Ships and Stars

If you have a backyard with decent access to and from your storage area and can lift some weight, I'd go for a used 10" dob or as big as you can afford and lift. I've 5" and 8" reflectors and a 20" dob which goes in my van easily enough for what it is (170lbs). I've managed to carefully pick up both the base and mirror before at 152lbs, but I don't really recommend it because of bulk, fragility and certainly expense. All three are fun, the 5" has surprisingly sharp optics, the 8" will pick up lots of DSOs nicely under dark enough skies, but the 20" of course just blows it away. It's a lot of work at times though. If I had to live with just one to easily chuck in a car, I'd pick a 10" or 12", maybe a 14" though you're looking at some money now. Check out AstroBuySell US, eBay, etc. A few dobs usually for sale if you are patient. Do you have garage space or some kind of secure shed out back you could store it in? You can also build up your eyepiece collection as you go. The Skywatcher 28mm 2" eyepiece is cheap as dirt and actually pretty decent in my book. The 10 and 25mm not so hot. You could probably get a 28mm ep for $15, if not free. The rest will fall into place. Good luck!

Posted twice somehow, ha, comment below...

I use a Yuasa 70Ah deep cycle leisure/marine battery and fully charge it before each use. Heavy, but lots and lots of reserve power. £62. Both this battery and my 105Ah deep cycle in my camper read between 12.7 and 12.8V when fully charged, quickly dropping to 12.4-6 once in use and peaking around 13.8-14V when charging. I have a double cig lighter cable for my GOTO. Sometime I'll pop in the voltmeter and see what it drops to when slewing on Rate 9 etc.

I've the Leica asph ww zoom on a 500p dob, brilliant eyepiece, especially if you can find one second hand. 17.6mm to 8.8mm zoom and the widest fov of any zoom I'm aware of - its main selling point besides the Leica optical quality. I've Ethos, Delite, TV plossl, Morpheus and Baader aspheric, and the Leica zoom gets the most use by far, distantly followed by the 21mm Ethos and 9mm Delite.

Got it! The easiest, most elegant and by far the best answer for the binofinder solution was right in front of me, literally. The Velbon tripod's ballhead screws right into the stud on the scope's rail clamp. I then rotated the OTA about 120deg. I could easily flip the focuser if I wanted, but this is just a mockup, the telrad is even temporarily taped on. I will test this idea on my 200P on the EQ5 which is a much larger tube obviously. I see no reason why it shouldn't work and also serves as a solid mount for using the binoculars on their own for really widefield views...

I use Met Office forecast, then FLO Clear Outside plus Ventusky cloud cover map. Weather prediction is based on Chaos Theory, someone like the Met Office will model the 50 most likely scenarios and average them out I believe. If the three forecasts above are in agreement, then it should be good!

Thanks! It certainly seems to be a love/hate thing. I just like taking something simple and making it more complicated than it needs to be I suppose. This is really intended for my larger dob, I've a few small bits to sort but the bino will look much more at home there than on the little 130pds (great scope btw).

Sure! Add a second mount on the rear, so basically a fixed rail atop the scope that the binos could slide on securely. You wouldn't have to use 12x70s, some smaller 6x or 8x binos would perhaps be better in some situations. Do realise this is a work in progress here! 😁 It would make a lot more sense on my 20" dob with the clamp on one of the trusses, this is just a mock-up on a 130pds, which is already practically widefield with a 21mm ep anyway. I'll post some of the big dob with the binos soon, then you'll really freak out, lol

Ah I'm just too lazy sometimes to change eyepieces. I was thinking if someone made a widefield zoom from say 18-36mm that would be interesting, but on the other hand would probably weight more than the scope and cost 5k. I'll have to try a Pentax if I ever get over to my astronomy soc meeting this year!

John, that has to be about the ultimate set of eyepieces! Very nice. If you ever come across the Leica asph ww zoom see what you reckon. I have a couple of Ethos (Ethoi?) but have been wanting to try the Pentax XW's. I was given two flight cases which I didn't use for years, but as soon as the astronomy bug bit me, they've seen frequent action.

Eureka, I've cracked it! This is just a mock up, but would work a treat with a second clamp towards the rear. The binos sit on a heavy duty ball-head tripod mount with ample adjustment. Step one, align telrad with scope. Step two, align binos with telrad/scope on something like Vega and tighten ball head. Binofinders!

Thanks George! I'll try this on my larger dob, I already have an idea how it would work on that, even better! Hi Stu! I'd pick up another findershoe from Astroboot etc and mount it towards the bottom of the tube. Agree, would be hard to see through as is, unless I had a neck like Nessie 😁 This idea is actually for my big truss dob, my Velbon Sherpa tripod has a removable clamp that would attach nicely to one of the trusses, and I could aim the binos with the heavy duty ball-head tripod mount. Hard to visualise, but next time I'll mount it and post some pics. The funny thing is the Telrad shows 4deg and the binos are 4.5deg. This might work!

(NB - see last set of photos below for the best/easiest solution) This is what happens when a.) my telrad arrived today, b.) it's rainy and I have some down time. My wife is used to this. Seriously, with a few slight mods to adjust where the binos point, this might work! Perhaps mount the finder bracket at the bottom of the tube. Agree it is perhaps 'slightly' over the top, but the Celestron binobracket slots right in the finder shoe... Never hurts to try, eh? 🤣

I like both! I can't surf sadly... kayak is more my speed these days...

