joe aguiar

Your view doesnt look that bad. Cant u obseve from otherside of garage.

Also garage is not that tall either 

raise tripod upwards?

and use a telrad rigel if u don't have one

joejaguar

get a good book map and a plainphere and u should be planning what to view couple hrs before it get dark. I norm try to see few to several item in the same constellation then try another one. and if its in the west part of the sky do that first since it will set first. cause once that's gone you will have to wait till next year. on a day to day time frame u have 2 min less each dat to look at that area until finally its gone for the year

joejaguar

I mean don't let that stop u worst thing u can do is give up. that will tear u up inside do what u like.

u can buy those deck blocks (u need 2 $8 each) this is the kind u build decks from. you can either put a 4x4 in middle and that goes upward or u can put a 2x6 or 2x8 whichever sideways.anyway I hope u know what I mean ill try to get a pic from internet.

then buy 2 fence poles 2" thick and 8 to 10ft tall

put the block 12 feet away from eact other with poles standing upwards, sorry before that buy a tarp bark blue ones and streach this between the poles and bingo u got a light shield.

if the street lights still make it through a tad paint or spray paint the tarp black.

after each time u take the poles down and roll it up and leave it against the fence till next time.

that should block out the lights.

joejaguar

ohh sorry as per your other question if your looking at planatery views don't get a f/5 or even a f/6 verion theres just too much colour.

get a f/8 which will be a lot better. sure the f6 will be abit better then the 5 but not by a lot. even at f8 a lot people still don't like the colour. if you don't want a planet scope and more of a wide field then either one will do f5 or f6

joejaguar

I think they are 2 different scopes.

just few years ago meade had the 120mm (4.7") on the lx70 mount. thats a manualy eq5 mount. I bought that package. I still have the mount but I sold off the ota since I wanted larger than a 4.7 refractor.

they now make a 125mm on the new lxd85 mount this is not the samere fractor as the 1st one I memtioned  was an f/8 this newer one is bigger 125mm now so 5" which is good cause they listed the older 4.7" as 5" acro refractor and I called them (meade) to tell them I think its abit misleading a 4.7" is not a 5". I understand you can round up but then it should be 4.8" still not a true 5" which is 125mm.

anyway this newer model yes is shorter like f/6 or something like that which I don't like as the colour correction will be pretty bad on bright stuff.

so I don't know if they are slowly getting rid the 120mm model and making the 125mm verions now.

glad u saw it im hoping you didn't by accident find the dimmer GC in herclus

reason I say this is m13 is pretty bright for a dso however I don't know what scope you are using in your LP.I know your LP must be the same as mine a heavy white zone yet I can see it easly. but norm I use 8" to 12" in the city to over come the citys LP.

so double check its was m13 ant not the other GC.

also if you don't have it already I was start this by saying get a rigel or a telrad finder. these project a bulls eyes and then its easy to put halfway between those stars and 98% the object is in the Ep fov. I almost never have to manally move to find in a low power ep. cept for the odd time where I just gradually just scan the sky as I aknow im just an inch or 2 away if its not in the ep. works everytime as long u can see the constellation with your eyes.

also make sure where ever your obsevering from there no street light house light porch lights this will make ahuge diference on what you see in dso.

joejaguar

I started with night watch book which has 20 pags of the best items once I did that I got the orion 600 objects. its laminated 1 large folding page about 20x30 inch long/wide. I found this perfect as 600 items is enough to last you many years, and since its laminated you don't have to worry about dew or getting wet. and it folds down to a single sheet of paper so theres no weight compared to my 3 volume set books.

joejaguar

orion is nice its probally the best nebula to look at northern to mid mortherns skies, where you can see detail and maybe some colour. Even in white zone city skys its still amazing.

joejaguar

the viel is not soo easy if your in LP skies, I say that since it desnt really show where she is and I don't want her tio try and not find it.also being she has a 2.8" refractor I think an O3 may be too dim for her maybe just a regular broadband filter for a scope that small.

joejaguar

For ex if u buy the same size reflectors lets say 5 inch the parabolic mirror costs 70 cdn more then the spherical mirror

6 hours ago, PhoTenix said:

My thinking was that I'll check what's on the FLO site, then have a look around secondhand for the same ones. 

