Rob Sellent

I think on the wider international market there's a sorry substitute for a Jaffa called Pim's . Anyway, here's a little class on how to achieve a Jaffa Total Eclipse

Can't beat @Ruudexcellent suggestion. The Dob will offer you 8" of aperture and so in terms of resolution will resolve detail more than any other scope within this price range. It will give you low-power rich field viewing and with reasonable dark skies you'll be able to view galaxies, nebulae, globulars, and so on. It will also train you in the relatively simple art of collimation which will stand you in good stead as a general astronomer or if you ever fancied a Mak or SCT in the future. You will get more than sufficient magnification on objects (limited like all the other scopes on atmospheric conditions and aperture), it comes with a good solid mount so you don't need to buy one. Like a refractor it isn't susceptible to dew formation, so techniques such as dew shields and heater strips become unnecessary as they would necessaily be for Maks and SCTS, but unlike an achromatic refractor, you won't get chromatic aberation. Furthemore, it won't take as long to cooldown as a Mak or SCT and on good seeing nights should give really nice contrasty views on planets. If this weren't enough inch for inch, it's also the cheapest option and fits right into your budget 😀. There are a couple of downsides to the Dob. Some folk find collimation annoying but to be honest, it's really no more than a little tweak of the mirror every session. Some folk don't like diffraction spikes when viewing bright objects and with a focal ratio of f5 these scopes are more demanding on eyepieces, so you will probably have to spend a little bit more on quality eyepieces than you would if you had a longer +f10 scope. Inch for inch, then, Dobs are a lot cheaper than Refractors, Maks or SCTS and because you can afford more aperture for less, you're getting more resolution, brighter images, and the possibility of going deeper and seeing more. For a first time, all round, general purpose scope to help you enjoy the wonders of the night sky, I really don't think you can go wrong with an 8" or if expenses allow, a 10" Dob. Hope that helps a little

You'll probably need an imager to go into the camera side of things, but as a visual observer - for right or for wrong - I understand 'back focus' as 'inward focus' . If I focus on a star, 'back focus' is about how much more 'inward focus' do I have before nothing is left. In this case, almost 3" or 7.5cm. Confused P.S: Congratulations on the cracking scope and welcome to SGL

This is difficult to answer and so I'm going to just throw out some ideas, many of which will contradict each other.... Personally, I don't enjoy the east and south beach-coast in July or August. Why? Generally speaking, they're packed with 'giris' or 'canis' of all ages, overpriced, tacky, worsening quality of food and service simply due to exaggerated demand, not the prettiest or most cultural parts of Spain, killer light pollution and at a lower altitude, so in effect you're pushing through more atmosphere. Nevertheless....you mention planetary observation and none of what I mention (except overly enthususatic giris and canis) will overtly affect your viewing of Jupiter. Indeed, some of the best planetary conditions occur on those still and muggy Spanish summer evenings when the air is heavy with humidity and the sky looks like a milky haze. Perfect, then? Sipping on your G&T or mojito, just after sunset on the Med, some cool mellow vibes oozing from a soundsystem, waiting for a gorgeous Jupiter and Saturn to appear in the eyepiece. The other extremely important point to recall is that Spain in July is hot, very hot. This summer we were easily reaching temperatures of over 45ºc on many, many, many days and this is not the temperature that your body feels or that which seeps from the asphalt and pavements. If you're down at street level, you can add an extra 10ºc or so to the 45ºc just for fun. Nights are equally as difficult, humidity shoots to over 85% and temperatures rarely drop below 28ºc or so, making sleeping especially difficult. The degree or two cooler at the beach might be a favour. However, my inner-voice kicks in again and asks, if you've travelled all the way to Spain, why on earth would you want to sit on sand for a week or two and eat dodgy fried food and sip on over priced drinks? Especially if you've come to Spain to do a bit of astronomy. Moving inland away from the coasts and you start entering a more 'authentic' Spain with significantly better skies. There are so many places to go and a simple glance at a light pollution map will give indication of where to go for decent dark skies: Some of the best areas I've visited in terms of astronomy are around the Teruel area, south of Albacete, south of Toledo and north east of Zaragoza. Other areas in no particular order have included: Monfrague National Park - set up in one of the car parks for exceptional nights skies. Soria - pretty much anywhere around the area, you'll find a nice site to observe. Sierra de Gredos Area of Alta Tajo, Orea (Guadalajara) South of Ciudad Real (moving towards Andalucia) El Piornal near Caceres The Aragon Pyrenees Cabañeros National Park Around Las Majadas near Cuenca (look for los callejones for easy parking) Around Nerpio Around Molina de Aragón (exceptionally cool in the summer) Vinuesa (nice camping areas and great skies) North of Palencia (Villanueva etc) Area around the Lago de Sanabria Area around La Sierra Morena Area around Tamajón Area around Valverde de los Arroyos North/South of Áger (a fan of the place) Word of warning: Before planning a serious trip to some dark site, I like to think of Spain as the second most moutainous area in Europe. I've found that in the mountain villages, although the altitude removes the atmosphere air over you, there is the problem of air currents speeding through the narrow and steep valleys. Mountain ridges also generate turbulence. When having a good night of observation, I prefer the Spanish flatlands, the steppes since they have an average of between 600 and 1,000 metres above sea level together with a dry continental environment. Hope this post helps a little and let me know if you need any help or further information

