Ratlet

I use the 130pds for visual.  I think the PDS line get dodged almost because they 'are for imaging'.  I've taken precisely 3 images with mine because it's always got an eyepiece in it lol.

I struggle to see much more than bands on Jupiter with my 130pds. I use an 8mm BST and x2 Barlow so between 80 and 160 power roughly.  The view is very pleasing and crisp (when seeing supports it) but I think it's a lack of contrast.  I'm going to floc my tube over the next couple weeks (I hope) which should help, but I need to try out my polarising filter also.

I think we may suffer with a similar issue though: the wide field views are just too good!  The planets are good (also had a mak127 and agree it's better for planets) but the widefield is just delicious.

I look forward to you next report when M42 is up and about.  It'll blow your mind with your scope!

We've had a 'bit' of rain recently.

I bought my scope at the beginning of July and didn't get a clear night till the end of August.

I'm an opportunist now.  I can get by on about 6 hours of sleep and my rotation means I've got 2 weeks days, 2 weeks off then 2 weeks nights. 6 to 6.

If I'm on days and it looks promising or I wake up early I've been outside at 0200.  If I'm on nights I've taken my binos in the car and stopped in lay-bys on the way home.  I might throw the scope in now it's proper dark in the morning.

Bought the cheapest laser collimator I could find on Amazon on the basis if it couldn't collimate I could return it.  Turns out the one I got was exactly the same as the old one.

Also turns out my Tair 3 tube rings are the perfect size to hold a 2' eyepiece (almost) so I've got a decent rig to mounbtit on 

They've allowed her back on now.  Just in time for Twitter to implode.

Its a bit of a nuisance for Mary though.  She does a lot of out reach for astronomy and has been binned off by twitter because of their faulty system.

You can say what you like about it but it has massive reach which for out reach is great.

51 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

There's a Vixen 12mm SLV on the For Sale section of this forum right now.

Nothing to do with me but I know the seller and his equipment is extremely well looked after. It has 20mm eye relief and superb optics, at £65 posted it's great value.

HTH🙂

Dave

I'm starting to wish I was a triclops lol

Thanks for the advice guys.  I've now ended up with a spreadsheet (and a better understanding of eyepieces).  I think the 12-ish mm is a pretty good place.

LouisD's reviews and yard stick is one of my favourite things to find when I look for eyepiece reviews.  So We've now got another contender in the ring with the Meade HD-60 which apparently some new-old stock has been found and is available through Ali-Express.  More than likely I'll still get the 12mm BST though as it's for Christmas and the wife will be buying it.

I picked up a set of the 30mm m4 in black for my 130pds.  Works a treat.  Just change them out one at a time.

Can't comment on the sensor but I recently purchased an asi533 based Hypercam direct from Altair.

The camera was very good and very easy to use.  Works well at usb 2 and 3.  The camera I got took exceptional pictures and I was happy however there was a slight but if glow in the darks which shouldn't be there.  Altair quickly said that wasn't normal and arranged a replacement.  Their technical support is excellent.  They also have a decent community they just seem to not be very loud.

You don't get a lot of adapters with it, but you do get a nice hard case, a nice hat and a packet of Haribo.  Oh and a 1 year subscription to sharpcap.

Also the camera is a nice shade of purple.  This is my wife and daughters favourite colour which got them firmly inside when I bought it.

IMHO you should get the Altair, based on the fact you will be well supported if there are any issues.

I'm going to stop taking the barrels of they eyepieces now.  Appreciate the information.

I think it'll be a safe bet with the 12mm.  I do like the eyecups with the bst as they fit nicely against my neanderthal brow without touching my protruding eyes lol.

I've got the BST 2x Barlow.  Just checked and unfortunately whilst it does unscrew from the Barlow the thread is slightly larger than a filter thread.  Although it does screw into my BST eyepiece which is interesting. 

The 8mm has optics in its barrel so I'm wondering now if I can swap barrels and optics about.  I wonder if the 8mm would function with a barrel without any glass.

I do like the BSTs I must say.  I find them very comfortable.  The 12mm seems highly regarded also which is why it was my first consideration.

I'll need to do another read up of exit pupil to make sure I understand it a bit better.

I'm wondering if any of the seasoned observers could help me pick an eyepiece focal length so I can fill in some of my magnification gaps with my 130 PDS (650mm focal length, F5 Newtonian) as I'm finding some of the skips in magnification a little unwieldy.

