Zermelo

The three-way versions are sold for around £14 - £16 posted, by various Chinese suppliers on the Bay (and I see a couple from Belgium at the moment). For some reason the two-way versions don't seem to come up nearly as often. There's a used one there at the moment, but he wants as much as a new 3-way.

This is a U.S. site, but shows various backing plates, including 6", for a common (GSO) focuser: https://agenaastro.com/replacement-base-reflector-crayford-focuser.html

There's a list of deep sky catalogues here: https://www.messier.seds.org/xtra/supp/cats.html (it includes double stars), though it looks like the website certificate has expired and you may have to over-ride the warning. There is an alarming number of lists, though I think it's moot as to which would count as "official". The makers of the SkySafari software also have lists of deep sky objects and stars that they use to populate their own databases, which presumably are ones that are more relevant for amateur observers (though I'm sure that neither of their lists is complete, as I find references from other catalogues held against some objects).

It's often said: the best telescope is the one that you will use most. Either of those would make a good first scope, but the Heritage Dob is a popular choice.

I didn't notice, but he was getting through them so quickly that I suspect that only the light source was changed. Without a change to the control panel, I presume that dimming or switching off in the small hours wouldn't be possible remotely?

Yes, I'm not sure if that will happen - the sodium lamps stayed on all night. Thanks, I'll check that out. The LEDs are no worse in terms of direction than the previous lights.

I knew it would happen eventually, and yesterday it did. A van drew up across the road, a man climbed into a cherry picker on top, and raised himself up to the street lamp. The company was Enerveo, who apparently used to be part of SSE. I knew it couldn't be just a repair job, because that light had been working OK. Sure enough, the man moved on to the next light, and on all the way down the road. It was a complete LED replacement. The local street lights had previously been (almost all) low pressure sodium jobs: Some of the light used to spill between the houses and into our back garden, but it didn't affect the observing too much. There is nothing in direct line of sight. I'd noted previously that the few lights that had been replaced elsewhere in the village had given way to LEDs that were noticeably rich at the blue end and far too bright, quite uncomfortable to look at directly. So I wasn't looking forward to the visit from Mr. Enerveo. Dusk confirmed the new status: It obviously looked very different, but the LEDs didn't seem as harsh as I'd feared, not as bad as the others I'd seen. It's not obvious from the picture, but they were neutral in colour, and not too bright. The fittings covered the bulbs from above, but because the bulbs were offset slightly downwards, it means that some light can escape slightly above horizontal. I decided to go for an evening walk with my pocket spectroscope to compare them with the other LEDs (no-one called the police on me). It wasn't conclusive. Both types covered the whole spectrum, but the new ones did seem to be stronger in the red and green. I also went into the back garden later on, to see how much was apparent from the usual observing area. It didn't seem any worse than before in terms of brightness, though the light reflecting from the walls was clearly a different colour. It was almost clouded over and the moon was up, so it will be interesting to see what it's like on the next dark evening. Obviously I'd prefer the old orange to the white, but my first impression is that it's not as bad as it could have been.

yes. https://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/ https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/136314-skywatcher-synscan-goto-what-the-manual-doesnt-tell-you https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/658474-skywatcher-synscanaz-gti-alignment-instructions/ https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/turn-left-at-orion-book.html https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/ https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ https://astronomynow.com/ https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/43171-eyepieces-the-very-least-you-need https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/375282-eyepiece-selection-based-on-exit-pupil/ can't help you there

Hello, and welcome to SGL. You have done some good due diligence already. Some comments: A fast reflector like the Newtonian will be a bit better for extended objects, including the larger galaxies and open clusters. A Maksutov will have a slight edge for smaller objects needing higher magnification, like planets and planetary nebulae. I would go for the reflector as a better all-rounder, but any in that list would give you a lot of pleasure. Closed/open tube: a Newtonian should give several years of normal use before you think about cleaning the mirror, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. The closed tubes of the Maks will take 30-60 minutes to cool down before they perform well. The Skymax does have a closed tube, by the way. Eyepiece position: yes, it's usually lower on the Maks, but in either case I would recommend getting some sort of observing chair. You can get away without on a Newtonian, but it makes a big difference to the observing experience. Wifi problems: I have only used a Skywatcher mount, and can't comment on the Celestron. I do have occasional connectivity glitches, but I'm pretty sure that it's caused by Android killing off Sysncan when it's running in background (the latest version is supposed to have fixed that, but I'm not running it for other reasons). "the option to take pictures at a later stage" - with the setup you're looking at, you can get some basic images with a smartphone, and using a webcam-like camera you can do some simple imaging of planets. If you want to image deep-sky objects (nebulae, galaxies) you really need different kit (in particular, the mount) that will cost a lot more. For control, people use phones, tablets and laptops, though the latter I think more commonly by imagers. I use an Android phone running Synscan and SkySafari and I think it's a great help. I use SkySafari to create observing lists when I'm planning, then at the scope you can drive everything from there (it works with Synscan to issue gotos). I also use it to log observations. "If I have a computerised mount does that mean I cannot move the telescope by hand?" - it depends on the mount. I have the Skywatcher Star Discovery, which allows you to move it manually as well. "a drain on batteries" - it is possible to run these mounts with 8 x AA cells, but most people soon find that disposable ones are used up quite quickly, while NiMH don't provide the necessary voltage. Buying or making a power tank should be factored in to your plans.

