paulastro

4 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Ouch!!!  Watch out for a frying pan to the backside of your head. 😂

 Where actually was it that you met my wife Louis? 🙂

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Are you in need of brownie points Paul? 😉

Always Stu 😅

My wife?  😊

Great Peter,  that's a really good use for the Starsense system.  Though, you might get a few requests from people who want you to do a mod for them when they know how well it works.  People often think it sounds too good to be true if you tell them about it - until they try it for themselves 😊.     I certainly did! 

33 minutes ago, markse68 said:

keying in the target in the dark when you forgot your reading glasses can be a bit of a pain and would slow you down but I reckon the SS would win most of the time

Mark

Mark, if I didn't wear my glasses I couldn't see a map to star hop or  operate any goto system either 😅.

Peter, the video compares using the dob  outside the dome - as you'd expect.  Most of us don't own domes.  If you have one, youll have to take the scope outside.  Not many people would go out to observe if the only clear sky was the width of a domes shutter!!   

You do not need a large area of clear sky for the SS to find it's location.   It is missleading to say this is a weak point, it isnt.  What's more it works when there is patchy clear sky and not enough stars are visible to use a finder.  I have done this myself, and more than a few times.

Also, the Starsense Explorer system uses a smartphone  mounted on the scope with the app downloaded on it.  It is NOT a motorised system.

If you want to pop over, Im more than happy to demonstrate it 🙂.

In various posts on SGL I've banged on about how fast SS Explorer scopes can locate objects in the night sky.  Indeed in my view they are faster than any goto system I've ever used.

Well, John Read from LearnToStargaze has put this to the test in a new video on utube.

You'll have to watch it, I'm not going to tell you how it ends 🙂.

Out with Celestron Starsense Explorer 8 inch Dob, set up by 10.03pm, comet quickly in view thanks to SS by 10.05. Observed in ES 24/68, then Morpheus 17.5mm.  Very easy in 8inch, nice coma, central condensation and tail heading down through the field,  right across field (1 degree) of Mopheus. Guessstimate of comt mag around 6.2.  Located midway from Mars to Aldebaran,  comet will be 1.5 deg E of the latter at midnight on 15th. Screen shot from phone showing location below.

Then did a tour round mostly open clusters, Orion Neb first then in order, M35, M44, M67, M37, M36, M38, M3I, Double Cluster and ET/Owl Cluster.  

I had another look at the comet before packing up at 10.58pm.  

12 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I too am hoping to go, for the morning at least..I'll be the ugly old one following along after Steve 😂

@Saganite

Dave

 

I'll look forward to meeting you both again.  🙂

This is the current list of exhibitors lifted from the PAS website 🙂.

REMOVED LINK, IT WAS FROM LAST YEARS SHOW - SORRY!

In my post,  the gist was nothing to do with  'Fracts v Newts', only that a 4inch ED/Apo is not the best telescope scope for all objects on all occassions. Many people have learnt this and have more than one  scope anyway.  I've owned and used just about all types of scopes of all types and sizes over the years and enjoyed using  them all.  I currently have an  8inch Dob, 80mm ED doublet and 5inch SC.

Horses for courses, they each do at least one thing in which they excel over the others.

7 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

I think this is a very dangerous idea to take from the thread, especially the word "seriously", which could lead to having expectations which are too high and then disappointment with the real world performance of the scope. 

 

The question you need to ask yourself here is whether you are not enjoying the planets so much because your preference is for star clusters, or because you are finding the planetary performance of your 130PDS lacking. If you think that your lack of planetary enjoyment is substantially a scope issue, then you may find an increase in enjoyment by viewing the planets with a 102F7ED. Planetary observations tend to take place at high magnification which requires a small exit pupil. At small exit pupils the image quality is dominated by diffraction and so the image quality of the Newtonian will degrade more quickly as you decrease the exit pupil due to the increased diffraction from the secondary mirror and spider support. An f5 parabolic Newtonian is also quite sensitive to proper collimation as the coma free area of the scope is relatively small.

