Ignoro

My 8 year old son can use 130p by himself easily, the Moon looks great and planets too. Binoculars are also great for astronomy...

Heritage 130 is great and small, and you can see stuff with it. I use it and it got me hooked, no problem... Bigger is better, but it's quite a bit bigger and in my opinion for a first scope not so much better as much as bigger... 😋 Edit: Binoculars are also a good idea, but for 20x you need some stand/tripod

Now I understand the difference between diagonals. eBay is cool if you are moderately careful I have something going on right now so I'll look into it in a few days, thanks for your help, as always

I'm in Croatia and seller is UK just accidentally I put ebay.com, so you say he should get a prism but not the one from Starguider?

He'll be buying a BST starguider 8mm eyepiece, so maybe make just one order for 2 items from the same seller to save some shipping: prism: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Starguider-1-25-90-degree-prism-star-diagonal/382690001566?hash=item591a1a029e:g:sl8AAOSwIr5cH7VI mirror: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Starguider-1-25-90-degree-mirror-star-diagonal/163447486682?hash=item260e3ab8da:g:IG8AAOSwwhxcH6fQ I looked through his scope a few days ago and didn't notice a line on planets. I have a reflector so I'm unfamiliar with diagonals, is prism better then mirror? Would he see any difference in his scope? Thanks

My friend has an Celestron astromaster 90/1000 refractor, do you think he'd benefit from getting a bst Starguider prism diagonal over the stock? He observes planets from his balcony. Thanks

You know how it is, when I was in London, there was George Benson, Billy Cobham, Queens of the stone age, Eric Clapton, R. Gallagher etc. All in different venues in a few days, that kind of situation doesn't happen here :). When I was younger I would give my organs to see those guys live (now I appreciate my entrails more)... You get some stars and lose some I guess we all should appreciate what we have and share of course I'm glad you like our place here, maybe we meet sometime

It's a great place and the whole mountain is magical (for hiking or whatever). I go there every new moon during the non summer season (obviously I'm a local)... Now it's crowded, but outside of tourist season it's not... With their 16 inch SC (Meade lx200) you can really see a lot there. I especially enjoyed the galaxies in Coma Berenices this spring. I also bring my own scope every time, it's great to have such a place in the vicinity...I hope I'll go there on the next New moon... I'm glad you like it...

This helped me: https://garyseronik.com/a-beginners-guide-to-collimation/ When you put a star a bit out of focus it should be evenly bright from all sides... Polaris is best as it doesn't move. It all isn't very complicated, it's easiest if someone more experienced helps you in person... Congratulations on your scope, I think you'll be able to see a lot with it. I opted out for it's micro-brother and I still can see stuff...

I forgot to bring my shroud to where I'm now so it does make a bit of a difference for me, but next time I'll bring it And my clouds are pretty far away I think, enjoy...

I moved my scope and Saturn was great, but some clouds came after a short while, so now the session is definitely over. Of course the neighbors turned off their lights in the meantime.... The Cassini was very sharp tonight with my heritage 130... I lost my collimation cap and first time collimated completely without it and I think I've mastered the no tool collimation. I'll check with my local astronomy guru next time we meet, but I think it was pretty good... Anyway, low planets are better than no planets 🤗

Here seeing is great now and was last night... The only problem are neighbors tourists who keep some superfluous light in their garden... Apparently they like mosquitoes, so I'm waiting for them to go to sleep and writing this post before I have a last look at Saturn, Jupiter is behind a tree... Although I could move my scope...🐸

I have 12x40 binos and although they are very sharp, the image is unstable, so it's a nit tiring over longer use. So I think I'll like the 8x And Papilios close focus is sooo tempting, what puts me off a bit is that they look a bit gentle to me on pictures, I'd like to see them live... Also Hawkes warranty seems very good, I'd like to be relaxed knowing that someone will repair them for me if I drop them or something... And I think Hawke are smaller.

I have a pair of bigger binos and 250£ is way off my budget... These Hawke ED seem good and they are at the absolute limit I'd spend on a binocular. I am tempted to get something even cheaper like the Nikon pictured by Mark up... I have carried (borrowed) Olympus porros 8x21 (or similar) on a trip once and the great thing about them was that you can carry them casually. If I were to carry bigger binos I'd feel almost obliged to look through them and these super compact you can just keep in the backpack or in your pocket and use or not... As for the friends monocular I don't think he needs them for serious marine exploration, but I'll suggest him to take maybe 32mm...

Hi, I'd like to have some compact binos, so decided to get 8x25 roof prism, I found these on FLO: Hawke endurance ED 8x25 - specs say they have magnesium alloy body, this should be more durable than plastic? I won't be throwing them around, but would like them to be able to take some normal handling... I like being relaxed with things https://www.firstlightoptics.com/compact-binoculars/hawke-endurance-ed-25mm-compact-binoculars.html Also I like the concept of Pentax Papilio II, but they seem so gentle, I've never seen them live.... My friend wants a monocular to carry around and he has a small boat so would use them there too. We'll probably order together. These seem nice: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/all-binoculars/vortex-optics-solo-25mm-monoculars.html Please give some advice if you have some experience with these (or similar products), or any other recommendation... Thanks