Demonperformer

I suspect it might be easier from Sydney, being a little bit higher ...

The UHC will probably be of more use as a "general purpose" filter, but an oIII visual filter can be very effective on certain objects. My first eyeball sighting on M57 was with with an OIII - utterly invisible with anything else, but the OIII made it just pop out. I guess what I am saying is: you will probably end up buying both!

Hi, Alistair, and welcome to SGL. Good luck with the eyepiece search. Enjoy the journey.

Some years ago, I tried to image this pair, but failed miserably. Maybe I'll give it another go.

Hi, Vince, and welcome to SGL. If AP is your passion, it is worth getting a copy of this book. The 200p will serve you well visually, but I feel is a bit "in the middle" for AP - not enough magnification for planets, but a bit unweildly for DSOs. You may find yourself buying a small refractor in the future (many of us have done it this way!) - but get the book first. [This paragraph is my opinion and others' may differ - so feel free to ignore it, I won't take offence ] Enjoy the journey.

Best of both worlds.

Fair enough. I don't have a kindle, but have a bought a lot of "1p" books off amazon (+£2.79 p/p). I first went looking for this there, but the cost of a physical copy was a bit ott for me for this sort of work. A pdf suits me though.

Even cheaper at archive.org!

There have been a lot of nights like this lately. Trouble is, with so much "high" cloud about in the evenings, I have not been bothered to go out and set up. And in the mornings an hour before sunrise (when it is too late to start setting up) it has been crystal.

Yes, it is unusual to do a close-up of this gem. I prefer the less-cropped version - the contrast with the general colour and bright red (presumably) Ha in M31 makes it for me.

Hi, Sam, and welcome to SGL from another Dorsetian. Enjoy the journey.

Common problem. Try lowering the threshold. Alternatively, try capturing using Sharpcap, which will stack your subs as it goes along (saves disk space, and all that tedious messing about with DSS!)

It very much depends for which DSOs you are searching, but in general I would say lower magnification is better. Open star clusters tend to become less obvious as you lose surroundings (but conversely, smaller clusters do benefit from a bit more magnification). And with nebulae and galaxies, the light is spread out over a large area (low surface brightness) and a smaller magnification can help concentrate the light making it appear brighter. In addition, smaller magnification means that you can sweep more of the sky faster and is helpful for "star hopping". What are you using to guide you to your target? Turn Left at Orion is a good source for some of the brighter objects.

I suppose that one would be an option, but as it is 3x the price of the Meade, I would rather see if I can get some info for the Meade eyepiece. Thanks.

Lovely golden stars. Is the colour "genuine"? Either way, I do like the result.

Any users of this eyepiece? Specifically, I am interested in knowing the approximate length of the "Linear Diameter Scale" (in arcminutes) in relation to any specific focal length. With these figure I would be able to determine the approximate length for my scopes. Yes, I know the manual gives me a method of measuring it myself once I have the eyepiece, but I am hoping to get a "ballpark figure" (based on actual data rather than a "guestimate") before parting with £73. Thanks.

OK, so if the Nikon has usb, why not use that? Or, if you are, why do you want to change? I always find the 'why' question to be particularly useful when buying/changing equipment. If I cannot express exactly what I hope to achieve by the purchase, I usually find myself disappointed with the results ... Similarly, if we know why, we can offer more tailored advice.

I reckon the new streetlights give me about an extra 0.5 to 0.75 mag in my SQM readings from my garden and, if I wander down the road a bit so I don't have two directly overlooking the meter, it is even better. They are certainly a lot less "glary" - I used to look out of my bedroom window and imagine new constellations from all the streetlights I could see, now there are only very few. For me, despite the worries I had before installation, these new lights are a definite 'thumbs up'. Suppose I had better go and find my tin helmet now ...

Very nice. Lots of detail with a nice colour-balance.

Any DSLR can be used for AP. You will need a T-ring to attach it to the scope. I don't know about Nikon, but a problem with Canons is that they include a filter that blocks a lot of the red light, including the Ha band that is so important for nebulae. This can be removed (a process called 'modding'). There is also a problem with some newtonians of being able to achieve focus - not enough travel inwards. Not sure if this applies to the 150p - users will be able to advise - but it can be solved by either replacing with a low-profile focusser or moving the primary mirror slightly up the tube. A lot of my early AP attempts were with a simple canon plugged into an achromat refractor (not the best for imaging) on an altaz mount (definitely not the best for imaging) and I got some pleasing (to me!) results. If you have not done so, and AP is your passion, this book is definitely worth getting.

Looking good. It's great when technology just works.

+1 for Turn Left at Orion. Good variety of (type of) objects by season with good explanations of how to find them by "star-hopping" (start on an obvious star and follow a path through fainter ones until you get to your object) and drawings of what you can actually expect to see (DSOs are called "faint fuzzies" for a reason!). Of course, if you have a GOTO mount, that is a lot simpler, but (some would say) takes away half the fun.

Magnification = focal length of telescope / focal length of eyepiece.

Hi, Tom, and welcome to SGL. Totally agree with Gav. Also be aware that the image will get dimmer with higher magnification (the same amount of light is spread over a larger area) and you will always see more with a small bright image than a big faint one (similar to the way you can read much smaller print in daylight than twilight). In addition, it is as much about learning to "see" (rather than just "look at"), which is a skill that takes time to develop. Enjoy the journey.

I don't know ... IKB191? (OK, so that's ",& blue", but you get my gist!)