JOC

Thought I had better post here to get the best solar advice. As you know I am a STEM Ambassador and I have volunteered for our local street science fair in a few weeks time. They like us to take an 'activity' if we have something that is cheap and suitable for demonstrating in a busy outdoor shopping center. The theme this year is 'space'. For a moment this floored me then like a shaft of light I remember that socking great big object in my porch - my telescope! Problem is that it's a daytime event. So could I please run the idea past you solar experts and get your thoughts as an outreach activity. I have a home-made solar filter that I made from that expensive solar film. I keep it in a special box so it doesn't get damaged and it fits the whole 8" OTA - I attach it via some small bungee cords and always check it for pinholes prior to use. I also have a dark shroud which fits around the flex tube rods to keep out stray light and have also invested in a solar 'shadow' finder. I have some cheaper EP's BST's etc. of a suitable magnification. If I can get to power (possibly via my own battery box or if they can lay on power for me) the Dob will also solar track. Bearing in mind that is only a home-made filter (though I took a lot of care making it) - would the above kit be suitable for outreach supervised solar viewing if I was willing to take the scope along for use (which I am)? If not would anyone be willing to loan me the kit that would make the telescope suitable? Assuming the homemade filter is OK, I'd need to tell people what they were looking at - these silver backed sheets must filter to a given band-width, I see folks talking about different types of solar viewing could anyone enlighten me as to what this Baader solar film with the silver back views in. I see a big orange disc when I look through it. Also, I have to contend with the fact it could be cloudy - if this is the case, whilst the telescope is interesting in its own right to see, if anyone could send me some solar pictures taken with 'backyard' telescopes that they would be willing to let me print out and show as to what is possible it would give me something to talk about if the sun didn't make an appearance. Also, is there any chance of an appearance by a daytime moon on Saturday 13th July in the South East UK? I don't know how you find this out. Basically, what do you think of the idea - if the theme is space would a look at our own 'star' count do you think? All input would be welcomed as would any other ideas that I could afford and would be safe to put on in a busy outdoor shopping area.

Laser pointers have a bad press in the UK for many good reasons and tend to not be recommended for everyday use. I initially tried hard with an optical finder scope on my Dob and got nowhere fast. I got a Celestron RDF and immediately things improved - I then got a Y shaped bracket and mounted both and suddenly could find anything I could see with the naked eye in the sky within about 30 seconds. With the optical finder it has sufficient adjustment that I can really key it into the final telescope view, I then found that that just mounting the RDF with it roughly in the right position if there wasn't sufficient movement to really tie it into the final view was sufficient. So now I get the RDF onto the target, at that point it is in the field of view of the optical finder. So the optical finder is perfectly aligned with the telescope so I just centre the object to the centre of the optical finder and I can see it in the telescope view. It really is worth mounting both finder types IMO, my 3D printed Y bracket only cost £8 from Ebay and has been really good.

Too much weight being at the top end of the tube, don't forget mine is a Dobsonian Newt so my EP's end up right at the open end of the tube - in a nutshell I am sure the added weight make it difficult for the motors to drive the scope in an upwards direction as they struggle to lift the added weight at the open end of the tube if I have it fitted with a weighty eyepiece or even a heavy dew shield.

When I have the issue with my motors I find it is predominately the vertical up down movement that is affect. Horizontal it usually gets correct amd often I find the star in question by just swinging the tube through the vertical axis by hand. Downwards is usually OK too, providing it doesn't get too carried away. It's upwards that I tend to have most issues with, therefore I do believe it is possible to go from position North level around and up and get it wrong because upwards movement has not been succesful, but still be able to return to point zero esp. If requires a downwards movement. Are you able tell if if it gets one or both axis positions wrong? If it is motor issue I sometimes find things can be assisted to get started by a light push in the correct direction. It's a rooky error, but I have also ended up with the telescope pointed at the ground when I have incorrectly picked targets that aren't current 'up'. Another point could be software you are using to identify stars that should be there. I use Stellarium and that is somewhat prone to forgetting where it is, what date it is and what time it is locally and thus I have often picked things to view on the stellarium screen that just aren't there! And have got them muddled up with just what IS in the sky

I don't know about pinning things, but it is 'stickied' at the top of the threads 🙂 and well it should be 🙂

