Barry-W-Fenner

Outside cooling on a beautiful Sunday afternoon 🙂

Hi Phillip You are correct it is the 1:10 coarse and fine focuser. It was very tight out of the box but seems to be freeing up with a bit of use. I will hopefully get out for a bit tonight and put a few more miles on it. I will also have a read of the pdf you kindly provided and see it there is any adjustment required. pic attached for reference Regards Baz

Cheers Stu, I have packed up now as the sky is all clouded over. Hopefully I will get out tomorrow to get a better understanding of what I am doing wrong. I have a pic of the focuser maybe I should create a topic and post there for advice?

Just been having a look at Venus between the cloud. Just trying to get an understanding of the dual speed focuser. I am focusing with the larger adjuster then the smaller for fine focus. The adjustment occasionally goes tight with the larger knob, I then have to loosen off the smaller knob to free it up is this correct? Baz

Very nice collection of eye pieces.

I have probably gone a bit over board and purchased all of the BST range except the 3.2 (which I still may add to the collection 😁) They are excellent eye pieces for the money, Perform well and are comfortable to use. I will be sticking with these for now as I feel they complement the 200p well. Other than these I only have a skywatcher 4mm planetary eye piece which gives magnification of X300, the 200p still gives a great view at this level of magnification. I feel that Johns advice of having a 2" wide field 30-32mm piece in the arsenal will be my next purchase. Baz

I said that about my 200p _ although I will never sell it. I do intend to also purchase a 300 or 350 in the future. the 200p really opened my eyes and showed me some amazing things in the sky, for that I will keep hold of it forever. 😊 Baz

Thanks SAS, your a gent! I will have a read through this and play around with various locations. I did read about Lydd and Romney Marsh being dark. They are both about an 45-60 mins from my location so will be worth checking out. I find it quite amazing how you can have a high bortle area which has the odd pocket of dark sky running through it. Hopefully I can search out a few of these sky's and see what the 8" dob can do in better conditions. Baz

I really need to get to a decent dark site to see what the Dob can do. My research as to what is available in Kent has only come up with a bortle 5 location so far... 😞

I to have a soft spot for most things Toyota. My dad has been an employee of them for over 40 years. I have had many of there model range from the more mundane but extremely reliable corolla., corolla GTI's to MR2's and Celicas. The Land cruiser is legendary and a real no nonsense off road vehicle.

My wife and I were watching a nature program on Namibia not so long ago. It was about how difficult hunting was for lions when the moon was growing fat. I couldn't stop looking at the pitch black sky and all the stars, even the narrator mentioned the views of distant galaxys. It looks the perfect place for observing, as long as you don't get eaten..

Skywatcher dual speed focuser from FLO. Ordered yesterday morning delivered this morning!! All fitted and feels very nice. I hope I can fine tune my focus for a better view now. Can't wait to try it out. Baz

Even better! I can sit back and watch the show.

Nice find John, I will enjoy having a read through this. Thank you

The material used was the black velour flock supplied by FLO - John posted the link above. It's a very good product, noticeably darker non shedding and sticks like muck to a blanket. It also has grid lines on the reverse which were very useful for straight cuts. For my 8" dob I used 2 rolls. I managed to do the inside of the focuser tube aswell. Baz

Couple of pics of the 200p being flocked. I quite like the shot of the final strip being applied. It really shows the difference in light being absorbed.i applied mine in two inch strips down the tube and it came out really well. There was a noticable difference in contrast when complete. One of the first objects I viewed was the ring nebula and I found it easier to locate and I could see more of it. I can't say if this was down to the flocking or better seeing that night but I am a believer that the flocking has improved my observing, I feel that it is a worth while fairly cheap upgrade which has a small hand in combating our light polluted sky's.. Baz

Anyone else get out for a view last night. I had a very short session looking at Venus, the double cluster and M35 at low power. Great targets. Tried to split E & F but found it difficult as the view was very wobbly at high power for some reason?

Great news! I am hoping to get out shortly and will be sure to try and check out E & F - I was looking at M35 a couple of nights ago, I might check that out again with low power to try and get the whole cluster in. That's one of my favourite clusters so far!

Or worse still, two pairs of eyes 🙂

Venus looking totally ace through the scope at dusk! Enjoy the views before it's gone!

Hi all. Something I have been meaning to ask for a while now but keep forgetting. I have noticed that when viewing very bright stars such as Sirius, Rigel, Bellatrix I am getting a halo of light around the star and what I can only describe as lense flare bouncing off my eye piece into my eye. It's not major but certainly noticeable. Is this normal? I don't remember it being present when I 1st started observing. I have collimated my Dob a few times now and looking at Venus tonight the phase was very clear so I think everything is OK. Any thoughts welcome Baz

Cheers all! Hope the sky's are clear for you and happy viewing!

Thank you Gary, In my opinion it is the best value beginner scope around. It has shown me some stunning views and opened my eyes up and really got me into astronomy. I don't think I will ever sell the little 200p I can see you have experience with some very nice larger dobs from 12 to 18" In you opinion what has been the sweet spot in performance and portability? I would like something in the 14" region next. Regards Barry

I am hoping to get a look at both Venus & Uranus together in the eye piece. Both these planets are a joy to view and that will be an excellent sight.

Hi SAS Interesting piece of kit. Sorry for the daft question but I assume the higher the reading the better the sky? Or is it the lower the reading? It will be interesting to know what your low bortle locations read! Assuming the reader works to a higher number for better sky, I doubt my bortle 7 sky will get into double figures 😞 Baz