LunarRob

Well the clouds cleared last night and although the seeing conditions weren’t brilliant and Jupiter is lying low on the horizon I managed to get the scope polar aligned to Polaris and was happy that Jupiter tracked really well could o oh see 3 moons and it detail was hazy on syvbony 21mm zoom lense but it was a good proof of concept

can anyone recommend the best budget camera for planetry i was looking at dslr but believe the telescope cameras would be best

they have the sv105 on Amazon for £50

Thanks for the input John

i seem to have picked the worst time to test the mak as the planets are so low in the sky and what with the cloud I haven’t even been able to catch Jupiter before it dropped below the horizon

I think the 8” dob with the 2” 28mm deep view is hard to beat for general looking around I’ve got svbony 7-21mm in the mak and tried it alongside the dob at stars but obv a much narrower field and not as bright but I got it for planetary as I found I was constantly re-adjusting the dob and wanted to try some photography so the eq2 mount and map would be better with the ra motor

I’ve enjoyed learning how to setup the eq2 mount though tbh when I point it true north and at 53dg lat the scope is well off!!

Very helpful thanks for sharing

Ok so ended up picking up an explorer 130 on eq2 mount also as it came with the multi speed motor drive boxed

so now have the 8” dob 102 mark and 130 newtonian

im thinking of keeping the dob and mak and flipping the 130

what would you do?

Hi Guys so i picked up a Skywatcher 102 MAK with eq2 mount for £120 as was really interested in the eq mount and tracking objects and would like to get a budget DSLR and try some AP plus portability

The Orion XT8PLUS was my re-introduction to astronomy after having budget scopes as a kid and wow the 1st night i saw Jupiter and its moons and Saturn with the rings clearly visible as well as clusters of stars

Anyway just getting to grips with the setup and as per waiting for a clear sky........

Got some clear sky early evening but by the time I’d collimated it and bought it out it had closed over. Could still see Jupiter and 4 moons but should have done this earlier, lesson learned

On 29/10/2023 at 08:21, dweller25 said:

@LunarRob

if you look straight up from Jupiter you will eventually find the Andromeda galaxy, a spiral galaxy like ours 3.1 million light years away.

Do you have “Stellarium” ?  its free sky map software that shows where things are 

I do. I’ve got app and planisphere so reading through them though think I would need to get to a darker sight to see it

Well a weeks worth of cloud, checking the clear outside app looks like Friday will be the night here in Cheshire. 👍

2 minutes ago, John said:

The collimation in my 8 inch Skywatcher dob looks pretty much like yours is now. My scope is performing excellently 👍

 

Thanks John good to know I’m on the right track 😀 can you just blow those clouds away 😫

4 hours ago, happy-kat said:

What 5 ratio is your telescope, as depending on that your most inner circles may be off a bit, but what's the f ratio first please

Hi it’s f5.9

8”  203mm

Ok thanks - Here’s the latest colimation, I think it’s much better. Sorry the picture isn’t the greatest holding my phone up to the lense

Thanks for your help, I know there are guides but when it’s alien to you sometimes it’s easier to get help with the aid of pictures

ive finally cracked it with assistance from yourselves I’ll post a pic of how it looks now later on

3 hours ago, Sunshine said:

That’s awesome, now youre hooked because it only gets better as you learn more and work your way from one scope to another (because it happens to all of us) wait till you see Saturn’s rings for the first time.

Sure am, funny you should mention that see my other post on here…. Saw Saturn too!

Is is amazing and at moments could see the colour and marking. this can’t get old

38 minutes ago, Bugdozer said:

It's a spectacular sight. I always describe it as looking almost like an unreal special effect the first time you see it. And, for me at least, it never gets old. 

It sure is when you zoom in and start seeing the rings wow. Showed the mrs and she thought it was an image didn’t believe me at first  lol

Hi I have an Orion txt 8 plus and it comes with the below.

Includes a 2" 28mm DeepView eyepiece, 1.25" 10mm Sirius Plossl eyepiece, Shorty 2x Barlow lens

I’ve found that with the 10mm and Barlow I can get a decent look at the planet but they move very quickly for the Dobsonian on std mount and it’s hard to follow with precision I put the big lense on (planet spotter) and get a great wider/longer view of the planets. Is there a better combination and can you get the 10mm and Barlow in 2”?

Thanks

Swing to the left and Jupiter with its 4 moons I held the iPhone up to the lense but it was really difficult to get it to focus and it was over bright and then cloud

After getting the Dobsonian setup there’s cloud everywhere but little breaks in it now and again. One of my big aims was to see Saturn and out garden is south east and spotted and zoomed in with a 10mm plossol and Barlow x 2 and could clearly see it a bit bigger than a pea with the ring around it.. then note cloud but so made up that’s on my 2nd mostly hopeless cloudy night I spotted it.

5 hours ago, bosun21 said:

The secondary should always be collimated before the primary. Your secondary isn’t perfectly circular which can be rectified with the three screws on the secondary holder. I can’t see the focuser draw tube to check the centering of your secondary.

I’ve took another picture with paper behind in better light

Thanks both edited original as I put the checks in the wrong order and said Robinson lense instead of Barlow (don’t know where that came from)

I’ll do another check with the paper and get a better image

thanks

35 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

The secondary should always be collimated before the primary. Your secondary isn’t perfectly circular which can be rectified with the three screws on the secondary holder. I can’t see the focuser draw tube to check the centering of your secondary.

Thanks for your input it was getting dark I’ll see if I can get a better picture. I did do the secondary 1st but took a bit of messing with the primary. I guess it’s one of those that once you’ve done it a cple times

Hi, I have picked up the Orion xs800 plus, used and checked alignment - which was out. I did a school boy error or putting the colimator cap into the Barlow x2 lense and wondered why it was difficult to see

anyhow realised and the best I could get was below. I did the secondary and then got the primary alligned as best I could

but it got a bit too dark then

This is a picture holding my phone to the lense but looking for feedback on it please

Great thanks for this info will check it out high Leigh isn’t far from me. Do people meet up and take their own telescopes? Thanks

Thanks all, well as is usual what with stock etc I ended up with a totally different one to what I intended

got an Orion 8 sky quest xtc plus bonus is you get some lenses with it too

Thanks both, it appears the StelaLyra isn’t in stock so thinking of the messier bressier

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bresser-telescopes/bresser-messier-8-dobsonian-telescope.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4bipBhCyARIsAFsieCyeo7UiSDC3LdTxj7YxPk9vTOkm9krV5KDcARaM4sqbrEfkIFjlYZQaAmG0EALw_wcB