On the other hand, even if you subtract the area of the secondary mirror, account for reflectivity losses and assume that the refractor is used with a prism diagonal and neither have any losses, the 130PDS still has more light gathering capacity than the 102ED. This means that for star clusters the 130PDS will pick up fainter stars than the refractor. Where the refractor will have an edge is in the darkness of the background. The 102F7ED scopes are very well baffled to block out stray light whereas the 130PDS has no baffles and the interior wall is painted in a black paint that can charitably be called light grey. In addition lenses scatter less light than mirrors across the FoV. Adding a primary baffle to mask the edge of the mirror and flocking the inside of the tube will tighten up star images in the Newt and darken the background sky. Doing this will also result in an improvement in planetary views. Where the exact balance lies between brighter stars/brighter background and dimmer stars/darker background I can't say, but I would not count on any improvement by buying the frac. There is very nice presentation to how stars look through a frac but it's not necessarily an improvement of view.

If you really do have a preference for star clusters then I would consider how wide those clusters are. If you're talking <1.5° then you will see a substantial improvement by upgrading to an 8" Dob. An 8" scope has four times the light gathering capacity of a 4" scope and no quality of glass is going to make up for that difference on DSOs. For £900 you can go even larger and buy the 12" Stellalyra dob which is an even bigger step up. Of course, the bigger the scope, the heavier and more difficult it is to get out. A dob is not practical if you have a flight of stairs to negotiate and if you're feeling a bit tired it's a lot easier to pick up a small frac for a quick session. 

I'm also not sure that you will see much of an improvement in this regard. Typically if an eyepiece isn't rated for F5 the next step seems to be around the F8 mark. Sure, a cheaper eyepiece will perform better in a slower scope but it sounds like you will have to upgrade eyepieces whichever scope you have.

I'm not saying not to buy a 4" ED, as they are clearly lifetime scopes, just don't expect one to perform miracles.

This needed saying. At times   the writers of some posts about how much superior some 4 inch EDs /Fluorite are than most telescopes for just about any object need a reality check.

Despite all the superlatives written about 4 inch apos, the fact is any scope six inches and over (assuming they are of good optical quality and well collimated)  will be better for deep sky on most occassions - and for planetary as well when the seeing plays ball.

Of course, there is some humorous banter and joking about this on various forums - and I've joined in it myself on occassions.  However, for people new to the subject and wanting sound advice, I can't help but think there will be some people who may be misled by some of the hype.

On some occasions more objective advice would be more helpful.

44 minutes ago, Dave-P said:

I'm fortunate enough that risk of financial ruin isn't a factor. Just performing due diligence to ensure I'm not being "that idiot" who's chasing the most expensive option for no good functional reason.

Dave, I think there's a few people on SGL who might just come into that category - there, I've said it now! 😅

It's probably AR3217 - I think,  Its looking good, worth keeping an eye on it in HA.

I went out to try and get a photo of AR3213 at 2.15pm, but was thwarted by a watery sun and lots of cloud.  Just before 3.10, just as the sun brightened, I stepped backwards as there were distant trees  in the way and fell into a ditch by next doors hedge!  I also knocked the camera and the settings went  to a place I had not visited before.

Struggled out onto a path and dashed afew yards along it to a patch of sunlight between two houses.  After panicking for a minute or two, I managed to reset the camera and knock off three single frames before cloud obscured the sun. 

The pic below is one of these frames. Taken at 3.25, Altair 80 ED-R, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/125 at 400 asa.  Info below from spaceweather.com

I'll be there with mikeDnight, I'll be the handsome chap stood next to him.  If that's not enough to tell us apart, I'll be wearing a name badge 😊.

58 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Paul, thanks for this post, made me go for comet C/2022/ E3 ZTF with my 4" tonight, was abit tough with the Moon and also directly overhead,
but contortions done, my knees will charge me tomorrow, but so nice in the scope over Binoculars.|

Then had a good old play with my Baader diagnal and Binoviewer trying for focus without a barlow, but close, but no cigar.
Work in progress I think.

Just wish my 10" dobson was up and running as I expect the Comet would have been even better.

 

Thanks Alan.  Do a srarsense explorer mod on your 10inch dob and it would be dead easy to locate, and no sore knees!  😊

2 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Nice report! I agree with comments made by those who have not tried the starsense technology, my starsense locates its position in the sky so quickly and with so few stars visible it always leaves me dumbfounded.

 

I agree with you,  I've had my scope since July and it never ceases to amaze me  every time I use i!

Set up just before midnight with the Celestron 8inch Starsense Explorer dob last night.  A 94% illuminated  moon, but I hadn't seen comet C/2022/ E3 ZTF for a few days.  Set up the scope and using the starsense app I was guided to the comet effortlessly in 2minutes - no alignment or finder necessary!  The coma looked dimmer and a little smaller than last time, but not surprising with the moonlight and layers of haze.  Still, it was very easy in the 8inch and relatively bright, using ES 24/68 eyepiece.

