ScouseSpaceCadet

Out at 4am with one target in mind, this season's first observations of Mars. Opting for simplicity (and stealth...), I chose the Altair f7 102 refractor & the AZ5 plonked straight out onto the patio and a comfy rattan chair. With excellent seeing I managed up to 178x with a Vixen SLV 4mm. The planet displayed a shadow phase in the western limb and hints of Mare Acidalium(?). I wasn't expecting much but nonetheless, considering the current size of Mars in the sky and using a 4" telescope I was happy with those observations for starters. I had a few breaks, sitting back and despite the bright sky enjoyed the naked eye view of Pleiades, Hyades and Orion. Sirius popping out from behind the neighbouring houses topped off the autumnal atmosphere. At 5.30am the kit was packed up as Mars drifted into a dispersing aircraft contrail... A nice peaceful ninety minutes.

Then you will likely enjoy a 102mm f7 ED/Apo refractor, bearing in mind you will require a solid mount, so your budget has just gone up.. 😯 I do not have an apo, the cheaper ED version with less expensive glass cost me £495 new (they're now £595 ☹️) and my Celestron AVX goto equatorial mount was £600 used. However as the price of the ED has jumped significantly, it probably would make more sense to save the extra for the apochromatic refractor (Starfield 102 or similar). Mounts come up used regularly, so something like a used Skywatcher EQ5 or AZ4 would not rip your budget up too much. I do understand you have a difficult choice to make. Many (most?) of the posters here have gone through scopes. I've owned in order; 130mm, 200mm and 150mm reflectors, a 120mm f5 refractor, 102mm & 127mm Maksutovs and settled on a 102mm f7 ed refractor. Although I'd probably like to try a 125mm apo in the future! Bang per buck, the 8" dob followed by the 8" goto mounted SCT are the obvious choices but personal preference can overide the obvious logical choice! As previous stated, there really is no substitute to dark skies. I had a cracking time in Brecon with my refractor a couple of weeks ago. There's no rush. Take your time and build up the cash before deciding. The universe isn't going anywhere soon...

Witchcraft! 😆

The refractor will provide a crisper, cleaner view with much better contrast. With those qualities, some finer planetary details are easier to discern and splitting double stars for instance is improved, however it will not actually resolve any more than the 150p. I've owned a 150mm reflector and own a much more expensive 102mm refractor. Much more of a choice than a necessity. I prefer the refractor view but was aware when I bought it that I was basically getting a nicer view and preferable observing position, rather than accessing dimmer objects. If you really want to "see more stuff", then you need to up the aperture significantly and most importantly have access to dark skies.

👍

That image brings to life the usual binocular smudge... very nice!

I bought the below last week for powering a Celestron AVX. Used for four hours and didn't drop a power bar. Airline friendly @155wh and small enough to fit into hand lugagge. Comes with a cigar socket adapter. The Talentcell batteries are great. I've owned one for two years powering an AZGTi and general power bank duties, but if you're powering several devices the Orion would be better. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/orion-dynamo-pro-155wh-acdcusb-lithium-power-supply.html

Sorry Mistuk I totally forgot pitch 10. Also the Tomato brothers on Sunday afternoon walked right past my tent while three of us were talking. Live_Steam_Mad and I looked at each other and remarked on your simularity and as you got further away we noticed the 70s fold up chairs! I shouted 'Tomatos' (lol) but you didn't hear. After our convo I took a walk around to the bottom field but by then the rain had started and everyone had retreated to their tents, so I didn't fancy walking around shouting 'tomatos!'. 😆 Gfamily sorry I missed you too. Hopefully next time. Although I think I'll maintain Autumn astrocamp as a once yearly affair. April is far too cold. 🥶

I was considering a bowler hat, lapel red carnations and a newspaper under one's left arm... 🧐 Anyway, a good camp. Two or three nights like Saturday would've made the event spectacular but I managed some memorable observations during the clear skies we had and overall everyone there seemed to have a good time.

Last night was great from 11pm until 5am, Although I gave in at 3am. I tried out a plethora of expensive eyepieces, and different telescopes including Live_Steam_Mad's 12" SCT & Canon IS binoculars and Pixies very nice Vixen 105mm achro and Bresser 8" dob. Cajen2 and I missed each other. He was rising as I was going to bed but we managed a chat this afternoon. Hopefully over the weekend I'll catch the rest of you. 🤞 We were treated to regular meteors keeping us entertained. The most memorable sight for me was a stunning view of M110, M32 and M31 in my 24mm 65° Altair UFF and Altair 4" refractor. 👍 The forecast is a bit dodgy from now but those few hours last night were fantastic.

