Littleguy80

I got my first telescope in 2017 with my only goal being to see the rings of Saturn. I now have 3 telescopes! My sister has my original telescope. For me, I find seeing these things gives me a more personal connection to them. I’ve seen countless images of the whirlpool galaxy but what I remember are the nights of dark, clear, transparent skies where I could see the spiral arms of the galaxy myself. Sure, the images show a lot more detail but what I saw with the telescope was earned. I had to find a good dark site location, I learnt how to navigate the constellations and practised my observing skills so my eye could pick up all the detail available. Astronomy is a challenging hobby. I’ve often come home elated at seeing the faintest of grey smudges in the eyepiece. Whilst visually not as impressive as what you see on the internet, I had the satisfaction that photons from galaxies hundred of millions of light years away ended their journey at my eye. Better than that, they travelled all that way and when they arrived, I knew where they’d come from. It’s not for everyone but I really do love astronomy.

This was shared on my local Astro societies Facebook page. Made me chuckle.

Lovely to hear that you had a good session after your hospital trip. Good on your son for helping you out. Hope the recovery goes well, Paul.

It really depends on whether you’re interested in doing some basic astrophotography. The motorised version is most useful for that. For pure ease of use, I would still be inclined towards the Heritage. There are quite a few very experienced astronomers using the Heritage 130 as a grab and go scope. It’s reputation is well earned. If your budget stretches to the £250 for the 130M then I’d get the Heritage 150. Bigger aperture and longer focal length. A great all rounder. It’s not been around as long as the 130 but also has a great reputation. I’m sure @Stu or @Mark at Beaufort could share their experiences with the 150.

Hi Mark, my first scope was the SkyWatcher 130M on EQ2. I really loved it but it has quite a steep learning curve with the EQ2 mount. The Heritage 130 is more intuitive on the dobsonian mount. One other difference to point out is they have differing focal lengths. The shorter focal length of the Heritage will give wider views but requires much shorter focal length eyepieces to get to the high magnifications. My inclination would be towards the Heritage but the Explorer certainly won’t disappoint once you get to grips with the Mount.

Great challenge, Mike. I gave it my all but was found wanting on this occasion. I could blame it on the seeing, tired eyes or even the European Super League. Whatever the cause of my failure, I enjoyed the trying. My “quick 10 mins on the Moon” turned into 45 mins and that tells it’s own story. Lots of fun!

Agree with that, John. I was using the same Atlas last night. It’s the only paper Atlas I use when observing. SkySafari covers everything I need for non Lunar observing. I find that it highlights lots of great features that I could easily miss otherwise. There’s a good mix of easy and challenging targets in there.

Thanks Stu. Sure did, it looked great The Rilles are probably the feature I feel most drawn on the Moon. Not sure why. Funnily enough, I was thinking last night that the skies are like they were at the beginning of lockdown last year. The main advantage being that we’re now allowed to head out to dark sites on the Moonless nights.

Very similar story here. Headed out after seeing this heads up. Took a little while for the dob to cool but then things were great. Worked through some Lunar 100 targets. Highlights were Hyginus Rille and Triesnecker Rilles. I love straight wall and was amazed by all the small craters I could see around it. I was going back and forth between the Pentax XW 5mm and Vixen HR 3.4mm eyepiece wise. Excellent evening rounded off by taking a couple of snaps with the DSLR through the dob. Thanks for the heads up @Stu

I spent some time observing around 5-6. Seeing was pretty good as you say, Stu. Really good granulation around the AR’s in WL. Loads to see in Ha too. Had a nice time observing yesterday lunchtime. Same as Nick, I’ve enjoyed seeing how these features have developed.

Thanks for the heads up, John. Had the dob out cooling. Thin cloud had arrived by the time I got out but still had a look at the Moon. The hexagonal shape of Proculus was quite pronounced as you say. Very neat. With the views brightening and dimming due to cloud, I was only able to pick out one of the rilles near Plinius. Had a quick peek at the Apollo 11 landing site. Still can’t quite see the flag Short session but good enough to give me my astronomy fix for the night! Hope you enjoyed the rest of your session.

Well done, John. Superb scope paired with excellent observing skills. Just goes to show what can be done! Very impressed.

Just in from what I’ve named “Nova Night”. Started with the Nova in Cassiopeia. Still holding it’s brightness well. I could see straight away that the transparency was very good. Next was another visit to the Supernova in NGC 3322A which seems to be maintaining brightness well too. Finally onto SN2021 hpr in Draco. The host galaxy, NGC 3147, is quite bright so that gave a good anchor for searching. At 120x, I got glimpses but wasn’t totally convinced. Went to 240x and got it much more clearly. It was exactly as per @davhei’s sketch. One of the nicest SN’s I’ve observed with the host galaxy being so bright and clear next to it. Really pleased. Lots of other nice targets observed. Once again, thanks to @davhei for the heads up and superb sketch.

Sounds like a fab session. The bright HII region in M33 is the only one I’ve really tried for. Looking forward to exploring for more now. I haven’t observed the NGC 3990 group before but that’s on the list too now. I’ll start with the 10mm Delos and then try the 9mm BGO. The fifth galaxy is Mag 13 so is gonna be a tough one! Virgo is just bursting with galaxies. It’s nearly impossible to track what you’re seeing.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say HII 😁

Brilliant, thanks Gerry. I’ve seen NGC 604 in M33 using a UHC. Will definitely see what I can see in both those galaxies

Great report, Gerry. Are you using a UHC filter to pick up the HII regions?

Exactly right. I've noticed the same thing. I tried for another SN earlier in the week that was much lower and around mag 14. That was beyond me despite being at the dark site. Yes, I have fond memories of this. If I recall correctly, Stephan @Nyctimene set the challenge for that Quasar. It was great fun

Another excellent sketch, @davhei ! Looking forward to having a go at this one

Great capture, Les. Thanks for sharing! I managed to see it in my 10” dob earlier in the week

Great combo, Stu and fab report. I debated more than once on the big Nagler. Originally I plumped for an ES82 30mm which I did really like. It was quite a big heavy beast though. Recently I sold the ES and got an APM UFF 30mm. It’s really nice and light and gives a 4.2 degree FOV with my 80mm refractor. I think the lightness of the APM makes it a better match to the little frac. One thing that helped with my decision to sacrifice some FOV was the AERO ED 40mm I have. Again, very light weight for a 40mm eyepiece. It gives a nearly 5.5 degree FOV with the refractor. Both of these are great for sweeping across star fields or observing big objects like the Veil. Long story short, I completely agree that the wide field views from these eyepiece and little fracs are something to be treasured

Thank you. Australia is somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since I was a child. Definitely hope to go there at some point in the next few years

Thank you! I always think taking your telescope to a dark site is like getting a new bigger telescope. The effect on what you can see is that significant! It’s the difference between driving your car on mud and tarmac. You need good skies to realise the potential of your scope. That’s my inspiring “take your dob to a dark site” speech for the day

Thanks Paul. Great to hear that you’ve got a dark site to try. Fingers crossed you can go soon. I bet there’s still a lot you can see with the 5” under dark skies

Great idea. It’ll be interesting to see how far North you can go and still see it