Ratlet

Are there any other components in the optical train?  Filters, etc?

After the meridian flip the reflection might be gone because it isn't on the sensor anymore.  If you imagine the reflection being on the opposite side of the star and the same distance it'll be out of the FOV?

Could just be reflections, but the objective glass looks pretty grotty around the retaining ring.  Possibly it's had a hard life.

Some nebulas are bonkers when it comes to averted vision with the difference in brightness.  I recently observed Caldwell 39 (highly recommend it btw) and looking dead on it was incredibly faint but if you caught it in averted vision it was so much brighter.  I could even briefly make out the central star (pretty sure I could at least).  All faint fuzzys benefit from averted vision, but I think some get a bigger boost than others.

I started wanting to do astro and much like yourself felt it was a waste of an evening to sit inside whilst I hoped the camera did it's thing.  So I picked a 130pds and used camera lenses for imaging.  After all if I didn't get on with visual then I've got an imaging ready scope.

Well, as it panned out I've taken 3 images with the 130pds, all on the same night as I just can't give it up for imaging when I could be looking through it.

On an evening when there is a decent clear skies I'll set up the 130pds on az5 and leave it to cool whilst I put the imaging rig together and get it going.  I then leave it alone and do some visual.  If there is some cloud then I just go straight to visual.

I can't really describe why it's so satisfying.  I've read other descriptions from people here and they are true but it's a bit like saying the sun is bright.  True statement but it doesn't catch it all.

@mikeDnight's sketches are fantastic.  But guess what, they don't have to be and they are still awesome.  I have precisely zero artistic talent but absolutely love sketching.  It's so easy and cheap.  And it helps you actively observe.  You are actively looking for detail when you sketch and you end up seeing more.

I take the view that my sketches are diagnostic.  I use them to confirm I saw what I thought I saw.  Doesn't stop me from practicing though and from wanting to get better.  I've even started sketching my astro images when it is cloudy!

The only downside to visual observing is the time passes so quickly.  You'll end up coming in at 0100 asking what happend to the previous 3 hours.

Astro imaging is something I do to share astronomy with normal people, where their lack of experience fills in the gap between the object and my lack of talent.

Visual astronomy and sketching is something I do for myself largely but you can share it here where the members experience makes up for my lack of talent lol.

8 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

You don't need an eyepiece kit, a few well aimed focal lengths would be better. 

I'd suggest a 25mm, an 8mm and a x2 Barlow. That would give you x26, x52, x81, x163.

As suggested, the BST range is excellent value for money. From your links, I'm guessing you are in the US? In the US the eyepieces are known as Astro-Tech Paradigms and Agena Starguiders. Available for around $75 each.

I think the 130m is a 900mm focal length rather than 650mm focal length @Mr Spock.  I only say this because I have the 130pds which is a 650mm focal length.

For OP just swap out the 8mm for a 12mm starguider and you'll get the high power.  There isn't a lower power eyepiece from BST than 25mm, but I'd say still get it.  My most used (by a gigantic margin) eyepiece is a 32mm plossl and the 25mm BST gives almost the exact same fov as the 25mm BST.

I'm a 6 month noob but I've gotten this far and not felt the need to get another eyepiece till now using this combination of fields of view/magnification with an x2 Barlow, 8mm starguider and 32mm plossl.  Heck I don't even Barlow the 32mm because the eye relieve is too long for me so if you get 25mm starguider you'll basically have an extra eyepiece over me!

Fun fact as well, the after 6 months of observing the first eyepiece I bought gave me x55 power which is almost exactly what I was missing from Mr Spock's recommendation.

Get the 12mm and the 25mm Starguider/paradigms and an x2 Barlow.  If you already have a Barlow see how it works before buying a new barlow.

Depends on the focal length.  Takumar 200mm is about £40-60 with a 200mm focal length.  Still testing the Tair and haven't made my mind up but 300mm at £60-100.

As to the coma correctors, you could always just crop the image.  It is photography and part of it is framing the image.

