Tiny Clanger

Tsk, don't forget the dangers of gravity + geology ... falling rocks can kill, falling space rocks can kill, falling off rocks can kill , then there's lightning and drowning due to freak rainstorms, , being struck by runaway driverless vehicles where the driver forgot to set the handbrake, exposure, heatstroke , it's a wonder anyone dares to venture outdoors at all . Well, except for most accidents and serious physical attacks being recorded as occurring in and around in the home .

UK law (caveat : I am not a lawyer ! Martial arts students of reputable dojos get this drummed into them though ... ) prohibits the carrying of weapons: big knives, swords, big stick with a nail in it, whatever. If a thing has no use other than a weapon, you cannot lug it around with you. If you have a genuine innocent reason, e.g heading to your regular iaido club night, you can take your swords there and back, carried safely scabbarded and out of sight in a bag. But that's it. The definition of a tool's offensive weapon status is dependent on the situation: a chef can legally carry their knives to work , a carpet fitter can have a stanley knife in their pocket while working, a camper can have a sheath knife (as long as it is within the law on size ) . But take any of those to the football match, and you have no reason to have it there other than as a weapon. So it becomes illegal. Everyone is entitled to defend themselves, but the key idea in UK law is that the force you use must be reasonable and proportionate. If a guy shoulder barges you , you can't (legally) run him over with your tank. On the other hand, if a large angry man comes at you , fists flailing, you can reasonably pick up a chair and fend him off with it. If a maniac with an explosive belt, a grenade in each hand and a machete between his teeth is heading down your road though ... rev up that tank , your moment has come !

I'm tempted to find a Crocodile Dundee clip on YT ... "That's not a knife ... This is a knife ... " etc etc. I'm a lone female who feels perfectly happy to wander the countryside alone, take a telescope out for a little walk at 2am in suburbia to observe something I can't see from my garden .again alone, and go camping alone. My attitude is that no UK wildlife will do more than startle me (I could have a heart attack one day when yet another stupid pheasant crashes up from hiding nearby in blind, inbred panic as I approach) , cattle are the only farm animals to be wary of (and then only some breeds/genders/ages ) and they are easy to spot, even if they are out of sight themselves, they leave pretty obvious clues for you to see ... As far as the natural world goes, I am without doubt the scariest creature for miles around. As far as the supernatural world goes, ghosts, spirits, elves, whatever I don't believe any of it exists, so no worries there.. People though, are something to be aware of, and are best avoided, simply because the best self defence is to not get into a dangerous situation in the first place. Practically everyone you ever meet anywhere at any time will be a decent human being, but you can't tell . I'm not saying don't go out alone at night , I'm saying be sensible , choose a location thoughtfully, have a 'phone with you, be able to leave quickly if you must, consider what objects you can reasonably have with you could be used in extremis , if you were in fear of your life , as weapons of opportunity. But once you've considered and addressed all of those things, just go out and enjoy the dark. Don't be nervous, do be aware. Would I hand over my kit if it was that or take on someone who was physically threatening me ? Probably, it would depend on a lot of variables, for instance , if they have a knife, they can have the 'scope . Despite having trained extensively against attack with a knife during over a decade of studying Aikido (with a little bit of Ju Jitsu, some jo and bo i.e. Japanese short and long staff and Kendo, er ... thrown in 🙂 , and teaching self defence classes) and having faced such an attack with an actual sharp metal pointy knife during my dan grading, the chances of getting badly hurt are just too great.