Then changed to the Morpheus 17.5mm for more mag to aid contrast and resolution in the poor conditions.  Targeted open clusters mostly and double stars. Looked at M35, M37, M36, M38, Double Cluster and ET Cluster.  The latter two surprisingly good in the conditions. Also NGC 663 OC in Cass and M103.

Then gave first light to a used Celestron Xcel LX 9mm I had recently bought, Delta Bootes, Gamma Leo,  Alcor//Mizar and NGC 2548 - apparently the Cluster Messier observed and catalogued as M48.

Still with the 9mm, went to Praesepe which was only about 4 degrees from the 94%illuminated  Moon.  This making  nonsense of comments suggesting that the Starsense Explorer system cannot work very well in bright moonlight when few stars can be seen. I had no problems going  through this observing run, indeed I would realky have struggled if I had had to use a finder.

A very enjoyable session - despite the bright Moonlight and rather hazy sky.  The performance of the 9mm XCel LX was extremely impressive,  excellent star images to the edge of the field, nice colour saturation and good contrast.  I was very pleased with its performance.

It would be nice if people who went could post up pics of the various stands they may have taken, so those of us who couldn't make it can see what it was like.  I've done this myself in the past, but alas this year hardly a pic to be seen 😔.

That's very sad indeed.  I bought the first edition of Backyard Astronomers Guide back in 1991 - it was at Astrofest and there was a huge pile of them on the floor of Fullerscopes stand.

I've bought every edition since as soon as they were available - including the 4th toward the end of last year.   It has always been the best guide for practical astronomers since it's inception.  The four volumes together also provide the best guide to the development of amateur astronomers equipment from 1991 to the present day.  Each of the volumes still has a lot to offer.

Of course, his work is much more than this one title, but his influence in helping amateur astronomers will carry on for many years into the future through his writings and sound advice for amateur astronomers.

I feel as if I've lost a friend.

3 hours ago, micah_bro said:

Hi Everyone 

Looking at purchasing my first telescope 

I have looked through the posts to get help my self but still a little confused .

My budget is 500.00 pounds 

Will be looking at planets and also DSO objects , I live in a moderate light polluted area , but also have a SUV so no problems in getting to darker areas .. There is also 2 of us that being partner so size is not really a issue .

I torn between the stellalyra 8" dob and the bressier version of the dob ..

Any others that I'm maybe missing or perhaps recommending ..

Thanks for reading 

They are both excellent choices, but I would go for the StellarLyra.   I've had the Bressier, a great scope but it is VERY heavy.  Optics wise, I doubt you'd notice any difference.

Woke up at 4.15am, looked through window and saw some clearish sky in the N.  By 4.30 outside in dressing gown with the 10×50s.

Fast moving cloud and hazy gaps but easily picked up comet, navigating from Kochab.  The coma was very large, when I came in I estimated size from nearby stars on SkySafari, the coma was around 8/10 arcminutes, the edges being rather fuzzy and irregularly shaped.   Bear in mind this was in less than ideal conditions and with the comet at an uncomfortable high altitude for hand held binocs.

I could not see the tail with any certainty, either it was too hazy or not bright enough to be seen in the conditions. Watched the comet on and off until 5.10am before heading indoors.  I was lucky to have had my unexpected view.

Already had several telescopic views of the comet, but last evenings binocular view was probably the most enjoyable and briefest.

I went out just before 9pm with my Nikon 10x50s.  Still cloudy but it was thinner cloud in places. I almost immediately swept up Kochab, easily recognised by its beautiful orange colour. Moved the binocs just over a field width to the right and wow, there it was looking bright with a bright tail stretching away from the coma at a 45 degree angle.

I wasn't expecting it to be so bright in the conditions, though no close stars visible to do a mag estimate. Some cloud almost immediately came across the comet, and the comets was still visible looking very ghostly. One more view glimpse in the open and it was gone as the cloud closed in.

Brief, but so very magical.

I was observing up to 5.50 before cloud came in, but it should still be very favourable.

I can't remember a better lunation for a very long time.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/405698-janssen-on-moon-is-superbly-placed-now-exceptional-look-if-you-can/#comment-4342151