bomberbaz

2 hours ago, Ithan said:

 

My main interest is observing the DSO through the telescope and not just taking pictures, but since I have a camera it will be very nice if I can use it.

My honest reply is concentrate on visual until you gain experience, as @Elp says entry level gear to get you going in both visual and photography would mean you getting two lots of gear such as a seestars and a 200mm aperture dobsonian.

So you have observing options available, I do like this version from stellaLyra StellaLyra 8" f/6 Dobsonian | First Light Optics but there are at least 3 other 8" (200mm) dobsonian available with FLO. This one has very good mirrors, an half decent 30mm eyepiece along with a 9mm plossl, a mirror cooling fan and dual speed focuser. There is a lot to like.

A month on some dark island with this would be a fantastic way of getting the best out of this instrument. 

Oh and an FYI, I have seen confirmed colour in just three objects, the blue snowball nebula (NGC 7662), the orion nebula (M42) and the ring nebula (M57), all needed fairly high magnification and very, very dark skies.

Oh and I would get a better diagonal than the 45 degree one supplied, cheap ones are available to get you going and you can update your setup to better stuff once you get into the swing of things.

One bit of advice often metered out is to get used to existing equipment before you upgrade, this usually refers to eyepiece however I would immediately upgrade the diagonal as mentioned above as it can be posted together with the telescope, see diagonal below:

Astro Essentials 90º Mirror Diagonal | First Light Optics

1 hour ago, EliinAfrica said:

Thanks all for the great suggestions.

Here are some clarifications:

1) my daughter has the same attention span of a 6 years old of course but she showed interest in the sky since she was small and plays with a pretend telescope, I also always wanted to have a telescope and never did so I'd like this to become one regular thing to do together

2) I'd like her to learn about the sky and I'd be keener towards a traditional telescope for a series of reasons, once being that she doesn't have a phone and I am not a fan of gadgets, second that I learn to sail the traditional way before learning to use instruments and I understood much more of what is behind, so I think this is applicable to everything

3) light pollution close to none so we are good there

4) I really need something portable as we would move it around and also, I have to ship it from the UK, so the lighter the better

5) I need something sturdy and not over complicated to fix/maintain. Here the issue is the high humidity that kills a lot of electronics and challenges the mechanics too, so I need good quality equipment

6) we would definitely stargaze outdoors, climate is always warm here, so we got some advantages

7) budget is flexible within reason 

Thanks again everyone!

Given you have apparent excellent skies and will be joining in with her plus your preference for traditional as well as portable along with ease of use you really won't go far wrong with one of these:

Sky-Watcher Evostar 90 (AZ3) | First Light Optics

You have a reasonable aperture for a begginer scope, it is a traditional telescope in appearance and as mentioned is easy  to move around as well, sturdy and also simple to use.

7 hours ago, Elp said:

For ease of use a refractor will be better than any other type for sure. The shorter focal lengths typically with these also make finding or browsing the sky easier.

I agree with this sentiment entirely

6 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

absolutely my point

However I will caveat that many kids will also be equally blown away with the tech side of things. That is why I liked the seestar, dwarf idea.

I guess it will depend on the individual child, much as our own observing depends upon us. For me, DSO rules, although I started out as a planetary man!

On 01/11/2023 at 18:44, happy-kat said:

the sync script is in the synscan windows folder once zip downloaded and extracted it can be viewed in a text editor for instructions, use with sharpcap

do you also guide with sharpcap kate?

i would add that last year I used the now sold evscope with my grandson ( age 8 ) and his dad who were both amazed by the unfolding image before theirs eyes. Whilst this was happening I was able to explain what they were seeing, how far away etc and this allows a far more interactive experience.

I think the interactivity of such equipment allows you to remain far more engaged with an audience over looking through an eyepiece and will be more likely to lead to a positive and longer experience for the child involved. (PS sorry for sounding like a salesman 🤣)

I am with the seestars (or similar)  by @Elp, sorry but however much us dinosaurs hate it, that is the future for a significant majority number of the upcoming astronomers. Kids these days live in their phones, if she hasn't got one already, she will by 14.

