paulastro

Some good points about both scopes.  I think you'd probably be pleased with either.

 One other point which may be an issue for you.  A while ago I had Bresser 8inch Newt tube and mounted it equatorially.  It was noticeably heavier than any other 8 inch I have used with the same focal ratio.  There was hardly enough room on the counterweight shaft for all the weights I needed.  For this reason I didn't keep it very long.  A shame as it was a good scope.  If you're buying the 12inch Dob version you might want to check the weight first.

6 hours ago, NGC 1502 said:

I had a similar moment to the above.   Several years ago I was at Kelling Heath star party in north Norfolk. During the day I had seen Liverpool Astronomy Society’s 30” Dob, it had attracted a great deal of attention😁. The secondary mirror was 8” !!!

That night was clear, so myself and clubmate Jim went over to the 30” hoping to get a peek……the 30” was aimed at M33 the well known face on spiral galaxy in Triangulum.  Those in charge of the scope were allowing folks to have a look, the few minutes I waited seemed like forever……

My turn came….obvious spiral arms…..a moment like no other for me……never ever to be forgotten.  That view beats any image no matter how stunningly detailed.   It’s that direct connection across the void of space, those photons of light from so far away hitting my retina and perceived by my brain and consciousness…..just totally fabulous.

Diehard visual observers will understand.   Not knocking those fabulous images, but for me the visual view will always be king.

Ed.

 

I looked at the Veil through that 30inch at Kelling, it was a staggering view.  It looked like an oil painting, rich in detail and colour.  Really in your face.  We were close to the Liverpool lads pitch so had a few views throughout the week.  Easily the best deep sky views I've had.

'Smart Telescopes are only the start of it.  This (below) being another development.

Its been the case for a long time that large dobs (16 to 20inch plus) are a very hard sell in the used market, and this applies even to Obsessions which only fetch a fraction of their new price.  I've had this conversation many times with big dob owners and users at Kelling.

6 minutes ago, John said:

It's great that you have found something that really enthuses you Paul 🙂

Looking at what can be produced, newcomers to the hobby must wonder why folks ever bother using glass and mirrors to try and see DSO's. 

I'm starting to wonder that myself !

Do you still use the dob in your avatar ? 

Thanks John.

I'm still just as enthused with my two Dobs, three refractors and C5.  In fact the 8inch dob is used the most - it's easier to just lift it out of the garage and get it into action quicker than the others.  I can use them all with Starsense too which I'm also  still enthusiastic about 😊.  By the way, it's a 10in inch Starsense in my Avatar, but I've now swapped back with my 8inch Starsense - its easier to use following the heart condition I now have and my second hip replacement.

I am using tbe Seestar for various projects such as monitoring faint comets, and capturing dark nebula which I'm particularly interested it - and the odd pretty pic of course. Also for deep sky too for nights like last night when visual observing is limited mostly to doubles and open clusters.  Still visual most of the time 😊.

55 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Very impressive, Paul.

After 5 months, have you found out where your eyepiece goes? I’m sure @mikeDnight will tell you 🤔

Thanks Jeremy.  I daren't ask Mike,  I'm a very sensitive person. 😅

Out last night with my SS last night after an early session with my 8inch Dob on the Moon.  I waited until midnight for the sky to darken  enough, though with haze around and an 87% illuminated Moon it was far from good.  As usual, I was amazed at the results in no better than 4th mag stars visible at any time.

The Cocoon Neb, IC5146, Caldwell C19, is at the end of a 2 degree long meandering dark nebulae, Barnard 168, which shows up well in the full frame.  James O'meara describes it as one of the N sky's most visually stunning dark nebula.

The Wizard Nebula, SH2-142, contains a young star cluster NGC7380.

It was after 2am and I wondered if I could capture the dark divisions within the Trifid Nebula, M2O. It only culminates at around 20 degrees from home and I couldn't see a single star between the horizon below its position and as high as Altair. The exposure wasn't completed until just before 3.30am, and we'll before this I couldn't see how the S50 continued to stack frames when it was clearly getting light.  I need not have been concerned, amazing!

5 minutes ago, Paz said:

Just to follow up, the size I measured is...

Distance to target (km) x measured size in reticle (mm) / Focal length of scope (mm)

...so...

151,000,000km x 1.45mm / 975mm = about 225,000km or about 139,000 miles (ignoring foreshortening from it not being exactly square on).

In the SM125 scope each little tick on that scale is  over 15,000km across at the sun, so Earth would easily fit inside one tick.

I've seen a few reports  in the media that there might be more action when this spot comes around again, but how long can a spot keep going?

I'm pretty certain I recall spot groups going round three times - perhaps more?

I went out with the Celestron Starsense Explorer 8inch Dob last evening, set up quickly by 10.10pm because of increasing cloud .  In the event only had 35 mts with intermittent cloud but well worth it.  Good detail in Clavius and nearby Wilhelm, Montana, and Longomontanus on the terminator  with Tycho to the E. Using the SVBony 3-8, mostly at 5mm (×240)  there was some excellent sharp terminator features - also further to the N with features within Palus Epidemiarium which were very striking.  It was ideal for a Harold Hill drawing - if only that were possible.  

Clavius was well placed with the  E crater terraces wonderfully highlighted, also the fine detail of ejecta to the W of the crater and also Montes Carpatus to the N below Copernicus.  The seeing was extremely fine for 2/3 minutes while observing around Copernicus showing stunning steady detail.  It really was a treat- and some of the other features I observed weren't too far behind.  A wonderful worthwhile session before the Moon was overwhelmed by cloud.

