RobertI

20 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

I'm not sure what prices

I’d price them at around two thirds of new price - ie: 60-70% depending on condition. Some items may have gone up considerably in price since you bought them. 

Another thought, if it’s for pick-up only I wonder if one of the astro retailers like ENS Optical might buy it all as a job lot. If the job lot includes stuff you were going to throw away, it might be worthwhile.

It looks like you have some nice equipment and it would be a shame to sell to too cheap, especially as there are people who lurk on SGL specifically to pick up bargains and re-sell on eBay for a profit. Perhaps there is a friendly SGL’er who would help you price the equipment and place the adverts?  

10 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

I have yearned for a bigger aperture scope for years in order to capture those elusive faint galaxies and nebula

I would say EAA (Eg: Seestar 50) is a good option for the fainter stuff if large aperture are a problem. In theory, I break out the EAA for the springtime galaxies and do visual for the rest of the time. In practice my EAA rig is a bit of a faff and a SeeStar or EvScope or Vaonis would work well I think. 

The 8” is pretty compact. 

1 hour ago, PeterC65 said:

I could identify the pattern of stars I was seeing in the sky chart, but especially in night mode, SkySafari wasn't really showing me what I should be looking at as such, not like the images I get with Stellarium. So It was good for making sure I was looking in the right place but not for checking what the object should look like.

You probably already have this switched on Peter, but there is an option to show objects as images in SkySafari (I’m using SS 7 Pro)….

From what you say, you enjoy visual and imaging, and the problem is your setup is heavy and takes a while to set and polar align? Some really good suggestions above, not sure I can add much, but here’s my thoughts on options for when you get a clear night but can’t be bothered:

• Step outside with some good binoculars for ten minutes and enjoy some amazing wide field views - that way you don’t have to beat yourself up for missing a good night and you’ll have a nice warm glow when you get back inside.
• Get a small scope on a simple manual mount for visual use as mentioned above. I would thoroughly recommend the the Celestron Starsense Explorer mobile phone technology instead of a finder - it makes life SO much easier. I was out with my C8 last night which has an 8x50 RACI finder trying to find some challenging objects - I ended up wishing I had set up the 102ED with Starsense! I can also recommend the Heritage 130P on a photo tripod, as you don’t even need to set up a chair to observe.
• If you need your imaging fix, the new EAA products like the ZWO SeeStar look incredibly easy to use and good fun. Although imaging capabilities are limited it makes my relatively simple EAA setup (66mm APO, plus CG5 plus ASI air) seem cumbersome and complex.
• Planning your next sessions can be a good motivator - I enjoy using SkySafari to create observing lists for particular scopes, and I also enjoy sitting at my desk with InterStellarium Atlas and identifying interesting targets. 

Hope that helps a bit.  

Just had a nice couple of hours. Transparent skies so I took the C8 out to see how it would cope with the Crescent nebula. With a 0.63 reducer, OIII/UHC filters and a 32mm Plossl I got as large an exit pupil as possible. A disappointing view initially, so after fiddling with different eyepieces I concluded the 17.5mm Morpheus actually gave the clearest view, but as with previous sessions, the best I could manage was getting a clear curve in the top half, but not the whole length of the Crescent. I have concluded my skies are just too bright for anything better than this. I swung round to M27 and what a contrast after the murky Cresent, the Dumbell being bright, vivid and rather spectacular. 🙂

Definitely a UFO, probably piloted by Aliens. It could also be the shadow of the secondary mirror and spider vanes of a telescope. Probably a UFO though. 😉

Really super sketches. 👍

Looks great Paul. A six inch F8 dob is a is a very versatile and hugely capable instrument. I’ve had some tremendous views through my 150PL, particularly DSOs and close doubles. And of course it’s really quick to cool down. 

6 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just in...

As soon as the cloud and rain vanish, there'll be a review 

 

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with this. 👍

Perhaps not a bargain as such, but I reckon SkySafari is incredibly good value considering the depth of functionality, usability and the fact that you can also use it to remote control telescopes over wifi or use with Celestron’s Starsense. 

Some droolworthy telescopes here to be sure, I’d love a really big frac in an observatory in my back yard, but to be honest, I’d prefer to use my 4” APO on top of that mountain in Chile!  

11 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

My worst astronomy purchase was a brand new TV NP101 IS

This thread could get interesting….. 😉

I think my worst astro purchase was two nights at Kelling Heath Star Party - totally clouded out and not a star in sight! 😆

I think the people in my queue would have been happy to see Saturn through a toilet roll tube! 😆

Nice choice. My initial reaction was an 8” SCT or Classical Cassegrain might fit the bill for you, but the F4 newt sounds like a very capable alternative and cheaper too I imagine. I’m guessing that collimation isn’t such an issue for most DSOs. Very interested to see how you get on with it. 

3 hours ago, Zermelo said:

Excellent.

What sort of ages were the punters?

The youngest was around 7 years old, there were also a group of teenagers on a field trip nearby who turned up (I loved their noisy enthusiasm), and also adults all the way to their 80’s I would guess. So a good cross section. 🙂

I helped out with an outreach event last night run by the Dedham Vale Society at Flatford. Skies were clear and I met a lovely group of fellow astronomers who also had their kit available. When night fell around sixty people turned up to look through our scopes, at one point I had a large queue of people waiting to see Saturn. Without fail each person peered into the eyepiece and let out a loud “Wow”. Saturn really is a memorable object to see and some people came back for a second and third view. We packed up at 10:00, by this time the dew was heavy and the mists hanging like a ghostly should over everything. Fortunately the dew heaters worked perfectly to keep the eyepieces and corrector plate free of dew. A very enjoyable evening all round. 
 

Interesting to hear what’s happening on CN, but making these kinds of claims is always going to be contentious, and probably best avoided on SGL in my opinion. 

Although Stellamira are very good, I’d point out that there are a wide variety of excellent refractors available in Europe that could be added to the list! 

What is it you prefer about the  Svbony 80 to the Astrotech? 

12 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Two new members of my Vixen collection together.

 

Very nice! What does WT stand for? The smaller scope is vey fast at F5.7 

6 hours ago, Olli said:

Which unfortunately when  mounted  on my az5 it is unusable due to the finder shoe being on the bottom left

Can’t you unbolt the arm of the AZ5 and pivot it to the other side - that way the finder shoe should be at the top when you mount the scope? 

On 11/09/2023 at 17:15, josefk said:

i pay way too much attention to these things - you could put your scope and sky in here to see if "you're on" or not  - https://www.cruxis.com/scope/limitingmagnitude.htm

I think this webpage may be incorrectly calculating the effect of the pupil diameter / age - according to it, the older I get the dimmer the stars I can see.  Can’t be right can it? Apart from that, it’s very useful. 🙂

Well done for getting the Veil so clearly, good result. 🙂