Pixies

Faulksy's back garden for Star Party 2022? Do you have electrical hook-up?

Sky Safari. On a small tablet with a red acetate screen.

We need the coke-can / tin-of-beans in shot for size reference!

Looking good. If you do decide to to go for a smaller bar, FLO's Astro Essentials small dovetail bar is useful, as it has a slot rather than individual holes and means you can adjust the gap between the rings as you see fit. It's still 18cm long, though. For balancing, you could loosen the rings and slide the scope rather than slide the dovetali bar in the mount. Here's a quick question for readers (sorry to jump into your thread). Do people prefer to store the mount with rings attached, and place the scope into the rings. Or keep the rings/bar attached to the scope and place the whole thing into the mount?

OK - this was on my list for things to try this year:

The Astronomer Royal for Scotland (the fab Prof Catherine Heymans) is trying to get some kind of outreach telescope installed in all the Scottish outdoor centres used by primary schools. Most year 7 kids get a weekend away in such centres - mostly all in dark sky areas. Just imagine if this kind of kit was available! I was really sceptical about these things until I used one. The price will come down, I'm sure. Once SVBony get in on the act!

Having recently used one at a star party, I can confirm that it's an great piece of kit! I preferred this one with the 'eyepiece' rather than the other model that requires a tablet or phone to display the view, but some others liked the latter. Takes only minutes to set up. It's amazing to see the view appear before eyes. It was telling when a non-astro person had a look (at M51) and stated, "Now THIS is what I was expecting!" Don't have the spare cash myself, unfortunately! But for outreach, this is fantastic.

Yep - my old Vixen SP has this (but not a nylon bar). As the bar won;t be turning, it marks the shaft much less. I really need to find some suitable Vixen Green paint for the weight!

I'm lucky in that it has certainly improved locally for me. The switch to well designed LED street lighting has worked wonders. I can see faint objects with direct vision this year that before I could barely make out with averted vision. One direction is worse though, and that is down to those god-awful electronic LED advertising boards.

Jim usually has a smaller budget than Mr Cox. He's normally filmed wandering around dreaming spires rather than exotic landscapes. I like his biog: Professor Jim Al-Khalili CBE FRS is a quantum physicist who holds a University of Surrey Distinguished Chair as well as a personal chair in physics since 2005 and a University chair in the Public Engagement in Science. He is a living three-piece suite.

I may be interpreting this all wrong (often am) but I believe Mr Bortle provided the scale as a way to evaluate and categorise the particular sky from an observers point of view (literally). I think the apps that tell you what your Bortle level is, should only be a very rough guide to what you might expect. The skies from my back garden are Bortle 6 to the S and W and Bortle 5 to the N and E. My front garden is Bortle 9, due to the street light directly above! The original article: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/upload/BortleDarkSkyScale-2.pdf

Spanner wrench? https://www.amazon.co.uk/EBTOOLS-Professional-English-Repair-Maintenance-Default/dp/B07MC41939

@MalcolmM - may I ask which model Berlebach tripod that is?

and another recommendation - for the Vixen 30mm NPL: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen-eyepieces/vixen-npl-eyepieces.html

The catch - especially with a fast scope like yours, is that you have to pay big bucks for an eyepiece with a wide field of view that will be sharp out to the edges. Your scope has a wide angle of incoming light rays, which is hard for a simple eyepiece to focus at the extremities. The good news is, if you are interested in planets, they are small and if you can keep them cantered in the view, most reasonable eyepieces will be fine. However, with a manual dob at high powers, the target will be moving across your field of view quite rapidly, so this is where wide angle views can help. You'll find everything is a compromise, including with cost! With eyepieces, especially if you can purchased good quality used ones, if you find they aren't your cup of tea, you can sell them on without losing too much money.

M57 The Ring Nebula is one of my faves. It was the first DSO target I hit with my dob and even now still looks so striking. Iota Cas is my favourite multiple star. M37 my favourite open cluster. A few weeks ago, when I was down-under in Melbourne, I spotted Omega Centauri in 10x50 binos. It was awe-inspiring and I would LOVE to observe it with a proper telescope.

You should license that to Berlebach!

Hi there, and welcome! I started with 10x50 binos for a few years before getting a scope when lockdown first started. It will give you a real head-start once you get your first scope. What were your targets to start with? Have you signed up for the Binocular Sky newsletter? A quick improvement will be had with a tripod/monopod of some sort. Holding the binos steady will allow you to see more, even your lighter ones. I think you should be able to see Jupiter's moons with 8x42 - only once it gets higher in the sky, though.

Yep - I have 2 (waiting perhaps for a binoviewer one day?) I got them as part of a deal and was expecting to offload them, but they are really nice quality and I don't really notice the tightish eye-relief

But they have curry houses and pubs, so not all bad! Those midges, though! 😱

This is the smartphone version - a phone cradle attaches to the OTA and uses a mirror to allow the phone camera to see the sky. The app does the plates-solving. Some on this forum have purchased the cheapest Starsense scopes just to get the phone cradle for their own scope and the app license!

Looks like a Skywatcher focuser. And maybe I like the misery of making tea!

Are these the only dobs that Celestron produce? (apart from the little baby Firstscope)

Good list - you must have been knackered! I find with the springtime faint galaxies, it can be a case of seen something... next! Other object types deserve longer observing times, though. Tight double-stars, planets, etc. these benefit from time at the eyepiece. Just wait until later this year when you've had your eye on Mars continuously for 20 minutes, waiting for moments of good seeing!

Looks pretty good to me. Do a star test. if you are finding that you are having trouble keeping the rotation square when you tighten up the 3 adjusters, make sure they haven't been overtightened in the past and cut some 'gouges' into the base of the secondary mirror holder. (Not that I've done that when starting out! 🙄 ). It means that you can never fine-tune the rotation of the secondary mirror as it will always settle back into the same position. An easy fix - inserting a steel washer between screws and mirror base. A milk-carton washer improves adjustability, too.