At the moment I've got an 8mm and a 32mm that use for not planetary observing.  I can Barlow the 8mm but find the 32mm a struggle if barlowed.  Also got a svbony 8-24 zoom, but that is only used for planetary as I find the FOV too narrow for other things.

This gives me x20, x80 and x160 power.  I'd like to fill in the gap with some with with a 60ish degree fov.  But I'm not sure what would give me the best utility.

12mm BST would give me x54 and x108 barlowed

Or I could go for something like a 25mm and get x26 and x52 barlowed.  I'm not sure on the best eyepiece if this is the best bet.

Not particularly sure what the most useful focal length would be to provide the most utility.  I'm enjoying sketching immensely, I wear glasses but tend not to for observing.  Mostly working my way through the popular rookie targets and Turn Left at Orion.

I'm probably able to spend up to about £100 for a goodun.

6 hours ago, Ian McCallum said:

These arrived today, courtesy of @SzabiB. I bought a friend a second hand Celestron Firstscope 76mm Dobsonian from eBay, which was supplied with awful H and SR type eyepieces.

I bought these Sky-Watcher eyepieces, as these will be an improvement for him. 

I think those H and SR eyepieces get too much stick.  I use mine every night I'm out observing.  They do a really good job as replacement dust caps.

I have a plan...

A cunning plan.  A plan so cunning it could be appointed a professor of cunning at Oxford...

Invite them to your house/observing site.

"What I got you for your 50th is this:"

http://www.icc.dur.ac.uk/~tt/Lectures/Galaxies/LocalGroup/Back/50lys.html

And show them the light of a star as it looked on the day they were born.  Whilst you are at it you can show them some of the other stuff nearby...

21 hours ago, Greymouser said:

Got this little light, which may help me find eyepieces on the table, rather than knock them off. It's meant to be a reading light, amber, red and mixed and clamps onto the top of a book. Here it is on the edge of a desk.

Not as bright as it seems in the picture and it is dimmable, as well as very directional.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amber-Reading-Lights-Books-Bed/dp/B0B12TR9GR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2U43WDTX4LU1O&keywords=red+light+reading+light&qid=1668277221&sprefix=red%20light%20reading%20light%2Caps%2C69&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

 

How dim are we talking here?  That looks great for my sketching.  Does it go to borderline useless levels of dimness?  That would be ideal if it does.

Also, we've achieved 500 pages collectively of sharing our joy in this hobby together.  Congratulations to everyone.  Here's to the next 500!

There's a really detailed review of the GEM28 showing some long term experience in the members review bit.  Shows a fairly representative experience of it imho.

I like my GEM28 it's done everything I've asked if it so far.

If it were local I'd probably turn up for a polite amount of time and do it when I got back.  I've got kids and get hangovers like I've contracted a virulent tropical disease so my wife would probably consider it a win if I stayed sober, left early did some imaging and ended up getting up an hour or two later the next day.

In this case I would be "exceeding expectations", but only because the expectations of my wife would have been low to start with 🤣

6 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

12/11/22,  02.20  

First observation of M42 this year in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Orion Nebula - always a highlight and looking superb at low-medium power through the 6 inch Newt. Takes me straight back to last Winter and Christmas 😊. The Trapezium presenting clearly with the bright Moon and Mars nearby adding to the overall scene. 

Saw the moon and mars as I drove home from work last night.  Looked like a really nice setup for viewing.  Unfortunately a 12 hour shift starting at 0600 but a stop to any plans of observing.  Got up at 0300, but clouds had rolled in.

Quite jelly of your observation lol.

Altair do a cheaper side by side mount that is pretty decent imho:

https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-dual-vixensynta-175-inch-side-by-side-dovetail-bar-kit-230mm-ota-separation-208-p.asp

I use mine to great success.

For my Tair 3 I got some of the 90mm skywatcher tube rings from Flo and 3D printed some spacers  I lined with velour.  Spacers are split so they can squeeze a bit. One of the rings has a 1/4" screw that my svbony mini guide scope screws into and works very well also.  £30 for the rings and about 6p for the plastic for the spacers.

In your case you might get away with the rings and spacers to hold the imaging scope and space the rings out so you can mount the guide scope directly to the rings.

5 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

EEVA is Electronically Enhanced Visual Astronomy. It's sometimes called EAA, Electronically Assisted Astronomy. Another (older) name for it is Video Astronomy.

