doublevodka

If you could give an idea of your budget @GasGiant it would definitely help.

However as others have mentioned, an eq platform may be a good shout

DIY version - https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/build-a-dobsonian-equatorial-platform

There are commercially available ones too, but no one seems to have any stock currently which seems odd.

Alternatively, you'd be looking at a large SCT to get a similar resolution, which is going to get expensive fast

I thought I'd post a quick review of sorts about www.astrocooker.com and my dealings with Dennis who runs the site.

So from the sites FAQ firstly what is it?

"Formerly known as FITS Scrubber, it has been renamed to Astro Cooker as it can now process other file types.
Astro Cooker performs basic post-processing on an image file, ideally a raw file taken during an astrophotography imaging session (sub) or stack. The original use case was to preview a single (raw & unstretched) sub before setting off an imaging plan."

I'd come across Astrocooker on Facebook and seen some pretty impressive results from pictures taken with the Seestar S50 and some brief bits about how easy it was to use which seemed right up my street, for a little bit of context my free time is pretty limited so anything that can make my astro life easier is a winner in my books.

I'd planned to use it to process some of the night mode images that I had taken with my Pixel phones over the last couple of years, however, it didn't support the native raw format - DNG from my phone. I faffed about with some file conversions and got some ok results, but I decided to get in touch with Dennis to see if he could expand the formats - from the site FAQ.

"I cannot upload my raw file.

Currently, these image formats or file extensions are accepted: fit(s), tif, jpg, png, arw and rw2. Let me know your image file extension or type and if the raw library can process it, I'll add it to the list."

I dropped Dennis a quick email at around midday yesterday, just after 8 pm he'd come back asking for an example file to test, and before 9 pm it was all up and running, which as an IT guy I can tell you is pretty much unheard of in the software world 😂

Dennis was very helpful throughout and as a bonus, I now have a nice easy processing tool to play with, my photo's won't win any award, but it's nice to be able to quickly get some more out of the data 👍

Example image below for reference, I've done nothing else to it other than run it through astrocooker.

Maybe keep it simple and post a wanted ad for someone to swap a set of 8's for 10's, worth a try?

I'm a massive fan of night mode on the Pixel phones, my profile picture was on a particularly lucky night in my back garden on night mode with the auto-generated preview video.

Think @Adreneline has hit the nail on the head there

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/baader-mark-iii-mpcc-coma-corrector-photographic.html

"Requires 55mm back focus."

Near the bottom of the product page here it shows you how to do it - https://www.touptekastro.com/products/touptek-atr3cmos26000kpa-imx571-colorful-astronomy-camera-26mp-1-8-aps-c-tec-cooling-deepsky-astronomical-telescope-camera

Alternatively, if you are in a rush and don't have time to sort it before the next imaging session, you could simply remove the MPCC from the equation, you'd still have some coma, but not as much as is showing with the spacing issue currently.

Hope that helps 👍

This video may be of some help? 

Taken from the user manual here - https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/azgti_manual_v102.pdf

Page 7 - Power LED: The power LED serves as a power-on indicator and provides other statuses. 1. Steady on: Internal Wi-Fi is off. 2. Intermittent one flash: Internal Wi-Fi is on. 3. Intermittent two flashes: App has connected to internal Wi-Fi. 4. Intermittent three flashes: Internal control board has entered firmware update mode.

Page 9 - 3.4 Wi-Fi Connection

User must connect to the mount’s Wi-Fi within 15 minutes after turning on power. The Wi-Fi will be turned off automatically if no connection is estabilished within 15 minutes, . • By default, the SSID of the built-in Wi-Fi is “SynScan_xxxx” and there is no password. User can download Skywatcher’s “SynScan” app from App Store or Google Play to configure the mount’s built-in Wi-Fi. • Reset Wi-Fi configuration to factory default by turning on the power without the SynScan hand control connected and no App operations via the Wi-Fi connection for 4 hours.

So it looks like the WiFi is currently disabled and it needs to be powered on for 4 hours to reset itself.

As for the AA batteries, I'm going to go against the crowd here and say that it works fine for me, the AZ-GTi unlike other mounts is designed to use them and copes well with the slightly lower voltage, plus it saves me the faff of dragging out an extension lead, however, many household 12v supplies work fine such as the ones supplied with routers 5.5mm plug with the centre being positive if memory serves.

