Stu1smartcookie

55 minutes ago, John said:

If you de-focus the star disks a little (into small circles) the colour difference stands out much more.

 

I will try that , John … when the sky clears again in about a week 😕 

12 minutes ago, Stu said:

Strangely I was using my Celestron Omni XLT 120 the other night and thought the star colours on Albireo were quite strong. Not sure what difference the focal ratio (f8.8 vs f5) would make, so I’m a little confused by what you are seeing.

Yes , my 70/700 bresser F10 picks up the colour very well ….. but it is weird that both my mate and I have the same anomaly with the ST120 , especially as I see colour in other stars 

Hi all , I have a skywatcher st120 .. it’s a fine scope and has let me see many dso’s but I was looking at stars the other night and of course there was some CA visible on the brighter ones .. ie Vega . I also viewed Antares which was a lovely pale orange . Then I switched to doubles and looked at Albeiro and it’s companion .. but , there was no colour on either star . I have a very cheap refractor that I also used and it showed distinct yellow and blue colours of the stars ! My friend also has the same scope St120 and has exactly the same experience.. question to you guys is … why can we not see these stars in colour ? 

47 minutes ago, etsatlo said:

Apologies if reviving an old thread but I found myself in exactly your situation a few years back.

I might be controversial here but I would disagree with what people have said regarding binoculars over a telescope.

I followed the advice and purchased some 10x50 binocs when first starting and whilst they show you more than the naked eye, all the really show you is more points of light.

Now I'm not being facetious but if you take a moment and think about why you are interested in astronomy, I reckon (at least personally) it's to see things that you can't ordinarily see i.e. rings of Saturn, the bands of Jupiter, the craters and ridges of the lunar surface, split beautifully coloured double-stars.

Those aren't visible through binoculars. You can see the 4 largest moons of Jupiter but not much else. I know that you can see deep sky objects like M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) in binoculars and it can be impressive, but for me, beyond that it's just isn't particularaly exciting.

Now if your main interest is to learn the constellation then by all means binoculars can be great. But if I'm honest, a telescope offers the 'astronomy' most people are after.

On the topic of binoculars, whilst 10x50s are useful, they can get heavy and your shoulders and neck will soon feel it. I've recently purchased a pair of lightweight 8x32 and they are far more comfortable so you'll actually spend more time observing and less time massaging the back of your neck!

Hope that proves useful or informative and like I say I realise it goes against the grain!

All the best.

Opening a can of worms here !!!. If as you write , people want to buy and use telescopes to view saturns rings and jupiter ie things that can be magnified enough to show detail , why haven't we all bought 16" dobsonians, after all if you want the best , surely a large telescope is the only way to go ????.. No , binos have their place .. they are great at scanning the sky .. getting used to where targets are located and , as Skyhog wrote , they were a fantastic tool for viewing neowise . So , perhaps, after all  that 4" scope  isn't worth the money ? After all it won't show views that you get from a light bucket . At that rate we will all just be looking at mags with glossy photos taken by hubble.  As for Binos just showing "points of light" ... if anyone out there has any desire to see stars other than just points of light , then they will be sorely disappointed . 

I've basically played devils advocat to your points above ... to be honest i have no desire to own a pair of binos ... i like the idea of scopes . But , most people know what they will see when using Binos  ... a 50mm or 70mm objective with , say a 10 x magnification . 

lol , you certainly did go "against the grain " but all points of view have their worth and if anything this stimulates the discussion , and lets face it anytime we can talk about astronomy is time well spent  .

Stu

So yesterday I WAS the postman as I collected my Star Discovery mount from @Cirrus… ( Thanks Paul ) … First use last night brought me M57 for the very first time , using my celestron 102 Mak . Also Saturn was a great sight . All in all a great first night 

That 32mm will prove a great buy 

Hi , good advice from above ... a dark sky cannot be used just for planetary ... you simply MUST view the wonders of wide field . I would use a 32mm EP for that . The zoom EP is an acquired taste but would serve you well for planets . Looking forward to your happy report of your viewing  

Having owned both variants , i would say that the ST102 is a bit heavier than the starquest 102 , due to more metal . But , as i owned them at different stages i cannot be 100% certain . However the objective is the same , and to my mind the results are the same . Think you will be happy with either . 

57 minutes ago, Soligor Rob said:

Well those guys at Flo don't hang around, I ordered this last night https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/sky-watcher-starquest-102r-f49-achromatic-refractor-telescope.htm

received an email this morning that it's on the way and I will get it tomorrow, knowing the DHL delivery service (have I bought from FLO before?)🤔

it will be here before 10am.

Happy days and thanks guys for all your words of wisdom.👍

Great buy Rob ... i actually bought one of these scopes ( yes i seem to have had one of everything  ) It gave very good sharp views . At low power the moon didnt suffer much in the way of CA either . Nice One ! 

17 hours ago, Alan64 said:

A 90/900 achromat would be an even better all-rounder, and would be well supported upon an AZ-5.   Yes, it's longer, but it can be stood up and stored on its front end, vertically.

