HollyHound

Thanks, that's good to know... 5mm on the StellaMira would give me the theoretical maximum magnification of x160, but I reckon I can use 4mm for x200 on the moon and maybe more... will give it a go. Crikey, that Type 1 is enormous! I have 32 and 38 PanaViews, but I didn't realise the shorter focal lengths could also be big eyepieces. I suppose it helps the eye relief, quality etc.

Yes... alien, that’s a good description... “other worldly” 😊

Thanks. I agree, I’ve been very impressed with them. It’s the reason I got the 13mm TV, as I was looking for something in between also at 82 degrees, and these came up for sale... I didn’t originally intend to get two, but I have a binoviewer and so thought why not, I expect these will be great for the moon too. I will be testing the Nagler zoom when I can and will report back, should give me 133x to 266x on the StellaMira, which is possibly pushing it at 3mm, but at least 6mm, 5mm and 4mm should be usable.

Hi Mark, Thanks, it is indeed and I’m loving that I have so much more yet to see 😊 I’m about halfway between Thornbury and Oldbury, so get reasonably dark sky here. I have been able to see M42 easily (that was in my first scope... a Mak 102 at Christmas), M81 and M82 reasonably and even a Comet a few months back (C/19 I think It was), both with an ST120, so am sure I will see loads more. Been spending a good while on the moon recently... love it 😊 Gary

Well, I promised a report on the first light with the new StellaMira 80mm ED f/10 Refractor, so here it is... First light with StellaMira 80mm ED f/10 Refractor I will of course report more when I get some more time with it in clear skies 🤞

Over in the StellaMira Owners Thread (started by fellow owner @johninderby), I promised a report on the first light with my new StellaMira 80mm ED f/10 refractor, so here goes... bear in mind I am still very much a beginner, but learning fast... The new refractor arrived last Monday from the great team @FLO, and was delivered of course with the usual bundle of clouds 😬 Friday night wasn't initially looking too good, so I hadn't really expected to get a look at anything and so just set about watching some late TV with my partner. However, just after midnight I had a look outside and noticed that the clouds seemed to be opening up and there was a moderate clear area in the South and East. As I was very much hoping to look at Jupiter and Saturn with the new scope, this seemed promising. I therefore headed out onto the patio and setup my iOptron AZ Mount Pro on its TriPier and attached the StellaMira, quickly balanced it, one star align (Jupiter) and it was ready to go. I will do a write up on this mount sometime, as although I don't use it every night, it has proven to be excellent when I don't want to find my way around manually looking for very faint objects. Fortunately we live in the rural outskirts about a mile from Thornbury (and apparently have Bortle 4/5 skies), so I am spending more and more time recently using a manual Alt/Az mount and learning my way around the skies. For now though, the AZ Mount Pro would find and keep any target steady in the eyepiece! In addition and for comparison I setup my C5 on the AZ5 mount too. The air seemed quite moist, so I popped on the dew shield and had the Hyperion 8-24 Zoom attached (I tend to leave this on the C5/AZ5 combo as a "grab and go"). I left everything to "cool down" for 30mins and then miraculously the clouds all but disappeared apart from a few wisps. Not expecting this to last, I started observing at 01:15. Firstly, the C5... I have only previously seen Jupiter and Saturn once before and in this very scope, so expected the same... however, I hadn't counted on the build of dew on the eyepiece (not so much the objective) which meant that although visible, the view was a bit constrained. Both Jupiter and Saturn looked ok and I was able to take the magnification up x156 (with the 8mm zoom). Still as impressive as my first viewing of these a few weeks ago, but still very surprised how much moisture was gathering on the eyepiece, and in fact the whole scope seemed really quite damp! Next, the StellaMira... firstly popped in a 16mm Nirvana (x50) and there it was... Jupiter, looking really really lovely. I could see some surface detail and four moons stretching out on the right side (in two groups of two moons). Changed to the 7mm Nirvana (x114) and... wow, it was beautiful, really able to see two main bands now with hints of others. Now, selected Saturn on the mount and within a few seconds it was in the eyepiece and this was even more of an amazing sight (bear in mind this is only the second time I've seen it)... it really looked almost unreal, like somebody had painted it on the view... the rings were awesome 😀 I was so impressed I got my partner to pop out. Given that she is normally happy to indulge for a minute or two at most (usually with a polite "oh that's nice isn't... gosh it's cold, must go back in!"), I was amazed and happy when I literally couldn't prise her away from looking at Saturn for 3 or 4 minutes, and she kept asking "is that actually real"... praise indeed 😁 Once I got the scope back to myself, I set about just swapping back and forth between Saturn and Jupiter, switching between the 7mm and 4mm Nirvana, and did this for the next 30mins, wonderful views. I didn't really find that the 4mm gave me any more detail, just a bigger (and slightly dimmer image). I had ordered a TeleVue 3-6mm Zoom but this only arrived on Saturday, so haven't had a chance to use that yet, but I will be trying that out on these wonderful planets and of course my favourite (currently) subject... the moon. I could see the clouds were starting to gather again, so quickly selected Albireo and had a few minutes looking at that with both eyepieces... I was very happy to see two lovely coloured points of light. Finally, I quickly tried one of the TeleVue 13mm Naglers (which I purchased from the ads on here earlier in the week, to use in my binoviewer) and got a really nice contrasty wide flat field of stars (something I don't really get to see in the C5)... I can see this eyepiece getting a lot of use! Surprisingly the StellaMira didn't seem to suffer at all from dew problems, ok it was only an 90 minute session, and of course the C5 has been out for an extra 30mins (I've read that SCTs and Maks need cool down) so perhaps was unfair comparison. In summary, I found that the view through the StellaMira was absolutely crystal clear, contrasty and had a real character to it (almost like a vivid painting), whereas the C5 felt more "clinical" (almost like a high res lcd display). The C5 will continue in use as my "grab and go" scope, but I can see myself drawn to exploring the planets, moon and (my recent interest) double stars, increasingly using the StellaMira... it really is a lovely refractor 😀 Cheers Gary