Well in some cases they are socking great big lumps of glass and metal and weight of larger ones can 'considerable'! Stick that some distance from a fulcrum and its influence on tube balance can be significant esp. if your 'sticktion' quotient is not huge. In addition folks can add all sorts of other bits to tube ends like dew protectors which add to balance issues. I don't have the same type of scope as you and maybe your motors are better than mine, but I DO notice balance issues and motor drive issues when I load mine too much at one end and then ask it to drive. Balance can be such an issue that I have seen reports on SGL of folks adding magnetic weights to Dob tube ends to maintain the balance. Now when I callibrate I only do it with scope in its 'naked' as shipped state with really light EP in place, often the one it was shipped with. I also agree with comment above, check the Synscan settings, they don't automatically update and you do need to reset them each time/day you switch it on.

Given your location, i.e.considerably South of many of us I wonder where your scope was shipped from. Is there any difference in the Synscan software when they are programmed with the intent to view Southern hemisphere objects. Could it be something like using a scope set up for and shipped from the southern hemisphere in the Northern hemisphere. It sounds in places like it is 180 degrees out. I have seen almost the same issue when I've done something daft with the lat/long setup maybe misding leading zeros or forgetting minus signs or E/W designations. OK he S. Hemisphere idea is only me thinking outside the box, I have no idea how these things work in reality, but someone on SGL will know. Regarding the weight issue. OK I know I have a complerely different system, but the difference in weight of just one large EP is sufficient to pull my tube completely down to the ground, not just be a few cm out. I wonder if your setup has sufficient 'sticktion' in the system or if something is slipping that shouldn't be.

That's a good call, there have lots of reports on SGL of people resolving problems with a better power supply. For the auto Dob I use a massive car jump-start pack (18Amphr), but I've also got a mains adaptor just to be sure and I use that when I can.

I started to watch it (my recordings) last night, but it started to stray into the territory that I don't like hearing about. I am quite happy enjoying what is up there now and not thinking too hard about it, but I get very uncomfortable thinking about it all destroying itself when the sun explodes in billions of years time. Yeah, I know it won't affect me, but I just had to switch it off as I find the whole concept terrifying.

If it was my Dob I would still be up for something to be slipping with the motor. I.e.the system counts the necessary number of clicks, but the scope has moved wrongly perhaps due uneven weight, or maybe it gets hooked up on something by a trapped cord or power cable and can't move any further?

Is there anything on the OP's scope that could be installed backwards?

Possibly, but only if you are 100% certain which star it is in the sky that you think you should be landing on - this was also a big issue of mine. I didn't know the sky well enough to be 100% certain which named star on the electronic handset was the star in the sky. In particular I had a real problem with Polaris - it isn't as bright as I ever expected it to be and neither is it a 100% dead straight line off of the plough. It is, however, a double star, but it isn't as clear a double as some are, but this can help on a clear night to know you are on it. It is also in a direction I have light pollution with and to begin with I was never 100% sure which star it was to align on. This never helped with my alignment issues. If the telescope hasn't slewed properly, but gets pretty close to a fairly bright star, perhaps there is a tendency to think that was the star it was aiming at and to then settle and therefore 'educate' the scope that it is on the correct location when it might not be. So it is really important that you know without error which start the telescope is aiming for. Taking out a mobile phone with the Stellarium app. on can help, because as you select a star on the computer you can then use Stellarium on your mobile phone to confirm where it is in the sky and therefore when you correct the telescope to the first selected location you can be quite certain you have the star correct.

I wondered if this was the issue, but the OP said they used Synscaninit and the data it contained so the values should be correct. I used Synscaninit too and amongst the things I have done wrong is to not feed in the leading zeros if the values and orders of magnitude than the input mask available, i.e. for 32 degrees to input 032 and not just 32 other it can go in as 320 when you don't want it to. I've also forgotten to put in minus signs for west and I guess South if you are in the southern hemisphere. I've also forgotten to change the year and to remember that the date doesn't automatically increment during the days the thing is switched off. In other words synscaninit 2.0 is good, but clearly not idiot proof!

As I have often posted I wonder if it's a weight issue - is the flex-tube lighter - my own 200P flex-tube motors seem VERY susceptible to weight distribution. However, when it all works it's brilliant. It's to be hoped you end up better at finding things in the night than I am then. I've found things with my 200P goto that I would never have found without it. FWIW I had the same decision to make as the OP - I went with the Flex-tube goto 200P and never by any stretch of the imagination regretted it. If you don't want to take the time calibrating it each time then it can also be used for quick looks at easy to find things as a manual scope too.

