Dan_wirral

Hi, I too was wondering what was accesable with my 10x50's I ended up looking around online and bought a couple of books. One being discover the night sky through binoculars and handbook of binocular astronomy. The latter has a huge list of targets, from groups of stars to doubles to star clusters. It goes through each of the constellations in both hemispheres.

I live in quite a heavily light polluted area and I have seen a whole host of things including, the Andromada Galaxy, M34 (a open star cluster) and the double star cluster in perseus. 

I now spend one night looking for things with my binoculars and then the next finding the same things with my telescope.

6 hours ago, Rob Sellent said:

@joe aguiar, although they both go by Evostar, the OP might be referring to the achromatic rather than the ED

Yes its the achromatic 102mm

I must say I was very impressed with it. 

Seemed like a huge step up from my little 3 inch reflector. Quality of the tube and mount was impressive in comparison. I do own a skywatcher 200p but its hibinating for the winter now and bought the 102 to be my new "quick the clouds have gone" telescope 

Great! To be honest my girlfriend wears contacts and watching her put them in and taken them out turns my stomach!

Last wednesday was the first time it has been properly clear in a couple of weeks, which has been very frustrating as I bought a new telescope (skywatcher evostar 102mm) to replace my 3 inch reflector. 

Had a great night, nothing very bright out but did spend some time looking at a few star clusters in the eastern sky. 2 of which were M34 and the perseus double cluster. I had previously observed both with my binoculars on my last night out.

What a sight these two were. Very impressed with my new telescope.

Anyway. I'm long sighted. I do wear glasses, ( + 1.5 in the left and + 2.5 in the right) but I tend to take them off for astronomy, it takes a little while but my eyes get used to not having them on.

I can see clearly what ever I'm looking at but I'm wondering if I should maybe get contacts for observing? I find wearing my glasses uncomfortable at the eyepiece and I'm wondering if I'm missing out on details without them on

Now I'm torn Haha.

So my winter plan. I bought a great book called handbook for binocular astronomy. Goes through each constellation with points of interest. I want to use my telescope to look at the deep sky objects I first see with my binoculars. So far I have Andromada, m34 and the double in perseus.

I'll use my 32mm to find them and hopefully the 18mm to magnify 

Which do you think would be the better 18mm to help me in this endeavour?

1 minute ago, Raph-in-the-sky said:

Isn't 18mm close enough? 18mm should give you x55 while 20mm will give x50. I don't think the difference is significant.

Fair enough, I guess I'm a couple of mm either way with my other 2. Thanks for the advice 

27 minutes ago, Raph-in-the-sky said:

BST starguider!

Had a look and can only see 18mm and 25mm, any other brands?

Spent the morning having a look through the forums and came across the sticky eyepieces - the very least you need.

As my 8" F5 is going away for this winter I will mainly be using my 15x70 binoculars and my evostar 102mm

From what I read my refractor is F9.8 (let's call it F10)

I need 7.5mm 12.5mm 20mm and a 30mm

So with the Eps I have I pretty much have 3 out of 4 covered ish. 15mm for the 12.5mm,whack my Barlow in and that's 7.5mm and my 32mm for the 30mm. Which leaves 20mm 

Can anyone recommend a 20mm for around £50 and under. Which will at least have it on par with my omni EPs?

I will eventually start using my reflector again and was wondering if someone could explain why the hyperion was not the best choice? 

Thank you all for your advice. After reading it all I think I will give myself 12 months with the EPs I have.

I do have a new telescope to play with. I'll come back with some observations with my equipment when the skys finally clear. While doing all this I can start saving.

54 minutes ago, Rob Sellent said:

Dan, just a quicky, what is it that you want to upgrade on? Field of view, eye-relief, field stop, possible sharpness and contrast across the field, dodgy aberrations that you've noted in your aforementioned eyepieces, brand name? What do you think you are missing that is essential to your astro-sessions?

I don't feel anything is missing exactly,

The 32mm celestron was a huge improvement on the stock 25mm I had 

As I said I dont seem to use the 15mm

Any tips on what sort of objects work well with this sort of magnification?

I guess I was just asking to see if I should replace the cheaper 2 for something that is higher quality.

I'm very much a beginner and have only really started looking at the easier/brighter deep sky objects

So far I am pretty happy with the EPs I have. I dont tend to use the 15mm much and the Barlow even less. Despite increasing the size of the planets the sharpness is usually lost when combining the barlow with my 10mm.

The evostar 102mm was bought to replace my pick up and go 76mm reflector as this is what I mainly use

I find the 200p takes a lot longer to set up and I shy away from it especially during the colder months as it's dark before I get home. (I'm a lazy astronomer) 

14 minutes ago, rwilkey said:

Hi Dan, the Celestron Omnis are OK but the Baader Hyperion does not perform well at f/5 (outer edges soft etc), I would suggest replacing this one.  I would recommend an Explore Scientific 62° Series 9mm, or the 82° Series 11mm if you can stretch to that price.  From expereience the 82° Series gives stunning performance and the 11mm is no exception.  Links here:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-62-series-ler-eyepieces.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-82-degree-series-eyepieces.html

I'm happy to replace the 10mm for when I'm using my larger telescope, but sadly can not replace entirely. It was a gift from my girlfriend.

Do you think it would work better with smaller refractor?

I have upgraded my stock eps but I am wondering if I can/should improve on them further

Firstly the telescopes I use

Skywatcher 200p

Skywatcher evo star 102mm (I've not actually used this yet as it arrived a few days ago and the weather looks cloudy for the foreseeable future)

My current EPs

Celestron omni 32mm

Celestron omni 15mm

Baader hyperion 10mm

Celestron x-cel lx 2x barlow

As far as price goes, I wouldn't really want to pay anything more than I did for the 10mm unless it sas for something special and I would save up.

Any advice is always welcome 

11 hours ago, banjaxed said:

 

Thanks for the warm welcome. Looking forward to reading about all your adventures and share some of mine too

Hi, my name is Dan, I'm 34 and live on the wirral. I've been into astronomy now for about 5 years. I own a skywatcher 200p a little 76mm Meade reflector. I have recently discovered a love for binocular astronomy (I know most people start with them) I had clear skys on Friday night and went out using my 15×70s and probably had the busiest night I've ever had. Looking at doubles, groups and dso in 3 constellations (Andromada, perseus and pisces)

I keep a observation log book. Mostly in diary form but i make sketches when i can. I recently bought a cheap dictaphone as i usually do my write up the next day and it's probably one of my best purchases for the hobby, although did get a few chuckles from my girlfriend when I sat there listening to myself and taking notes.

I've been wanting to replace/upgrade my smaller telescope for some time as it's what I tend to use if I want a quick set up, I find the 200p quite cumbersome and can be off putting especially in the winter when it's cold and dark by the time I get home from work. I have bought myself a skywatcher evostar 102mm refractor, after a lot of reading online I felt this was probably a good choice for me, considering my budget and why I wanted a new "smaller scope" hopefully it should be here some time this week and then all I have to do is wait for the clouds to clear