Pixies

Some threads for you:

It might not be the scope that's making the outside stars soft. The 18mm BST does that with my f6 reflector, but the 12mm is dead sharp to the edge. Hopefully yours will prove to be the same. Also, next time you see soft stars at the edge, adjust the focus slightly and see whether you can get the outside stars sharp (with out-of-focus at the inside). If you can, this is called field-curvature and is more associated with refractors. Basically, the focal-plane of the scope is not flat, so it's hard to get the whole field of view in focus at the same time. Some eyepieces handle this better than others. I have a RACI and it makes star-hopping loads easier, especially as your view will match the chart/app. You will find, however, that a RACI alone makes it tricky to align with your initial target. You might have to keep a non-magnifying finder attached. Other RACI/Refractor users might be able to comment?

The 12mm BST is noticeably better than the 18mm - so you'll like it. What scope do you have?

Just get a big dob and store it in the shower area of the motorhome!

Is this not 'transparency' rather than seeing? There may be some correlation, but if you live near the coast, I find, you can have haze at different levels. When I'm out walking the dog late evening, there are 2 distant lighthouses I can see. Fidra (4 flashes every 30 seconds) and Isle of May (2 flashes every 15 seconds). Fidra is much closer and always visible unless it's very misty/foggy. The Isle of May, though, is a good guide to horizontal visibility. I reckon can see it only 60% of the time. However, there are nights when I'm not able to see Isle of May but the sky transparency was good - and vice-versa. And there's the dreaded haar. At times you can't see the end of the street, but look up and see the sky!

The Seronik guide was the first one I used. I think the reason he suggests a quick alignment of the primary to start with, is that as you are going to be aligning the secondary using the outside edge of the primary (mirror clips), you need to make sure it isn't way out of alignment first. I agree with your comments on the advantages of the Cheshire. but I also think that its greatest advantage is that it's so much quicker!

Skysafari Plus. Although it costs a little, it's much better for telescope users. The free one is OK for naked-eye stuff. It's very often on discount. The observation features are worth it alone. You can create custom observation lists or import public ones (including a load from SGL). Record your own observations into its logs and keep a record of what you have seen and when. Search for what's good tonight. Any bright asteroids visible from where I am? OK - add it to the observation lists for next week. I really like how you can customise it with your scope, eyepiece and camera details and select various permutations to display the FOV on screen, along with telrad circles. Asteroid Vesta just now: showing telrad circles plus the blue circle is the FOV of my 25mm plossl in the 8" dob: If you have a goto mount, you can use Skysafari to control it, too.

Be aware that the zoom's FOV decreases as you zoom 'out'. It means that it's not great when acting as a wide-angled finder view. Another option is to get the equally well-reviewed OVL Hyperflex zoom (7.2-21.5) and an additional 30mm (or thereabouts) eyepiece. At a min focal length of 7.2mm, you won't need to immediately get a barlow. I have the Baader zoom and matching barlow, but managed to get them secondhand. You often see them for sale, so perhaps you don't need to order at the same time. If the scope if going to be many weeks' wait, perhaps keep the cash and watch the usual places for suitable secondhand bargains? Also, you'll find that many new dob owners swap the straight finder for a Telrad/RACI combo. But there's no rush for that.

Hi, Forgetting about the alignment of the mirrors just now, have a look at the position of the secondary under the focuser. from your first image, it's quite a bit off: Ignoring the reflection of the primary in the secondary - the circular outside edge of the secondary is too far up in the picture. Now, look at your second image: This one looks a lot better. Did you move the mirror significantly between these two pictures, there's quite a difference? One way of checking the collimation of the laser is to rotate it in the focuser and see whether the dot moves. Also see if it moves when tightening the thumbscrew to hold it in place. I would suggest getting a Cheshire and collimate the scope with that. It's a lot easier to get a good alignment of the secondary with that, IMHO. Then you can see how the laser compares.