Excellent posts I think one of the issues is that as a hobby visual astronomy is unforgiving. It starts to collapse not due to the faults of the individual but simply to factors completely outside their control. Frustration would be a normal response to this kind of opposition, but drag it out for a good number of years and the visual observer might start to feel disappointment, and sentiments of being let down...again. Under such conditions, I can imagine countless visual observers start out with great enthusiasm but a decade or so down the line, their spirits have dampened, they have dwindled in their number or drifted into imaging. I also think that like Dickens, we are in the best of times but also in the worst of times. There's more kit on sale today and at acceptable prices than ever before but light pollution continues its arrogant stride across the 'developed' and 'developing' world. Perhaps, then, the wane in visual observing is also due to the dying night sky. Our way of life will more than likely be condemned by future generations and perhaps, therein, lies hope for the visual astronomer of tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your evening, Matt. It's a right pain to head out, set up and then be disturbed and find yourself on edge. I find that once my nerves have gone, that's it for the evening. Although it is diificult to guarantee a 100% disturbance free session at a darker site, I generally make it a habit to check out the area I want to observe before doing a session. I'll do this a couple of times in daylight and at night, a general surveillance so to say before planning an evening out. If there's a whiff of human activity, I check that site off my list. I don't really have any stories. I've been startled by flocks of birds suddenly flying across the field of view, bitten by multiple spiders, mosquitoes, and ants, heard petrifying rustles in the hedgerows but what really scars me are the wild dogs here in east Spain. Some of the locals use dogs for hunting boar or hogs and for a tiny number of these locals - for one horrific reason or another - at the end of the season if they don't shot them, they just let them go. It's their howl which is the scariest thing at night. Sometimes it sounds like someone is being brutally murdered, other times it sounds like they're extremely close and itching for a fight. In such a situation there is nothing I can do. I just suck it in, wait it out, pack up and head home.

What a session! You packed in some gorgeous wonders. If you've got the juices flowing, I think some nights it's great to do as you have done and do a bit of a marathon and then other nights to slow down and sketch an object or two. It's been raining and cloudy here (Spain) almost nonstop for a month, so reading through your observations is making me itch to go

I belong to a cracking astro-society. It's made up of friendly, extremely informative and kindly folk from all over the world and its free Here's a link for those interested: Stargazers Lounge

I think there are a couple of places in the skies where it's difficult for telescopes to navigate. Scopes on EQ mounts maneuvering around the Celestial Poles and AZ mounts negotiating the Zenith are often recipes for frustration. In this particular case, when you are near the zenith the manual observer doesn't have much authority in AZ and needs to move a lot on ground in order to move a little in the sky. Indeed, so vexing is the situation, grappling with the scope to observe the Zenith, that it has actually created its very own dance movement called the Azimuth Dance Movement - ADM. In the image below, we can see an ADM performer offering a particularly graceful Azimuth movement with an AZ mounted frac: Not to be out down, the Dob mob have not only created their very own progressive version of the Azimuth Dance - commentators often point out the similarity between grappling and twirling grizzly bears and the Dobber's ADM - but have gone a stage further and have actually coined their own terminology to desribe the place where very few Dobsonians will ever care to venture. Dobo-foraminis in Latin, commonly referred to as the Dobsonian Hole or Dobson's Hole, casually abbreviated to the Dob Hole. 😄