Hi @RJC,

First piece of advice here would be the mount is the most important part of your setup, you can have the best OTA (optical tube assembly) in the world, but if the mount is not up to the job you'll not have a great time.

If it has to be one of the 3, then personally, I would say the Evostar 102 on the EQ3-2 as it's a better package and mount, the EQ1 and EQ2 mounts are shaky to put it politely.

However, you seem to want to look at a bit of everything so I'm going to suggest a slight change in direction. The most recommended option for someone starting out is an 8 inch dobsonian and there are a couple of good options available, I'm going to stick to the ones from FLO, the forums sponsor, but others are available.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-8-f6-dobsonian.html - A well-equipped setup, fully manual and no shaky mount - £449 new (used ones are also becoming available)

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-series/celestron-starsense-explorer-8-dobsonian.html - Another well-equipped scope, but with the Starsense Explorer system that uses your smartphone to help direct you to objects

Both are 8-inch mirrors, so much more light-gathering power than your options above, and will allow you to see a larger range of targets than your options above, including the planets which are great targets to start with.

Ed Ting probably explains it a little better than I do, so have a watch here, best of luck with whatever you end up purchasing 👍

The best advice I can give right now is don't worry about extra aperture right away, a C6 is a competent scope. There is some handy info about the Nexstar range on www.nexstarsite.com it really helped me out when I had my 4SE.

Even if the weather is not behaving currently (certainly isn't here) get the scope setup indoors, maybe near a window and familiarise yourself with it in the daytime, as mentioned above align the red dot finder, practice focusing on distant objects if possible.

When you do get it outside under the night sky, start off with your 32mm plossl, don't make the classic mistake of going maximum magnification straight away as you will be lucky to find the moon let alone anything else.

Once you have done your alignment with the Starsense system and you are on target, then you can ramp up the magnification, I'd recommend starting with the moon first and try out the 8-24mm zoom, start at the 24 end and work your way down to 8, when you are comfortable with that, then Jupiter is in a favourable position, give that a try, again, switch to lower magnification first e.g. 24mm end of zoom and then up the magnification, Bear in mind the sky conditions can affect the views greatly, so if you find things fuzzy at the 8mm end (highest magnification) then step it back a bit, much better to have a clearer smaller view, than a fuzzy large one.

This is worth a look too, seems to be the same as the RT90C - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tripods/stellalyra-carbon-fibre-tripod-with-38-thread.html

Looks good 👍 Should mean you get out an observing a lot more which is great

My only suggestion would be some sort of airflow which will help control the humidity (and heat for the 2 weeks of summer we get)

Maybe have a look at these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=solar+powered+fan&crid=MK1GPYXI0BSK&sprefix=solar+powered+fan%2Caps%2C74&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 a small solar powered fan should give enough airflow to keep things fresh in there.

2k USD is a significant investment so I'd recommend having a serious think about what it is you want from the scope long term if you see astrophotography being in there at all think long and hard about it first as anything other than lunar and planetary will require a significant further investment if you go down the alt-az route to start with.

Going to make a minor assumption here in that you are looking at the used market as you mentioned the Nexstar series a good resource for you is https://www.nexstarsite.com/ I found it very handy when I had my Nexstar 4SE.

If you are happy to avoid the astrophotography rabbit hole for now and look more into dobsonian scopes, I would suggest taking a look at the StarSense Exploere series of dobs, for example https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-starsense-explorer-series/celestron-starsense-explorer-8-dobsonian.html. The starsense explorer system is well-liked here, it's a lot cheaper and will allow you a lot of breathing room in your budget for accessories such as eyepieces etc (trust me you will want to buy more). 8 inch dobs are also considered to be the best size for most people as they combine a decent size aperture with enough portability that you will use it regularly, when it's cold outside it becomes much harder to persuade yourself to drag a larger instrument outside  

If you really, really want to start dabbling in astrophotography then I would also suggest looking into the ZWO Seestar S50 - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/zwo-seestar-s50-all-in-one-smart-apo-telescope-tripod.html 

Hopefully, this is all useful, good luck with your next purchases 👍

This video may be helpful, congratulations on the purchase!

Hi @Elka if you can give us an idea of budget, we may be able to give you some pointers, the above link is very useful and we're all very good at spending other people's money 😂

Fforest Fields gets my vote as a nice campsite, great facilities on site plus a small lake for daytime activities for canoeing/paddle boarding should you be that way inclined, quite a big site from what I remember, although it was a few years ago.