32 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Thanks Peter, So to clarify the above,
Do the scopes run out of the sheds rather than the sheds move?

Yes, they run out on rails.

I went out at 8.55pm, when of course its far from being dark,  to have a look at the Moon with the 8 inch Starsense Explorer Dob.  I was particularly keen since I had been without it for a few months.  I had done a deal with a good friend of mine on SGL to swap. it for his 10 inch version. For various reasons we had both decided to swap back to our original scopes. As the 10 is much bigger than the 8 I had not used it much - mainly for medical reasons.  Hence I was keen to use the 8 again now it had returned home.

I chose to use the SvBony 3-8mm zoom.  This performs very impressively with my StellaMira 125 ED doublet and Askar 103mm triplet, but I wanted to see how the 8inch f6 Dob would fare with it.  The zooms range with it would be x125 up to x400. The seeing was good, but nothing exceptional and as it wasn't fully dark I wondered what the highest mag it could be usefully used with on the night.

I tried it out carefully on the lunar terminator, especially in the region of Hommel and Pitiscus where there was a lot of interesting detail.  Starting at 8mm I gradually worked along the click stops up to the 3mm setting.

Well, I have to admit it was far better than my expectations.  It could be usefully used on the full range of magnifications.  In fact there was very little change in sharpnessas as I increased the magnifications. What little difference there was, was more to do with the seeing than the eyepiece or telescopes optics. At x400 the sharpness was as good as at other mags, but due to the seeing it had more 'off' moments than at other settings.  At any of the settings the sharpness was such that it was performing like you'd expect a very good fixed focal length to perform, quite astonishing for what it costs.

In addition there were no ghosts or flarring and no noticeable CA either on crater edges along the terminator at or any part of the limb.

Despite having astigmatism in both eyes, I did all the testing without glasses. - though it was comfortable with my glasses on to 5mm and useable after that with a restricted field.  Without glasses  the views were comfortable at any focal length.  For use on the Moon I'll probably use it at 5mm most of the time.  Not because it is less sharp at higher mags, but because I preffered the available field at 5mm.   For planets and double stars I'll use the mag best suited to the subject and the conditions of course.

I really don't feel the need to use fixed eyepieces when using mono vision, and will be very happy with the views the zoom delivers.  If it was £300 it would still be a price worth paying in my view, for the £129 I paid from Amazon with a discount, it's a no brainer.  Don't hesitate if you're thinking of buying one and have the pennies. It's a remarkable buy.

Those are great first efforts, look forward to seeing more.

A very warm welcome to you.  Look forward to reading your posts..

On 08/05/2024 at 21:36, John said:

Celestron C5 SCT''s are compact and quite light at 2.8kg for the optical tube.

 

 

Plus 1.  A 5inch SC is the most compact 5inch scope you can get.  I still have one in case I need to travel abroard  somewhere - and of course in this country when space is at a premium. For any of the anti-SC brigade, remember they were good enough for NASA to take into space.

35 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I wondered if anyone has experienced their Seestar imaging the wrong bit of sky?  This has happened to me three times now, once with a galaxy and twice with comets.  It missed C/2023 A3 Tsushinchan-Atlas by a degree or so, but a couple of night later I got a nice image of it.  
I tried for 13P/Olbers and got nothing but some background stars. It darn well should have recorded a mag 8.5 comet with an exposure run of several minutes, so clearly a miss. 

That's surprising Geoff, Ive never heard of anyone having similiar problems, mine works flawlessly in this respect. 

It could possibly be something other than an issue with the Starsense itself.  Perhaps an issue with a tripod leg slipping  if its faulty or not tightened enough.  If not, perhaps some other mechanical issue causing it to be unsteady causing it to move out of position.  It shouldn't be over-tightened, but could it not have been  a it loose on the tripod?

The best display I've seen since the year 2000. Some of my favourite pics taken with my mobile phone.

Had good strong auroral activity from 11.04pm to 12.10am when it started to die down.  Still less strong activity when I came indoors at 1.20am.  Below are some of many pictures taken on night mode with my mobile phone, hand held.  

13 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Looked very impressive yesterday through my Evostar120, easily visible through eclipse glasses as well.

Spaceweather is predicting a large impact, but they are also saying not a Carrington event either. Fingers crossed for some activity down south and clear skies! 

And up North!  😊

M40.  That's very much all l could manage this morning - but even more hazy.  😊

50 minutes ago, Kon said:

Possibly the best sun spot I have ever seen. I missed the very good seeing due to work but it was still breathtaking. I managed some imaging too. A little preview below.

 

It's probably the best one any of us have seen 😊.

Of all the ones I've seen, there's only one in 1971 I did a drawing of that could come close perhaps.  Alas I only drew the sunspot itself and not the whole disk which would have been helpful.  I was only a callow youth back in those days 🙂.  

Pic of whole disc and crop taken this morning with Seestar.  Looks good for the next couple of days.

One of many single frames taken with Seestar, this one at 10.45am.  Plenty of activity going on..

1 hour ago, John said:

Got my little 70mm frac onto this one with the Herschel wedge 🙂

Bit of a whopper, isn't it 🙂

(apologies for the crummy images - I'm certainly no imager 🙄)

 

Crummy?  Perhaps I shouldn't post mine in that case. 😂

PS Took some snaps with Seestar, will post later.   Still observing with HA now between clouds. 

It's most likely the biggest and most active sunspot most of us have seen.

Just been looking in HA with PST and Baader zoom, wow!  Fabulous extensive activity around the active are.  As some else said, very lucky to be able to see it.

Easily visible with naked eye - ONLY WITH CORRECT SOLAR FILTER!!