Tiny Clanger

Thanks Zermelo, yes, I'd read that .

I'm waiting for the OP to come back with some extra info on the storage possibilities and environs of the cottage , no point in elaborating on ideas without that . A lot also depends on what kind of people their target renters are : families/couples/casually interested 'normal' people / astro hobbyists / astro photo enthusiasts ? Will the expense of the kit be worthwhile ? This is a business , and any money spent needs to show a return. The theft/damage/careless use possible problem could be minimized by offering a 'scope as an additional extra , with a payment (and maybe a security deposit as well ) which underlines the value of the object. Heather

Aha! That I can see 🙂 Even more relaxing with the delightfully smooth rotation added to the bird song , you could market that as an anti-insomnia vid, with sweet dreams of lovely altaz mounts promised for the viewer after it takes effect ... Heather

I'll be interested to read what you make of this 'scope Francis, it has been top of my list of relatively affordable upgrades to my 102s Bresser achro now I've established that this size of refractor suits my purposes as a grab & go really well. Heather

Comparing alt az mounts to EQ ones is like comparing apples and oranges, apart from the fruit's weight (or for the mounts. the weight capacity) there's no equivalence , the numbers are just labels, although within the skywatcher ranges the numbers do denote ascending cost and capacity. The Pronto doesn't get a number, wonder where it would be , altaz 3.5 ? 🙂 I spent a lot of time looking for a reasonably priced , smaller and lighter alternative to the AZ5 for my 102 'frac. The skytee is heavier than I wanted, takes two 'scopes (which I didn't need it to do) and has a poor reputation for the quality of the clamps , and the metal the thing is made of has been known to shear ... all for double the cost of an AZ5. Nope, the skytee was not for me. There's the scopetech mount zero which ticks all the boxes for me apart from the price at £380 ... I rather liked the look of the Berlebach castor , but they seem as rare as rocking horse droppings in the UK, and importing a 200 euro one from TS would attract VAT and import duty and carrier's charges ... similar problem with the very nice looking 250 euro giro ercole mini. (which would also require buying a saddle plate) Again, both of those take two 'scopes. Then there was the Berlebach spica , which I couldn't find much info on , and £180 is a lot to shell out to find out if something's any good ... Then I saw the TS optics AZ6 , noted it was below the threshold at which VAT , import duty etc are levied by UK customs & excise (£135 last time I checked ) so the 100 euro ish price would be all I'd have to pay. It appears to be the less red & shiny, extension and counterbalance bar free, version of this offering from Altair which is priced at £180. Given my choices seemed to be either waiting an eternity for a second hand spica, castor or ercole to come up at a sensible price, or go for the TS AZ6 I took a punt on the little TS AZ6. It copes OK with the 102mm, but it's at the edge of what it can comfortably manage, which TS claim is 4kg without a counterweight ( and Altair say is a lot more). What I conclude from hours of research on altaz mounts for middling size 'scopes , is that anything bigger, heavier and longer than my fairly modest 102s would need a serious mount, the very cheapest of which is the skytee, but if I was shopping for such I'd prefer one of the more refined bits of engineering like the berlebachs or giro ercole mini . Just buy a dob ! Heather

It claims to play on my win. laptop (running firefox browser with all manner of ad. blockers) but I get no visuals, just some nice relaxing bird song ... 🙂 Heather

And the met office, Beeb weather, and clear outside all offer variations on 'patchy cloud' round here, until total cloud cover arriving around midnight . I'll be prepared (I was in the Brownies after all) but without a high level of expectation ... Heather

And a planisphere (with some indication of where North is for the extremely navigationally challenged) . Most cottages I've stayed in have a few books around, you can find loads of beginner-type general astronomy books in second hand /charity bookshop, or online, most will have star maps, moon maps and general observing advice. Heather

