jjohnson3803

I finally was able to take out my new AZ-GTi and went ripping through a bunch of objects last night and this morning to test out the go-to and tracking. M41, NGC 2345, CR32, CR140, CR135, NGC 2451 / c Pup, M93, M47, M50 last night. Omicron Cyg, Omega Cyg, NGC 6871, Chi Cyg, Albireo, the Coat Hangar, and U Sge this morning. Still have to do some more fiddling with it and then I'll go back to observing objects instead of ticking off a list.

My right eye is "stronger" uncorrected, but I use my left eye for observing. I find it more comfortable than using my right eye. I usually do wear eyeglasses when observing though. I think my eye doc said I have more floaters in the left, but I don't recall details. I should compare the next time I'm lunar observing.

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Excellent, thank you. I just ordered one from FLO. I'll probably use it with a lightweight Benro tripod for traveling.

Reinforces the belief that there's a lot of rubbish on the Web. OTOH, I'd hope that somebody somewhere is monitoring it, just in case. According to science calculations, it's time for my breakfast.

Well, yee haw! After sitting on the shelf for 2 months since I got it from FLO due to bad weather, etc. I fired up my AZ-GTi for some actual observing this morning. It's only +15F though so I observed inside from my loft. I have windows to the S and E, so I was limited to Vega, Sulafat, Sheliak, and Antares and only a 1-star alignment, but I'm happy with how the mount works, especially since I had to approximate where north is. I'm still fumbling with the app on my iPhone, but I'm a kinesthetic / visual learner, so I'll hopefully get better the more I play with it. Now I need to figure out how to connect to SkySafari so I don't have to scroll through menus. Also wonder if a hand controller might be a good thing to have eventually. Cheers!

The Suburu live feed is my default viewing when skies are cloudy here. Saw a bright sporadic once, but didn't do a screen capture.

A lot depends on personal preferences... Anyway, my all-rounder is a 72ED on a ScopeTech Zero alt-az mount (similar mount made by Sightron now) on a carbon fiber tripod, but that would be over your budget unless you buy used. My next choice would be my SkyWatcher ST102. Big enough to gather a fair bit of light, relatively lightweight and reasonable cost. Mine does a respectable job on the moon although there is noticeable chromatic aberration. (I should try a light yellow filter sometime to see how much difference that makes.) Dobs are fine scopes, but I like to store my kit in a wall unit. Not sure that would work with anything but a small Dob. Good luck!

Wow! Great idea! I've been struggling with my 15x70s. They work well on a tripod and fluid head, but I have trouble tilting my head back, so anything above 50-60° becomes a literal pain in the neck. And tilting the pod and fluid head over me when reclining is awkward at best. I've been considering selling them, but a minipod might persuade me to keep them.

Anybody know the weight of an AZ Pronto alt-az mount by itself? I'm only finding mount+tripod weights. And if you've used a Pronto, how did you like it? Thanks!

🙂 I'm sometimes surprised at how nice the view can be in my 6x30 finders. I have a converted 50mm finder that I use for super grab-n-go and I like it so much that I might get a 60mm RACI.

Love TLAO. Cambridge also has a Web site with additional TL charts.

Skies cleared after midnight last night, so I popped out with my ST80 around 0400 this morning. I was trying a different configuration of mount / tripod and decided I didn't like it, so I lost some time reconfiguring things back to my original set-up. That was ok - one of my goals was to see if I liked the new configuration. M13, wandered around Lyra for a bit, over to The Coathanger, and a quick look at U Sge, which was not in eclipse as usual. I'll catch it in eclipse one of these days. Cygnus was still too low in the trees to see much.

M13, M92, couldn't see M56 with my ST102, but that's no surprise - I've never been able to see it at home. The arrowhead asterism that points to it was easy, but no glob. It was below freezing, so I only stayed out about an hour.

"Eventually" is pretty accurate. My AZ-GTi arrived mid-December and I finally had a decent, clear morning today.

There was a lot of cloud to cloud lightning early last night, but skies had cleared by 0300 today, so I took out my ST102. I wanted to have a look at Delta Corvi (double), but it was already behind the trees by the time I was set up and awake. Swung over to Lyra. Couldn't split Epsilon 1, but Epsilon 2 was in and out with a 2X Barlowed 4mm. I don't know if that's a scope limitation or if it was sky conditions. Spent a good deal of time admiring Ste 1 / Delta Lyr cluster. I keep notes on my phone and transfer them to a Word file, but I was thinking I should sketch that cluster sometime. Main star was showing a nice orange tint. Then a little time on Sheliak and Sulafat before calling it a night. The Ring was pretty visible even without a filter, but I didn't spend any time on it.

I think that's arguably one of the best shots I've seen of M51.

That's interesting. I usually run my refractors with a ScopeTech Zero on an Innorel RT90C (carbon), but I have an AZ5 that I use now and then. The max practical weight limit with my scopes was 11-12 pounds. I'll have to put the AZ5 back on the 90C and see how it does with my ST102. (What I really need to do is take notes when I try different combos so I don't repeat my "experiments".)

I put a 2-speed Crayford on mine and the combo was a bit much for my mounts and to take camping, etc. It sat unused in my scope cabinet for a year, so when I got an ST102, I sold the ST120. No regrets there. Maybe I'll miss the aperture one of these years. It might sound crazy, but I wish I hadn't sold the Sears / Tasco 60mm refractor that was my first telescope. I think it might be fun just to see what it could do now that I'm substantially older and marginally wiser. But I wanted a better amp for my bass guitar at the time. LOL. I'm about to list a few more astro items for sale and I have to admit I'm wondering if I should just hold onto them, just in case.

I should add that I bought an AZ-GTi mount before Christmas and, with a couple of exceptions, it's been cloudy, raining, or snowing since it arrived. I am starting to regret that one...

LOL! Well, I don't know if I regretted these purchases, but they didn't work out and I did sell the items (at a loss, of course): StellarVue M2C mount - beautifully machined, but no slo-mo. And I knew when I bought it that I really like to have slo-mo, but I thought I'd give it a try. 90mm Maksutov - bought it thinking it would be my main lunar scope. It did well on the moon, but I disliked the small FOV for other targets like open clusters. 102ED refractor - ok, this was supposed to be the grab-n-go replacement for both my ST120 and my ST80. Split the difference, right? Except the sucker was bigger and bulkier than I thought it would be (Yes, I read the specs before ordering) and didn't work all that well on my mounts. Stellarvue M1V mount - a little pooter alt-az with no slo-mo, I think Altair sells the equivalent. This one didn't work out either. There are a few more, but I think that paints a representative picture.

I'm probably an outlier, but I often prefer mono images to color. But that might be because I used Kodak emulsions on glass plates when I was an undergrad. 😉

Funny - I was just browsing a couple of annual guides at a bookseller this past weekend. It seems to me that you can get all the same info for free from a number of Web sites like "Sky and Telescope". But, as Peter mentioned, there are times when a paper book is the thing to have.

One session in January thanks to continual clouds / snow / rain / fog / subzero (F) windchills. (Chicago, USA) There've been a few clear nights in February so far, but I've been traveling so only one chance to observe so far.

I started out with a 60mm when I was a kid, so I suppose there's an element of nostalgia for me. After my classic C8 sat in storage for a couple decades, I got back into the hobby with an st120 and gradually added smaller fracs to my collection. Tried a 90mm Mak which was a good scope IMO, but I really prefer the wider FOVs of fracs. Plus it's hard to beat the portability and ease of storage.