Honestly when I, on a whim, tried my 130pds which I use for visual with my Hypercam 533c which has a 1" sensor.  I looked at the stars in the corners and then looked at the (many, MANY) posts concerning coma correctors and back spacing and tilt and thought. "Nah, this will do"

It depends on what you want from it I guess.  I mostly just want to share space images on FB and get a smiley face and like from me mum so I've got a fairly low bar lol.

Working nights at the moment and don't get home till 0600 and with clear outside showing clouds for the forseeable this was the last chance for me to get out and do some observing and to test out the 12mm BST Starguider, not an ideal first run since the scope wasn't cooled properly and I was particularly dark adapted AND I was racing the rising dawn, however I had a quick scan through Leo and I think I found R Leonis, but I have to say I don't think it was very red.  More orange if anything.

To give the eyepiece a fair run I headed to M13 which is about as far from the dawn as I could get.  In the 130PDS the 12mm gives x55 power so not ideal for framing M13, however the view was still rather good.  I dropped my x2 barlow in and tried that out and the framing was just about perfect at x110  Really nice view, and very stable on the new Skywatcher Tripod, really nice granulation in the cluster was apparent.  A great early indicator.  I think me and this eyepiece have a bright future ahead of us!

Edit:

Corrected the powers.  I can't math.

Well timed thread this.  Got a large slab for Christmas.

I'm going to take the cowards way out and cut my eyepiece slots sideways.

Wife got me a 12mm starguider for a nice addition to the collection.

Mother in law absolutely knocked it out of the park though.  M48 extension tubes and some metric Allen bolts.  No more hack sawed leftovers from up the shed!

9 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

No you’re quite correct. Selling my previous 10” was something I regretted (was a false economy in the end as was no less convenient than an 8”) and having lost money I decided to re buy a “basic”  10” and possibly upgrade to StarSense  and the other extras the SL offers over the next few months. 

Excellent.  My goal next year is to get a 10" dob.  I was a bit worried it might be too big so possibly just get an 8, sounds like the 10" is the way forward.

21 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Ah, I always wondered how Tachyhashis manage to defy the laws of physics 😊

Also explains why tachyhashi owners are so obsessive.  They experience owning them backwards in time!  They already own one and have been using it for decades by the time they click 'buy now' on Flo.

I've also got the AZ5 and will give a mini review as a noob.

I've been using it with a 130pds and originally had it on a carbon fibre tripod from innorel.  It worked pretty well but I found that somewhere around x160 power with an 8mm eyepiece and x2 Barlow it suffered from some fairly annoying vibrations.  It was to the point that I had to hover over the eyepiece or it was basically unusable.

For a while I assumed it was the mount but one day I tried it with the legs of the tripod not extended and the vibrations largely disappeared.

Based on that I bought a skywatcher 1.75" steel tripod.  Even with the legs fully extended the vibrations are largely gone at high power, still a bit of wobble but it does down quickly.

The slow mo cables a re really easy to access without the extension when I use the small Newtonian.  There is a bit of backlash but quite quickly you get used to it.  Once I get the tension set I quickly get a feel for the backlash and kind of automatically adjust for it.

I think it's a very fun mount to use.  Star hopping is easy since you can push to a bright star and slowmo to your destination.

There is a grub screw for adjustments to the worm gear on each axis.  You can fettle with these to... Do something to it.  I know I did, but honestly I can't remember what or why I did it or if it made it better. 🤣

If you do go for a variable polarising filter I find that holding the eyepiece to the focuser upside down let's you adjust the view to ge the brightness right, or at least close enough.

Helps dim the view for Jupiter and mars, and especially the moon which is almost painfully bright with the 130pds at most magnifications lol.

2 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

Buyers remorse indeed - so full circle! Thanks to @FLO for amazing service. A 10” Dob delivery within 24hr of order at one of the busiest times of the year… A back to basics Dob to be upgraded and modded over 2023. 

Is it my imagination or have your tried a lot of dobs?