Have a look at this thread for some ideas - 

There's some quite good info here, yes it's targeted at reflector users, but the principles are very similar - https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/thermally-optimise-your-telescope

The last picture shows quite accurately the effect of air currents, being indoors with an open door will amplify this effect as the warm air inside will be replaced with the cold air outside and cause turbulence.

This is most easily seen by yourself by looking at the moon with your scope, the view will appear to shimmer which is partly down to the seeing conditions but also down to the cooling of the scope and room.

Ideally, if possible, you want to get the scope outside to cool in advance of observing, roughly 30 mins for a 4 inch scope and add 10-15 mins per inch larger.

Maybe this recent video will help? To my eye the smaller scope has the advantage, but then it is a Tak...

Not used them, but rother Valley Optics also do this sort of thing - https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/services.html

Or you could go the diy route I guess? - 

This may be helpful? As it happens watched it last night 

On 28/11/2023 at 06:09, Kerrschild said:

Hello! I'm a physicist working on black holes who incredibly managed to stay away from astronomy for far too long! I wanted to get started with a beginner telescope without too much fancy stuff, so I can learn my way around the sky (For example, no computer mounts so I can learn how to find objects on my own). I also enjoy camping and hiking so I was looking for something that can fit in a hiking backback. Also, I'd like to spend less than $300 total since this will be a hobby and I can't spend that much.

Under these specifications, I started looking and I found too many options! Here's is a list of telescopes that people have called beginner, portable and simple (straightforward refractor telescope, no equatorial mount or computer mounts)

- Celestron Astromaster 80azs

- Celestron Powerseeker 80azs

- Celestron Travel Scope 80

- Orion CT80

- Orion GoScope 80

- Orion Observer ST80

- Orion Shorttube 80 (not made anymore but I could find one online maybe?)

What is the difference between these models? They are all 80mm diameter, 400mm focal length, roughly the same size, and similar AZ mount (except Orion Observer), with roughly the same magnification (from 10x to 160x approximately). Do people have strong preference for some of this over another? Why would celestron and Orion have so many models that, at first glance, have exactly the same specifications?

 

If I can ask one more thing, I also noticed these two telescopes on the slightly better magnification and such. Do people consider these somewhat portable? Would they fit in a backpack to go hiking? Would they be better beginner options compared to the previous list?

- Orion starblast II 4.5 (Actually a refelctor and EQ mount but I feel it kinda also fits my needs)

- Celestron inspire 100az

 

Thanks so much!

 

 

In theory, as you've pointed out they are all very similar (mostly made in the same factory I suspect too)

Out of the 80mm scopes I'd say the Orion ST80, slightly better build quality in regards to focuser etc, but optics in all are very much the same.

The refractors travel better and are less likely to lose collimation than say the Starblast 4.5, although it is a great little scope, I have the dobsonian version and love it after a couple of tweaks.

However, I'm going to throw a curveball in here, what about adding binoculars into the mix? Some great info here - https://binocularsky.com/ easier to cart around if you do a lot of hiking etc.

The used market is well worth a look, 80mm refractors and binoculars appear often, if you are patience there are still come good deals to be had 👍

Much as I love my little Starblast, I would have to also recommend a short tube 80mm refractor too, it'll travel better and fit in a smaller space, in a pinch it can even be mounted on a sturdy photo tripod 👍

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ may be a good place to start using imaging mode so you can get an idea of how objects will be framed with your setup, and then you can change cameras to see how it looks.

As @Elp said, your budget will be a key factor. Based on the Starlight's price, have you looked at some of the ZWO offerings? For example https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo/zwo-asi-2600mc-duo-usb-30-cooled-colour-self-guiding-camera.html is quite an interesting new camera on the market.

This hobby can be frustrating to us all that's for sure, we've all had nights like you at some point so stick with it, the buzz you get when you first see Jupiter and Saturn will more than make up for it and it's something that you will remember for years to come 👍

As others have said, practice in the daytime with your setup, it really makes it easier and it's a weird thing to say for a man, but reading the manuals really helps too 😂

There is this as an option? Alternatively it's finding someone with an old focuser they don't want to get that part, maybe worth posting a wanted once you've made enough posts to be able to see that section.