RobertI

This is very exciting news for the EAA community Martin! An amazing piece of work. ?️

Great vid Chris, your years of experience shine through in your words. I don’t have the wide experience of different scopes that some other folks do, having owned 7 scopes in total - those in my sig plus a 6” F8 Newt. I have often thought about the perfect single scope for my needs and I think it could be a 120ED, kind of in between your two very well considered suggestions, but a step up in price again, especially versus a budget Newt. I guess if it is a single scope one is willing to pay a bit more! ? I would love to spend some quality time with an 120 ED to test my theory. 

8 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

There's no way of keeping all parties happy in this situation. I just hope that everyone sticks around to try all the options that the admins come up with. A suitable solution will never be found if everyone leaves. 

I think we should have a series of ‘meaningful votes’ on the subject. ?

54 minutes ago, alanjgreen said:

I am sure the live stackers and EAAers that will post in this new forum have no interest in NV as they are into the “software” and “cameras”

I can see why you would be unhappy to post in the new forum based on that assumption Alan. I am not sure it is true though. Personally I have always been visual, but I tried EAA due to light polluted skies, and it really worked for me. I have no interest in cameras or processing and if I could afford NV I would jump at it! By the way, I have no idea what ‘gain’ is!

I really like this mount, I think it is an often overlooked gem. I did a fair amount of research for portable mounts in this price bracket and I really couldn't find much to not like about it. Probably echoing the above review video review, but the things that I really like were:

• Very sturdy tripod, much better than tripods on the Celestron equivalent mount, an excellent feature not to be underestimated.
• Freedom find, which means you can undo the clutches on the axes manually to move the scope and not lose your goto alignment.
• The ability to still use the mount manually (by pushing the scope) without power - I've no experience of how usable this is in practice, but if it is usable I think it makes the mount very versatile indeed, and still useable if you are struggling to get the hang of goto.

As for the scope, 150mm / 6" is a very good size and you will see plenty. Apparently this model scope does NOT need collimating (aligning the mirrors) which is very useful indeed if you are a beginner. On mounts of this size I would say that this sized telescope is pretty big and possibly pushing it, but with the excellent tripod, I would say it should be fine.

So in summary I think you wont find much better in my humble opinion. As always though if you are a complete beginner, I would recommend getting to know the sky with the naked eye and a pair of binouclars and a good astronomy book or app, learn the main constellations and the brightest stars. You will then be more confident whenyou come to use your scope. Have fun! 

I think all the points made are very valid. Clearly telescopes used to be much more expensive and most people would make an investment in one scope to last them a long time, so that one scope had to be able to do a lot of things, and smaller aperture scopes have their limitations (although fewer limitations nowadays with the excellent quality optics available). 

4 hours ago, Stu said:

Looking forward to trying this little gem out.

What scope will you try it with Stu?

From the video, it looks like the dewshield reverses and becomes a slide on protector, very clever! 

What a lovely looking piece of kit, perfect for a lightweight mount, clever design fusion of APO scope and SLR lens. 

23 hours ago, AdeKing said:

Love the way that this model has a lever to release all three legs at once, which makes levelling a whole lot easier.

What a great feature!

23 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

A middle of of the road reading for me. Dark enough to enjoy myself!

NELM@Zenith is 5.5 on a good night.

I wish that my gear was more portable....

Paul

 

 

Paul,  you have very similar conditions to Kelling Heath - can't be bad!

Data below from my site on the Essex/Suffolk border. I don't really know what SQM means but I have imaged objects of mag 20 with my lodestar and 30 second exposures, not sure if this confirms the data in any way? It can get very dark overhead on transparent nights, but there are three massive sources of light pollution 10 miles away in each direction (Colchester, Ipswich and Felixstowe docks) so any mist or vapour in the atmosphere and the sky turns orange. I live on a new build and consider myself very lucky to have the majority of the garden streetlight free, although I live in daily fear of the dreaded 'insecurity' lights being installed.

On 03/12/2018 at 13:52, TSRobot said:

Oops. Just ordered the Evscope.?

Have to wait till June 2019 tut.

Well done! Keep us posted. 

6 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

Looks fun!

 Am tempted to get a VR headset - not sure how they work exactly or what their system requirements are?? If I got one I'd want it to be something portable that doesn't require an expensive smartphone... There was a drama on C4 earlier in the year ('Kiss Me First' - anyone see it?) which put me off a bit! Ha ha.

The Occulus is ‘untethered’ so you can take it anywhere and it can be used without access to a phone or internet, but to download apps you need to pair with your smartphone (Android or iOS), be connected to internet via WiFi and use the Occulus app (according to the blurb, I haven’t got the headset yet!). 