I got the 533mc Hypercam and am very happy with it.  There was a slight issue with some amp glow on the first one I got (you could only see it on dark, not on any light images).  But they very quickly replaced it.

I was happy with the faulty one, I'm happy with their after care and I'm happy with the new one.

You do get less adapters with them, but in turn you get a sharpcap pro 1 year licence, a hard case for the camera and a bag of Haribo.

I'd recommend them.

What usually gets me with remote desktop is if the mini pc connects to a different WiFi.  We've got a couple different WiFi networks in the house and the mini pc sometimes connects to the wrong one.

I picked up a cheap WiFi extender that's setup to make its own WiFi network and plug the mini pc into that.  I can then remote into that if I connect to the network via WiFi.

1 hour ago, LDW1 said:

Some time ago on a forum site, far far away when I pointed out the quality of Svbony products and their associated performances all round I was accused of working for them because all they were was a low life rebrander, it just wasn't possible.  Now I wish I was on their payroll, lol ! They just keep rolling them out, its good to see this is just the latest. I own a lot of their products including 3 zooms other than this one and nothing has let me down yet and as a side benefit I have saved a lot of cash.

The only valid complaint against svbony gear I've seen is that their advertising blurb is a tad optimistic.

Every other complaint tends to be "it's not as good as something that costs four times as much".

I'm just getting started and unless the kit is extremely poor quality, the weakest link in my setup is guaranteed to be me.  Having read @Louis D's reviews of other eyepieces I've enough to go on to know it's going to be a sensible purchase.  I consider him the gold standard for eyepiece reviews.

Edit:. Bought off their website instead.

20 minutes ago, josefk said:

Sounds like a great double header. Sky Safari is just brilliant for navigation isn't it - i use it with a correct image view for GnG and it feels like cheating :-). 

I use it with my Newtonian.  I just turn off the auto rotate and use it right way up for finding a star or target and then hold the phone upside down for star hopping.  Much easier than stellarium.  

Probably my last chance at a dim sky for a while so went out for a quick blast for an hour with the 130PDS.  I used Sky Safari for star hopping and found it excellent once I dialled in the settings.  Also the first time taking the AZ5 out with the Skywatcher Tripod rather than the carbon fibre.

Rosette Nebula:  I kicked off with this, but I suspect I could have done with some more time for my eyes to adapt.  Couldn't discern any definite nebulosity but could see some bits that were for sure darker than others in the outer portion of the FOV.  I suspect this is a target that will get better with a repeat viewing.

Christmas Tree Cluster:  Again, no nebulosity, but I suspect you need a beefy scope for that.  Quite nice when I eventually saw the shape (it's correct way round in a Newtonian, pointy end at the top).

Eskimo Nebula:  A very rewarding target in the 8mm.  Probably the star of the show.  I threw in the UHC filter as well for this one.  I you want to train your adverted vision, this is the target.  The difference in brightness between looking directly at it and with averted vision is astounding.  When you get it in the sweet spot it is very bright.  Periodically could see the central star flicker in and out of the nebulosity.

Beehive Cluster:  Another great target.  Very much a diamonds on black velvet affair.

M42:  Not sure if it was the tripod or better seeing than usual, but great views tonight.  With the 8mm I could see texture in the nebulosity where as before it was just a white blob.  With both the 32mm and 8mm the nebulosity seemed to extend further than I've observed before.  I'd like to have sketched it, but tonight was about quantity not quality!

I also had a very quick look at mars to check how the new tripod was performing.  The views were more stable with the 8mm than I've had previously with less of the infuriating vibration the carbon fibre tripod showed.  I hada very quick look with the 2x barlow and it was definitely better (I could touch the eyecup without the view going wild).  However the clouds did what they do best so I packed up and came inside.

All in all a good night of observing!  Very glad I snuck out, even if I have to pay for it by going to do ironing now!  The Tripod is a definite improvement and has made the whole assembly more pleasant to use.  I think I've hit a very good (for me) configuration with SkySafari for starhopping.  I might get some ND film to cover the screen to dim it more so I don't periodically blow my retinas. 

