bomberbaz

Well done in bagging the illusive and not impressive HH, it really is pretty naff in smaller apertures. Your approach and processes are spot on and description matches my own findings. For anyone else reading this you need the following to get it. Very dark skies, a decent sized exit pupil of 5mm+ and a HB filter. An observing hood is also very handy to have.

Howdie all. Just wondered what opinions are on tomorrow's possibilities are given we will have a 2 day/6% moon (according to my phone moon app) Biggest problem is quite a few of my desired objects are uncomfortably close to the sliver of moon that will be showing. The sliver will set around 9pm My first on the list is M33-triangulam galaxy which will be pretty much on top of it. Thing is I use M33 as one of my standard candles for measuring the darkness so tomorrow I think I may have to ignore that one although I shall give it a quick go. However another choice is the Jones 1 planetary nebula as a standard candle. it is nothing to write home about but gives a good measure of darkness. I am classing it as a horsehead indicator. If it shows, the HH should be gettable. I am also going to have a bash at some quasars, of the six on my livesky list, 4 should be in a position to get at some point in the evening including HS 0624 6907 which is a mere 4.5 Billion light years away. Anyway, back to my query, I have never tried viewing with a small waxing moon before believe it or not so how much effect is that pesky sliver going to have on the viewing potentials? I may have to amend my list! 🤣 TIA Steve

I only have the vixen 25mm plossl which are used in binoviews on the moon mainly but they do provide lovely crisp contrasted views so I can only assume that the SLV's will give similar as I understand they use the same glass. I have been thinking about the same sizes as you for V.H.P. viewing in the dob as the price is so attractive but the narrow fov puts me off a little. You will have to pop up one weekend for a star party to share equipment pal 😉

Something to be said for this, I have found it twice with my big bins and both times was fairly easy. My best views as already mentioned were at a mega dark site. It was so good it gavee an animated view in as much as the galaxy arms appeared to be actually moving.

As per the above comments, M33 is a blighter to see. I have managed a few times and seen it well twice. Both those under exceptional skies with a big dob. For me a larger eye pupil with dark skies are the key. As i remember I was around 3.5mm exit pupil.

I have an electronic altimeter, works a treat.

I do exactly this with my refractors, one low power, one dedicated higher power and a zoom. Formy dob hoqever I use entirely dedicated eyepieces. Some good points raised already, around what you can live with in terms of optical quality and what you feel is a must have, eg a flat field. Personally I really like the svbony range of eyepieces as offeri g great quality at excellent value. The 68degree range gives you a 6,9,15 and 20 mm bundle option at under a 100 quid. There is opposing opinion on how it would perform at F5, may be worth thinking about. They also produce the more expensive but better quality ultra flat eyepiece. I have some of these in my astro bins, the extra notch up in price is definately noticed in the results and would give very good results in an F5 dob. .

sshhhh, everyone needs at least 7 days worth of scopes, Sunday through to Saturday, everyone know that. Even my wife

Two big differences here would be price for a Doublet refractor and more importantly for me, size/ ease of storage. I don't doubt both will give superb views, also that the 130mm frac would give better views overall. I have also read @johninderby's link regarding many aspects appertaining to OTA with a central obstruction and found this very useful. Originally I was considering an 8" CC but after much thought I feel this is going to be too big, hence this thread. Theree was also a very lot of useful info in this current thread. Thanks why I love SGL, in this instance (and for a change) I am actually thinking myself out of an impasse 😅 Thanks for the info vlaiv and @johninderby, it is proving very useful.

Is this calculation correct when comparing various scope types, think I have asked similar before but such as my age is, I forget far too easy these days. Simple frac 100 - Pi x Rsq = 3.14 x 50sq = 7854 OTA with central obstruction, this time a 6" CC with a 58mm central obstruction. 1) CC 150 - Pi x Rsq = 3.14 x 75sq = 17671 minus 2) central obstruction 58 - Pi x Rsq = 3.14 x 29sq = 2642 Therefore you get 1 - 2 = 15029 total area for the CC. Is this right? TIA people Steve

exactly my point. You should find and remember how far down the list the second object is. Get to the first object then you aren't searching for the next one. See how you go.

