DirkSteele

How do you find it when pointing above 60-degrees? I have tended to find that having the weight offset from the rotation axis tends to pull the scope backwards so it gets harder to point up at those altitudes without some drift.

Welcome to SGL. As others have suggested, ask questions in the beginners forum. Lots of knowledgeable people on here who can help out. If you want some bedtime reading, consider the book "Turn Left at Orion." Really good beginner book.

Gitzo 5532S. Which is the most stable of their entire line up (at least it was when I bought it about 10 years ago). http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2014/05/15/gitzo-systematic-series-5-gt5532s-carbon-fibre-tripod-review/

That looks very cool! I was using the Tele Optic Ercole, but I used a cabon Fibre tripod (also up to the job) but the pillar extension was a bit light weight and caused some shakes when it was breezy, I had to keep it as light weight as possible as I was walking several hundred metres up the hill. The review is almost finished (its a bit long but I go into the history of the scope which was quite fun to research and can be skipped). Still need to do a couple of critical tests and the "studio" photography but hopefully I can get it published in the next few weeks.

The Baker Street Irregular Astronomers hosted a Perseid Meteor event last night on Primrose Hill in London. BBC London Radio joined us and broacast live from 10pm till 1am. Mentions on the radio and our general advertising saw around 300 people show up. I decided to take the LZOS 130/1200 Apo for the event (easy in the taxi, regrets as I carried it up the hill!). It ended up being the largest scope in attendance which drew the biggest queues (several times I had more than 50 lined up for a look). Before it was completely dark, I started with the Double Cluster which was nicely framed in the 17mm Type 4 Nagler. Some clouds briefly covered that part of the sky so spun west to take in a couple of globulars, M13 and M3. Transparency was not great so these were struggling to shine but with a little help, everyone that looked was able to spot them. Came back to the queen of the skies, and took in the E.T Cluster (NGC 457) which proved to be the most popular DSO of the night. Some people struggled initially to make out the stick figure, but a quick Google Image Search to show them what to look for and most were rather impressed. 5 minute interview with the host. Sadly she came over just as another cloud bank hid NGC 457 so I had nothing to show her but talked about my passion started for astronomy and my trips to dark far away lands. Quick looks at M27 and M57 (used UHC which helped), before moving onto the Gas Giants. Saturn naturally was a real croud pleaser and the sky was pretty stable so ran the scope at 200x. It would have taken more, but I using a manual Alt Az and was having to nudge the scope every 20 seconds to keep it centred for the crowds. Towards the end of the session, Jupiter cleared the trees and showed some decent detail though atmospheric dispersion was visible. Europa was just kissing the planetary disc when first viewed and slowly drfited away over the rest of the session with the other three moons all in a line further out. Packed down around 1am when the show stopped broadcasting, but not before showing the BBC crew a very impressive Saturn at 200x. I was so busy showing the sky, I did not look up so saw a grand total of zero perseids! Though we had a radio detector on site and I "heard" a couple.

Agree. Transparency was poor in the capital last night but at times the planets were great.

Oh and I couldn't resist making a blinking view.

This was quite a bit of effort as astrometry.net completely failed to idenfity what it was looking at so I had to this manually (using MS paint no less!). There is a lot more than 5 galaxies in this image. Make sure to zoom in.

I took this on my last trip to Mozambique which was sadly a few years ago now. This was a 12 pane stich using ICE, and processed in Lightroom. Taken on the beach in front of our villa when all the other guests were tucked up in bed. Canon 70D (unmodified) with 14mm L lens at f/2.8 with 20 second expsoures and ISO 3200. Can you spot the five galaxies (and plenty of other DSOs)? Some are obvious, others a little trickier. Answers below.....

Spent several hours last night with BBC London Radio on Primrose Hill. Decided to bring one of the bigger guns so took the LZOS 130/1200 across the capital. The taxi was easy, walking up the hill carrying everything, not quite so much! Good interview and at the end of the session, shared a few views with all of the crew and radio host. Worth it though. Saturn in particular was pretty special last night and was holding up well at 200x plus. With the biggest scope there, I was constantly nudging it to keep it view for everyone that showed up. Without exaggeration, at times my queue was 50 people deep.

Just been broadcasting with BBC London radio from Primrose Hill. Dragged the LZOS 130/1200 across London. Glad I did. Saturn was a bit special this evening.

Yes. Once I forgot the tripod. That was a 200 mile round trip but the forecast and skies were too good not to spend the time and petrol.

As I recall, that little thing packed a heck of a punch.

Takahashi FS-60 f/5.9 APM LZOS 105/650 f/6.2 APM LZOS 115/805 f/7 APM LZOS 180/1260 f/7 Takahashi FC-76 f/7.5 APM LZOS 130/1200 f/9.2 Takahashi FS-60Q f/10 Celestron C11 f/10 Takahashi FC-76Q f/12.6 Picking a favourite is hard but in refactor land, the longer focal lengths tend to perform better but the trade off is they get long and harder to mount. Something in and around the middle would shake out as my favourite.

Cricket can certainly be hazardous to the health of a scope. The Baker Street astronomers meet in Regents Park. In the summer we are surrounded by cricket pitches and I have seen more than one ball make it all the way to us (one even landed on the roof of the hub before rolling back down). I tend to play out-out fielder until light stops play to protect my scope since then!

Annual Astronomy party Stellafane (it’s centennial this year) is coming up in the US and Phil Harrington has set a binocular observing challenge of 20 objects, though this also looks like a great list for 60-70mm scopes as well. I am particularly interested in the Davis Dinosaur! https://stellafane.org/convention/2023/pdf/2023_OO_List_Binoculars.pdf

That one is extra special among special scopes of the LZOS range. Have started writing a review of it after almost 5 years of ownership.

Not familiar with that model. I shall look it up now.

I can whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who has the money. Mine is woefully underused but one day I will build it a little house and then it can collect all the starlight it deserves.

Given geo-politics as they are now, obtaining an Apo of that size is almost impossible unless you want to place an order for the Takahashi FCT which are wallet breaking compared to the LZOS. Wish I had considered a bigger one at the time of my purchase but anything larger than 7” really needs a permanent home (the 7” does really as well) and I did want to be able to take it to star parties.

Everyone should have a copy of that book. Almost everyone ends up with a telescope at some point that does not quite meet expectations. This will help you find out what is wrong. And even if that does not happen, it is an interesting read, if a little heavy going at times.

Had an incredible view of M51 through a 6” dobsonian scope at AstroCamp back in April (Bortle 4). Spiral arms and bridge between the galaxies was readily available to observe. One of the best views of this galaxy I have ever had in a scope of this size.

agree with what has been said above about tents and even if you sleep in your car, you will want a sleeping bag (it can get very cold in that campsite . Also, you will be very unpopular if you open your car after dark and any lights come on (even the little lights in the boot for example).

Tell me about it! Several years ago I had a looming deadline for Astronomy Now after a run of bad weather. I ended up booking a long weekend in a cottage in a part of the country with a better forecast. Needless to say the review cost me money but my wife enjoyed the weekend away so it wasn’t all bad. And the weather was good!