Pixies

Haven't used that Barlow, so can't comment. As for the 25mm BST. These are 60deg, so not exactly a huge wide-angle. You can go a lot wider with an 8" reflector. I have an 8" dob (Bresser) and use an OVL Aero 30mm wide-angle (2"). It's very good for its cost, around £100 new. There is one going on the classifieds page just now. That will be very good value and perfect for your scope. It'll fit the double-cluster in the field of view.

It is. There have been various threads recently about cheaper ones of apparent equivalent quality - but I managed to buy this secondhand. You will be able to barlow it using the 1.25" barrel (unless you have a 2" barlow). I can't say how well it would work though - it would depend on your barlow. The one issue I have with it is that you need to refocus it as you change magnification, which I find a little inconvenient. I'm not sure if other makes are different. Otherwise, I think it's a very good EP. Be aware that the FOV decreases as you increase the focal length - so it's no good as a wide-field EP.

Hi, I observed Mars (properly) for the first time 2 days ago. I used a Baader neodymium filter to try and get more details out of the view - which helped. Also, try and kill off any dark adaption you have, which is quite easy with the full moon just now. I was using around 170x with an 8" reflector. I could have tried a higher mag, but it's a dobsonian so would have been really hard to track then.

There is a thread for jokes - but I can't say they are particularly fine ones!

Yep - I have one. I use it in my 8" Bresser dob. Not had it long though. I also have the matching barlow - got them both 'nearly new'.

Yep it'll fit. You can use either 1.25" or 2" barrel sizes, as it has both. Your focuser can take either

I would suggest you name and shame in the 'Supplier Reviews' section once it's all sorted. I think it's important that forum members are aware of such potential issues with a supplier.

Thanks I knew my Art O-level wouldn't go to waste!

Yes, it's the 130P's big brother. Here's a good overview of it:

I saw this great post by @Dave which has an image of Mars taken the same night as my sketch. It's from a few hours later and it has rotated slightly, but I'm very happy that I've managed to actually catch some accuracy:

It's how you would use an EQ mount at the poles!

Yep - I saw it last night for the first time this season too, just as I was packing up. The seeing last night was good.

@Dave That's a great pic. I was observing at 2am and made my first sketch. Do you mind if I do a quick grab of your pic to put into another observing thread? I'll credit you of course.

With about a month to go to opposition and a month since my last clear night, I thought that I couldn't miss the chance of observing the red planet tonight, as all sources were indicating a clear night. I had my new Baader Hyperion zoom and barlow, plus a cute little University Optics 7mm ortho, I hadn't tried yet, so thinking tonight was the night, I set up around 10pm. I thought I'd get ready then have a little nap until later, when Mars would be in a good position to view. Started with double-double and the seeing looked good. I could split them both at around x 85-90 and the collimation star test had reasonably stable diffraction rings - better than usual for here anyway. Then I looked up and saw the dreaded clouds. I went back inside and moaned online and had a beer. 01:00 and things were clearing up. I went back out and saw that Mars was visible from the bottom of the garden. It wasn't a great location, observing East right over the roof of the house, but beggars can't be choosers and I didn't want to risk waiting until 4-5 am for a better view. So I set up under the watchful eye of the cat, getting all the various EPs I thought would be useful, and settled down to find the best viewing setup. I tried the zoom, barlowed zoom, barlowed 12mm BST, but by far the best view was with the new 7mm ortho. I didn't try the 6mm or 4mm Circle-T orthos, though. Perhaps next time. The view wasn't great at first, with the seeing poor at that lower angle and over the roof. The 40 deg FOV at 170x meant I was constantly nudging the dob, but it was pretty much just Azimuth movement that was needed, with the occasional Alt nudge, so I could get on with just observing relatively OK. I'm not a seasoned planetary viewer, but have heard enough to know that I needed to settle down and just do the time at the eyepiece. I kept getting momentary glimpses of dark bands and a white cap - the once pale disk slowly shifting into a creamy orange with some surface detail. I guess most of you are all familiar with what happens but it was fascinating how the details started to slowly emerge. Suddenly I got the urge to record what I was seeing. No hope for a picture, so I decided to do my first sketch. Completely unprepared, I went back inside, grabbed some printer paper and hastily drew some circles around the base of the empty beer can. With red head torch on dimmest setting I sat down again and started to mark down the darker areas. By 02:00 I was happy and started winding up. When I looked back up, I saw that the Pleiades had risen above the house, so quickly grabbed the 30mm 2" EP for a quick view. Here's my first sketch (coloured in now). As I said, I hadn't really considered ever doing one before, so not exactly sure of the correct format, so forgive any naivety. I still need to try and work out what I saw and how it compares to Sky Safari's representation. Fingers crossed I haven't got it completely wrong....

Have a look at this guide. Mind you - at one point he says 'longitude' when he means 'latitude'.

By the way - where are you based? It looks great!

Hi. I think you have both the 2" and 1.25" eyepiece holders in place. You need 1 or the other, not both.

Can you post a picture of your focuser/eyepiece setup?

Have just spent a few days listening to the Actual Astronomy podcast. It's great - just what I was looking for. 2 blokes talking about visual astronomy, discussing all the stuff that's usually discussed here. Equipment, observations, targets, anecdotes, auctions, collecting, etc. etc.

I'm finding a long Cheshire better as a "sight-tube" to align the secondary under the focuser (step 2 in the AB guide - with the coloured paper). But it is the FLO premium cheshire which doesn't have the 'lip' on the tube, so it can be inserted to any depth. It all depends on the size of your scope. For step 3 - Aligning the secondary to the Primary Mirror - all you need to do with a Cheshire is to align the crosshairs with the doughnut centre mark on the primary, you don't have to use the mirror clips (unless you don't have a doughnut). I'm not sure why A-B doesn't mention this. If I have misunderstood, someone please let me know! Step 4 - Aligning the Primary Mirror - yep, so easy. I am lucky with my laser collimator that it appears to match my Cheshire and is stable when in the focuser. It's a BST Starguider one, and cost £18. I did check its collimation though and it needed a little tweak when I first got it.

That's what I was about to say! Worth checking.

the 2 knobs I mentioned:

That's a pity. @gary756 if you buy it, don't forget to get the unlock code! Hopefully it's transferable!

You know what I'm thinking...

The starsense explorers aren't goto either, are they? It's push-to. My understanding is that it's a phone holder with some kind of mirror arrangement so that the phone can run a plate-solving app while aligned with the scope, and give directions to push to a given target. I imaging that if one could somehow fix the 'phone holder' to the dob and align in correctly, it would work. Don;t know if anyone has had a go with this yet, though. There's a good demo if it here: