orions_boot

Very excited now apparently my equipment is in stock and due to arrive with me in two days. My question is on the storage options I have and which is best. I know the dob needs to cool and I have read about people saying to be careful of moisture forming. so taking all this in to account: Option 1 - store in house and take outside each time. Pro - safe/secure, clean Cons - waiting long cool down Option 2 - brick out house attached to the house. The roof is insulated like a house roof and single brick wall construction. It is dry in there, never seen any damp on anything, but certainly warmer than outside but cooler than the house. Pro - cooler than inside the house, easier to get outside , as secure as my house. con - dust Option 3 - basic shed. Pro - as cold as outside. con - not very secure, dusty, no insulation at all. I don't want to knacker the stuff with moisture etc so would appreciate your advice on the best option to use above. And should eye pieces be stored the same or always in the house? My binoculars fog up at the eye piece so not sure how it works with scope eye pieces. Thanks!

Tonight looks like the first of a week of clear nights. However as much as I love the moon it is seriously destroying the darkness. I went back to study Orion Nebula again and there was very short moments of extraordinary clarity. NGC 1981 went from dim but clear in binoculars to naked eye clear. Through the bins I think I could also make out a faint star appearing in NGC 1973 next to the brightest star 42 Ori. Next to 44 Ori to the right was a fainter pair of stars separated by a hairs width. Unfortunately this is where my ability to read the sky atlas, and possibly some lack of detail in the atlas, falls down. I tried to work it out on Stellarium but I can't map what I have seen very accurately to Stellarium either.

Thanks for your feedback and advice. That is exactly where I was looking. I saw a blue dot but to me it looked pretty much like a blue star.

Another clear and very cold night and apparently the last one I will see for some indefinite period according to the met office. I wanted to dedicate most of my time to looking for Uranus. Probably spent 45 minutes working my way systematically around the area and not certain I recognised it. Where it should be is relatively sparse of anything else however there are a couple of blue stars. Could have been one or none of them. After I had given up I stood up and looked a bit further east than I usually see from where I sit. It was a new view for me again so I just pointed my binoculars and had a peep. My first thought was 'woah'. A nebulous type cloud and very bright star not far away, transpiring to be Orion Nebula and Rigel after consulting my atlas. With averted vision and long blinking I could easily see the nebulosity as two small clouds. One cloud had a really bright central star whilst the other was a lot smaller. Also clocked in NGC 1981. Going forward I think I will work concentrate here and study further the shape and layout, and hope my 10" scope comes next week with a clear sky 😁

Probably like everyone else I have been waiting weeks to be able to see the sky and the last two nights have been very clear albeit yesterday was called off due to a thin layer of cloud. At the moment I am still using 10x50 binoculars awaiting telescope. I have taken up the Sky at Night Magazine so took their tips yesterday to look at the moon yesterday. The highlight was Clavius due to the terminator line being right in the middle. There was a strong 3d effect giving the impression I could see some depth caused by shadows from the most outer crater walls. Towards the north there were more shadows from craters or possibly mountains that stood above the terminator line brightly lit. Also last night I have found Triangulum and that region are further east and higher in the sky than a few months ago, hence it is darker there than nearer the horizon. I decided to focus on finding M33. I am quite satisfied in that region, according to my maps, there is no other feature I should be able to see. I still struggle to work out if I am looking at something in particular so for an object like this, I use a process of elimination. If there isn't something else there and I think I saw it, then I probably did. Compared to M31 it wasn't so elongated or fuzzy. It was more like a small circle of what seemed to be very faint stars with a nebulous look about it. As usually if I do think I have found something I spend some time researching it later. Compared to other pictures/drawings and studying the orientation of the object I am now happy to say I have seen it. @PeterW recommended in a previous report of mine that I should concentrate on some objects in Auriga. It took me 10-15 minutes trying to work out the boundaries of Auriga. I started with a look around Tauras as recommended by Sky at Night to look for Neptune but no luck there. I had a look at the usual stuff there and then tried NGC 1647. I am not convinced I saw that even having looked at pictures of it afterwards. I followed Tauras to Auriga and from there plotted the shape studying my sky atlas for the star magnitudes. Then it was a case of trying to work out which star to use to get to the objects M36/M37/M38. From there it got confusing trying to work out what I was looking at compared to the object descriptions. For anyone who has studied that area there is what I thought was pretty interesting arrangement of stars in lines something like this > ::: but apparently this isn't anything. Not far to the left of that is an extremely faint fuzzy patch which eventually I decided must be M38. I am pretty sure I couldn't find the others. I think I have learnt that the descriptions in the atlas do not correlate to what you can see with binoculars despite it stating the objects are suitable for binoculars.

Thanks, sent.

Thanks for explaining the process. Re: Bresser I meant to ask about orders already placed rather than placing a new order. In that case then, are orders already placed not going to be fulfilled until Jan 2021? Its not an issue just nice to know. I ordered mine early September 2020.

I see, in that case thank you for explaining it!

FLO is the retailer so I believe this is the right place to ask a question why others may want to know the answer to.

Hi Is there any update on Bresser stock? Also how does it work if I have been waiting a couple of months on a multi part order. For example one item in my order was out of stock for weeks, then loads came in and now it is nearly sold out. On my account it is still yellow so not completed for that part. Was one of the parts assigned to my order, or when my scope comes in at some point that other stuff is out of stock again, am I back to square one?

I don't know about anyone else but tonight is the first in about 2 weeks where there isn't a cloud in the sky. I headed out at 2200hrs and for some reason have been focusing on Cassiopeia/Andromeda/Triangulum area. I think the combination of dry cold and no clouds contributed to an apparently darker sky despite the street lamps not being out yet. I believe I have now worked out how to use the sky atlas, how far things are apart on the paper, and how it corresponds to the sky. Also picked up a red light head torch which makes things easier but puts a blue tinge on things when I turn it off. In saying all that I am still not completely certain I have seen what my atlas suggests. NGC884+NGC869 - Initially I am quite sure I mistook these for something else which is in that direction but I cannot identify. I am now sure I have identified them as two small and distinct clusters. NG752 - Possibly what I thought was the above. This is essentially a row of stars in a long cluster and the only thing on my chart between Triangulum and Andromeda. Stars are mainly orange/yellow. There are two brighter stars one at each end. Apparently both of these are binary stars and labelled simply as 56 and 59 on my chart if I am right which I am probably not. Can anyone help? NGC663 - Quite nebulous odd shape of stars. I could mainly see the brighter ones so the fainter ones looked like cloud/whisp. M33 - Couldn't find it and tried for a rather long time. M31 was easy. Any tips? M45 - Very bright and very blue. Could see it with unaided eye but no detail without binoculars. Hyades and NGC1647 - Cannot remember these particularly but I am sure I saw them before I came in with numb fingers.

Any particular time in November? Is it the case that if I ordered one over a month ago I should expect to get one in the November shipment?

Dear FLO, Do you have any update from Bresser on when the dobsonians will be in? They told me late Sept/early Oct and I would say we are bang in the middle of that. I have ordered through you.

Managed to get out tonight briefly to a very clear open sky which suddenly became covered in an annoying thin cloud. Not quite thick enough to block everything but thin enough to obscure most stuff and reflect a lot of background light. So what I could see between the gaps was washed out. I found the street lamps going off made a significant difference. With very little dark adjustment the whole sky was lit with stars. I did struggle a bit navigating since I am not used to sky being in this position as most of the time I have stopped observing some hours ago. Mars - looked a lot bigger than last week. It was a very bright and vivid red. I would have said it was as bright as the moon might be had the moon been there. M45 - Not having my star atlas at first I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking at. I could see it faintly with my eye and thought "that looks interesting". Sticking the bins on it I was greeted with a 'wow' moment of beautiful brightly arranged stars. I had read about M45 a bit so as soon as I looked through the bins I knew where I was at. Betelgeuse - This was as red as Mars but not as bright. Oddly compared to every other star I have ever looked at, this one shimmered with a green tint. Having written this the sky has cleared again. I thought I would have a look for Andromeda, but if I spend any more time trying to look directly vertical I'm going to snap my neck or trap an artery, so have given up.