I have found a few the same so far but am checking condition, use etc. 

With ebay I have a certain amount of guarantee against anything that's damaged or doesn't work. That's why I'll only buy secondhand from there. 

Does this sound like a sensible plan ? ☺️

Yes we understand about u getting some guaranteed it has missing parts or broken it's not about that.

There are some scopes there which are brand new in box that the quality and parts like mirror are really cheap that as soon u go above 100 x power it's never clear.

This has been talked about for years since we first saw these scope and talked about, since the early 2000's.

As an example some if the good quality brands selling a 4.5" reflector with eq for $169 usd

Then comes these new guys selling same size with their name brand logo for $49  for the whole package. He had thousands of buyers.

I guess new people just bought cause price.

Biggest thing I saw at that time was shipping from 1st guy was 49 and shipping from cheap guy was 89. So 2nd was doubling up on shipping to make up for low price.

2nd thing was 1st guys scopes was parabolic mirror which is lot better and more expensive to make. 2nd  guys mirror was spherical mirror which is cheaper and with Barlow in focuser.

1000s posts were made after telling people about buying these cheap scope and alot new people found out hard way u get what u pay for

So it's not about broken it about knowing what's good quality or bad quality.

i have seen this scope couple months ago im sure was on the takahasi website, it looks like a well corrected acromat which is fine i guess

joejaguar

glad to see u are writing it done this will help u alot later.

i also do that and iam at 5 books now i also put what eps i use if any filters what the temp weather time and date was and location.then i can always look back see what scope i used powers etc.

i assume the 70/900 is the scope u used if so you did good for a 70mm refractor, remember these are dso which is alot dimmer and harder to find and see. so just seeing it decent is good. now if you at a dark skies you will see alot from a 70mm from a white zone city light u might be hindered to only mostly the panets with only a few dso

so congrats

joejaguar

56 minutes ago, MysticReverie said:

Thanks for the info

I don't mind moving the scope too much. I have the viewfinder dialed in so its not to hard locating things again if they go out of view.
I'm pretty confident the scope I have is capable of much clearer planetary views than I've had so far. I've seen many youtube videos of Jupiter etc. The details were pretty good. I'm just unsure which factor is stopping me from getting similar results, but as I say, maybe the sky just needs to be clearer is all.

its not about the object moving in the finderscope but the higher power you look at something like a planet the faster it will drift of the ep view, once it does that you will need to take out the high power ep put low power center it then go to a medium power ep do that all over again untill your back to the high power you were at. so you dont want the objuect to go away you manually re center it. for high power this can be every 20 seconds or so and if u r showing a few people like friends or family then by the time u get to 2nd person it already gone. Not in the ep and you have to restart all over again. so having tracking really helps.

even if you have a high power view using the finderscope doesnt always mean the item is in the ep norm in a low power ep yes it should be there if its aligned.

There r many scopes that can give u good planetary views. However if u want the best then it's an apo. But these can be expensive. 

An acro like 4"f10 is decent will give good views or 5inch f/8 or 9. Remember size is also important. Larger than a 5" they become heavy and large. Altho right now I have the 150mm skywatcher f/8 evo apo which I just replaced it with the Meade 152f9 apo(0lder scope)

I also have meade 6000 130mm triplet apo and a tak TSA 120 and a tak 102 TSA which are considered to be best in the world optics.

So best views are these however I got good views from these too

7 inch f15 mak just about almost as good as a 6 apo, slot cheaper but mak took 2 to 3 hrs to cool even with fans.

A 6 inch mak would be good too but again long cool down.

A reflector like people r saying could be good but your collamation has to be good. And at highter power with no slow motion controls, no drive will be bit hard on high power views. The object will leave the ep view after 20 secs. Do u want to keep hand moving it?

A eq version can work too but after 8 inch its becomes big and bulky.

Scts are very popular and sizes are very portable and views are good.

But best views would be a 4 to 5 inch apo. 5 if u could afford it. It can be a doublet doesnt have to be a triplet.

