Barry-W-Fenner

Thanks chaps! I do have a dual speed focuser on the 200p that I might swap over on to the 300p I ordered a flex tube and did purchase an astrozap dew shield. I would like to add an astro engineering light shield also. I also purchased a couple of rolls of flocking and will do the whole tube. Regarding the eye pieces I will start by using my current set and see What I can use reasonably well for now. When the wife gets over this purchase the upgrading will begin 😁 Baz

Hi all. Just thought I would give you a heads up. After much thought today I have purchased a 300p from FLO. I am really excited and looking forward to adding this to my collection of scopes. Thank you all for your help and advice, it has been greatly appreciated. I look forward to updating you how I get on with the 300p when it arrives! 👍 Baz

Thanks STA. lovely looking scope that one but I don't really fancy the goto aspect. I would much prefer the standard setup. Appreciate the heads up Regards Baz

Nice one chaps! I will give that a read. I am still in two minds if I should pull the trigger on a 300p! Any more thoughts to sway me? Either way! Baz

Totally Jeremy, A right dodgy looking geezer! 🙂 Baz

Hi Russ. More encouraging advice from some one experienced with both the 200 & 300p It sounds like you achieved some real gains in detail even with the BST eye pieces. I have a 30mm Aero ED on route to me at the moment. I would hope this would give similar views to your Meade 5000 30mm in the 300p I might be fortunate that I will only need to purchase a few lower power eye pieces initially and use my high power BST's in both the 200 & 300p In short, The 300p looks the better option now as I will still have the portability aspect and excellent views for if I ever did manage to get to a dark site. That said if I did manage to do this I would want to take the 200p along also to see what it is truely capable of! Regards Baz

Thanks John, The above is encouraging to read. I currently enjoy viewing globs with the 200p from my location I predominantly get a white smudge and with some AV manage to have pulses of tiny points of light come and go. If aperture resolves these better than what I currently see I am all for it. The same with galaxies, I have spent quite a bit of time hunting for them to come away empty handed, If I can see something that will be a big plus for me. Would aperture give more detail in planetary nebula as well? I have managed some very good views with the 200p of the Snowball,Cat Eye etc and would really like to tease out more from them. Thanks again! Its great to hear from someone who has experiance with the BST range in a 300p. perhaps It is a good idea for me to start looking at more medium ranged eye pieces like the baaders above to accommodate this scope. Its a shame really as the BST's do perform very well, less that 50% of the FOV being sharp is not ideal though! Thanks Baz

Hi Steve, Thank you for you reply, I appreciate your (any everyone else's input) It looks like you have all saved me a few quid! Regarding the BST eye pieces, The 300p is an f4.9 - The BST's are rated at f5. Would they really not perform to well in the 300p? Morning Ian, Sorry I didn't mention that my 200p is a Dob 🙂 "Right turn Clyde!" Love them films... So to summarize, A larger aperture will give very small gains on detail on DSO from my light polluted location. Thanks Barry

Thanks gents. The 350p does sound like a bit of a beast. I dont have far to move it to get it in position but I do have one door frame which would require a bit of jiggle to get the base through. I guess it depends on how rewarding the improved views would be compared to the setting up and size! I understand that there is no substitute for a dark sky, I just wont get many opportunity's to get to one and will do most if not all my viewing from home. Maybe I will also have a look at the 300p - This might be more forgiving with the BST eye pieces as well. Regards Baz

Afternoon all, Hope you are all safe and well. I would like to ask some advise If I may. As you know I am the proud owner of a 200p Which is a brilliant scope. I was hoping to get this out to some dark sites to really see what it is capable of. Due to having two very young children that both have sleeping difficulty's I wont be getting to a dark site any time soon as this would be unfair on my wife. So I am stuck with my awesome bortle 7-8 back garden for viewing. I have been seriously considering purchasing a 350p flex tube over the last couple of days to try and get maximum viewing enjoyment from of DSO's as possible from here. The 350 looks about as large as I can realistically go. taking some measurements the base will literally squeeze through my utility room door, In theory 🙂 A few questions of large dob users. Will I see an improvement going from 8 to 14" in my light polluted skys? Will the viewing outweigh the gains in size / weight and the significant cost of a 350p? I have also noted that it is an F4.6 scope. My BST eye pieces are rated to F5, will this be an issue using them in a slower scope? Hopefully this doesn't sound to extreme. I really want to appreciate all I can from my garden as I wont be viewing from anywhere else any time soon. Any experience with a 350p and advise welcome. Thank you Baz

Couple of shots from last night's viewing. Some excellent sky last night helped me take these at x375!