OK, a possibly daft notion, but what eyepieces are you using? My system is different to your it's on a Dobsonian base, but the movement of the scope still relies on motors. If find the weight of the telescope all important. For setting up I find the use of the lightest eyepieces is necessary - even to the point of using the small Plossls and even the finderscope that the scope was supplied with. I find if I load the telescope with a big heavy EP esp. if this is on top of adding in a big heavy optical finder and a red-dot finder on an extension bar that is gets so heavy the motors can't successfully drive it. Esp. in the up and down axis. Mostly the horizontal axis moves OK, but the up and down axis is often out. The tube starts to move, but often finishes a good-bit lower than the intended target if I have too much weight on one end. This is even the case when moving between targets when I again find it pays to take out the EP's between moves esp. if I've got the heavier one out to use. I have never played with your type of telescope, but if you are out of ideas can I suggest that you do all you can to lighten the load on the far ends of the telescope and maybe just revert back to exactly what the manufacturer supplied on the assumption that you might be playing with different finders and esp. different EP's it might just be worth trying.

My Swiss friend serves us mini-'gherkins' with our Raclette - she refers to them in English as 'cucumbers'. However, she also calls a long green salad cucumber a 'cucumber' too!

Woah!! When did I miss those? Those are the two I've been been waiting to come up on SGL classifieds!! I could have completed my set with that pair! ?

I thought the general answer to this was a 200P, but I know the standard scope has limitations esp. for imaging. However, I like what I've got and having also now owning a small refractor I'd still want my first scope: A 200P, truss tube, on a Goto and tracking Dobsonian mount. Easy to transport and store A fair amount of light gathering - can see many DSO's as well as the planets, moon and sun (with appropriate filters) Goto makes finding things easy Tracking removes the constant 'nudge' and allows for a moderate amount of imaging. OK, this is probably the weaker point, but I think if you want a one scope does all you will probably have to compromise on something and at least the tracking Dob doesn't put making a permanent record of views and images completely out of reach.

Obviously you'd need to watch what was in the surrounding area, but there are some interesting videos online on what can be achieved with a can of WD40!

I get this below. However, I don't really know if this is good for the UK or not. What I do know is that I went out last night and looked up and I reckon I could see as many stars here as I've ever seen - it was glorious and I wish that I had chucked the big scope out, but boy was it cold. I went and grabbed the little Vixen on her new mount and my box with the small number of expensive bits of glass in it and had 15 minutes before the cold got to me. I took at look at an easy target - M42, the nebulosity was there to the naked eye with the 14mm Morpheus, but even with the 5mm Pentax the little scope could only twist the normal 4 stars out of the trapezium. I then took a look at Pleiades with the 14mm and that was rather glorious with the little scope. Then because I didn't really know what I was looking at I found a nice bright yellowy golden star to the left of Orion. Looking at Stellarium earlier this morning I think it could have been Sirius, but it wasn't even doing it's usual 'party star' thing the sky was that clear. It was just a glorious evening to look up and gaze amazed at the heavens. OK, not a lot serious astronomy went on which rather wasted the night, but at least I went out and appreciated the sky.

I reckon the OP has a version of my own turned knob!!

Last Tuesday I got a shed that might become somewhere to put the telescopes

Bro is going to try and sort out a tray for my new cheap astronomy tripod, but I do like this idea with the shelves in it. No 3D printer here yet, but all sorts of other materials might work.

So seeing as Bro said I could have his decent case for my more decent EP's it prompted me to go and buy an armful of this 'pluck' foam and this is what I've arrived at. I had a small case that I've done for 'rings'n'things', a larger cheap case that I've put what I'm calling the everyday things into. Then they nice real metal flight case Bro let me have is now started for my expensive, more decent EP's. I'm still trying to decide what to do for filters and was going to look at some of the other threads. It looks like some of you leave them in their little boxes and then place those in the foam, but I don't know if I've got little boxes for all my filters. At the moment I'm storing them in my filter changer which if want to try them out gives me an easy option to try them in turn without a load of thread turning on and off.

Did you tell your SO that you'd won the lottery? That's quite a haul! Hope you enjoy using it. Me? Well I got an armful of pluckable foam to do an EP case with - not half as exciting as your new telescope.