East Coast Spain: Two weeks on the trot and counting. Clouds usher in, night after night, day after day. We're all a little wary of them now. Thankfully the rain has stopped for a while. It blew away the sun, the skies and all the stars. Killed people and countless animals, devastated homes, a lifetime destroyed in the time it takes to read this sentence. By sheer good fortune, our village lies above the local river. More rain is forcasted for Friday and Saturday and then hopefully we'll be done. Here are some pics :

I enjoy using the AZ4 with the small 76 but get a little nervous when mounting the 4". A few years back I bought this Skywatcher(?) mount (see below) from a fellow astronomer in Alicante. It's excellent for mounting the 76 and 60 Lunt for dual solar viewing and I've also been using it with the Vixen. So far so good, and a lot more sturdier than the AZ4. Nevertheless, I'm also very intrigued by what FLO has in store. Playing around with the two AZ mounts, I also think much stability comes from the tripod as well. For high power viewing for anything over f7, perhaps a decent 2" tripod is also necessary? @jock1958Don't quote me on this but I don't think Skywatcher make the Skytee 2. As such, the TS mount and the Skytee 2 are probably from the same manufacturers with pretty much identical specs.

Sorry, Sven. My mistake Hopefully one of the imagers will be along, but if not, maybe it'll be an idea to set up a thread in the imagers' section

If you're referring to your screw on end of eyepiece type of filter, I remove them from their box and screw them on holding their plastic edge. Of course, accidents happen. I accidently drop one in the dark, or smudge one with my sausage fingers in the cold. In that case. there's nothing better than a little bit of Baader Optical Wonder Fluid and their tip-top cloth. I've used the same filters for years and so long as you treat them with respect, I find them quite robust little things

@Johnthank you for going over that with me, John It's not often one sees the 2-4 zoom up for sale, so it's good to know the 3-6 is of similar quality. Your f9, the keeper of all keepers @Timebanditthank you for your reply and you have nailed the proverbial nail. That is exactly where I'm sitting this cloudy evening. Why the zoom when you already have orthos and if you want to be fussy about eye-relief and fov, well, you know the score, Delos, Delites or XWs. Hopefully the floods, rain and clouds will clear up in the next week or so giving me time to mull this over.

Great idea Hope you don't find it tacky but I'm going to copy you 😋. I feel it's an outstanding motto for visual astronomy and, as we know, loaded with wisdom and years of experience (not to say good looks to boot) 😀

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful, kind and supportive comments. Thank you @Alan Whitefor too many months I was torn between the Vixen 103s and a Tak f7.4. Sure, they're different instruments but they both had their pros and cons. Then around summer I saw the Vixen f8.8 up for sale and I figured that was the middle-way to go. One foot in the Vixen camp another in the fluorite 😋 I guess at this level there's very little given away by any of these superb 4"s although I do wonder what @Johnf9 is like. Again, thank you Alan for a lovely post and yes you're right on both accounts fracs are like cats (both little darlings) and the ideal motto to live by: make it simple, make it fun

@Johnthat's now +3 for the zoom and also very interesting because we have similar specifications. The Tak f9 must be a gorgeous scope to own - and I imagine as rare as hen's teeth. Do you know whether they're still manufacturing them? Moreover, I think the value of the f9 will never drop. Ever. None of that minus-one-third on resale It's the perfect mix of portability, aperture, focal ratio, weight and views in the superlative. You mention the TV 2-4 zoom. Again, I imagine these are rare to find but performance wise do you think the 3-6 zoom is of similar quality? The XW's fame is legendary. When purchasing the wider-fields, I was torn between the XW's or Delos. Both have outstanding reviews but in the end, I just felt TV have never let me down, so plumped for them. @Alan White that's now +4 for the zoom. Not a single negative report and always mention of great performance and ergonomics. I appreciate your insight into the orthos' eye relief. I can view with them for a while without a problem, but find they do give me a 'head-eye-ache' after too much use and they're not the easiest little buddies to use when wanting to sketch at high magnifications. Maybe I'm a fool for keeping hold of them for so long, they used to get so much use but these days not so much However, we've been together for so many years and in a peculiar manner of speaking, I still consider them optically the benchmark where all other eyepieces must perform if they are to remain in the case .