I bought then sold an evscope, sold because although I liked it, I didn't use it enough to validate it's investment but I got how it would be "cool" for the newer generation. Tech is the future for many. 

Cheers all

Steve

11 hours ago, Zermelo said:

And when added to the ones you already have, it looks like you are "Mr. Zoom"!

Taurus 350PRO Dob -  Panoptic 27mm. APM 24 UFF.  AE 20mm Plossl. APM Superzoom. Svbony 8-3 Zoom, Baader 8-24 zoom, OVL 9-27 Zoom

It will be interesting to see how the SV135 compares, given those bench test results.

I had a moment when I bought the APM Superzoom and after just a few uses of the zoom, I found that all glass of a fixed focal length in the same range was not being used. There were high quality glass too (TV, Nikon, Pentax) so after a little soul searching I let all fixed focal length glass go and I will be honest, they haven't really been missed.

My 2 remaining fixed length glass have specialised uses, general viewing is now all zoom based. However it took X thousands of £££££ to come to the realisation 🤣

The most recent svbony zoom is aimed towards my F16 frac but seeing as 4 of the zooms all have 8mm in their range, I will try to put together some kind of comparison at some point using that frac and the 100ED.

50 minutes ago, John said:

It will be interesting to see how that Svbony 7-21 compares with the 3-8 zoom at the 7 and 8mm settings Steve 🙂

Good shout John, I hadn't considered this comparison as I only clicked the buy button last night on a whim.

I will bolt the 102ED onto the spare clamp of the skytee 2, I think this will sit in the sweet spot for both those zooms.

It might be also interesting to try using the 90mm F5.5, although CA might be an issue at that magnification on brighter objects, we'll see when we get a clear sky, oh erm 😁.

I should have also said the 76 F16, that would potentially be a great test, exciting times!

Just now, Zermelo said:

 

Yes, that's the SV135 that you intended, and not the SV191:
https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/414644-budget-zoom-eyepiece-for-mak/?do=findComment&comment=4422862

Can I ask where you got yours?

 

A certain online retailer beginning with A which seemed to be competitively priced and offered instant replacement and/or return.

1p under 50 quid too. I do feel a tad guilty (maybe the wrong word) buying their gear for reasons I will leave out of this forum but sometimes price / quality have to be given priority.

I couldn't resist buying this following so many good reviews and such a crazily low price.

I hope it is this one and not the 7.2-21.5 version

Sorry don't want to hijack the thread with this question but I am sure OP will find it useful too. 

Does sharpcap allow for guiding at all?

I found the plate solving easily enough but can't find anything on guiding!

Steve

Oh wow both are sublime but the wide field is spectacular.

Kudos for taking the time and effort in getting so much data,

I don't know if you bought a laptop yet but I currently run a Ryzen 7 (only 8gb ram though) for leisure purposes and it is as fast as hell. 

Plus a little searching will show you that they are less expensive than intel processors who have been having us along with their pricing for a few years until the ryzen came along.

It was my local pc shop (independents) who told me this. My pc and both laptops are now ryzen based systems and none have ever given me problems.

100% agree that get one with SSD, actually don't know if they do laptops with HDD.  Not sure you actually need 16GB ram but getting it does offer some future proofing.

Curry's have a great Lenovo (good brand) with touch screen. I have a touch screen for work, I may make it into an EEVA laptop when I retire, they are so easy to use and could easily see touch screen being very beneficial in the dark.   Laptop

On 22/07/2023 at 22:28, The60mmKid said:

A call to all the 60mm refractor double star extraordinaires...

Over the years, I've spent many happy hours observing doubles with 60mm refractors. A while ago, I decided to set out on a quest that is equal parts ambitious, enjoyable, and unabashedly pointless—to observe and catalog every double star that can be observed with a 60mm refractor from my location (currently London). Here is the log that I am keeping of my observations:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18M8e2s9gzexgZFfJX9dTkQfAEbH5ahXds46rZTDF1bg/edit?usp=sharing

If you click on the "Project Description" tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet, you'll see a key for the symbols, terms, and sources that I'm using. At this time, I have logged about 80 doubles in Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, Corona Borealis, and Bootes. This is just a starting point, and it goes to show that there are enough doubles to keep small telescope owners engaged for years.

