RobertI

I’d agree with most of the comments, and would heartily recommend the Starfield 102ED (or Altair Astro or TS equivalents). I agree that it is not really complementary to your 130PDS and is more like a replacement, assuming you prefer the refractor views (who doesn’t love those pinpoint stars and crisp planetary views?), but you will be able to make a direct comparison to understand the pros and cons of each. Obviously the 130PDS is not really optimized for visual with the larger secondary. My F7 102ED is also a little kinder to eyepieces than my F5 130 Heritage - my 21mm Hyperion is almost unusable in my 130 because of edge of field aberrations but is acceptable in the 102. I find the 102 is rock solid on my AZ4 and steel tripod, I’d assume the AZ5 is as solid, but may be wrong judging by some comments above. 

I still have a soft spot for Newts though, and would make some points in favour of the 130PDS (which you already know as you own one!):

• Newts are better for viewing overhead IMO as the the eyepiece position is better - if you have an EQ mount too, you access all those objects in the best part of the sky.
• The resolving power of the 130PDS shouldn’t be underestimated, although the stars are less perfect, it can still split some really tight doubles, beating the 102ED I would think (happy to be corrected) 
• Newts open up the possibility of viewing when standing - something I no longer do tbh, but does remove the need for a chair
• I prefer the eyepiece positions in Newts as you can rotate the OTA to get the perfect angle
• You can hug Newts while observing 😉

Having said all that, I generally use the 102ED now, and have lent my H130 to a friend! 🙂

I’m sure there used to be a page outlining the history of SGL. From what I recall it all started out as a bulletin board group thingy (possibly a Yahoo group) run by astronomy enthusiasts, some of whom are still involved or were until recently. I’d always assumed the model was that SGL was run as a ‘open’ group type model with its own rules, with FLO being the authorized sponsor. But I may be wrong or things may have changed. Perhaps someone can clarify? 

Apple has obviously worked hard to make this really groundbreaking. Some interesting tech, like the 3D videos, and face simulation. I had an Occulus for a while, but sold it eventually - the main problems being lack of resolution, lack of apps and content, and the biggest things - you can’t do anything else while you’re wearing them, not even drink a cup of tea, and they are uncomfortable to wear. I wonder if Apple have solved the “cup of tea” problem? 🙂

Beautiful scope, very compact, the focuser looks extremely beefy. 👍

Interesting snd very contrasting sketches @Nik271 and @John. What I saw was closer to Nick’s than John’s, but reading the other comments in this thread about how difficult it is to see these cloud features, I’m wondering what I saw now!

16 minutes ago, tomato said:

Thanks for the link, now looking at a DIY second unit to take a phone.

I quite like the look of the solution involving a telrad riser with cut down diagonal. Might give it a go. 

Nice result Nik. 👍 I think I may also have spotted some cloud patterning last night. I used my binoviewers in the 102ED at around 160x while the sky was still glowing after sunset. I couldn’t see any cloud detail and Venus was really bright, but I happened to have an OIII filter to hand, and this darkened Venus considerably and I’m pretty sure I could then see some subtle darkened patches on the disc along the terminator. I did a lot of fiddling with different filters without much success, but always got the same result with the OIII, so I don’t think it was an illusion.

We wait with baited breath….

A wonderful piece of engineering Peter, looks to be in pretty good condition, it must give wonderful views. Great news that it’s back in the fold. How did it feel to see it again?

Excellent video - well done on your perseverance! 

There are also a number of small planetary nebulae that are very bright, such as the Catseye Nebula, the Blinking Planetary and the Eskimo Neb as already mentioned. Easy to see, but not always so easy to find! 

3 hours ago, vlaiv said:

You don't need to purchase scope with it just to have a mount (although, we all love good excuse to purchase another scope):

https://www.astroshop.eu/alt-azimuth-without-goto/omegon-mini-ii-dobsonian-mount/p,53648

 

That looks very much like the dob mount that comes with the Heritage 130P, if so, it’s actually a pretty heavy and sturdy mount. 