Thank you @jetstream the scope is an old Vixen Fluorite 102 f8.8. It's a cracking scope, gives gorgeous contrast, sharpness, and is a real delight to use. I made a small report here some weeks back. You're right about the Delos being so much easier on the eye compared to Orthos. 6mm Delos might be the way to go but then that "indispensable tool " of the TV zoom you mentioned does raise its saucy face...and no, I cannot buy both 😋 @Philip R that's +2 for the zoom but as you so rightly say, does it make sense when already equipped with orthos? On a side note, I think the limiting factor of the scope will not be its optics but my aging eyes and atmospheric turbulence.

Thanks for the reply. I don't get the math . The fl 4" does fine at +50x .

I wonder if anyone has any insight on what to do? I've been thinking whether it is worth purchasing an eyepiece around 0.7 exit pupil, 6mm, 150x for a 4" f8.8 (902 focal length) apo? My eyepiece collection consists of a Baader Mark IV Zoom, a complete set of Baader Genuine Orthos (5, 6, 7, 9, 12.5 & 18mm), TeleVue x2 Barlow, Delos 10mm & 14mm, Panoptics 19mm & 24mm. This set up is fine for my f5 Dob and f6.3 apo and I feel a 6mm in either scope would be redundant but not in the f8.8. Do you think it's worth spending quite a bit of money going for a 6mm dedicated eyepiece in the f8.8, or just stop fussing and and get on with the Orthos and Barlowed Delos ? Again, finally, there's also the option of a Nagler 3-6mm Zoom but again, is that worth it when I already have some cracking, tip-top Orthos? Any ideas/insights would be greatly received

😁 but what joy to be a beginner all over again, to start the great adventure anew, returning to the stars from whence we all belong 😀

I studied the BA Hons in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the Open University (OU) more than a decade ago. A degree is made up of 360 points. The first 240 points was relatively easy going but I found the last 120 a bit of a slog. In my case, each 60 points contained 6 units. You swot up, write an essay from a set question and repeat this for each unit during the year until around May when you have to supply a final essay which carries more weight and is marked accordingly and in June you sit a final exam. Part-time is 60 points a year, so if you kept at it, you'd get a degree in 6 years. Because I don't live in the UK, I had to pay about £1,000 per 60 points. Thankfully, I studied this stuff purely for pleasure, there was no necessity for qualifications, employment or what have you. And therein lies a problem. Comparing my experience at OU to a more traditional 'brick and mortar' university the OU's grading system is ruthless. The OU is a bit like the special forces, you're only as strong as your weakest link and as such, it is your worst score which determines your overall course grade. It is extremely difficult, then, to achieve more than an acceptable pass. To sum, if you're looking for a bit of 'fun', something new to learn and direction in which to pursue that learning at a distance, then OU is good. If you're looking for a degree or qualifications per se, there are probably easier options.

Good idea about the holiday in Hungary. It's a lovely country and I have nothing but fond memories. The best Goulash ever!!! My wife needs to travel to Bratislava a few times a year (catches a taxi from Vienna) and she too has mentioned the quality of skies around that area. Might be worth a visit to the local flea market to see if you can pick up an old, cheap pair of Soviet Binos to use while away? When I was last in Hungary I made sure to pick up a couple of small memorabilia (coin, stamps, 'medals') about the old Soviet Soyuz missions 😀

@LILYDENISEa few more pointers: If you haven't done so already, I'd also enquire at Cloudy Nights. They're like the US version of this site, SGL. For star hopping and finding objects, this is an excellent write up: Locating Objects in the Night Sky To get a general idea of what you'll see in a 4" scope, this is an excellent write up: What Can I Expect... For star hopping and locating objects a map is essential. The Pocket Sky Atlas is excellent. You can also use apps but I have no idea how that works. So as you don't ruin your night vision, if you want to read, see your way around, you must use a green or red light. A cheap torch and a good layer or two of thick red nail varnish is a nice DIY tip. Also, do not underestimate the evening/night chill in autumn/winter. Thermal Underwear/Down Jacket/Hat/Glooves/Neck Scarf thing/Thick Soled Boots are all handy.