Had another shot tonight, with much more success. The seeing was ok once I avoided observing over the nearby rooftops. Transparency was very poor though: the sky looked like there was a bright moon. It's pretty cold and I think there must be some high level haze. Anyway, it turns out I had seen the E star. But tonight it was obvious, especially around 100x. No sign of F though. I also managed to split (notch) Alnitak. It looked like a snowman (or perhaps BB8) with a bright white body and smaller golden head. I confirmed I wasn't seeing things by making a note of the position and later checking on SkySafari, which agreed with my observation. This was at x150. I didn;t fancy messing about with orthos or a barlow in the cold air, so left it at that. Managed to get a faint smudge for M1, using a UHC filter. Not a great view, though, as the sky was so washed out.

The moon is upside-down for you. That's weird! I have some relatives in Oz and I'm over there every few years. Have never stargazed there, apart from admiring the Milky Way in dark skies and I'm very jealous of your views of the Magellanic Clouds. Had a shot at M1 this evening. Seeing was good but transparency was very poor (it's very cold tonight). I managed to get a view of it in my 8" dob, but very faint. A UHC filter helped very slightly. Around 18mm was best (3mm exit pupil), but the sky was quite bright.

Here's an 8" dob view of the moon with a DSLR attached directly. No processing.

Bresser owner here. I've used both Bresser and SW 8" dobs now, and the former does feel better and the focuser is a different class. The optics are very similar. As others have said, the Bresser finder is poor but you can replace it with a Baader universal finder bracket and then fit a standard Sinta finder. Lots here have done this and will be able to advise. But the basic finder is enough to get you going with. The eyepiece is very reasonable, too. I still use it.

I deliberately used the term 'spouse'.

It might be a spousely "WTF did you buy that for!"

Hi, Have you tried another star map app? Below are some screen grabs from SkySafari Plus. The outer blue circle is the 5.6deg FoV for a finder and the inner blue ring is the FoV for a 25mm Plossl (on a 8" dob) It gives you a good idea of the scale of things through each, and I find SkySafari matches what I see in the finder/scope. and zoomed in to the 25mm Plossl view: Obviously you will need to rotate 180deg for a newt, and not if you have a RACI finder

Was the scope at different angles when you checked collimation? Sometimes the primary can tilt slightly.

I find the viewing is often better at that tine of the night/morning. Perhaps because houses, etc. have had time to cool down overnight and before the central heating kicks in!

Not specifically 'astro', but v useful nonetheless. And the smell reminds me of my old Zippo back when I had bad habits!

This is a great site: https://binocularsky.com/

Hi and welcome. You might be waiting for a while, I'm afraid. I'll agree with the above, and say don't rush into buying lots of accessories just yet. However, if you have the budget, I would recommend a pair of binoculars (10x50). They would be useful while you wait for your scope to arrive, but they are a great tool to use alongside a big scope. I often use mine to 'reccie' out an area of sky before observing, or before a more complicated star hop. They are also the most 'grab and go' of any optical system. Then there's the 'C' word. Collimation. Again, don't rush into things - some fall foul of the trap, trying to perfect collimation before even starting to use the scope and ending up losing days of observing, trying to fix any mistakes they make. Now collimation is very straightforward, especially with the correct tools, but I might advise that you start with the cheapest and simplest tool - a collimation cap. Get it in advance, just in case the scope arrives knocked out of collimation (as mine did). They are only a few pounds.

The issue with zooms is that as you adjust it towards the longer focal lengths (decreasing magnification) the FOV (field of view) actually decreases. It means you will lack a wide-angle low-powered eyepiece if you rely on a zoom only. Most will go with a zoom plus a low-powered EP for finding stuff and big targets.

Here's a good run-through of the Bresser (ES) 10" dob:

There's still snow on the ground and I'm looking over a row of old Georgian houses, so undoubtedly, yes. Also, the jet stream is doing 100mph above us just now, too. Perhaps not F to Z, but I reckon Epsilon Lyrae is now "Triple Triple".

Had a shot tonight, while waiting for the moon to appear over the rooftops. The seeing was pretty poor, though. 8" dob. I think I was getting the E star. Between x100 and x150 something was shimmering in and out with averted vision. The poor seeing made everything tricky; focusing was problematic, especially using the zoom lens. I'd like to try again on a better night. If what I thought I was seeing appears steadily then, I'll say I saw it tonight. No sign of F at all. Alnitak was a pulsating blob and no hope of splitting anything. The moon appeared and simultaneously so did the clouds, so back inside now with a nice Rioja.