Skywatcher130

Yes we have that here in Staffordshire through the RB Digital app. I subscribe to both Sky at Night and Astronomy (U.S) magazines. You can archive back issues in the cloud and just download the current issue to your device to save on storage.

Bit late to the party maybe, but I had these 🙂

Welcome 😀

Welcome Derek. If you're not already aware of him, check out a guy called Alyn Wallace on YouTube, amazing astro photos, using just a camera and mount 🙂

Still cloudy up here. Should clear in the next hour 🙂

That is a full set, Merlin100 🙂. Right, off to write my Christmas list...

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/c8aefef6129d465cbeae688ba652025b?page=22 Wonderful story. Nostalgia at its best 🙂

Yes, highly recommended. I have upgraded to a full set over the last year, including the 25mm which, if I'm honest, doesn't make too much of a difference to the original SkyWatcher. The 15mm is my favourite. I've kept hold of the stock eyepieces though so if I ever upgrade my scope they can go with it.

Welcome 😀

Fantastic. Just watched it with the boys. I even let the little one stay up as he'd never seen a launch before before. He's 5 and has an engineering mind, builds lots of things with motors and Meccano, now wants to build a space rocket 😀

I am a big fan of the BST Starguiders. I already had a 15mm and, a couple of weeks ago, decided to purchase the 5, 8 and a 25mm. They were already a great price but I also got a multi-buy deal online too. Was so pleased when I redid my eyepiece case that I had to take a photo, lol. I've used them a few times already and am very impressed so far. They suit me and my budget and it has meant that I could give my stock 10 & 25mm Skywatchers to my son which he can safely use with his little Meade ETX 70 without fear he'll drop mine on the patio!

Hello Alice and dad, welcome to the forum. I have an eight year old son who shares my hobby too which is lovely. We have a Skywatcher 130 goto (hence the name) and also a little Meade ETX 70 that is unofficial his! There are lots of nice space and astronomy apps around that you may find useful. I recently found the Celestron Skysense Explorer app, which is meant to be used with one of their telescopes but can be used by anyone and it will give you a view of the night sky based on your phone/tablet's GPS coordinates and, if you click on 'tonight's best' or search for a planet, there are lots of colourful pictures and information (also audio). Obviously the images in your eyepiece won't be quite as spectacular but can be fun to decide what to search for! Deb 😀

Nice work! Welcome to the forum too 😀

Called off. What an absolute shame, all that preparation 😕. Good trial run though.

I was talking to my 23 year old daughter the other day as I was setting up my telescope outside. I ended up showing her the Stellarium app on my tablet, explaining how it works and that you can fast forward or rewind time to see what's in the night sky at any given time. She then said, 'nan and grandad told me that there was a bright light in the sky when I was born, a comet I think it was...' Now, I have absolutely no recollection of this at all, to my absolute shame as I wasn't into astronomy back then and I was quite young myself. Lo and behold, it was indeed Hale-Bopp, which of course I have heard of but had never thought back to check the date. I just knew it was sometime in the 90s and have often thought that it must have been an awesome sight - turns out the closest pass was the day before she was born!! This she found most amusing and then it lead to looking up other family member's birth dates to see what was going on - on my husband's birthday there was the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Uranus all closely placed! With regards to my daughter, I am pretty sure that my parents gave me a newspaper from the day she was born (as you did back then) and I put it into her baby box. I must have a look in the loft one day to see if I still have it, and read all about the comet!! 😊

I was aligning my telescope on Arcturus last night around 10 p.m. and saw about ten of them whizzing past in the FOV. It reminded me somehow of that old 'Space invaders' game. I'm visual only but can only imagine the frustration if you were trying to image. There's enough of them about as it is now, only going to increase, sadly. That said, I admire Spacex and the whole Mars thing but as for the satellites, when I'm out in the garden looking up, just kinda feels like we're surrounded 😐

Treated myself to some more BST Starguiders to go with my 15mm. Can't wait to reorganise my eyepiece case later and it means I can give my stock Skywatcher 25mm & 10mm to my son along with my little Meade ETX 70 so that he has his own telescope set 😀

In theory I think the hole in the dust cap could suffice however I use an illuminated reticle with my GOTO scope, particularly at the initial alignment procedure and sometimes during a session if I feel things aren't quite as accurate as they should be. Every time the scope moves to your chosen target it asks you to centre the target in the eyepiece and confirm and I understand that builds up a more accurate picture over time. I went for a Svbony one off Fleabay, £20 approx, does the job nicely.

A Skywatcher power tank, an auto focuser and a Wi-Fi adapter. I have installed both the Synscan and the Stellarium mobile plus apps on my Android tablet and both are working fine. Had a bit of a play with it last night in between the clouds and was very impressed! I'm a visual only observer and won't be able to upgrade my kit for some years so thought I'd make my set up the best I can for now. Also my 8 year old son takes a big interest so he was absolutely mind blown that he could control the scope with the tablet 😀

Hi Alison, Welcome to SGL and enjoy the new telescope! Deb

Tracking it here in Staffordshire. Every now and again there's a gap in the clouds and I get a clear view, it's like a full stop on a blank sheet of paper 😀

As a follow up to my original post, I went along to the science day at the forestry centre on Saturday which is where my local astronomy group are based. They were very proudly showing off their newly-opened observatory, and I met some lovely, friendly members who put my mind at ease as to attending some of their monthly sessions and possibly becoming a member myself in the future. I met a very knowledgeable gentleman (who actually lives in my village!) who was displaying on his laptop some fantastic images he'd taken from his own back garden observatory. I left feeling much less nervous about the whole club issue and excited about the possibility of being able to tap into a wealth of experience and advice as opposed to observing alone. I may have been grinning and saying 'wow! ' a bit too much though, but from not knowing anyone else with a telescope to seeing loads and being able to go up into the new observatory was pretty exciting stuff 😀 Deb

That's great Bob, and the club observatory sounds really exciting! I should be at the science day with my husband and boys so we'll come and say hello 😀

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.365astronomy.com/Solar-Filter-for-130mm-Newtonian-Telescopes.html&ved=2ahUKEwj5yJzbh_jkAhXkURUIHeJlAxoQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw3deicknzz9OSSfCUkGqNUo Thia is what I have ordered, at £26 seemed reasonable. Telescope is same as my name, on a go-to AZ mount. I would love a 200p go-to dob in the future though and keep the 130 as a travel scope as we like to go camping. Yes, I'm aware of the transit and I should get a fabulous view from my south-facing garden, weather depending obviously. In the meantime, I will be practicing aligning the sun (I know to cover or remove the finderscope, don't worry!)

Treated myself to a solar filter which should be here in a day or two, very excited! (even though I take it there's not much to see at the moment 😀) I shall let you know how I get on. Deb