bingevader

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.

11 minutes ago, adyj1 said:

This is the misleading bit, I think...Venus is currently very much visible in the night sky. I wonder what they meant? 

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.  

For a planet to be in opposition, we (the earth) have to be directly between a planet and the sun.

That can't possibly happen with a planet that has a smaller orbit than ours.

We can be in conjunction and line up, either with the other planet in the middle or the sun in the middle.

When the planet is in the middle, we are at opposition to the planet, but that will only happen in day time, not at night, so we will only ever see it through a solar 'scope.

Hello,

I only have limited experience of a Newt on an Eq mount, but it is not easy.

To use it properly, and without being a contortionist, you'd need to rotate the OTA in its rings to see down the EP.

I seem to remember someone saying the Vixen plossls worked well in binoviewers?

I know they are well thought of generally.

The eye relief is 15mm, which might be a problem if you wear specs.

They're on offer on FLO atm, which is good seeing as you need two!

Could be another option.

It's certainly a fine place to start.

And, yep, get the finderscope sorted sorted in the day time (be careful of the sun!)

They're not the most robust of 'scopes, but you can see plenty with them.

We have one in school.

Great on the moon.

With a solar filter, it's also good on the sun.

Just don't expect any miracles!

Just for clarity, as this is the Getting Started With Observing section.

I know the OP has mentioned "capture" so is probably referring to AP.

However, M51 is not an easy find for a beginner, it is a faint fuzzy.

Took me a long time to find it when I first tried.

My skies are pretty dark and I'm lucky if I see any detail at all through the 8".

Hope that helps.

Hello.

I'd save and get the BSTs myself.

It's taken me years to acquire my EPs.

Just don't start by replacing the focal lengths you already have.

If you can't wait, then the Vixen NPLs are supposed to have a good reputation and they're a tenner off through FLO atm.

But I wouldn't advise going lower than the 10mm, it'll be like looking through a straw (unless you like that kind of thing!).

Aw, and I was just thinking this was a Coronavirus good news story!

Lord knows what he's doing on the table though!

10 hours ago, banjaxed said:

Further to my previous suggestion for using plastic milk bottle caps for the lens end you can buy Round Plastic Black  End Cap Caps in 32 mm size for the other end. They are slightly larger in diameter but a little tape does the job.

Got a bit banjaxed with your grey font.

I think it is just going to be practice.

The star hopping guides given are great.

I can remember finding it very difficult to locate when I started out, but it gets much easier once you know where it is!

On a very good night at home I can see it as a faint fuzzy blob with my specs on.

From school, in a fairly light polluted town, we have seen it through 9x63 and 8x42 bins, still faint and fuzzy, but it is possible.

You will get it eventually.

20 hours ago, johninderby said:

They are 1.25” and a great bargain at the price. I have the 7mm and 16mm myself. Go nicely with my Nagler 3-6 zoom.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/ovl-nirvana-es-uwa-82-ultrawide-eyepieces.html

I have the 4mm OVL and that is very good indeed in the 200p.

8 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Comes with a straight through finder scope but I replaced it with a RACI

The 1/10 upgrade is indeed very easy to fit and the rack & pinion focuser is an excellent bit of kit. Far superior to any of the Skywatcher newt crayfords. 

The two links posted have the red dot finder, not a straight through.

I haven't used a rack and pinion, so I can't comment, but they must be totally amazing then as there's nothing wrong with my Crayford!

24 minutes ago, Second Time Around said:

There's an optional upgrade to the Bresser focuser to convert it to dual speed.  I gather it takes about 1 minute to fit.  Cost is 75 Euros so probably about £65 from UK suppliers, so a lot less than replacing the whole focuser.

£65 on top of the 400.

Mine was about that too, it's in my sig.

Don't worry about the Bresser if the extra money is an issue, the 200p is excellent.

It certainly does not need modding or upgrading out of the box!

I actually don't get on with red dot finders provided with the Bresser and prefer a finderscope anyway.

And of the three mods I've done in the years since I've had my 200p, two aren't included in the Bresser!

Namely, a Right angle finderscope and a 1:10 focuser.

The other mod was to flock the 'scope and I can't honestly say that has made a huge difference, certainly not enough to make it a selling point of the Bresser over the 200p.

No, not a quick job as I recall.

I seem to remember people removing the mirror and adding spacers.

Have a search, I'm sure there are topics on it, if not here then elsewhere on the line.

Not scary, just not quick.

I've taken my mirror out to clean it, which is easy if you are careful, but still, not a quick job.

BST Starguiders are the way to go with EPs I think.

If they'd been around when I started buying EPs, I'm not sure I'd have bought anything else.

Until I started making the move to 82 degree EPs that is!

Saying that, a good 6mm like the WO SPL is fab for the planets when the conditions are good.

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Indeed I have ridden my bicycle to an elevation of 14,000 feet.*

Olly

* Well don't just sit there reading. I want gasps of amazement!!!  🤣

7 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I am not yet entirely ready to believe this story. I'd want to see a statement from the coroner before I'd even believe that Olly reached 14,000 feet. Even if he did, I suspect that the cycling up hills stuff was possibly just a gimmick for obtaining funding. You know enough to ride a bike but not enough that to reach 14,000 feet isn't enough and that you can just buy a plane ticket to reach 35000 feet? To my mind this Olly guy was/is just another Evel Knievel.

Olly

RIP Mad Mike.

22 hours ago, discardedastro said:

However, I'm struggling to visualise how, say, a 17mm TV Nagler would look in that dob compared to my 28mm in the 8".

I'd suggest, as a very rough comparison, to stick both 'scopes and EPs into Stellarium and have a look.

As you've probably already worked out, the 17mm in the 300p would give a magnification of 88x at an aFOV of 82° and the 28mm in the 200pds would give a mag of 36x at an aFOV of 56°.

So, not an east comparison to make really.

However, you won't fit all of M42 for example, in the FOV, but it would be at a much higher magnification in the 300p with the 17mm.

Whereas, M42 would fit comfortably in the smaller FOV at a much lower magnification in the 200pds with the 28mm.

You wouldn't get all of M42 in the 300p with the 28mm either though!

My 82° 30mm EP would just about do it.

Mine is still coming out as orange to red because of the wind.