11 hours ago, Ags said:

I am a big fan of the Oculus Go - I have two of them! Do you have links to the Apollo 11 and ISS sims?

That's really good to hear Agnes! I don't have the links as I haven't got thet headset yet, but happy to share when I have worked it all out.  Actually part of the reason I was attracted to the Occulus (actually VR headsets in general) was the experience of 'being in' some of the virtual landscapes or setting. I loved being able to take myself out of my chaotic day and insert myself into a calm zen-like room overlooking a specacular landscape or on a beach. I can see it being a good relaxation tool and there are some nice looking meditation apps out there. 

11 hours ago, PaulM said:

Played\watched the Apollo 11 on my PSVR coincidentally at the weekend was pretty good and was only £3

I think that's pretty good value Paul - compares favourably with £250,000 for a seat on Richard Branson's spaceship! 

11 hours ago, Helen said:

I've gone cheap - this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B011EG5HJ2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 has arrived.  Haven't tested it yet, but should be the same as the ones I borrowed for the starparty which seemed to work well.  (For those of us over a certain age the Viewmaster 'click' to change is quite nostalgic too!) Looking forward to doing Rosetta 3D etc with my family over Christmas ?    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.UKAstroNutProductions.Rosetta&hl=en_GB

Cheap is good Helen! Can't go wrong for that price, the apps look very impressive, let us know how it goes. ?

I recently experienced the Apollo 11 and ISS simulations on a friend’s Occulus Go (virtual reality headset) and was blown away. It was so immersive and realistic, and all for £200.  My reaction afterwards was that Elon Musk and Richard Branson are wasting their time with space tourism! When I saw it was reduced to £169 I felt duty bound to place an order, in the name of science of course. ? Should arrive in a few days, i’ll download and review some astro apps if anyone is interested. 

Looks very promising Chris and it's a lot cheaper than a 100mm APO + reducer! Perhaps you could continue the test by piggybacking the scope on the CPC800 for some longer exposures/integrations (when you get it back)? Should be fine for up to 30 seconds in most areas of the sky.

On 6 August 2018 at 18:37, PeterW said:

Well finally.... now the clouds are mounting on the horizon. 3D.... and no red or green filters in sight. Be interesting to try out if it ever clears up!

 

PEterW

Very nice - be sure to post a review when you have used them for observing. ? I can't seem to find much info about how they work?

1 hour ago, The Admiral said:

And why not! Sounds good to me. Mind you, having just checked on goggle I see that such a word is in use for much the same thing!

Ian

Damn.

Very useful map, I think the lines should be called ‘Isochrones’! ?

I can see the appeal of buying a quality piece of kit like a Tak, the ownership experience must be wonderful, and it would be nice just to say you've owned one. £665 is a lot for 60mm of aperture though, though not bad for a Tak I guess?I remember looking through an 80mm  Tak (approx - don't know the exact model) at the ring nebula at Kelling Heath once and being sorely disappointed, but that was just after I had viewed the Veil nebula through 20" dob! They probably cost about the same! 

Well done for finally getting out there Chris and really sorry it didn't go as planned. It's infuriating when technology doesn't do what it's supposed to, especially when observing opportunities are so scarce.  Was it WAY off (like half the sky away) or 'just' a degree or so? EDIT- you've answered this while I was typing.

I've had so many wasted EAA session over the last few years but finally have a setup which I know well and pretty much works each time, as long as I follow the same process. I'd love to upgrade the mount, scope, camera, etc , but even if I did have the funds, I'd be loathe to touch it, so sitcking with a less than perfect setup!

At least you salvaged the evening with some outreach, perhaps you have a budding apprentice there?

I popped out for a quick look before bed but conditions were so nice I ended up staying out until 1pm! This was largely thanks to the Heritage 130P+GiroWR+tripod which was so easy to setup (up and runnig in literally 60 seconds) and performed beautifully. If I had been faced with lugging out the C8, Skytee and 2" tripod, I may well have just gone to bed instead! I'll post a report later on.

Hope you get the goto sorted.

2 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Oh dear, Rob  At least my garden is ok due to being on a high spot.

Thanks Chris, fortunately I have some patio that I can view from, so all is not lost, but it's a squelchy pain! 

Not surprised you haven't managed anything yet Chris, the weather has indeed been awful around here. My increasingly miserable record of observing sessions so far this year has been:

• January - 5 sessions
• February - 2 sessions
• March - 0 sessions
• April - 0 sessions (so far) 

And the garden looks like a lake.  

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

Thanks Rob, the FOV you've shown above looks great, and it will also give 2"/pixel which is bang on for our skies. I'm hoping the small chip will get around the f/4 coma but we'll see. Fingers crossed for some interesting results   

p.s. your Ipad needs charging  

 Down to 5% now, will go to bed when it finally shuts down!