On sale: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-holiday-special-2022/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html though it was so popular it is now out of stock.

Hello, and welcome to SGL. You may find the responses to these queries useful: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/349583-birthday-present-for-husband-advice-on-beginner-telescopes-to-buy https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/344664-help-with-a-christmas-present https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/281413-hi-please-need-help-to-choose-a-beginner-scope-for-a-christmas-present https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387476-first-telescope-advice-and-recommendations/ and also the following guides: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html https://britastro.org/2018/what-is-the-best-telescope-for-an-adult-beginner https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/top-astronomy-kit/best-telescopes-beginners/ https://gostargazing.co.uk/which-telescope-is-best-for-beginners/ Best of luck with your choice.

I've decided to take a punt, and pre-ordered. Stocking date was given as Nov 20th, and I was offered a choice of delivery/customs options that ranged from 3 business days to 35 business days. I'm taking all of that with a pinch of salt, but I'll be pleased if it arrives for Christmas.

I have three mass-produced scopes, very much standard fare. One of these is F/5. With each incremental eyepiece upgrade I've noticed an improvement in image quality, which suggests to me that my experiences are not (yet) being limited by the quality of the OTA optics. While the maximum magnification is often limited by atmospheric conditions in the U.K., I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of occasions that I've been able to push beyond the rule-of-thumb "twice the objective diameter in millimetres" and still get usable results. On the very best evenings, my Skymax 127 splits doubles that it shouldn't be able to. Yes, there are still some lemons out there, which are called out on this forum and elsewhere, but my experience is that the optics on mass-produced telescopes are pretty decent.

It's showing me £132.37. Did you include one of the discount coupons? (no, I'm not interested either. definitely not.)

Some recent threads: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401379-torch-for-astronomy-question https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/397630-red-lamplight https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387249-red-light-head-torch-for-astronomy https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/348224-red-light-led-torch I have one that's similar to this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Diamond-Unisex-Adult-Cosmo-Stirnlampe/dp/B07S2Z2KFK

What an enlightened organization 😀 I ought to know the answer to this, but as it's for an 'A' road, would the "authorities" in question be the Highways Agency or your local council? If you don't mind sharing their identity, it might be a useful case to cite by other members whose experiences have been less sympathetic.

An interesting report about the discovery of what appears to be a fragment of the lost star map of Hipparchus: https://www.space.com/hipparchus-star-map-found/

All my ready money would be seen off comfortably by a single Ethos

I think FLO have decided to scrap the meteorology, and just link the CO forecasts directly to the "What did the postman bring?" thread.

I would second the book mentioned above, Turn Left at Orion, as probably the best place to start. There's also a good accompanying website. On this forum there are various viewing lists posted by members here.

A very decent evening here, it stayed clearer than some of the forecasts were suggesting. Lots of doubles, including some old favourites and some new ones in and around Cassiopeia: HD4536, HD709, HD5005 (triple), V761, HD11669, HD11316, HD3891, HD4947, HD1026. The seeing was excellent. Jupiter was looking very good and showing some nice details, Saturn not so much.

I asked for opinions on that recently: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/397702-barlow-or-not/#comment-4273394 Also @zetareticulan has been reviewing and comparing Barlows: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/398554-svbony-sv137-2x-barlow

Is that this one? https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p2757_TS-Optics-2----28-mm-Ultraweitwinkel-Okular---82--Feld.htmlMark Also mentioned here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/391054-do-i-need-a-nagler-31mm-or-similar and more discussion here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/810970-astrotech-28mm-uwa/

There is a second hand ES 30mm 82 degree for sale at the moment, I've no experience of them:

OK, so the Nirvana is a decent eyepiece. I'm presuming then that your shortest EP is a stock 10mm or so, which won't be great. You could Barlow the Nirvana at 2x and get around 150x which would be good for planets. Or perhaps a little more with 2.25x here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlow-eyepieces/baader-classic-q-225x-barlow.html