11 minutes ago, John said:

Tonight I have the 130mm F/9.2 refractor out. Super lunar viewing 🙂

 

Always jealous when I see your T-Rex John. 🙂

26 minutes ago, tomato said:

Fortunately my used StarSense Explorer on eBay was being sold by a vendor just down the road from me so I paid them a visit this morning to check the App was still functioning. All good, worked with my email address and the supplied code so I’m now the proud owner of this scope. I’ll try it out tonight and if it is as good as folks say, will move the StarSense holder to my SW Dob and my youngest granddaughter will be getting an early birthday present of the 80 mm achromatic. I’ll put a Telrad on it so I’m afraid I will need to show her how to find objects the hard way.☺️

Excellent, look forward to hearing what you think. As far as the scope itself goes, I was actually quite impressed at the f10 70mm achro once a decent but lightweight eyepiece was added  - I didn’t give it a compete test, but I saw some pretty challenging stuff with it. The real weakness is the mount as always, but should be a great intro for your granddaughter, and of course, it looks like a real telescope should look! 

3 hours ago, Tomatobro said:

There is a Beta testing version of a push too aid now available for download from Sharpcap.

You enter the RA and DEC numbers of the item of interest, point the scope to roughly the right part of the sky, plate solve and Sharpcap reports where the scope is pointing and what needs to be done to correct the position ie. left 0.9 degrees and down 1.7 degress.

Perfect for Star Adventurers

 SharpCap 4.1.10652

Another interesting approach. Presumably this wouldn’t be available on iOS or Android? 

2 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

After looking at the Beehive I synced on it and did a PushTo M81, which again had M81 within my 25mm.

Thanks for the details, sounds like it works pretty well. M44 and M81 are about 50 degrees apart so that’s pretty good accuracy across a fairly big slew. I’m guessing that the larger the slew the less accurate it becomes without re-synching to something. Just curious to understand how this all works. As the Starsense app effectively auto re-synchs itself every time you slew to something, no manual re-synching is required, but Starsense does have its limitations (eg, bright moon) and obviously can’t be used during the day. Its interesting to understand the difference between the two approaches though - I might try both apps side by side one day as an experiment. 

A quick dash out tonight with the 102EDR fitted with the new Starsense phone module. Despite a bright moon the Starsense app worked flawlessly, guiding me round some lovely doubles in Hercules. Starsense seems very good in these conditions, as star hopping is tricky under the bright moon especially with a RDF. Anyway, using a 17.5mm Morpheus at 40x, I bagged the following: 

• 100 Hercules - a pretty pair of equal magnitude white stars separated by 14”
• 95 Hercules - very similar to the above but slightly brighter and half the separation
• Alpha Hercules - lovely bright yellow primary with a magnitude 5 companion 5” away
• Delta Hercules - a bright primary with an tiny eighth magnitude secondary 12” away
• Rho Hercules - two fifth magnitude stars separated by 4”

I also managed to squeeze in a couple of carbon stars, but they were faint and underwhelming in the conditions. 
 

1 hour ago, Paz said:

This is interesting, could you use star sense to find planets in the day time?

Sadly I don’t think so Paz, when you try and use the Starsense app during the day, it says “It’s daytime, please use Starsense at night!”. Polite though. 🙂

28 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

I’ve no doubt that Starsense is superior to PS Align Pro but then it should be as PS Align costs peanuts - £2.99. I’ve used PS Align Pro for 14 months and it has never failed to find a target, so it’s hard to justify getting anything else. Although if someone gifted me a Starsense unit I’d happily take it off their hands

I also use PS Align to accurately find planets during the day. Recently Venus but Jupiter, Saturn and Mars too. 

 

I also have PS Align Pro and was just going to start using it for push to before I was seduced by Starsense. Just out of interest, do you use the ‘hop from nearest star’ feature or do you find it works accurately without? 

