RobH2020

I've actually got a 70mm refractor (assume you're talking refractors here), but it's a very cheap Celestron Astromaster 70az. The mount is absolute pants, doesn't stay where you put it at all. so I can't really use it. Not sure if the optical tube is worth keeping and swapping the mount, or if the whole thing is too basic...

Just had a look at that. My gosh, what a beast! "two telescopes can be mounted simultaneously in parallel."

Fair enough Craig! I've removed that part of my initial post now to prevent that limiting the "scope" (as it were)!

Hi all, I'm relatively new to astronomy, currently enjoying my entry-level-price Skywatcher 150P dobsonian and BST StarGuiders. However, I like to daydream and long-term plan for everything, and astronomy is no exception. So I wanted to ask a thought experiment... If I had say £1,500 to spend just on a scope and mount, what would people recommend and why? Massive dob? A cassegrain? A refractor? or bump it up to £2,000 or £5,000 if that makes a big difference! (I don't have anything like this to spend at the moment, but just to daydream!). While I may be interested in astrophotography in the future, here I'm just considering visual astronomy. Am also aware of GoTo mounts etc. so do feel free to factor in their inclusion/exclusion in this daydreaming. I know eyepieces, filters and other accessories are a whole extra ballgame for spending, but I've read a lot about those separately so no need to consider here (from my perspective). So any thoughts? : ) Cheers, Rob

I have actually ordered these now, excitedly await their arrival! And the thought of taking them to the Alps in the summer where the skies are darker...

That's really cool, good work. What do you reckon the total exposure time was? I have no idea about astro photography - do tell me if that question doesn't make sense!

Thanks for this Steve, much appreciated!

Yay! I've never actually looked at Venus myself, never out at the right time for me! Here's to more enjoyable viewing ahead!

Thanks for your reply! Do you find 30 is enough aperture for stargazing? I'm also looking at Opticron Adventurer 10x50... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/all-binoculars/opticron-adventurer-10x50-t-wp-binocular.html

Also is there any way that ebay adverts like this are true that say the binocular are 60 x 60, when they're clearly way smaller than a 25x70 celestron skymaster??

Hi all, I have an interpuplillary distance of about 54.5mm. My first astronomy purchase was used Celestron Skymaster 15x70s from ebay. Got them and I couldn't see through them because of my stupidly narrow eyes. Luckily I sold them for the same price I bought them. I've since bought a 6" dobsonion telescope and love that, so binoculars are less of an interest. However, as I can't fit the scope in the car with the family if we venture anywhere darker than where I live, it'd be great to have some binoculars. I find that "compact" binoculars (double-hinged ones) easily go into my IPD range. But these tend to max out at 10x25 spec. My question is - are 10x25 compacts a good enough size to bother with looking at the skies? or are they too small to be worth it? I know there are a few bigger binoculars out there that do have narrow IPDs, but they're few and far between and cost more than I currently want to spend (£100 or less). Also... very newbie question but why might some 10x25 binoculars cost a third the price of other 10x25 binoculars from the same manufacturer and shop? i.e. what are the quality differences to look out for? (Thinking specifically of Opticron Adventurer vs Opticron Aspheric). Do you get different FOVs with binoculars and that drives some of the difference, like with telescope eyepieces? Many thanks! Rob

Bearing in mind I'm a complete beginner, and haven't perused the AP section here, but those photos are the best dang astro photography photos I've ever seen!! I much prefer those to the Hubble etc photos i see in the magazines!

Hmm so maybe i don't need a moon filter after all if i can just do this! If we're reducing the aperture by using that little cap, that massively increases the f ratio of the scope right? What are the implications of that?

Sorry yes i meant in conjunction with that baader film that was also linked!

Oh is that what that's for?? I wondered why it has that! Why do you want to reduce the aperture, just for looking at the sun?

Hi Mic, I'm a recent beginner too. One thing that's useful to know is how bad the light pollution is where you are. You can find out by moving to your location on this website http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/39.00/-98.00 The closer to red/white you are, the worse it is. The closer to blue/black you are, the better. This feeds into the eyepieces too - if you're in a very light polluted area, you might want to start your focus on eyepieces for planets or the moon, which you might magnify quite a bit. If you're in a dark sky area, you can see much more, things like nebulae and galaxies, in which case, eyepieces with less magnification might be useful (the longer the eyepiece, the less magnification it has). The first thing I found useful were smartphone apps. You can hold these up to the sky and it'll tell you which stars you're pointing at, or how to find specific stars. It'll also tell you the best things to look for. A couple of suggestions are Stellarium and SkySafari. Just get the free versions for now. I've not tried the books recommended above myself, but I will have to. In terms of specific eyepieces, I'm just awaiting my first new one now. After much research I went for ones called BST StarGuiders. These are about £40-50, fit your 1.25" barrel, and have a wider field of view than the plossls you're looking at buying. This means you can fit more of the sky in the scope at one time, so can be more enjoyable. Plossls are famous for you having to put your eye quite close to the lens to see the full picture, especially shorter ones like the 6mm you mention. The StarGuiders aren't so bad on that front. As I say I've not tried it out yet, but they're very favourably reviewed for the price by people on here. You can of course spend much more to get better ones, but that seems a good entry price to me. The first one I'm getting is 18mm, I figured that's a good "inbetween" the 10mm and 25mm the scope came with, plus with a Barlow I get a bit more magnification than the 10mm. Another thing you might like to consider is to begin with is a moon filter. The moon can be very bright to look at, can be a bit painful. These are relatively cheap I think. As others have said, another "finder" scope to replace the red dot sight you've got attached to the barrel might be useful. If that's a sight that doesn't provide any magnification, it can be a bit harder to find fainter or smaller objects. But have a play with it first to see what you think. Hope that's useful from a fellow newbie! Cheers, Rob