Great photo! Isles of Scilly are the only part of England I'm aware of that have any Bortle 1 conditions on some of the smaller islands. I lived in Cornwall for a bit but never made it over.

Telrad at last! This will complement my S&T jumbo sky atlas nicely which is set up for the telrad 0.5,2 and 4 deg circles. The 9x50 optical is doing my head in. Can't wait to go star hopping soon as it clears...

Nice one! I love my binoculars but have yet to tackle any seriously challenging objects with them. I have some 25x100 and 12x70 Celestrons. The 12x70s are excellent at light gathering. I wish they would take filters unless I'm missing some trick. I've heard of people taping them on somehow but that doesn't appeal to me (yet).

Wheel bearing fixed. I'm already thinking about refining it and making a MkII version. It does load into the van nicely. Got it out for a few hours last night until the moon climbed a bit too high for good DSO viewing. Lots of little tuning bits still to do. Wish I had a home observatory! Someday...

Just noticed in my last photo the nylon inner wheel bearing has popped out. I'll put some red Loctite or similar on both wheels...

Hi all, been off the air for a while. I quickly whipped together a trolley for the SW 500p dob base and mirror yesterday and finished this morning. VERY agricultural, but robust and the base sits in there nicely. I've loaded it into my van with my ramps and it works a treat, just make sure tyres are lined up properly and get a little momentum onto the bottom of the ramps, then the rest is smooth sailing. This trolley is effectively a working prototype lacking any semblance of aesthetics, but then again, it's not actually lacking much on the practical side, just need to refine wheel mounting system a bit (note heavy fence wire used for quick release wheels instead of clevis pins) for those longer trips on foot to that perfect spot. Might also lop off a few mm of extra thread from the bolts to tidy it up a bit and put on rubber caps on the bolt ends. The base of the dob and GOTO sits cleanly with good weight distribution on the soft pine without any stress points. All made with scrap materials from the skip next door, wheels and tyres are off a neighbours old kayak trolley I believe, minus two heavy duty 16mm pillow block bearings for the axle which is an 800mm piece of 16mm mild steel rod, plus about ten M8 x 100 carriage bolts with penny washers and wingnuts. Total cost around £30, over half of which were the pillow block bearings (£20), but they are perfect for this. When I've reached my viewing spot, I'll remove wheels and slide out the frame, or simply put wooden blocks under the three swivel feet and level from there without trolley removal. Now I won't have to split the heavy mirror from the equally heavy base (probably 70-80kg for both and very bulky) and rethread the fiddly GOTO drive cable, plus I'll save my back and won't have to risk carrying the mirror around and stumbling on something - my absolute worst fear! This will also let me load/set up quickly and have more time on the big dob...

Mind-boggling! So many stars that aren't on most charts - down to mag 13 or 14 I'd guess under excellent conditions. When you star hop, you see a bright star and think it's one of your targets, until you realise it's actually something quite faint and then a bright one like Vega comes into view, bang! Need sunglasses. I haven't been out much lately, but hoping to get it back out soon once the midgies are frozen!

Do you have midges in Finland? I've been up past Kiruna in winter, -35C, no midges in sight Thank the Gods!

Sorry folks, missed your comments! Just got back from the Cairngorms with the 20" dob. Great trip, incredible amount of light gathering from the dob, just so many stars that aren't on a normal sky atlas, I got lost a hundred times scanning the skies but loved it, doubles, stuff not on the atlas, etc. Andromeda was right there, filled a 21mm ethos from side to side and I'[m certain the Ring Nebula had a blue cast to it when I slewed over..... but judas priest on a pony, the midgies absolutely ate me alive. Ears, mouth, nose... thousands. I drove an hour and a half to home with the windows down and when I opened the back of the van, hundreds flew out. I was wearing smidge, covered from head to toe, hood up...but they were bleedin awful. Need a flamethrower next time...

I suppose the overhead to run a campground in winter makes it unprofitable, but winter in Scotland draws a lot of people actually. Not as many as summer of course, but if you are reasonably well dressed/prepared it's amazing when a good snowstorm hits. I like my tropical beaches, but watching a decent blizzard roll through is a worthy pastime in my book! Most folks willing to camp in winter here are probably just going to wild camp anyway, without facilities, but if they were available when everyone else was closed, then I reckon I'd have a bit of business. Temps here are not cold by continental standards in the northern hemisphere, but I did have -16C in February near Braemar this past February. The highest peaks here are between 1200-1400m, but due to latitude, the temps drop quickly when you gain a little altitude, so -20C or more on the tops is possible, plus windchill. Most of the time, anywhere you can drive to in the Highlands is not going to be below freezing by more than a few degrees unless you catch a good cold snap. Here in winter the atmosphere and I am guessing transparency is brilliant, but it doesn't happen weekly!

Sounds wonderful, I wish I lived in a dark sky area in the countryside (or wilderness for that matter). It's nice having a shop around the corner, but I would certainly survive if it was 20 miles away. My current 'dream' (they change frequently) is to open a dark sky campground in the Highlands in a remote area near a loch or seaside, so I could combine kayak/paddleboard hire with well-spaced apart camping areas and little to no light pollution... It would stay open year-round as well. Nearly every campground here shuts down after Sep/Oct at the latest, barring a very small number of exceptions. Nice to dream, that's how I managed to do lots of different things in life so far! Local weather forecast is looking up as well for next week. Fingers crossed as always. Clear skies!