There's a few factors in direct opposition to each other here : you want something easy to store move and use, but not easy to quietly vanish into someone's car boot at the end of the stay (relatives ran a B&B for many years, it's astonishing what some folk can fit in a suitcase) You want something robust and easy to use for all ages and experiences, which will withstand careless handling, but a good , worthwhile instrument, not a toy. I assume you don't have much astro experience yourself, and any maintenance and/or explanation of how to use the kit would be down toyou. You didn't say how much you want to spend , but I'd assume the lower the outlay the better, and you also don't mention if it's a tiny cottage with little storage space, or has outhouses where a 'scope might be stored, or if it is a property for 2 rented to adults, or a family holiday venue where all ages need to be catered for. A 150 dobsonian would be cheap, and challenge the most enthusiastic kleptomaniac as far as smuggling it out would go, but it would need space to store it, would be vulnerable to damage by anything dropped down the tube. I don't think collimation would be any kind of problem, because if the optics went a little out of alignment, a beginner wouldn't even notice, and an experienced user would simply sort it out (as long as you included a cheshire collimator with the kit) There's even a company who rent dobs out by the day, and they seem to survive the onslaught of beginners ... https://www.darkskytelescopehire.co.uk/ Ypu can get a decent 150mm (6") aperture dob for £250 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-6-f8-dobsonian.html A refractor would be more the sort of thing a visitor with no astro experience might expect and be comfortable with, but then it's almost too portable / steal able and a reasonably priced one will have bits which can be fiddled with/broken/lost , lots of screws, bolts and adjustments which attract interfering fiddlers, and breakable plastic accessories. For the same price as the 150 dob you could get something like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-pronto/sky-watcher-evostar-90-660-az-pronto.html Easy to use , not too big or heavy , not too great an expense. Binoculars would be a cheaper option, and their advantage is the all-in-one nature of them, no bits to lose, but the theft possibilities are endless , and they would likely be taken out for the day as well , which might exacerbate the chances of loss or damage. Is there a garden or yard with a good view adjacent to the cottage ? If so, I've an idea ... Heather

I find the AZ5 is good with my mak on it, but I parked my 102s Bresser on it to use it (before it's own mount arrived) and found that even though it is about the same weight as the mak, the greater length of the 'frac tube allowed an annoying amount of vibrations to occur. Mechanically , the AZ5 can bear the weight, no problem, it's the way that weight behaves that was the problem. I know that Basementboy found the AZ5 didn't work nicely with his refractor, and asked about it here

I made a 3 legged, equilateral triangle table it from bits of a broken down Ikea sofa. you can see it in some of the photos in my thread about the chair I made from the same reclaimed wood later:

Not more comfortable, no. It's the instant set up and portablility I like the 102s for, and it helps that a nice photo tripod raises the viewpoint when fences round a small garden interfere . If I'm using the dob , I have it on a custom made low table tailored for it, and use the adjustable observing chair I made to sit very comfortably at a seat height exactly right , it helps enormously , both in keeping my eye in the right spot over the EP, and, after a solid half hour gazing at Jupiter or whatever, I no longer get the feeling I may never stand up straight again Heather

I have it on a tiny compact AZ6 from Telescop-Express in Germany, it's pushing the mount's capacity rather, but I'm happy to put up with that to get light weight and portability . It's all on a manfrotto 190 tripod

I'll happily act as international courier for it and donate my time for free, as long as the buyer pays for my return ticket , I've not visited that part of the US yet 🙂

For detailed info about what I just saw, I find stellarium invaluable , you can set the time to yesterday, zoom in, and see which moons of Jupiter they were, and check if a satellite was what zipped by ... You can also set up a plugin called ocular view to show you an approximation of the view with your 'scope/eyepieces, handy to show the star patterns around an object in the orientation you do in the eyepiece , for instance, this was Neprune 9pm yesterday with heritage150/32mm plossl : I found Neptune underwhelming in the 150 heritage dob too, it was only a few weeks ago when I was absolutely 100% certain I had identified which tiny dim grey pinprick really was the planet . Have a try at Uranus, that looked distinctively greenish coloured to me, far easier to pick out. For a printable PDF with plenty of realistic targets, with brief info on each as well as how to find them, check out the Loughton List , I've linked to it lads of times, a search (top right) on here will find the pages. Heather