And so, I am inviting you intrepid 60mm observers to join the fun and post observations here. My hope is that this thread will serve as 1) a place for 60mm aficionados to enjoy sharing with each other and 2) a resource for those who wish to observe more doubles with their small telescopes. I'll keep updating my log and will also add posts here when I come across especially rewarding doubles. I invite other 60mm refractor observers (and admirers) to share their big enjoyment of their small scopes 😎

To close this introductory post, here's a picture of FOA-60Q dreaming about doubles in Bootes on a rainy London evening.

 

 

Hello all, decided to join in on this, I will be using a project rebuilt Prinz Astral 60mm F12 on a Skytee 2 with a 76mm F16 PAstral alongside to do instant revisits on objects that demand that little bit more.

All we need now are clear skies, oh erm 🤪🤣

Steve

11 hours ago, John said:

I was told by the chair of my astro society a short while back that "that boat has long sailed" when I was talking about using star charts, star hopping etc, etc to find targets. Rather sad ☹️

Well we still doing it, I still hop on the skytee 2 with my fracs, just that less and less use of paper and more use of electronic maps but I get what you mean. 

21 minutes ago, globular said:

I'm on pro, so it's definitely in that one.  Might be in plus too though - the app info page should explain the differences between the versions.

Bingo, ss7 plus does it. It looks a very interesting app with a lot of functionality.

I shall have a proper look later, cheers

1 minute ago, globular said:

If you make sure everything is syncd to live sky in SS6 before you upgrade, then it'll be there in SS7 after the upgrade.

query, is it plus or pro I want?

4 minutes ago, John said:

I'm very impressed at how organised and systematic people are about planning observing sessions 👍

Makes me feel a little guilty for my rather casual approach 🙄

I might have one of two targets in mind but after that it's whatever takes my fancy. Typical "space tourist" 😉

 

 

Nothing wrong with that approach John, I used to do that too before I became more aware of what I wanted to (hopefully) achieve.

I can't do your approach these days, my sky knowledge is suffering due to lack of practice.

8 minutes ago, globular said:

I'm on SS7 but I think I remember it was in 6 too (although possibly activated differently than as below in 7).

When in an observation list, you select "highlight objects in SkyChart" ...

Can't seem to find this option, the help menu makes no mention of it being available but I assume 7 has the option needed for my dobs DSC to work.

I will upgrade to SS7, seems a more sophisticated option, hope I can share my lists.  Think I have seen mention of this somewhere in help menu.

On 28/10/2023 at 12:13, globular said:

I typically use the option in SkySafari to display my observation list on the map and then hop from one to the next nearest, rather than use the order they appear in the list.  This limits slewing - but I do miss some objects because they are gone before I get to that part of the sky.

How do you do this? I use SS6 for pretty much all my observing these days and often cram a bit too much on my lists so having them displayed on the map might help me be more organised and structured in my viewing whilst saving me printing off a list that often ends up sopping wet in dew.

Not actually into planetary imaging myself but though I would pop this up for those who are.

APM Telescopes. Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (apm-telescopes.net)

Specs seem very good and I presumed it imaging related due to the 2 M42 fittings rather than 1.25" male/female.

I do think this is for the very serious people though as it is likely to push around £2K after import and vat costs. 🫢

56 minutes ago, Veloman said:

Hi, the scope is a WO Megrez 80 II, cradled in Skywatcher tube rings and mounted on a CG5 AS GT. The reason that I posed the question is because when I put set the tube rings on my surface plate & measured the machined heights there is a difference of 3 thou". I'm not able to accurately measure the screw hole's but they seem to be OK.

At the moment I'm the scope is being used for visual but I've treated myself to an ZWO ASI air plus and a ZWO ASI220 guide- camera with a view to starting imaging.

Many thanks for the replies.

Rob

Thanks for clarifying, it wasn't exactly clear. However both @StevieDvd & @900SL have answered in the manner I would have. Basically it's fine. 

Can you elaborate on what you mean please, what scope are you referring to and mount, plus is this for visual scope or imaging ?

got bins on standby but doubt thay will be needed