leo82

Thanks for the replies, I guess the evostar is the best choice for the moon and planets too?

Hi all, Previously I had the chance to buy an evo star 90mm for a good price, unfortunately the chap decided to keep it instead. I now have the chance to buy the red coated skywatcher mak 90mm for a good price. As I have the heritage 130mm I was thinking of using the base to house the mak, this would be a lot better storage wise compared to the evostar. Out of the 3 telescopes stated above which would be the best telescope to get started searching for the doubles. The mak and the evo star are longer focal lengths but the 130mm has bigger aperture. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Planets when they’re around and double stars is what I’m planning to observe more of.

Yesterday the postman very kindly bought me an 8mm BST starguider, well he left me a note and I had to pick it up after work. Luckily, they are open until 8pm on Wednesdays. Dunno when I’m gonna get to try it out though, forecast is nothing but cloud all week!

I can lower the grade here now I have finally took a picture that kind of resembles the moon. Took with iPhone 5s and cropped with MOLDIV app, hence the graininess if that’s even a word

Is it an easy place to get to? I really didn't fancy the roads going up and down on the long mynd in the dark.

How much further west is the bog car park?

Hi Andy, I know what you mean about the restricted view in the valley, that's what put me off especially travelling that far for that little amount of sky. However, it has to be worth the trip just to see the milky way!

I know what you mean about frustration. I dont give in though. Andromeda and the double cluster in perseus took me a few continuous nights to find them. I knew where they were and I made a pact not to move on to the next target until I found them. I did think maybe the light pollution was fading them out but they fell into the right magnitude brightness level to be able to find them.

Telescope i've finally decided on is the sw 200p dob. I also decided to get a red dot finder to use aswell as the suplied finderscope. I imagine i'll never use the finderscope the idea of the rdf seems a genius idea. Along with these a light pollution filter, my estate is full of the old orange/yellow lamposts and finally a barlow for experimenting with different magnifications. I opted for 1 with the t adaptor for basic afocal pictures of the moon. I find the moon interesting even if it does fade the sky out at times. I love my bins and have learnt alot with them like where different objects are, but like you say the star clusterslook like a smudge of light. At least with the scope I now can go straight to these and see what awaits me in the eyepiece. I've learnt the simple constellations that were visible in my garden before I bought my bins by using a planisphere just to see if I would stick to this hobby or if it were just a fad. I've only been doing it since october but I aint bored of it yet theres just too much out there. It was an eyeopener last night going out into the dark sky and only knowing the odd constellation out of all those stars. On a plus note I did pick out draco for the first time!

On the magnitude scale i'm happy to see anything but i'm still starting out. As with what i've learnt from my back garden to going to a darker site suddenly makes you stand back and see the difference. As with the milky way, that would be a sight to see. I hope my telescope gets delivered tomorrow just lately we seem to be getting a few clear nights. I can then start my more fainter targets than with my bins and i'm sure orions nebula will look great from that site compared to the already great view I had with my bins.

I had parked in a layby next to a fence which there was hard ground behind. I can try and find out who owns it. I took my binoculars and had a scout around my familiar targets. Pleiades showed many many more background stars than from home. Orion seemed to show the nebula more visible. Usually I can see the main stars but I could see the basic shaping of the nebula. Andromeda even though still a grey smudge it seemed bigger and longer. I'm guessing this was the fainter outer edges that is usually washed out with light pollution back at home. These observations were made just before the moon rose out of the low cloud in the distance. But when it rose, whoa that moon is massive! It seemed yellow instead of white, is that because of the light pollution in the atmosphere at that low level?

Went out to chesterton last night only 15 mile away, wow what a difference! The sky was full of stars, it took me a while to find the constellations that I learnt from my back garden with hardly any stars. Does anybody else go out that way? It's not far off the rabbit run.

I was over long mynd way yesterday, went over the Shropshire hills. What a fantastic place that is, would be perfect to get the scopes out there. I am put off there though for 1 reason, the 2 ways you can drive up there are steep roads that have sheer drops at the side of you and no safety barriers. In the daytime it's not a problem but at night could prove lethal. I've been looking at countryside areas around Wolverhampton on google maps and there seems to be a few decent looking areas, obviously not knowing what the light pollution is like but I think it would be worth investigating.

I dont know of any to be honest, i've only just started observing from my back garden. Maybe barr beacon or cannock chase. At least they are probably a bit darker?

Hi all, Any fellow locals on here that want to chat and arrange local meets? I would rather go to an unknown dark site in a small group rather than alone! Do we have any good dark sites around here? Anyone fancy joining in? I'm in Wolverhampton.

Thanks for all the info in this thread from a complete novice, a real eye opener and has changed the path I was going down.