Basically, it means using a camera instead of an eyepiece but viewing the image live, or close to live. I think the older term Video Astronomy means live, whereas today it is possible to do live stacking, so the images are processed but close to live. By "close to live" I mean anything from sitting in front of the laptop watching as the 4s exposure frames arrive and are stacked (this is what I mostly do) through to letting the software stack frames for 15 minutes and then taking a look.

What EEVA isn't is collecting data for hours, sometimes over multiple sessions, then post processing it much later. That is AP, Astro Photography, which is my opinion is a different hobby. EEVA is much closer to visual only astronomy (just using your own eyes).

I've just read your other post about how useful more stacking can be, and I think you should decide whether you want results on the night (EEVA) or the next day (AP). The kit you need for each is quite a bit different (AP is more expensive!).

I like a wide field of view when I observe visually. The first astro camera I used for EEVA had a 5.6mm x 3.1mm sensor and this felt like I was looking through a keyhole compared with the DSLR that I also used (22.2mm x 14.7mm). The DSLR is a pain in the neck (too big, too heavy, has a physical shutter, only runs off its own batteries) so I wanted an astro camera with a sensor about the same size as the DSLR. At that size they have relatively high read noise and are expensive for the better ones and that's why I settled on the mid-sized Uranus-C (11.2mm x 6.3mm). It's field of view is double that of my first camera but half that of the DSLR. So, I also have a x0.6 Reducer / Field Flattener which solves the problem. I've only used it once so far but it produced a great view of M31 (I posted a snapshot in this thread, page 6 about 1/3 of the way down, on October 21). Focal Reducers only really work with refractors though (I believe - mine certainly doesn't work with my Newtonian).

Since I bought the Uranus-C I've also realised that the bigger the sensor the more area the scope needs to illuminate. Some scopes struggle to illuminate a full DSLR sensor, and you get darker corners in the image (vignetting), plus the scopes inherent edge deficiencies (aberrations of various types) are worse the further out from the centre of the illumination. If you think about it, most scopes are designed for visual use where at most they have to illuminate a 7mm diameter human eye, so asking them to illuminate and remain in focus across a 27mm diagonal DSLR sensor is pushing things.

This is why sensors of this size are weapons imho.  You crop out the rubbish edges by default.  Get up and running with imagin on a newt and save £200 on a coma corrector and no fight with tilt and back spacing and the slow loss of the will to live?  Magic.

Craft foam board all the way for me.  Twice as long as the diameter.  Also had great results with underlay from vinyl click lock flooring.

This is with small 72mm lenses and 58mm lenses also.  Keeps it dew free fro at least 4 hours even in high humidity up in Scotland.

Keep the hairdryer near by to give it a warm up if it does dew up.

Oh and if your supergluing crafting foam the working time before it sets is somewhere between 0 and 6 nanoseconds.

I've tried my bahtinov mask on my 130pds for visual and I don't think it really helps.  I might not be a great judge though.

Honestly I find that most times using the coarse focuser works well enough.  The majority of the time it feels like the focus 'clicks' you just get close and then the view suddenly gets much better.  Most of the time my attempts to use the fine focus just makes it worse lol.

I need to figure out a way to block @Mr Spock.  He's a terrible influence on my wallet.

Seriously though, I appreciate the tips you drop.  I've been thinking about upgrading from the 130pds as I'm enjoying visual so much.  Wasn't sure about whether a 12" would be too much but it sounds like something in the 10-12" range will be fine, especially since it'll only need to be moved about 4ft from my shed to the grass.

40th birthday next year so seems a good excuse lol.

It is the year 2565. 

Cockroach philosophers debate over who the god Tak was from the ancient precursors and why the ancient digital texts they recovered give praise to the mysterious postman.  They believe that this priesthood, who worshipped the stars, were all related through a common auntie Flo who would send the postman with gifts.

Artemis is due to launch in 2 weeks and Tesla are promising a self driving car in 2566.

One thing I'd like others to check is coma on a Newtonian without a coma corrector.

I've used my imx 533 sensor with a 130pds and I think the coma is completely acceptable.  This would also be true of the 585.  Not having to buy a coma corrector would be a pretty big saving if you are looking for a budget setup.  The below was about 20 minutes of data so with a small Newtonian and 585 sensor you'd be looking at a setup that could take decent images of multiple objects in a night.