Joejaguar 

4 hours ago, northwalesparry said:

Ok how about this then :

Skywatcher 200p

            Or

celestron 8se

both have the same aperture.

 

I would do 8se

2nd choice 200 if on eq5 version almost same tube as the dob version but prefer the eq version due to tracking polar aligment, slow motion controls, better ep level then dob and I can add drives later

last would be the 200p on dob version

is weight and portabililty a big concern??

if so the sct is a very good choice in the 6" or 8" size

it can ride ona eq4 or eq5 is better

celestron make the 8se or 6se which is even more compact BUT not sure what these cost there.

I norm like the eq verions its puts the ep at a decent eye level where the dob u need a table to raise it or a chair that u must carry outside too. some dealers sell the astro chair that raises or lowers which is a good choice but its not cheap either. also the eq verion has slow motion controls and u can add a drive later so it follows the planet etc. something like a 6"f/5 reflector on eq4 models

joejaguar

I also like Canada wide astro buy and sell

I agree with few saying careful of getting from the bay. the reason is if your in the hobby for awhile and u understand whats good optics whats bad optics, then ok u can buy from there as long u understand.

there are some that are not good quality ones BUT they have cheap prices and brand new people wont know the difference BUT you will pay the price later when images are not best.

ill give you an example and this was just like couple months  ago.

I bought a meade 127mm reflector on a eq2  from a Canadian dealer as I just needed a new eq2 for a small grab and go ota. price is $270 with tax, iam trying to sell the ota for $99 as I didn't need that part. 

I check amazo** you know what I mean I don't want put the full name. they sell celestron version 127mm price was $179

ok that sounds a lot cheaper from amaz BUT a new person probally wont see the major reason why.

first the amaz one  was on a eq1 and not a eq2.  A 5" reflector is already too big for the eq1 but new person wont know that. some people would want that on a eq3.

2nd the finder scope was a 5x24 model which is SOOO old and bascally trash. the one I got was a decent red dot finderscope.

some of the trash scope comes with 1.25" focuser which is good but its hygens 1.25" eps which again are trash, again most brand new people may not know that. A lot those big box store or warehouse ask the maker of these scope that they want a scope in their prferered  price range and they get it. the scope may be the same BUT the other accessiores are not the same. they do that to get it cheaper. so all long you know that then that's fine. most may not know that. so by time u upgrade the mount to the eq2 from the eq1 then finderscope and eps you are paying a lot more for the same package.

that's the same scope as the meade version

thers a lot good brands meade celestron badder tele vue etc

each of those have 3 to 6 lines of eps all vary in price

what you need a is a low power like a 32mm 2" ep for low power 25x

then 1.25 26mm ep 31x                                                                                                               with the barlow it becomes a 13mm ep 62x

10mm 1.25 ep 80x                                                                                                                        with   barlow its a 5mm ep 160x

8mm for high power may not use it all the time due to sky conditions tho 100x                       with barlow 200x

2x barlow good quality 3 element 

I recommend first start visual for a year or 2 learn the sky then go to Ap later.

doing this way u can fit something decent in your budget, for ap is awhole different ball game

joejaguar

I'm not sure how serious u will get into AP but norm getting into this area can costs thousands. In the last dozen years alot people going with a 70mm to 100mm apo and something like heq5.

Then a good camera etc. A heq5 is like 1500 b4 taxes etc an 80mm apo 1100 b4 taxes. Where I live but that's still way over your bujet

Now if u just mean entry level AP then that's alot easier but serious AP is alot 

For visual u decent start is a 5 inch reflector like the skywatcher 130mm f/5 on eq2 package. But for ap may need to be upgraded to cg4 with motors and hand controller or anything cept the planets wont work. As u will start to get star trails. 

I have skywatcher 80mm pro apo and if it's for planets its hands down that over st 120 which will have ton of bad color.  And cause that u will never get great views from the planets.

St 120 may be better but only if your in dark skies. If its city skys even that size is too small to see dso.

To see dso decent 8 is min and if you want to see all that from city skies dont even consider anything less then 8.

If its 8 inch I would go for an EQ version over dob.

If its 10 or 12 size then dob