RobertI

New ring and related arc of galaxies found ……. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67950749

Fantastic achievement, wonderful to hear.

What a superb night. It makes such a difference observing with others. Some great targets too, well done for getting the Horsehead with your 10”. 👍

Lovely session by the sound of it. If you ever have the time, it would be great to see a ‘hybrid’ observing report with both your visual descriptions with the 200P and some Seestar images. Perhaps an SGL first! 🙂

I agree with @Nakedgun, 10x50 should be great, but I have no knowledge of that particular model. I’m assuming the “up close” refers to them being able to focus close up, which I imagine is all about the mechanical design rather than any different about the optics. How did the image look, was it in focus for most of the field of view?

Just come in for ten minutes to warm my feet before I go out again. Had a nice session for ninety minutes - thought I’d keep things simple with the 102ED but then I ruined it by being over ambitious trying (and failing) to find some tough targets, so I went back to low power cruising some open clusters in Orion and surroundings - much more enjoyable! Right, back out for a final look before bed. 🙂

A lovely book to have in your collection Alan. I have a kindle copy and was equally charmed, rather jealous of the amazing dark skies he must have had. Also a nice insight into life back then - I love it when he mentioned that he used to go out into the countryside on his own as a boy, and taught himself to swim in the local creek. Not something that would happen nowadays I think!

Sounds like a tough decision, but really glad you’re rediscovering visual, and this isn’t a ‘giving up the hobby’ thread! Sounds like the simplicity of visual will really work for you. I think it’s a really good idea to keep your gear though, you never know what ideas may take your fancy in the future (eg: EAA) or how your circumstances may change. Over the years I have gone from visual to imaging to EAA and back to visual again (with a bit of EAA on the side). Keep us informed on how it goes.

Price aside, I think this looks like a very exciting piece of kit. It might not be very wide field, but I think it will appeal to those who want to view more than just the brightest DSOs, in particular the multitude of smaller DSOs, especially galaxies. I’m sure there will be a big market for this in the US where people really seem to go to town on their EAA kit. Personally I don’t think it’s aimed at complete beginners, I think it will appeal to more experienced EAA enthusiasts. Wouldn’t surprise me if the Celestron marketing department decide that you can only get a RASA 6” as part of this package. Compatibility with Sky Safari is a nice feature, assuming it’s implemented well.

FYI there’s a separate discussion underway on this -

From what I read on Facebook (from memory), it has a smaller aperture, but has additional capability for solar system imaging. Now has auto-focussing and no collimation required. The tester seemed to indicate its deep sky abilities were similar to the previous scopes. Good to see they’re trying to innovate and stay one step ahead of the competition. 10,000 scopes sold is quite an achievement.

Fantastic time lapse! 👍

I’d only planned a five minute session with the binoculars but it was so clear I thought I ought to get one of the scopes out. Thinking I might have a go at the pup, I decided to get the 150PL out. It was actually lovely to reacquaint with this very capable scope - first look at Sirius was really nice with four sharp diffraction spikes, which were actually very pleasing to the eye, and also helped focus. Sadly, Sirius itself was far too wobbly to attempt to see the pup, so I had to look elsewhere. With a Morpheus 17.5mm in, giving 68x, I enjoyed some nice views of M42, M35-38, M97, M109, M51, M44 plus lots more. It was great fun swinging the canon around the sky and dodging the puffy scudding clouds - the whole thing really reminded me of the times I spent with my first scope as a teenager, a similar 6” Newt. I’m always surprised what a good deep sky scope a 6” F8 scope makes, with sharp stars and contrasty views. 1pm came and I got a bonus - all the street lights went off (a recent development) so I had even darker skies. Sadly by this point cramp was starting to set into my feet - a potential downside to standing to observe - so happy to pack away for the night.