A dob is the simplest, cheapest way to get a decent aperture telescope, last year I spent £200 (at current prices , add £50 to that) on a Skywatcher 150 heritage dob, my first 'proper' 'scope and it is a great all round tool, compact, portable, easily stored , lots of easy cheap simple DIY upgrades (just search for 'heritage 150' on here, and you'll find plenty of info) It's not perfect by any means, but for the price I'm confident you couldn't beat it. Other 'scopes on tripods and mounts in this price range typically economise on the non-glamorous bit under the telescope, so you might get a decent 'OTA' (optical tube assembly, the bit you look through) but on a wobbly jerky rubbish platform which you will want to upgrade asap. The dobs get around that with their simple, sturdy , wood/mdf bases. However ... dob.s are not ideal for photography. Snaps of the Moon, yep, much more than that and to do it properly you need a motorised tracking mount, which on its own , no telescope involved, would already be many times your budget. That small fortune you don't want to spend would probably not be enough , by my standards good astrophoto kit costs a big fortune, which is why I stick to observing . The cheapest way in would be a DSLR and suitable photo lens on a small battery powered tracker like a star adventurer https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer.html which alone would be £280, then a suitable tripod , say £70 , a DSLR & lens , and probably an intervalometer... you could pick up second hand gear , but I doubt even second hand a DSLR based setup would come in at less than £600 . Read a few threads about kit choices in the photo section on here , and check the prices of what is suggested , it is a very effective form of aversion therapy ! I'm not trying to put you off, honest, I just think your budget will not get you a photographic set up that will give you anything but frustration and disappointment . However, £300 could give you a chance to observe for yourself some fantastic sights , my little dob, from my suburban back garden , has shown me detail on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the (no detail) sight of Uranus and Vesta, not to mention many star clusters, galaxies , and nebulae. If you buy a basic decent 'scope, put the time in to find how to use it and to see through it (not as easy as you'd imagine ! ) some fantastic sights are there waiting for you. Heather

Ha, I'd completely forgotten that , must re-watch the series , thanks 🙂

I was thinking the same , 'Beware of the wild Marxists on the heath' ?!

UK law, carrying anything which can be classed as a weapon is right out, so taking along a baseball bat or knife or whatever is completely out of the question . However, if you have a large powerful metal bodied torch (U.S. 'flashlight') like a 3 or 4D maglite with you for perfectly legitimate reasons (you need it to find your dropped eyepiece ...) you have a comforting lump of metal to hold and the ability to shine a bright light in the eyes of a human aggressor, destroy their night vision, and take yourself away, head quietly for safety while they see not much at all for minutes . That said, I'd prefer concealment to confrontation any day (or night) so would strive to choose a location where human interference would be unlikely, and from where I could leave easily, not a spot with only one access where I might be blocked in. Staying still and silent , and not silhouetted against any bright light makes sense, as does positioning yourself so approaching you from the rear unnoticed would be difficult , so ideally try to keep some barrier like a fence or wall or rock formation behind you. Here in the UK we have no non-human animals which would pose a danger at night, as long as we don't set up in a cow field (nosy bullocks & heifers are mostly just annoying, but cows with calves can be dangerous). Mind you, one tiny inoffensive hedgehog can sound like a giant marauding beast as it crashes around the undergrowth and eerie sounds like the cries of foxes do seem magnified in the still of the night . Heather

2am , my garden, if I'm lucky ....

Yep, I have a custom landscape added to my desktop stellarium, it gives me a good approximation, but with a tiny garden, even moving 2m from the point where I took the panoramic photo changes what can be seen over the fences/neighbour's houses quite a bit , and I have to do a new photo now anyway, the neighbour's trees have grown since last August, and I've severely pruned the buddleia for a clearer view to the east !

Here's an idea , which I know works on the desktop/download version of stellarium , but I don't know if it can be done on the online or app versions. Run the stellarium date forward by at least a month, and select a planet, make a note of the alt & az rounded to the nearest degree. Nip out into the garden one clear night (cue light ironic laughter ...) and , with the current date/time set, and having activated the alt/az grid overlay on stellarium, see if you are able to spot a star at or near that alt/az the planet will be near on the future date. Heather

Why not ask them directly ? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/contact.html

Dinosaurs and space ?! You have a Granddaughter with excellent taste there 🙂 Welcome Heather

I'm not even bothering to look at a forecast at the moment, maybe the night before, as you say whatever will be, will be . All together now .....