Evening all. Thanks to you all so far for helping me working out my telescope purchase. In the intervening period I purchased a pair of 10x50 Olympus bins and spent a week outside at least an hour every night working out what I am looking at. I haven't kept a full log of each night in detail so I will summarise what I have seen. It is not particularly dark where I live but I had had a chance on two nights to go rural and then to 'dark sky site' all of which has spoiled me! Street lights go off after midnight here so I reckon that could make a big difference and will check later in the week. Jupiter - The first and easiest target on the very first night. I was taken back being able to see the moons in a straight line, one to the left and three to the right. Over the week I have seen the arrangement change in distance between moons and even number of moons visible. Saturn - Very small but clearly yellow. Sometimes I think I can see the rings and then I wonder if it is a blur on the lens or just not focusing. Something above and to the right diagonal of Jupiter - I am trying to work out what this is from Stellarium but I don't know for sure. A possible candidate is M26. I first saw it this evening and describe it as a definite white fuzz. Could anyone please suggest an object and advise me how to correctly describe the direction/method to find objects to other people? Coathanger - One of the first asterisms I came across by mistake and have used it every night as a way to find some other stuff I researched. M27 - Managed to navigate to this every time from Sagitta. From my garden is a faint white circle. Rural I saw a less faint white circle. Dark sky I saw a rather bright white circle and with some long blinking and everted vision I thought I could see faint details of the apple core shape at the top and bottom. M31 - I first found this at the rural location semi by mistake and working off a vague memory of a route I read to find it. Seeing this was the best feeling so far. The idea that I was looking at an entire galaxy through only a pair of binoculars seemed quite amazing. It was a white fuzz in the middle and with some blinking and averted vision I could see it spreading out sideways. I have found it again tonight but it mostly remains as a white fuzz blob but a rather large one. It seems to take a bit of time in to the night before it becomes visible. NGC6997 - I have inferred this was the object having looked around Deneb where there is quite a lot of action. It was a smallish cluster and not particularly bright but obviously a cluster and the only thing on Stellarium in this area. Milky Way - Whilst at the dark sky site I could very clearly follow the Milky Way and make out what I thought was dust between the stars. Mars - a very small but obviously red dot. Stars - Not so easy for me at the moment to name different stars. I know around Vega I have seen a double star one blue one more orange but this could equally have been somewhere else in the sky. I have also seen a lot of stars in pairs often of different colours around Cygnus.

Thanks for this information. I will probably look to get that quite soon. Further to or instead of the zoom eye piece, I am considering replacing the zoom with single eye pieces. The scope comes with 25mm and the general advice seems to be go for the BST brands. I am wondering is it better to start with fixed EPs and look in to a zoom later?

Do you still need a right angle finder if using a telrad or quick finder? I was getting some funny looks across the room at the price of everything so I took a short cut and started with the quick finder which is better than half the price. I have read a lot of people saying they never used a scope again since they started with one.

I have seen the Rigel quick finder and wondered - would that also need a different kind of fitting to attach?

FLO says 30-40 days and the manufacturer tells me scopes will be ready end Sept/beginning Oct.

Thanks for all your help. After 4 days of researching I have finally pushed the button!

Thanks for this enlightening info. I have read about having to drill new holes when buying a new shoe. I take it the one you have identified will go straight in? I don't want to drill anything!

Hi Thank you for replying so promptly. Can you please tell me why I would need a different shoe? IS that it not all scopes fit on to the supplied one or is it rubbish? With the zoom you linked I can see it would save me a lot but I don't want to necessarily upgrade the things I am buying. In your experience is that zoom here to stay or are you looking to upgrade?

Good evening all, I have re-ignited my interest in astronomy that I used to have as a kid, except now I can buy what ever I need to crack on with it. I have spent many hours reading this forum for help on getting a new setup sorted out. I think I have got to the bottom of it however I wonder if the configuration is OTT in terms of the eye piece. I figure that if I buy a decent scope I need equally decent bits to go with it. I have got my head around zoom limits and on that basis it seems the setup could have too much zoom that it is not worth it. I wish I had it all now, having realised my garden faces south in to mostly blackness away from the light pollution and I had Jupiter and Saturn out there for at least 2 hours with Mars coming round the corner Any input please on this configuration greatly received. I won't spend any more than the total cost of the below at the moment: Bresser Messier 10" Collimation Cap Baader Hyperion Zoom EP Variable polarising moon filter Baader 2.25x Barlow for Hyperion Zoom