I was also thinking/hoping a robotic EAA scope of some sort. I think the Seestar et al have proven the demand. Interestingly many (most?) users of the Seestar, Unistellar, etc seem to be using them for imaging (ie: long integration times with post processing) instead of EVAA (ie: near real time ‘live’ viewing). I’m more into EVAA myself, and although I'm very tempted by a Seestar, it only really seems to work well for EVAA on the brightest objects, which is a bit limiting. So I’d be very interested in something that can go deeper more quickly even if it’s more expensive.

Nice first light. Plenty more to see with that 8”! 👍

Sounds like you’ve really been through the mill over the last year, I hope you’ve got some support and help. Glad that you’ve rediscovered astronomy, that seems like a good sign.

For many visual observers, a 127 apo would be all the scope they need (me included!).

Your existing 4”/5” scopes would be fine to start visual with, but assuming they are tied up with imaging, looks like you are after a good all round scope(s) to see what aspects of visual appeal to you? My feeling is that the 9.25, while a good scope, is pretty expensive for the aperture, and is not good for wide field. For that price you could buy a nice 10” dob for faint fuzzies AND a 4”/5” apo for wide field and solar system AND some good binoculars. But if you have your heart set on a 9.25 it will do faint fuzzies and solar system pretty well. I think there are lots of visual treats that imaging cannot match, such as the beautiful views of stars/cluster/doubles, particular provided by refractors, the 3D lunar and planetary views through a bino-viewer, the explosion of globular clusters through a larger aperture and sweeping the Milky Way with binoculars. And the reward of seeing challenging objects at the limit of visibility is also an attraction to many.

Interesting update Alan. I still use my Nadira chair for all my observing, haven’t had the damp expansion problem (yet!) but mine is stored in a dry garage. I have added a layer of foam to the seat to make it a bit more comfy for long sessions. Stability has been fine, even on grass, but there was an occasion where I hadn’t slotted the seat in properly and I crashed to the ground when I sat on it - fortunately it was on the lowest setting as I was viewing near the zenith, so I only had a few inches to fall. I am now super careful when slotting in the seat!

Identical to me!

I always enjoy Astrobiscuit’s videos, the latest one was also very entertaining and a huge amount of work must have gone into it. I think the main issue was that Mr Biscuit (Rory) placed too much faith in his engineer friend (obviously a fine engineer, but design of astronomy equipment apparently not his forte) which seemed to lead to a series of unnecessary issues with the mirror. Not sure about that fragile wire-based secondary spider arrangement either. But I’ll keep watching as I’m curious to see where this story goes next… Fun fact: The name for the Canary Islands comes from the Latin “Insula Canaria”, meaning ‘Island of the Dogs’. Nothing to do with our feathered friends. 🙂

It is indeed a wonder star, which I haven’t caught yet this year. I remember my first view, actually not that long ago, when I saw a lovely double at low magnification, and as I slowly zoomed in a third component appeared - a wonderful way to discover it!

Sounds like you are after something with decent aperture, quick to set up and carry around the yard, ideally with something better than a red dot finder? I am a big fan of the 130-150mm F5 Newtonians for giving the best aperture in a lightweight package, especially the ones that don’t need collimating. I would suggest two options to think about: A 150P Newtonian on a goto mount - would remove the need for starhopping with a red dot finder (apart from initial alignment), but you need to spend extra on a powertank and cable. A 130P Newtonian on a manual AltAz mount - you can then use something like Astrohopper on your smartphone to find your targets These setups also have the advantage of being able to observe standing up, which removes the extra hassle of a chair, and is useful if you do quick ‘grab and go’ sessions. The Celestron Starsense Explorer technology is excellent , but I don’t like the flimsy tripods and mounts on them - the 8”-10” dobsonias are the best, but these will be too bulky for you by the sound of it.

Well done, sounds like you’re well on the way with your astro journey and that scope will serve you well (I have one myself). 🙂

Thanks John, I’ll have another more serious go this year. I think I may have to go to my local park to get away from the houses and get a better southern view, but even then I’m not sure I have the right scopes for the job, the 102ED being possibly too small and the C8 just not having good enough optics (“hairy stars”). Perhaps the 150PL? But I’ll re-acquaint with your excellent post to help me decide.