I did a double take when I read Garstang was half way for you. Driving to Sainsburys last minute at 2130 for petrol and goodies was stressful enough, never mind 350 miles! And I forgot the 4 pack of baps...🙄 Safe journey tomorrow (and everyone else).

Have a look at the Naturehike Cloud Peak 2. There's a few wild campers on YT into those. Apparently a great lightweight tent. Loads of room for one, decent head height sitting and despite looking like an MSR, they're only £200. The OEX Coyote III is a fantastic tent, but a one trick pony if solo... Great for one or two nights on a quiet campsite but too heavy to carry if wild camping. Hopefully the 180cm tall inner Carron 400 holds up in wind. I'm not a great fan of dome tents but discounted at £150 I couldn't resist...

Nice. 👍 I'm taking comparable tiddlers... An Altair Ascent 102ED refractor, a Celestron AVX (and a backup Skywatcher AZ5), 10x50 and 15x70 Opticrons with a monopod. I hate last minute rushing, so annual leave today for food and beer shopping plus relaxed kit gathering. The house will resemble a camping warehouse by this evening. 😀

Donations are welcome.

Haha... I can almost totally cover the front with my manly man hand... 😉 and it weighs about 3lb.

An Orion Dynamo Pro 155wh lithium power supply despatched promptly and arrived well packed. A special thank you to Alex @ FLO for answering an email question promptly after closing hours.

I wasn't expecting this to be quite so dinky... Thank you FLO.

Wrap the tube in a couple of towels, place across the car back seats and use the seat belts. 👍

Reading your 'reasons why', the glaring problem is using the binoviewers. I can see how using those and having the mount a bit low too would cause quite a bit of discomfort!

The op and thread just highlights our different observing styles and there is no right way to do things. 😉 I really enjoy using my AVX eq goto mount and changing the orientation of the refractor's diagonal is not an inconvenience. The whole set up is very comfortable for longer sessions. Polar and star alignment is a bind but for planned sessions lasting two hours or more, spending twenty minutes setting up and getting this right pays off. When star hopping along with a RACI finder, alt az does feel the most intuitive, but using slomos or the drift method when planetary observing for longer periods at higher powers does become a chore. To be honest though, after using the AZGTI with smaller scopes, ideally the one size fits all would be a high weight capacity alt az goto and tracking mount... One day...

Thanks Mr. Tomato. Alex at FLO sent me a speedy out of hours reply to a question so I pulled the trigger. 😀

I'm considering buying one of these. I know the potential drawbacks compared to a very much more expensive LifePO4 battery. Has anyone experience using this particular lithium power supply?

The 16mm Nirvana is one of my favourite eyepieces. I see absolutely no need to change it. A solid performer in all the telescope variants I've had. Likewise the 7mm. In the 4" refractor the 7mm is my goto lunar eyepiece. The 4mm was as previously described, great on occasion but other times just 'meh'. It was replaced by a 4mm SLV. What I lost in fov I gain in overall clarity, contrast, better edge correction, a more comfortable eye position, strangely less floaters, less light scatter, no vignetting and less dewing. Strangely again, none of those drawbacks seem to apply to the 7 and 16mm... 🙄 The 10mm Nirvana is definitely tempting. I'll hang on for a review or two.

I totally agree. However, these days in the UK even very poor working class kids own or have access to a smart phone good enough to set a three second exposure and take a picture of the night sky. Astronomy should be accessible to everyone, whatever their means and the segment discussed showed how easy it is to get started with an item of technology one does not need to buy for just one purpose.

Dave, "a fortune" is very subjective though really? A decent Star Tracker, tripod, camera, dew prevention and laptop to process images is how much? The next step up, for instance a 130PDS, camera, filters, mount, power supply etc is how much? Bringing on someone on with a smart phone who's produced images of night scapes and the Orion nebula is surely the first step onto the ladder? I would think showing climbing that ladder to more sophisticated kit would take more time (and likely money) per episode than the team have at their disposal?