I had a 10" XTi until last year, I had owned it for around 5 years before my upgrade. I am not sure why you are having issues with the pushto, I found it very accurate so my initial thoughts are you may be off somewhere. You should switch it on and the instruction, "point vertical" should appear. If pint vertical does not appear the menu should allow you to get to this, it's a common mistake. Put your dob in the instructed "vertical" position and before you do anything, scroll through the alignment star menu and decide which two stars you are intending aligning on. This last bit helps make the process of aligning more streamlined. I used to try to get at least one star near direct east or west, Mizar was always a favourite due to it's brightness and ease of finding. Then find another in a totally different part of the sky. I used a crosshair eyepiece for accuracy in getting a good alignment. Or you can purposely defocus so you get a large ring which is easier to centre. Now carry out the alignment as quickly and accurately as possible. One other thing, try and get your base fairly level, this does help. If you cannot see bodes even on a near full moon my guess is your not pointed at it but it is just a guess. However it would be quite faint anyway. I used top quality eyepieces in mine and it still gave bad coma, BST would be at least as bad but more likely worse. I did start using a coma corrector which made it liveable but it wasn't a mega expensive one. I no longer use a CC, just simply live with the coma. As Mike says, check your collimation. I did find collimation some of a pain with mine, needed a tweak each time I used it but that was because it went into a car each time it was taken out for use. HTH Steve

Might be worth asking this in the imaging section Lee, a lot of guys should hopefully know the answer to this Imaging - Discussion - Stargazers Lounge

Hmm Swore blind it said fpl53 but now I look and it says comparable to, badly laid out and that confused me, apologies. So it is 51 and lanthanum.

twice, 🤣

dunno what your reading but the teleskop express blurb clearly mentions fpl35

Lovely image mate, what camera are you using.

I don't remember who put this up but I was using it earlier then came across the observer experience part. I wasn't sure what to put so just went down the middle, certainly don't class myself as an expert. Although 10+ years in this hobby would certainly mean I am no novice either. I mean how does one define experience, time behind the eyepiece would seem the most obvious but I have come across a couple of people whose experience was many years time spent but seemingly relatively naïve about some aspects of astronomy. Mind you, I am sure we all learn that little bit more each time we get the scope out to cool. I still get the "Well I never knew that" moment on a fairly regular basis. Telescope Limiting Magnitude Calculator (cruxis.com)

Good point Don. Given this, which had crossed my mind but obviously not enough. I think I will simply try again with the UHC filters and leave the HB consideration as just that for the time being, cheers.

My android phone won't connect via bluetooth either, however works like a dream via wifi. I have had odd occasions where wifi disconnects then reconnects, this isn't a problem. Seemingly the SS6+ app recognises the slight time lapse and corrects for it. Regarding SS6+, disable the compass in settings. Otherwise it auto activates when you turn your phone a certain way, something easily done and it is very annoying trying to switch the damn thing off and get it back to where you want it every few minutes. If you have a bedtime mode on your phone, deactivate that too otherwise your screen turns from red to B&W when it activates. Finally subscribe to Livesky, it is worth every penny. It allows you to build viewing lists on your pc/laptop because if you try typing an objects name into PP6+ search out in the field, even with night mode activated on the app the letters are all red but the numbers are white light (on my phone anyway). Much easier to simply hit observe tab, then lists, then the dso you want. The good thing is you can build as many lists as you want too.

Interesting. Are they something you put together yourself or did you buy a kit?

I have had the x cel 25, i liked it as i remember but i had far less experience back then (10 years since) and i was more planetary then as they were easier to find 🤣

Finally got my scope back from the paint sprayer, thanks @Peter Drew for doing such a great job of the OTA and Finder. Purple and Black works well. Then I wanted a contrasting colour that also worked and decided red was the next colour so the mount was got via a certain online store, liquid head, very sturdy and I hand painted the tripod and pillar. I replaced on 0.956 focuser with a 1.25, slotted in a Svbony dielectric diagonal and this is the finished product. Total weight is 5KG which is easily one handed.

Stick with the 50ED and get one of these to mount a miniguide scope Bracket system for Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED - Astrokraken.fr

Hope you guys enjoy. Decided to give it a miss and instead hired a caravan for end of march down on the Galloway south coast. Worked out far cheaper than hiring a campervan.