bingevader

The 4mm Nirvana OVL is lovely, I'm hoping to get the 7mm because it would be considerably cheaper than the ES. I have the ES 18mm which I think is great, but others aren't so sure.

Welcome to SGL.

Hello and welcome to SGL.

Plenty!

Only ever talked in our school and taken stargazing sessions. My fees would be astronomical.

Hello Steve! A bit more info about your telescope would be useful, but a 150mm of anything is a good place to start! What eye pieces do you have at the moment? As Paul M has said, you do have to get out a bit later at the moment for darkness. Stellarium is definitely a good piece of software to start with to find what you want to look at.

It might be worth reading relevant pages on the council website to see what slant they put on it. Ours mentioned that lighting shouldn't affect your well being. So, along with the stargazing, I also put that it was a concern because it illuminated the property and made access easier to thieves and that the front bedrooms were too bright at night and were having an affect on our sleep. I was very polite and grateful and the shields/shrouds were fitted without me receiving a response!

There's an adaptor, but it's not very sexy!

Welcome to SGL.

Welcome. Binoculars and a spotting scope are a good place to start.

Well done James.

It's quite easy to get lost in the Virgo galaxies. I popped out last week, but was ill prepared, without any charts or an atlas and I wasn't sure what I was looking at by the end! I too ended up on M5, which was particularly lovely. But it shows the difference a 12" 'scope can make compared to an 8". I find things start to loose detail and contrast at higher than my 14mm.

It got confusing when people started talking about seeing Venus in a more general setting. The article is about Opposition. Yes we can see Venus in the night, but we are not at opposition. We are at opposition to Venus (or Mercury), only at day time, we cannot be at opposition (to Venus or Mercury) in the night time and see Venus (or Mercury).

Not any time soon, I don't think! A bit trickier to find, but lovely when you do!

Now, it's funny you should mention the Panaview. I was out the other night and reached in the dark for what I thought was the 18mm and pulled out the Panaview instead. Popped it in and compared it to the 30mm Meade. You know what? As well as bringing back fond memories of my first 2" EP, I was also very pleasantly surprised! It is usually criticised for being soft around the edges, and yes it is a bit. However, on axis it is crisp and sharp. The Meade showed a slightly darker background to be honest, but then I paid twice the price for it! I have a threaded 1.25" - 2" adaptor so that I can screw my 2" filter in and use 1.25" EPs with the filter.

Further on up from the Pleiades is the constellation of Auriga. Some lovely clusters in there. Visible through bins if your skies are reasonable, smashing through a 'scope (m35, m36, m37 and m38).

The Pleiades is a naked eye cluster which is better through binoculars or very low power in a telescope.

Hi, you will see sunspots very clearly. We've found that the smaller telescopes with full aperture solar filters seem to do better than the bigger 8" stopped down, because you end up with a larger filtered aperture. The views through the 76mm of the recent Mercury transit were better than some of the images on here!

Comet?!

Don't worry about the dials. As you have said, when guided, you won't need them. For simple viewing, where you can locate something in your finderscope, you won't need them either.

Well done John! The focal length looks to be around 1600mm, which gives you a rough idea of the length of the tube. From the pics, the tube detaches easily, but whether that means it will go in a C1, I don't know! A 10" will be long (as you can see) and heavy. If your back garden is where you will be observing from then the 'scope shouldn't be too difficult to manage in two pieces. Some describe the 10" as all the 'scope most of us will ever need, sitting between the 8" and it's larger siblings. Make sure the mirror is in a reasonably good state or your cheap price will end up being considerably less so, as you'll be looking at a renovation project, rather than something you can use straight away. A renovation project wouldn't be something I'd chose as a first 'scope! Ultimately the decision is yours.

Hopefully someone can help who still has one. Dark Star as a company is long gone I'm afraid. There's a thread on here. An old site with pics. You can estimate from the pics, probably.

Hi, people on here have used the BSTs with the SW 130 Flexitube, of similar spec, with great success, so you should be fine.

Welcome home.

You can see the planet at night because we are not in opposition. The 'Who is in opposition with whom?' is the confusing bit, I think.