Edit:

Good news!  I finished the ironing and got out and did some more observing about 05:30.

Conceptually I understand that the sky moves but on some level I'm bamboozled by the fact that everything moves so much in 5 hours.  Leo was up and and a decent height to the south so I went galaxy hunting and found M65, M66 which were both incredibly dim and small the 32mm plossl but were definitely there.  I would be confident I saw M96 but less so with M95.  I did however see some fuzzy patches North of M96 and would sya I made out 3 patches there, possibly M105, and NGC 3389 and 3384.  There were an astounding number of satellites going through at this time as well.

Was going to try and find Markarians Chain, however the star hopping to it filled me with dread.  M13 had made a reappearance so went over there and I'm happy to report it was a much better view than the first time I saw it about 5 or 6 months ago.  Delightful in the 8mm.  I suspect it's a combination of the tripod making things more stable and me getting better at observing.

Once the new year rolls in I'm going to have to get going and build an observing chair!

It's probably worth saying that whilst these aren't optimised for astro imaging, you can pick up a lens for £40-£60 for a takumar or tair.  Do you get £40 worth of astroinmaging out of a takumar 200mm?  I'd say so.

Aye, the 3 screw style guide scope mounts work well for smaller lenses.  Had good results also with a 200mm takumar SMC and a Tair 3 (not quite as good imho) in terms of image quality.  Tair 3 I use with 90mm tube rings with some home made 3D printed spacers.

I use mine with a m42x1 to cannon adapter then a canon filter holder from zwo which gives the correct focus distance for my camera.

I adjusted the infinity stop on both my lenses and it was easy, but I've had one where it wouldnt reach infinity even on a canon DSLR and I could not adjust the infinity stop as the screws were stuck fast.

1 hour ago, johnnyp said:

@Ratlet that useful feedback thank you. I use my 72ed mainly with a azt6 which is quite light. I very rarely go over 35x mag. I'm mostly a low power sweeper:). I observe sitting down so the legs extended won't be an issue. The main interest for me is being able to adjust the height easily when I move to using a 45 erect diagonal for spotting birds and planes etc. 

You'll be well served then!

I tried mine with a normal chair with I think 2 legs extended, or maybe 1 and it made a huge difference in stability, and that's with a bigger mount and scope on it, and like yourself, I love me some low power observing.

I keep meaning to 3D print an adapter so I can use my Tair 3 telephoto with eyepieces and try that out on the mount/tripod.

I've got the version of that innorel tripod without the column.  I'm using it with a 130pds and az5 which is a fair bit of movement arm and weight on the tripod.

You do get some vibrations with the legs fully extended, although it's only an issue at higher power (x80 is okay, x160 is not pleasant).  As Laurence mention hanging weight off the hook does help.

Ultimately though not having the legs extended makes a massive difference.  It's one of the reasons I want to build an observing chair.

I've just bought a steel leg tripod to compare and whilst I've only tried it on solar, at x80 it seemed improved but obviously weights quite a lot more.

I think you might get better performance with the 72ed and azgti than I have with my combo as everything is more central and being honest the 130pds is even pushing the limits of the az5 so it's probably a contributor to the vibration too.

Aye, AliExpress will charge vat at the checkout.

You could get in touch with Altair and see when their 571 based camera is going to be back in stock:

https://www.altairastro.com/altair-hypercam-26c-aps-c-colour-tec-astronomy-camera-16bit-6451-p.asp

£1400, UK based, 1 year warranty, should come with a 1 year sharpcap pro licence, a hard case a warm hat AND a packet of Haribo.  You'll need to source anything but the most basica adapters, but you can get a lot of adapters for the price difference between a zwo.

I had a 533mc from them.  It was great.  Minor issue with darks (no impact on image quality) but swiftly resolved and new unit sent out.  Happy to recommend them.