I suppose a 70/900 would be out of the question, although I got one recently, an OTA, no mount...

This is its Sky-Watcher equivalent, the "Capricorn"... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/evostar/sky-watcher-capricorn-70-eq1-refractor.html

At f/12.9, it would exhibit virtually no false-colour, albeit a bit on the dim side, although a 70mm does perform quite well under darker skies.

I was lucky enough to also pick up a similar scope recently ( 70/700)  which performs admirably on double stars and the moon . And these scopes are ridiculously lightweight which adds to the portability . 

I  currently have an ST120 but i have owned an ST102 in the past ... well built scopes that are easily portable and would work very well on the AZ5 . 

Wide field views are great , not too hot on planets but then again i suspect you may know that .   

Stu

Taken purely as the question , the 120ed is actually quite a bit better , IN THIS IMAGE ....  But , this is one image . I wouldn't be swayed either way if i was thinking of buying either of these scopes , but it is an interesting comparison , especially as the Maks forte is planetary and lunar. If we are going on value ( which as has been written , we are Not ) then i still think the 120ed has it.. . Until you factor in the appalling viewing conditions that the UK has to contend with most of the time . One clear night in the last two weeks in Herts ( even that one had more moisture than the Sahara gets in one year ) . So , that is a leveler in my opinion . 

7 minutes ago, domstar said:

I started out on a Bresser 70/700 from Lidl. The finder was a real pain and I had to change the eyepieces but it set my on the right path. I never would've paid for a decent scope if I hadn't started on a cheap one. It was really important that I could set up just for short observing sessions to get me into the hobby. It also taught me not to get a EQ mount. It was great for a first view of Jupiter, first galaxy and first double. I have very fond memories of it. 

As it was so cheap , it was a "no brainer" to buy it ... the EQ Mount is now very much set as an alt-az , and was used last night with the 70/700 .... lol ive used this scope more than my other two er , "better" scopes in the last week . I agree that the finder is utter rubbish ... i put my Raci on it ( the RACI is 10 times more expensive than the scope and mount  ) . I like the mount in the alt az configuration , with my Mak . 

39 minutes ago, shiladazz said:

. I have the SVbony 8-24mm zoom eyepiece.

Glad to see another good report of this EP ... i bought a Zoom EP from another member on here and i didn't like it at all , but i am tempted to take a look at the SVbony one .

This thread , whilst being  really interesting ,actually demonstrates the weakness of humanity in so much that our intelligence is not advanced enough to comprehend beyond the boundaries that we have or that have been created for us by those who we look up to in the scientific world . And , who is to say , that they are right or wrong ? But , that is all we have . What a vulnerable specie we truly are . Things that were deemed right in Astonomical terms only 30 years ago( or less)  have been proved to be wrong,, or so we think ... Maybe the makers of the film "Interstella" have everything right ! Is science fiction the "New truth"

As John said ,  "The meaning doesn't trouble me at all, because I don't have any interest in understanding 'why?', only 'how?'. Why is not a useful scientific tool, except for when it is."

2 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I think mine had a Friday afternoon objective. Other owners seem to have had better luck.  I suppose the mount is typical of budget outfits but I did not like it.

Yes , its unfortunate when there seems to be a difference in a mass produced product . I think my initial enthusiasm was enhanced by the price i paid lol

Why was it disappointing , Geoff ? Obviously one has to see it for what it is 

Alan ... that is brilliant ...lol , i never even thought of that . Many thanks  

3 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Can't not think of Carl Sagan's famous words on the image of Earth taken by Voyager1 as it left our little Solar System 30 years ago

"We succeeded in taking that picture , and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

The longer it  looks  and the further it  goes  away from earth  the less people it  sees  ... until  the dot is seen as an uninhabited sphere ... maybe humanity can start again 

6 hours ago, Macavity said:

And I'm so tall, I'm so tall
You raise me and then you let me fall
And I'm so small, I'm so small
Wrap me around your finger, see me fall

Blancmange ...that takes me back 

22 minutes ago, doublevodka said:

Also, with your bargain, maybe worth a look at this?  - http://www.homebuiltastronomy.com/kidpeek/index.htm

My DIY skills are non existent lol so i will look for a bargain Alt Az mount head  ... some great finds there though .

12 minutes ago, Peter_D said:

Nice deal for 5 pounds!

I seem to remember there are two versions of the Skylux 70/700: the older model has a blue, straight dew shield and the newer model has a black dew shield. The older model's EQ mount is pretty decent from what I read.

The one i have is the blue tube with the black dew shield , but i would go along with the fact that the eq mount seems fairly decent . I just need to get a couple of fixing brackets for the spreader plate , 3d printed  

Amazing pics ... welcome to the forum

9 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

Great buy. I have a pair of 50x10 Bresser bins that I bought for around £10 and these give great views.

Nice one  . Binos are something missing from my astronomy armoury ... must fix that 

Brilliant er "buy" for free ... i have just asked a question if anyone else has picked up a bargain , seems like there is no better bargain than one thats free