Moonshed

Wow, mobility scooters for telescopes, whatever next?😊 Thanks for the info but I think I will go with the sack trolley, it’s only £70.

So what are you saying? That I’ve got rubbish eyepieces? Men have died for saying less!!! Pistols at dawn!

That is very tempting, thanks for drawing it to my attention, but I cannot travel that far, back problems limit me to an hour each way in a car. Even driving flat out I don’t think I can go from North Norfolk to Cornwall in an hour.😱 Not only that I first need to sell my gear to raise the cash and haven’t even started on that, apart from trying to figure out a fair price to ask.

Thank you for that information, I have decided not to buy one straight away but wait and see if I need one. This is assuming that I manage to sell my kit and raise enough cash for the 12”Dob. I’m looking at sales in an attempt to judge how much to ask for my gear but it isn’t easy with so many different scopes and prices but I will sort something out.

Found one on FLO Asterion Ecliptica Light Tracking Platform for Dobsonian Telescopes £269 Unfortunately it is another £269 to add to the original £880 for the StellaLyra 12” Dob plus £70 for the sack trolley to move it about, making the total now £1,219, more than I originally anticipated to be honest. Having said that the tracking platform can wait, I may buy it later or perhaps decide I can manage okay without one, time will tell. However, I do think I would get one as soon as I can afford it because I do want to enjoy the Moon and planets at high mags, and this platform suddenly becomes an essential piece of kit instead of a nice extra! Thanks for the info, very helpful. Cheers Keith

Okay, sounds good, do you have a link to where I could buy one?

That’s what I was afraid of but I’m sure I would soon get the hang of it. Regarding an EQ platform I have grown tired of the setting up hassle and that is one of the reasons I am looking at Dob’s, plonk it on down any flat spot and off you go. Knowing my way round the sky is a big help as I don’t really need a GOTO, all that stuff is part and parcel of imaging that I am saying goodbye to, been there done that 😀.

Thanks for the info. I like your idea of the rubber feet, makes storage easy and with an elasticated cord around it fixed to the side of the shed it would prevent it being knocked over. My 5 year old granddaughter loves to play in grandpa’s Moonshed and she has no appreciation of the cost of the equipment stored in it. 😊 When you are looking through your 12” Dob at say Jupiter or Saturn with the most suitable mag. eyepiece, is the image moving at a rate in which nudges become a real pain or is it reasonably managed with no great distraction? Thanks Michael Keith

A sack trolley with fold down toe @bosun21 and @Ratlet is the obvious choice for transporting a heavy Dob, makes a lot more sense than any DIY bodge job I could come up with, and as a bonus it stores very neatly in a small space. Worth every penny of £70. That takes care of the lifting problem, all I need to do now is sell my kit and raise around £900 for the StellaLyra 12” Dob!

The StellaLyra 12” Dob looks amazing, I’ll take it! I couldn’t figure out what the individual weight for the scope and base are. I take it that you remove the OTA from the base to make it easier to carry when you say you carry it in two parts.

That sounds good for me. Read previously on one of the threads how handy those inclinometers are.

Never tried tried to lift a Dob so I don’t know is the answer. My Celestron lives in a shed and I have to carry it out onto a concrete pad. Lifting is a bit of a challenge for me as I have back problems. I can manage to lift it out while on the mount by removing the counterweight and bar, and nothing on the visual back, but that is my limit. If the Dob is heavy I could always build a platform for it and fix some swivel wheels to it, then only a 1/2” strip of wood to get over to leave the shed and a 2” drop outside to the concrete pad. Could easily fit ramps to overcome those.

I have been thinking about returning to just visual astronomy as I have only been doing imaging for the last 4 or 5 years and feel I have achieved what I set out to do in that field. This makes things a little easier as I can throw in my ZWO ASI 224 MC colour camera to raise a little more cash. It also means that I no longer need a tracking mount so that will reduce the cost as well. I will edit my first post so as to clarify that point. Thanks for your input, it has helped me decide about giving up imaging, far too stressful 😂.

I definitely want to own a scope with a larger aperture than my 8” SCT. Had it for 30 years now and it’s time to move on. Not being flush with money the only way I can do this is to sell some of my kit. So that would include my Celestron, Bresser Exos 2 EQ5 mount and my PoleMaster. EDIT plus ZWO ASI 224 MC colour camera. Here is my problem. I have no idea how much I can expect to get for my kit, not seen any 1985 Celestrons for sale! I intend to keep my cameras as I would like to be able to resume astrophotography should the mood take me. * SEE EDIT *I am thinking of getting a Dob with GOTO and tracking for imaging. It would have to be at least 10” to make a gain in aperture size. So firstly, which Dob would be best for me? And secondly how much would I need to raise to get it? Could always wait a while in order to build up cash to make up any difference. Any ideas? *EDIT: I have given the matter more thought, writing it down has crystallised my thoughts, and decided to give up imaging and return to observing only. This means I can add to my kit for sale my ZWO ASI 224 MC colour camera. Also means I do not need a tracking mount for the Dob. To sum up items I will have to sell. 1) Celestron 8” SCT with electric focus, dew heater, Telrad RDF. 2) Bresser Exos 2 EQ5 mount. 3) PoleMaster. 4) ZWO ASI 224 MC colour camera.

This image of M31 the Andromeda Galaxy is today’s APOD. I posted it here for two reasons. 1) Because it is breathtaking! 2) To draw attention to the site because perhaps some new members just staring out in astronomy may not be aware of it. Personally I find the images inspirational. Here is a link to APOD https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

The singular form of smarties is smarties.

You are correct in that two people making a guess is nowhere near enough guesses to achieve an average that is close to the actual number. This would be similar to carrying out a survey to predict the winning party at the next election and only asking two people. 🤔 We can ignore that situation as it does not apply. As you say we could take the situation that given enough guesses are made but the majority of guesses are higher or lower then the result would be an average that was too high or too low. However, the reality of the situation is that when enough people have made their guess the average will always be very close to the actual number, it balances out, the too high guesses are cancelled out by the too low guesses, and this point is the core of the discussion. If, with enough participants, the average is not close to the actual number then we can be reasonably certain that a bias has skewed the guesses. I gave an example of bias earlier when I said that the stall could be set up in such a way that when participants where writing down their guesses they were able to see the guesses made by six previous participants, this would affect their guess and skew the result. The point is though that it does work, the average will always be close to the actual number. If plotted out on a graph it would reveal a Bell Distribution Curve, damn thing pops up everywhere 😄. Anyway, back to work, 1,663…1,664…1,665… Cheers Keith

I’m glad you told me that because one member I was having a discussion with was adamant he couldn’t read my signature because he was using a phone. Obviously he had no idea there was such a hi-tec solution!

1,659…1,660…1,661…give me a minute, I’ll get back to you…1,662….

Yes, I have an 8” Celestron SCT, all the details of my kit are in my signature but I recently learned that those using ‘phones cannot read them. I did own a 2” refractor I bought to observe Haley’s comet but after a couple of years decided I wanted a “light bucket” so I could observe and image galaxies and nebulae. If I had the space and money I would have a quality refractor, a large Dob and a 14”SCT. However, in the real world, I find my SCT is a handy all rounder. Regards Keith

I see! We will say no more about it, but just so you know I am not angry, just very disappointed!

Thank you, appreciate the comment.

Yes, of course, when I set up the example of a jar of smarties and participants being asked to guess how many it contained they could hardly make a guess without seeing it. Have I missed something, a point you are making I have missed?

I was making a joke, perhaps I should have added a laughing emoji at the end of the line to make it crystal clear?

He likes big, heavy ones he can’t carry.