John - I've just discovered the post when you first got the OIII filter that you now recommend! Interesting that they were kinda brand new 10 years ago. I will definitely have to try something of a short trip to get to some darker skies, on the rare occasion we get a clear enough spell of weather! To be fair, when I say red zone, it's the dimmer red in this diagram on darksitefinder.com, in a salient out into orange territory. I can drive to my parents' house deep in orange country in 10 minutes. Orion Nebula is lovely and visible from my garden, I'm just looking to improve the view further, and try to hunt out some others. When you guys say you drive somewhere to observe... what sort of place do you go to? a field somewhere? do you ever get local weirdos coming and bothering you? As you say otherwise I'll see what I can do with my 6" at home, can always upgrade the scope in the coming years. Sorry the image is so large, it's expanded it to fit the window and I'm not sure how to change that!

Thanks guys. Reading about the filters, including that astronomik one linked above, makes me really want one now though =)) For anyone else reading this, this is useful reading on filters https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

Thanks for your candidness and advice John! I'll do more research from existing forum posts etc on the differences between the different filter types. Did you have any thoughts on whether to prioritise filters or eyepieces when starting from scratch? Regarding mobility, I'm at a stage in life where that's not really an option... my wife and 1 year old daughter wouldn't want me disappearing for the weekend to stargaze! I could get slightly less local light pollution maybe by driving 10 mins... But i think I'm possibly too close to London for that to make much difference...

Hi all, I'm just getting started with compiling a collection of accessories to enhance my viewing. I want to add to the collection slowly, so i get a chance to learn from each new thing and use that experience to better inform the next purchase. With that in mind, i was wondering if I'd be better served getting filters earlier or later in the process? By filters I'm sure i don't really know what I'm talking about but i see on FLO a narrowband UHC filter (unbranded) and a celestron "CLS" filter - City Light Something, or essentially a light pollution filter. Both around forty quid, which is my budget. Both sound useful for me, I'm in a red zone (urban/ suburban). I'm interested in seeing more nebula - improving the Orion nebula, i saw someone said a filter helped them see the veil nebula with similar equipment to me in similar conditions. So... any thoughts or advice? : ) i have an f/8 skywatcher dobsonian 6", with the stock 10 and 25mm eyepieces, and an 18mm BST StarGuider coming for my birthday... as well as an astro essentials moon filter and an astro essentials 2x barlow. thanks! Rob

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! A good range of prices for me to consider / look out for on the used markets.

Hi Joejaguar, yes my scope has a 2" focusser so can definitely be in the market for a 2" wide-field (e.g. 60deg) 32mm-ish eyepiece. Do let me know if you know of any worth having in a similar price range to the BST StarGuiders, i.e. around £40-50. Cheers! Rob

Thanks John. I've an F/8 150mm dobsonian - a Skywatcher Classic 150p. Yep it has a 2" focusser!

Thanks guys! That explains it John, I was wondering if it was the field stop. Rwilkey, thanks for that ES recommendation. That 30mm 52deg eyepiece seems to have a very similar field of view (in terms of what you can actually see in eyepiece) to the 25mm 60deg StarGuider, though at a different magnification of course. That's what I see by plugging the scope and eyepieces into one of those online equipment checkers anyway. There's a 40mm in that series but it's a 2" barrel. So my lesson here seems to be there are no 1.25" barrel eyepieces in the 60-ish-degrees range over about 25mm. I need to ramp up to a 2" barrel, and probably pay a little more. Does that sound like I've understood? On another note - could someone tell me what ED stands for? I see it used in the StarGuiders, and in John's note above about the Aeros. I've tried Googling it but it's a tricky one to pin down!

Hi all, first time poster here at SGL, only really been getting into astronomy as of 2020. I've been looking around for my first eyepieces to upgrade the stock ones that came with my Sky-Watcher 6" dobsonian - which are 10mm and 25mm Kellners. I've decided on the BST StarGuiders as my first ones, as they're in my price range and seem to be very well regarded on here and Cloudy Nights. Just £41 delivered through Alan at Skys the Limit. However I've just realised they only go up to 25mm focal length. Do we know why that's the case? Would longer focal lengths have no increase in FOV due to the size of the barrel or something? If not, can anyone recommend a similar eyepiece (spec and price) in a longer focal length, such as 30/32mm? Cheers! Rob