Starwatcher2001

I use a finder made from 1/2 a pair of binoculars on my DIY Dob. I didn't use the prism though as I wasn't interested in a RACI, so needed to add extra length with a piece of plastic drain pipe. As John mentioned, I also did the cross-hair trick with a couple of lengths of thin fuse wire. Using the side of the bins which has the diopter adjustment allows a small amount of variable focus.

I have it mounted on the top end of the tube and kinda lean in and look sideways which isn't too bad on the neck.

Welcome aboard SGL Tevin. Good to have you with us.

There's a wealth of information on here, mainly about observing the night sky and choosing equipment to help you do just that. I'd recommend having a good look around the various sections on here.

People are always willing to answer any questions you have have.
 

Welcome aboard SGL, John. Good to have you with us.

Welcome aboard SGL Nick. Good to have you with us. Astronomy is a great hobby, and hopefully the coming year will have better weather. The last one seemed to be particularly dire.

If you've not come across them, there are a number of websites where you can specify your location and get a list of satellites that are visible from your location, including the time and their direction. It's quite fun to spot them and then lookup the name of what you're seeing, who it belongs to, and how long it's been in space.

Years ago there was a number of communication satellites that had parabolic dishes that would occasionally catch the sunlight and appear to flare - often very brightly. It was possible to calculate in advance when this was likely to happen, and go outside and watch one of these "iridium flares". Unfortunately I think most of them have now been decomissioned.

This is a good site for satellite information: https://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx

This is just another chosen at random: https://in-the-sky.org/satpasses.php

Two new toys arrived today:  A lovely Celestron C80ED-R courtesy of Chaz2b, and a brand new AZ5 mount for her.

The scope is in great condition and Chaz is obviously the "go to" guy if you want a valuable parcel wrapping securely. Thanks very much mate - I'm very happy with it.

AZ5 came from Wide Screen as FLO didn't have stock. Ordered Monday evening and arrived this morning!

I chose both of them having read some great comments on SGL, and they feel like a cracking combination for a grab and go. Much easier than hauling out the 9.25 when I'm pushed for time or between breaks in the weather. It'll be much easier on my creaky old back too. Most of all, I'm looking forward to the nice wide views.

As it's going to be cloudy for the next two weeks, obviously, I had a quick look from inside the house to the bottom of the garden. I've got an "eye chart" taped on the greenhouse and the view was crystal, even through double glazing. My wife thought the view was a bit foggy, though.... "That's because you moved the scope, and you're looking through the lace curtain dear!"

I'm really excited to get this out under the stars, when they eventually reappear.

It's great that you've seen M13, well done.  It's a brilliant view.  There's another globular in Hercules that's nearby: M92. I think it's just as beautiful.

I don't think open clusters have been mentioned yet, such as the "double cluster" NGC884 and NGC869, or the Pleiades. They can be wonderful to look at even in poor skies (I'm in a Bortle 7/8 location). There's some beauties around Cassiopeia.

The more hunting you do, the more you'll find and more skillful you'll become.

Welcome aboard SGL Peter and son. Good to have you with us.

Hope you both have a great time learning about astronomy, and you've got a good scope there to do that with. Hope to see you in the forum.

Welcome aboard SGL Stu, and welcome back to astronomy. Good to have you with us.

As Geoff said, and note he said distant. Most telescopes won't focus on something close, like in your garden. Make sure you take the covers off both ends! (Many of us have made that mistake a time or two).

If you're not familiar with the parts, post a picture or two of how you've set it up and it will be easier to help (a picture is worth a thousand words).

Wow, thanks for that Dark Vader. Been using SkySafari for months and didn't know those shortcuts. That's gonna make my life a bit simpler!

Hi Andrew,

You might try downloading the previous version to your PC then selecting the "work offline" option on the Celestron Firmware Manager. That might allow you to roll back. I found that it still connected to the internet with that option set, so I ended up disconnecting my PC from the network before I ran CFG. That worked fine. It also helps if you just want to change the firmware for one device, otherwise it insists on downloading and doing them all.

Good luck.

Moon projection is certainly an interesting idea, but I'd be surprised if it was bright enough to work.

This is how I did solar projection during a transit of Venus in June 2004. Turned the tube of my home build Dob upside down, and added a thin white screen to provide shade and project downwards:

Welcome aboard SGL Steve. Good to have you with us.

Welcome to SGL Adam. Great to have to with us, I can see you're going to fit in well 🙂

That one you've mentioned there is pretty much the same as mine. I got a couple off ebay, one for eyepieces/filters the other for finder/starsense/cables and other "setup" gubbins. They've got 15mm foam cubes and I always leave at least 2 or 3 between adjacent items. Rather than plucking them, I "cut" them using a metal ruler, which makes the recesses a bit cleaner. They seem perfectly robust to me.

There's a short thread over here on eyepiece cases:  https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/327792-show-me-your-eyepieceaccessories-case-please/

I agree with Geoff, it's likely backlash. At low powers it can be hardly noticable, but at high power in my SCT (say 300x) it can take the entire field of view to take up the slack. In fact with the backlash set to maximum value it's still not quite enough - which is really annoying. This is the poorest aspect of my scope, but one I've learned to live with.

Hi Jubi. If you're viewing from a balcony, can you see Polaris (the North Star) from there?  Not being able to see it (or rather your scope not being able to see it), will affect the ease of using an equatorial mount.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us.

You could do a lot worse than a 9.25, I have one and love it. More than happy to answer any questions I can about it.

I can understand the desire to get stuck in, but astronomy can certainly test your patience in other ways: weather, getting used to the kit, learning to actually observe rather than just look, long summer days when there's not much darkness around, equipment and user glitches... But it's also a great way to feel closer to, and investigate the universe with your own eyes - and great fun. You'll be able to see tons of objects, but of course they don't look anything like they do in the books.

I'd highly recommend taking the time to learn the constellations and the names of the brighter stars. Learning the territory you're going to be hunting objects in is well worth it. If you can spend time under the stars, even without a scope, you'll get the hand of how things move and change over time.

Welcome to a superb hobby!

When doing solar observing, please remember to cover up or remove your normal finder. Friend of mine forgot and set light to his hair. 🤣  Could have been a lot worse...

Welcome aboard SGL Aisyah. Good to have you with us.  My favourite constellation is probably Virgo - a beautiful place for galaxy hunting.

Welcome aboard SGL Jonathan. Good to have you with us. Nice to see older scopes still providing a porthole to the universe.

Welcome aboard SGL. Good to have you with us.  I'm not an exponent of the dark art of astrophotography myself, but there are plenty of very knowledgeable people on here who would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Welcome board SGL Bill. Good to have you with us.

Certainly for planning and selecting targets and using goto, a tablet or phone is easier in my experience, but I'd never be without the hand controller. Having physical buttons to feel and press is much easier to use without taking your eye away from the eyepiece, especially when scanning around an area of sky. I can't handle pressing buttons on a screen without looking at it, and the relatively bright screen is bad if you're hunting for faint galaxies. Your experience might be different of course.