Hi, Welcome to the forum. Very friendly bunch. Enjoy 😊 Gary

Turn Left at Orion does indicate whether a target is visible in either moderate telescopes or binoculars, so would be a useful reference... I’ve certainly found it so, and I started with binoculars and still use mine too.

+1 for both Turn Left at Orion and the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas, for beginners. I also found The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide by Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer, was very helpful, when I started at Christmas.

Agreed, this is an amazing book. I’ve been working my way through it for the last few weeks. It’s a lifetimes reading 😊

Hi Wojtek, welcome to the forum. Everyone here is very helpful and friendly. Cheers Gary

TeleVue Zoom 3-6 from @FLO TeleVue DeLite 18.2 in excellent condition from here on the SGL For Sale ads Along with the pair of TeleVue Nagler 13 T6 (also from the ads) that arrived earlier in the week and now in my binoviewer, I’ve gone from no TVs to four in week... is this the slippery slope 😬🤣

I did 👍🤣

Good point 👍

Hi, I went through the same decision a few months back and ended up with these: Skywatcher 9x50 right angle finder Skywatcher red dot finder (came with scope) TelRad Both the red dot and TelRad make it easy to quickly move to a given point in the sky, such as star, planet of the moon, but then being non magnified, they don’t allow one to do “star hopping”... (the act of jumping from a reference star to other (less visible) stars to finally arrive at a hard to locate directly object. The optical right angle (or straight through) finder can be used for “star hopping”, as it’s effectively a mini low powered scope. I had both mounted on my Mak 127, so I could use the TelRad to get started and then the optical finder to “star hop” 😊 For the optical finder, the RACI (right angle correct image ?) makes it slightly easier to move around, as the direction is not reversed (unlike in the main scope), but I guess you can get used to that. I don’t have an illuminated finder, but I think it’s advantage is that you have a reference point (lines?) that show the centre of the finder, and should aid with accuracy perhaps. May be overkill, especially for beginners, I’m sure others can comment on that. Just my own (limited) experience, hope it helps Gary

That’s an option, I suppose to be fair to SkyWatcher, a lot of their scopes are mostly white anyway. I know we have this version now, but if anyone does want an all black one, there is this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/astro-essentials-9x50-right-angled-erecting-finderscope.html

Too late, already ordered it... arriving next week. In some sense it matters not one jot what the finder looks like... it’s dark usually anyway 🤣 However, the current holder is quite heavy and this looks possibly a bit lighter and also more versatile... I do also have a black 6x30 straight through finder which came with the C5 🤔 Anyway, heads up, a photo of this might be coming to this very thread next week 😁

It’s the one (minor) issue I had when I popped this finder on the StellaMira, it just looked wrong in white... so many thanks, it now looks like something else I “need” to buy 🤣 Presumably the SkyWatcher RACI finder body then just fits inside those rings?

Nice, you’ll enjoy that... I have the same, which I’m using to (try and) learn “star hopping” 🤞

Well I stayed up and was rewarded with a (mostly) clear sky from 01:30 until 03:00. First light with the StellaMira on Jupiter, Saturn, and Albireo. Initial impression... just wow 😃 Will write up more tomorrow sometime... Gary

Well I stayed up and was rewarded with a (mostly) clear sky from 01:30 until 03:00. Jupiter, Saturn, Albireo all achieved with the new refractor 😊 Bed now... it’s an early start still 😬

Hi Mick, Looking on the SkySafari app, Jupiter and Saturn should be up at a reasonable altitude within that time window, but the moon unfortunately doesn’t rise until 2am and is possibly still a little low until past 3am. Hopefully the clouds will stay away 🤞 I’ll try and stay up too, but do have a very early start tomorrow. Enjoy Gary

Hi Khalid, Welcome to the forum. Very friendly place. I’ve just joined myself, so a fellow newbie 😊 Gary

Thanks to all for the welcome. I’m really looking forward to participating on here (not just reading) 😊 Just need some clear skies again 🤞 Cheers Gary

Hi Sam, I’ve only been doing this since Christmas, but I remember the first targets I went for were the moon, the Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, Pleiades and Venus. Of those unfortunately only the moon is visible right now, but it is an excellent first target and one I keep returning to again and again. I’ve even bought a bunch of books about it and some maps. However, what are visible a bit after midnight (1am) ish, in the South South West, are Jupiter and Saturn, which are awesome. Last Saturday I woke to see Jupiter shining so brightly and even a quick peek through 8x32 binoculars showed me the four moons 😊 My current object of interest is the Double Double near Vega (Quite high now and East ish, visible from twilight onwards). See if you can split it into the four stars, really cool when you do. Also, just down from these is another little double star, worth a look when you’re there. I haven’t hunted down any DSOs since March, but hoping to have a look when the weather improves too. Have fun Gary