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toilandtrouble123

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Blog Entries posted by toilandtrouble123

  1. toilandtrouble123
    After nights of cloud and rain, boredom and desire to improve on my set-up, I started going through the classifieds, astrobuysell and preloved for a bargain EQ3-2 mount, to compliment my refractor. After seeing that they are £170 brand new for that price, I could get a whole newtonian set-up of decent aperture second hand.
    And so, I now have my eye on a couple of SkyWatcher 150mm on EQ5 or better ads. Coincidentally, I have noticed a hell of an influx of RAW newbies enquiring about first time scope set-ups (must be the Cox effect lol!), and to my surprise, a fair few of them are either going for the 150, or a 200 - just what I'm looking at for a step up second scope (makes me feel a bit sad and stupid).
    Its quite interesting having new newbies (ha!) asking my opinion on scopes for their first time that I want as my second! I have even gone so far as to give someone my shopping list because they are going to go for the same set-up, could be interesting to compare first lights, if they do get the same scope and mount!
    So, payday is coming ever closer, still no clear nights for going out with my camera or scope, and that frustration itself, is making me chomp at the bit even more to get my hands on a bigger, more capable scope than my beloved 90mm refractor. Patience Natalie, patience.
    So, I have decided to take the plunge, and shall be the proud owner of a Helios (which I believe is what SkyWatcher used to be called) 150mm reflector on a EQ5 mount for £200 in a fortnight. Plus £55 (including VAT) for a collection from the lovely lady in Hastings via Parcelforce, and then I can my paws on my new toy. I will be buying the dual motor drive for the mount for £90, and a polar scope for £32, and I'll be readily armed for combat!
    After those purchases, I'm thinking of buying a Skywatcher LPR filter, Cheshire collimator, Photoshop or similar software, a celestron powertank (for laptop, phone and charging camera batteries whilst out observing) and might get a second flight case for the reflector eyepieces and collimator, as my current one is rather chok a blok.
    My poor bank balance......
  2. toilandtrouble123
    Well, got up to Burton Dassett Country Park around 6:30pm last night (after picking dinner up from the chippy on the way), got out the car to set up, and the skies were crystal clear! The band of the Milky Way clearly visible, snaking its way from one horizon, right over our heads, to the other horizon. Absolutely gorgeous.
    Set up the telescope, and then the camera on the tripod. Took a few quick shots of the Pleides, trying to gauge the right settings, before plugging the cable release and sliding the switch for my first attempt at star trails, whilst I ate my sausage and chips in the car whilst waiting for the scope to cool to the ambient outside temp.
    Some 15mins later, we got out the car and finished the exposure, looked up, to find rising mist and low cloud had appeared out of nowhere, and completely obscured the beautiful sight of the stars in basically no time at all. Major sad face.
    After checking out the latest satellite pictures from the met office website, we decided to pack up and go home, since there was no hope of any improvement.
    Well this morning, I have done a little tweaking of the RAW pictures on a progam called Picasa, and uploaded my results. I am quite pleased at how the sensor picked up the different colours of the stars, and how my boyfriend was astounded that stars come in different colours, he could even pick out the greenish-blue hue to the Pleides, when my own clapped-out useless eyes can't.
    Light pollution as usual, was a pain, even more so as the mist rose. I am a little concerned over the random lines running through the photos, wondering if that indicates there's something wrong with the dslr. I shall do a little research online as to what these lines mean. All in all, I am quite pleased with my results as a first time go.
    Can't wait for the clouds to clear again, for a second shot at star trails and constellation shots.
    Natalie
    xxx
  3. toilandtrouble123
    So, this has been the first time that I have logged onto this forum in about 2 years, and have found that the regulars on here have been as courteous, patient and helpful as they were two years ago (thanks guys!)
    Christmas 2009, I received from my doting grandparents a celestron sky scout 90 refractor and the personal planetarium (not exactly the nexstar 127 slt I asked Santa for). Knowing how upset they would be if I told them that the retailer they had dealt with, had probably shoved onto them, a scope that the dealer simply couldn't shift out of their warehouse due to undesirability, I decided to keep my mouth shut and pretend to be over the moon.
    As I got to know about my SkyScout scope, the more I decided that maybe I had been aiming a little high when I asked for the nexstar 127 - so much to get my head around! And slowly I realised, that shivering in the cold snow laden winter of 2009-2010, I was really quite pleased of how I managed to get a good look at Mars and Jupiter without hardly any knowledge of telescope observing at all.
    However, the more confident I got with my ability of handling my scope, the more frustrated I got at the poor quality of the mount that the scope came with - for any movement alterations, I had to make about 1cm margin, because as soon as I let go of the pan handle, the mount would sag, and I would lose the view. This was easily solved, with sound advice from amazingly helpful people on this forum, and the nice guy from harrison telescopes, oh and £270 later, I became the proud owner of a SkyWatcher AZ4 stainless steel tripod.
    With the sagging problem out of the way, I craved better detailing in my viewing of the planets, and so started compiling a wishlist of accessories to complement my set up.....after 2 different barlow lenses, a second hand filter set (from a very nice guy in Portugal, who contacted me over SGL),, and a few other bits and bobs, I had caught the bug!! I wanted to "pimp" my scope out as much as possible and get the most out of it that I could. However, due to various uprisings in my personal life, my beloved SkyScout Scope 90 has been in storage for a little over 2 1/2yrs.
    Now that I'm in a more settled situation, I have unearthed my set up with the intention of re-learning the sky, and re-learning telescope observing, as well as dabbling in aurora photography (hopefully going on a couple of aurora hunting road trips as the sun reaches the peak of it's cycle) and night time scenery shots.
    Over the last month, I have decided to try and get the boyfriend interested in astronomy, so I can have someone that I can share my interest with, however every time we have packed the car, the weather has decided to not play nice. I have recently bought a canon 350D dslr, on the logic that a few years ago, this model was deemed as a beginners camera, and so should be less technologically complicated than today's beginners model (cheaper too, don't want to fork out a hefty sum if I decide that it's not the thing for me). Alongside it, I have bought a hama star 63 tripod, cable shutter release (thinking that I could quite easily lose a wireless one in the dark) a t-ring and t-adaptor, so that I have the option of combining it with my scope, once I get to grips with each piece of equipment separately!
    I have compiled a new wishlist for my camera/telescope set ups, for future purchases in the next few months:
    -SkyWatcher EQ3-2 mount, or similar
    -Dual motor drives for above mount
    -A decent LPR filter
    In the meantime, I shall concentrate on getting the best out of my dslr on the nights when we are unable to pack the car up and get out of town with the scope. So watch this space on my progress:- I shall upload all photos (good AND bad, well mostly bad, come to think of it) that I take, as testament to my struggle to understand how to get more involved in a hobby that has been close to my heart all my childhood.
    Wishing everyone clear skies!!
    Natalie
    xxx
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