be an acceptable action, even repeatable over the course of an observation.

And I suppose she'll start practicing as well.

9 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

@Dimitrisanagn If you think about it, I'm sure you'll see that binoculars gather more light than your unaided eyes. Assume 50 mm objectives and a 7 mm diameter fully dilated pupil. Square both, so we are comparing areas, 2500 and 49. Now do a simple division and you get about 50 times more light gathering from the binoculars than the unaided eye. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. Thanks for clarifying!

I had a bit mixed up comparing them with a scope instead of our naked eye..

Thank you all very much for trying to help out.

Regarding binoculars, I might be wrong, but I'm not sure they will provide better vision in a light polluted city. Aren't they supposed to just magnify, instead of allowing more light? 

I saw some videos on YouTube with star tracking and it was a good 20 seconds before Saturn disappeared from the view of a 130p. Is this more less accurate?

If so, I think it is enough time to hand the scope over to my daughter for her to review and then track again.

A total newbie here and this post has been so informative! Thank you so much.

Besides my own interest and knowledge, my 6-year old wants so much to get us a first scope and this post is very helpful to manage the expectations of both of us and help me think a bit more on what I need to buy, how much to spend and most importantly how to appreciate our observations.

 Life saver!

Very good point! Thanks!

I suppose from a budget perspective I might need to compromise with lower quality scope in favor of the tracking ability.

Even a 114 virtuoso is more expensive than the 130p.

Not sure how much of a difference a novice will see, especially in a light polluted area like Athens though...

Should I really be worried about the observation difference between 114 and 130?

Thanks! Already reading some very interesting topics.

Hi everyone!

First post, looking for some advice on my first telescope.

I have some "extremely" basic knowledge on astronomy and my little 6-year old has started showing great interest for stars, constellations and the likes and am thinking of getting us our first telescope.

Have read much about how dobsonian scopes are more stable and therefore provide a better experience for youngsters and novices, but would appreciate your opinion.

Would I be better off with a Heritage 130/150p or should I be looking for a refractor with Astrofi or Starsense app to make it easier for the kid? 

I know that this would be taking away from the joy of the process of finding and observing, but with a rather limited budget of max 200-250 pounds, I'd like to buy what would be the best value for money option for our case.

Thank you all so much in advance!

Greetings everyone from Greece! 

Complete novice here, looking to learn more and get into astronomy with my little daughter and hopefully to enjoy our first scope very soon!