OK, I'd not usually reply to a query in the imaging section , but the OP did not mention imaging, simply viewing , and I've been experimenting with simple kit/solar filter myself for that so : Finding the Sun : take bit of card out with you, hold it 30-50 cm behind the 'scope. shift the 'scope until the shadow of the tube etc shows as a neat cross section circle rather than an elongated shape. Then fine tune with the solar finder. My bit of card has a cut out and some masking tape on it, so after use to line up, it goes on top of the tube and casts some shadow near the eyepiece. If I was viewing from a nice smooth slabbed area I guess I could use the shadow of the 'scope on the ground. . Filters: I read somewhere that a green filter might bring out some extra solar detail , but didn't find it much use, what does work for me is a UHC , sunspots are more than simple freckles, some surrounding structure is visible .

The Martians think HGV Park stands for Hello Green Visitors Park ...

I was under the impression that most long distance lorry drivers (i.e. all those travelling to and from the continent , and being held up in the Kent lorry park built for the specific purpose of holding them while their paperwork is sorted ) sleep in the beds provided at the back of their cabs ? So this is not a deserted overnight car park type facility at all, and I doubt (within the limits of their tachographs ) the drivers wok office hours either, I bet it's a busy place round the clock, every day of the year.

I've found the ST80 (an Orion version, dovetail not rings so a bit more compact ) on a photo tripod & pan/tilt head a fine little grab & go , single handed pick-up & carry even by a weedy female (me) when the tripod is closed down, I just leave it standing set up, 17mm plossl sat ready in in it, take hold of one of the pan tilt handles and lift the whole thing as it is . No problem carrying it 10 minutes walk away one winter night to get a line of sight to the nova . Just hold one leg, undo the clips on the others and let gravity pull the sections down, lock the leg clips, extend the third one. It's the work of moments from noticing a cloud free bit of sky to looking at it , and has had plenty of ten minute outings since I bought of it . Using a second hand 40mm plossl in the ST80 gives a binocular-like 10x mag , meaning I don't need or want an optical finder for the 'scope, it is its own optical finder ... a 6mm ortho gives a 66.6x mag which is not dramatic levels of magnification, but gets useful views of the Moon and Sun (with the relevant solar filter of course) The tripod and head ( a manfrotto 190pro and 029 pan/tilt) are probably overkill for the weight of the 'scope , but they are from my my photo kit and I already had them. I added a Baader clamp to give a more secure attachment head to 'scope than just a 1/4" screw, and to add some forward/back adjustment, the tripod etc weighs a little over3kg, the 'scope and clamp/QR plate , diagonal, 17mm plossl solar finder & filter is just under 2kg It's a great little option to have such a 'scope available , compact, cheap, robust, light, quick to deploy, and not so precious I'd be worried about sticking it in the car boot with the camping kit , or be concerned about folk handling it to have a look for themselves. Yes, plenty of CA shows itself, but the way this is used, quite casually, I don't really care !

Great start, nice report. Funny to imagine (here in Leicestershire-nowhere-near-the-sea) having to check not just the weather forecast before planning a trip out with the 'scope, but also the tide tables 🙂 There's a wealth of free stuff out there on the internet for those of us not exactly burdened with space cash , e.g. how to make your own collimation cap https://www.superpoweroptics.com/make-collimation-cap/ (you can often beg a few free 35mm film pots from an establishment that takes in film for processing , there are still some around !) and how to use it https://garyseronik.com/a-beginners-guide-to-collimation/ And an excellent guide to some good targets for rather light polluted skies : https://las-astro.org.uk/docs/Loughton_List_v2_0.pdf I look forward to reading your next report ! Heather