Lovely report, thanks for reassuring me there's something to see behind these clouds 😞 Actual photo's hitting the eye, that's the stuff 🙂

As condensation occurs when moist air comes into contact with a surface that is good at conducting heat (like glass or steel) , I'd guess that flocking would act as an insulating layer, and actually decrease the chances of the sides of the secondary dewing up . As the back of the secondary is facing space, and losing heat , it is going to be colder, and more prone to dew than the front of the secondary. Heather

In the course of several purchases from Alan's own site (which is cheaper than his ebay shop) I've had several email conversations, and one 'phone call with him. nice chap, extremely helpful and honest. Heather

And then I had to pop the covers off all of them, and get the blower and the wonder stuff out and clean the lenses ...

You had me diving for the eyepiece case and shaking my BSTs like maracas , none rattled . I don't own a 5mm, but in the spirit of investigation tried lifting the eye cup rubbery top section of my 8mm , which peeled off easily with a bit of thumb pressure with the eye guard wound up. Maybe you could try warming the thing up a little in your pocket or hand to soften the rubber ? Heather

You know from much posting back & forth on here back last winter , I'm a big fan of the heritage dob (other dobs are available 🙂 ) / mak combo, and go for DSOs with the little dob , planets and lunar with the mak , but there are folk who do use the 127 mak more , er, widely , Suburban mak for instance (altho' he did get himself a widefield set-up based on an ST80 not that long ago ) .

That's a handy toy to mess with isn't it 🙂 Do be aware, though that the strengths of your 'scope , which is 500mm focal length, are in wide field rather than high magnification use. Achromat refractors do not bring all colours of light to the same precise focus causing Chromatic Abberration (that's why they are a lot cheaper than the apochromatic refractors astro photo enthusiasts spend big money on, which correct that fault) and this C.A. can be intrusive . It annoys different people at different levels, and it shows more at higher magnifications, and on brighter objects ... you may have noticed a neat coloured line around the Moon ? That's CA. You've got a great 'scope for wide field , and a decent mount by the sound of it, get the hang of using it for visual observing before diving into the money pit that is astro photography . For some targets I can guarantee can be seen from the edge of the city , the Loughton list is a very handy resource , try the 'bronze' level targets first (there are coloured bars on the object's pages bronze/silver/gold) https://las-astro.org.uk/docs/Loughton_List_v2_0.pdf

I'd like a Bresser 200mm dob, for me the weight saving over other brands, plus the better alt bearings are the deciders, but it's all academic at this point, with Bresser stock not expected for months. 😞 Anyway, the key question is , what do you rally want it for ? A 'scope is a tool, different tools are good for different jobs. There is no cheap, easily mounted, light, big aperture, equally good AP & visual, high mag, wide field ,fast set up, 'scope . Everything is a compromise, the hard part is deciding which compromises you are more willing to put up with ...

Okay, so the 32mm plossl, with it's 50 degree field gives a view almost exactly as wide as a 25mm but 60 degree BST starguider ( I have both !) You can get an approximate comparison by using a tool which is linked to on some of the FLO eyepiece pages like this one : https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces/bst-starguider-60-25mm-ed-eyepiece.html scroll down the page a bit, to astronomy tools field of view simulator. You can change it to your telescope (by the drop down menu) , swap to a different target, delete the circles of the eyepieces you don't care about, add circles for other eyepieces ... you'll be there for hours 🙂 Heather

Don't assume you'd not use the little 'frac ! In actual hours observed with them, my heritage dob and 127mak must be way ahead of it, but the 102 Bresser 'frac (600mm focal length) I've owned for a few months has had more (short) outings than both the other two together. It's not as good a light bucket for DSOs as the dob , it doesn't have the long focal length of the mak for planetary and lunar, but I'm finding it very enjoyable , and it extends my chances of observing something , anything in our increasingly rubbish weather. Pick it up, carry it outside, plonk it down , start looking, clouds roll in, pick it up, go in. No setup/cool down/fuss, just spur of the minute fun. Heather