Thanks Peter. I'm still quite the amateur and don't know many of the moons features, to be honest. Whatever carina Davey is I only got it in the shot by chance! the 200p does pick out some lovely lunar detail, the phone shot doesn't really do it justice. Conditions were a big help last night to, very clear and enjoyable! Regards Baz

Morning Merlin. The conditions were fantastic last night. Very clear. I got some great lunar views with the 3.2mm at 375. I had a very good look around with it. I had to drop back to X300 and x240 eventually though due to eye relief. Them eye worms started to kick in 🙂

I also took a few shots of the wall last night. Also with a 200p, this was at x375. The conditions were very favorable for high power views. Baz

Morning Paul. I have a 200p, assuming the base is identical on the 300p which I believe it is. You can tighten the main bolt to increase the the tension of the az bearing. Baz

Postie can't take credit for this one. The lovely wife picked these up for me. Some beautiful pictures in here with a description on the back of each card. I will have a look at these while waiting for darkness to arrive!

Cooling for some lunar views 😁

Yesterday while waiting for the sky to darken I had fun chasing two apache choppers back and forward 3 times. I got them in the finder and followed them. They looked amazing, then it dawned on me that they might not realise its just a 200p that has them in its sights 😂

Will us amateur astronomers ever catch a break! I have just been looking at the moon with the naked eye and it is set against the most beautiful Blue sky. So naturally the only plane that is flying right now travels straight across the moons path.. You cant make this stuff up 🙂 Baz

I sure can, I will try to have a look later when the work load eases off. You are more than likely correct Stu as you are far more experienced than me at this game. I really hope you are wrong though as I dont want them to be pesky satellites AGAIN! I want something more exotic 🙂🙂 Cheers Baz

Oh yes, how could I forget Mr Moon! I will also try it out on that as the phase grows 👍

So far I have managed to crawl out of bed and had a look at the giants on two occasions at 3.30-4am The 1st on May 12th was very good much to my surprise. Some lovely details and clear at x150 This morning not so good unfortunately! so 50/50 so far 🙂 Regarding the "meteors" I thought I had seen. The best way I can describe them is when looking through the finder scope They were both around the same size as the 4 large moons. One traveled diagonally from 1 to 7 o'clock the other went from around 11 to 4 o'clock. Both objects were not visible in the sky when I stepped back from the finder. They were both moving at a reasonable pace but I could track them in the finder with slight movement, They seemed like they were certainly a very long way away. kind of out with Jupiter. I have located starlink in the finder before and watched around 15 of them pass through the eye piece at low power and they were very big and bring. It didn't seem like what I saw was a satellite to be honest, But I dont think my description of them being "meteors" is correct either?!

Hi Merlin, I have used the 3.2 on Venus mostly and had some very pleasing results. On good nights It has provided some very clear images. I have also tried it on doubles but in truth it has been quite poor at providing a clear view of these. I am really looking forward to giving it a go on Mars when its at a decent height later in the year. I am also quite keen to see if it will give a slightly larger disc to Uranus without compromising the clarity. And if all goes well, A good loo at Neptune with it also! The planets are definitely emerging as my favorite objects to observe so far! Planetary Nebula is not far behind though! Baz

Sadly not to much to report on, Managed to get out at 3.45am and was shocked to see that to the North it was almost light on the horizon. Fortunately to the South Jupiter & Saturn were visible. However a combination of very low altitude & un-cooled mirrors made these two gas giants look very unflattering! At x150 All for main moons looked beautiful on there journey around Jupiter 3 of them at 9 o'clock and the remaining moon on the opposite side at 3 o'clock all parallel to each other. One point of observation that really amazed me was when I was lining Jupiter up in the finder, What I assume to be a meteor slowly passed across the FOV it was a very bright point of light which looked to be a similar size to the 4 moons. I didn't get to look at it in the eye piece as I had my x240 BST in the focuser at the time and it came as a surprise. I bounced between Jupiter and Saturn for a while, When I came back to Jupiter it happened for a 2nd time! Another meteor clearly visible in the finder passed through the FOV with Jupiter & the moons. I have not had this happen before when looking at Jupiter, I am wondering if there was a meteor shower in that region early this morning. I will have to check and see. Saturn was pretty poor seeing aswell. I could just make out the split in the rings and see one moon (Titan) at this point I had a brief look and called it a night, Erm Morning. Still whatever the conditions the gas giants are a real pleasure just to look at. Mars Is still evading me at the moment though! Roll on Uranus & Neptune! Cheers Baz

Great write up Doug and an enjoyable read. You managed to squeeze in some great targets in our small window of astro darkness. The gas giants are a real joy to see. I must admit I am really struggling at the moment as I can't seem to stay up past 11pm to get some decent viewing in. The kids have totally worn me out by then! Baz