Part 2 : Not necessary, but worth considering when funds allow. I found the red dot finder inadequate, the field of view of the mak is quite small , and I needed more help to aim the thing at anything less bright than the Moon , planets beyond Saturn or bright stars. So, the RDF came off,and a right angle correct 6x30 finder went on ( a RACI ) . However , I missed the RDF for those bright things ... and now the shoe was full of RACI, and no way was I dismantling the mak to drill holes in it , so I bought a Rigel Quickfinder , which has a stick on base , no drilling needed. It is a superior, non-magnifying finder which puts red circles up to aim with. Someone will be along soon to tell you telrads are wonderful, they are similar, and have many devoted fans, but are rather long for the 127mak, dew up easily (my Rigel has never yet dewed up ) and to make the illuminated circles pulse you have to buy an extra part for the Telrad, while it is built in to the Rigel. Barlows: lots of people like them, and for the price of one barlow you can (if you have chosen focal lengths carefully ) double the number of magnifications from whatever eyepieces you own. However, personally I bought one, and don't like using it in my dob or my mak , too much faff and the quality of the BSTs seems degraded by it. I keep my 2x Barlow with a few plossls and the original 25mm stock eyepiece from the mak as a small cheap portable kit to go with my small cheap refractor, where it works quite well. Heather

Two vital upgrades I found my 127 mak required (rather than wanted ) 1) a dew shield. I'm not one for spending money where I don't have to, so made my own from closed cell foam and velcro stuck on using a hot glue gun (which I expected might melt the foam, but it didn't when I experimented with various sticky stuff I had to hand in lockdown ) This is the foam I used , 3mm thick, under £11, I got the second sheet for £3ish too, because ... why not ? 🙂 It's handy stuff for lining boxes etc., I made a light shroud and dew shield for my heritage dob. too , and still had some left over. https://www.efoam.co.uk/closed-cell-polyethylene-foam.php 2) Common or garden spring clothes peg , clip it on to the focus knob, and you get the ability to make tiny adjustments gently with a fingertip without shaking the 'scope as you (or at least, I ) fumble around in the dark. Eyepieces, some people love their zooms, I've tried and don't. I've got a range of BSTs, and while I'm not keen on the 25mm in my f5 dob, it is absolutely fine in the mak, and makes a good , reasonably priced replacement for the stock one supplied, which is itself not too bad. What is awful is the supplied 10mm, put it back in the box and get an 8mm or 12mm BST ! Which focal lengths you get is a topic with plenty of previous posts , so I'll not say more on which to buy apart from the 8mm or 12mm, and maybe the 25mm if you feel the need to replace the stock one. To save you the effort of working out the mag, or exit pupil , here are my stats for the BSTs in the 127 mak 25mm 60x magnification, exit pupil 2.08mm 18mm 83,3x " 1.5mm 15mm 100x " 1.25mm 12mm 125x " 1mm 8mm 187.5x " 0.6mm The exit pupil becomes important for me, because any higher magnification than 8mm gives a smaller than 0.5mm exit pupil which causes the 'floaters' in my eye to become visible. I didn't know my old eyes had the things until I tried barlowing the 8mm (to make it effectively a 4mm) and thought there was a mysterious tangle of thread on the diagonal mirror ... nope, that's in my eye ! Which is why I've not bought a 5mm (or less) BST, the floaters would just become too intrusive. I have a 6mm ortho eyepiece , which is as far as I can push it .Apparently one (expensive) way round this is to use binoviewers which allow you to see with both eyes, and the amazing human brain puts together the info from two eyes and edits out the floaters as not part of the view. Which brings me to not-absolutely-essential-but-keep-it-in-mind upgrades : to me the stock diagonal feels flimsy lightweight and just not good enough. As soon as I saw the chance to pounce on a better second hand one I did, and the better model gives a sharper brighter view as well as feeling more secure with heavier eyepieces . If I recall correctly, the stock diagonal has two screws to secure your eyepiece in place, which can scratch the eyepiece barrel , better ones have a single screw and a collar inside which presses on the eyepiece, avoiding any scratching as well as taking half the twiddling to tighten . When I was looking, 6 months ago , the skywatcher di electric diagonal and this one were the same price and appeared identical , now there's a small price difference https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/stellamira-1-25-90-di-electric-diagonal.html The SW one was what I bought second hand, and it is fine, but there are bigger better more expensive ones on offer ...there always are ! Heather