My understanding is that Starsense has had three incarnations; the first was the Skyprodigy scopes (no longer available) where the camera was built into the mount and not the scope; the second was the separate starsense camera which can be mounted on any scope and is connected to the mount, and the third was the current starsense app ‘push-to’ solution. My recollection is that the SkyProdigy mounts were not that well received - I’m not sure why, but I have an old one and it is temperamental  - when it works it’s great and the alignment is reasonably good, but sometimes it just fails to self-align. The concept of the camera being in the mount, is not the best to be honest and it also has a pitiful database. I think the Sky Prodigy mounts gave Starsense a bad name for a long while, but latest incarnation is wonderful, albeit a push-to solution. I think it’s only a matter of time before the Starsense app can control the mount too, rendering the current Starsense camera/handset product redundant. 

2 hours ago, Elp said:

developer has also released a camera version which plate solves

It will be interesting to see what they come up with there, and also interesting to understand how restrictive Celestron’s patents are in this area (I did some research here  out of idle curiosity, but by no means comprehensive). 

The other thing to note about the starsense app is the wonderful way they have executed it. As you follow the bright orange chevrons to move closer to the object, it automatically zooms in, and then changes colour when you have arrived, based on the gyro movements. Because the gyros are not completely reliable, It then does a plate solve and moves the target to reflect how far away you actually are and you can home in exactly. Sometimes it is initially slightly off, but if moving a long way across the sky it can be a long way off, so the platesolve seems essential for that final accurate homing in. You can also move the scope around the sky and the planetarium will show you where you are pointing, displaying the brighter objects just like Sky safari does. You can then tap the object and it will guide you there. Brilliant. 

2 minutes ago, tomato said:

Yes, good point I only need one I suppose but it would be a wasted purchase if they have all been used.

Something to note - you have to enter your email address when entering the code -I don’t know if the  code gets tied to the email address somehow (perhaps the first time you enter it?), or whether you can enter any email address, so you might end up having to use the email address of the original purchaser. Might be worth checking with them. 

Perfect, everything the keen astronomer needs, premium refractor and mount, spacious 4x4, and floppy hat. 🙂

I just bought myself a Celestron Starsense Explorer 70LT - basically a cheap achro refractor with an attachment for your mobile phone, allowing you to use Celestron’s Starsense technology via an app on your phone to find objects. I’ve just been out for a couple of hours, and I’ll cut to the chase - it’s just brilliant. It made finding objects so easy, that I almost felt I was cheating. Suffice it to say that with my cheap 70mm achro made mostly of plastic, within the space of a few minutes I had found and observed globulars M13 and M3, galaxies M81, M82, planetaries NGC6543 (the Cats Eye nebula) and NGC6826 (the Blinking Planetary), the Eastern Veil (kind of), and open cluster M39. Each time I searched, Starsense did its thing, guiding me to the object with helpful arrows, taking an image to platesolve when it senses the telescope has stopped moving, and guiding me the final few minutes of arc the object - every single time the object was clearly in the field of view of a 66 degree 20mm eyepiece at 35x magnification, giving a FOV of 1.9 degrees. I should add that there was a bright moon in the sky, but I kept well away and everything worked fine. If I wanted to move around the garden to get a better view, no problem, Starsense was unaffected - this was weird for someone who has been used to not touching a tripod once a mount is aligned. 

As for the scope itself, the mount is very wobbly and the eyepieces leave a lot to be desired, but when I added a decent-ish WO 20mm eyepiece (a lightweight eyepiece was needed and this fitted the bill) the views improved dramatically and the scope produced some really nice views. I think the correct image diagonal also helped to make the experience seem easy. There are a number of other scopes, including newts and SCTs, but they all seem to live on wobbly mounts and tripods which is a shame. The exceptions are the 8” and 10” dobs which look like perfect companions for starsense. 

Definitely a success and I will be looking at how to convert this for use on my other scopes. 👍