As has been said, Mars is not favourably placed at the mo., but Saturn and Jupiter are becoming more likely targets as the next few months have them rising earlier .they were both very low when I accidentally noticed (at the end of a late/early session on the last day of May) that they had just cleared my neighbour's roof at about 3am, not fabulous detailed views in my ST80 at a pretty low 66xmagnification, (the dob couldn't see them , my garden fence was in the way) but I could see the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter and some indistinct colour banding, and the neatly defined rings of Saturn. Anything lower than around 20 degrees above the horizon is, as these were that night, probably a poor target for your telescope, not much detail can be resolved. Seeing the brighter planets as just white discs is not unusual : your eyes adjusted to the darkness to take in more light is usually a good thing for viewing dimmer objects, but you can be dazzled by the brighter ones . Do you use a Moon filter ? It is essentially just like using sunglasses ! I had to buy one to use with my 150mm dob, because it collects so much light I physically recoiled from my first sight of the full Moon in it ! I don't need a filter at all on my 127 mak (or little 80mm frac) , it all depends on the 'scope aperture and your eyes. In a similar way, seeing a bright planet against the dark sky you may only get a shining disc . If you have a Moon filter, you could try that with the planets too, if not , one thing I found worked last year when I was looking at Mars was to destroy my night vision deliberately by nipping indoors (the opposite of what to do when looking for faint stuff ) . I also bought a very cheap set of coloured filters (less than £15 from the Far East via Amaz. ) to see if they helped . They did, increasing the contrast between areas, so I have subsequently bought some better ones second hand from here. Another filter I bought, but have not used on the planets yet , is a variable neutral density filter, which is actually two polarizing filters you can rotate one and produce an infinite range of darkening ,so suit the level of light precisely to what is comfortable. I don't know if this will be useful or not , the effectiveness of filters seems to be a very personal thing, which I why I went for the very cheap coloured ones to try the idea out first. By the way, if your 'scope has a small cap-within- a -cap on the front, try using just that smaller aperture on a planet (making sure to have the cap aperture offset from any vanes if your 'scope has them) , its a way to cut the light down a bit , it's not great, but its free and easy to try . So, don't be discouraged , you just need to observe what is offering the best opportunity for a good view when a clear night comes around ... if the Moon is up, look at the Moon, if it isn't , try for faint fuzzies, , if a particular planet appears large because its orbit and ours have bought us closer, and it is reasonably high in the sky, go for that. Mars was close last year, and wonderful to view , it will be again, we just have to wait patiently . Heather

I echo your caution after absorbing years of dire warnings against it , and your delight at actually seeing the Sun through a 'scope ! My (slightly silly) version of your sacrificial DSLR ploy was to initially use my non-dominant eye , just in case ... Began with the filter I'd made for the small aperture cap within a cap on my ST80, was not blinded/turned to stone/shrivelled up , so escalated to using the 'ggod' eye , and then the full aperture filter . Nice whole disc views with a 12mm plossl in the little 'scope. ☀️ I was sufficiently impressed to use the rest of the Baader film to make a filter for my 127 mak ... wow, using that , and the borrowed UHC filter (that I'm going to have to buy now) with a BST 8mm showed some interesting tiny detail around the simple 'freckles' that showed in the ST80 . I've been recording what I see as little pencil sketches, my dodgy art skills are not challenged by a circle, a tiny amoeba and some dots Heather

It seems to decrease the quality of the view more than I'd like. No idea why. However it seems OK in the ST80 I decided I'd rather buy another BST than experiment with a more expensive Barlow.. To attach a DSLR, you need a T mount * , these are made with a standard thread on one side, which screws in to the barlow top (no eyepiece, just the barlow ) and on the other side a mount to match your DSLR bayonet fitting. The heritage is not an ideal 'scope for photography, but you can take photos of the Moon . Not every Barlow has this feature I suspect, so if it is important to you, check before buying. * Or a T2 mount, which is the same thing but can be rotated, You don't need T2, as you can rotate the barlow in the focus tube , but they are often sold for the same price. Either is fine for this purpose.

I have both ... madness I know, but the 32mm plossl belongs in my main eyepiece case, and I wanted another to use as a 'finder' in my small and very portable 80mm frac which has its own small case of plossls . A second hand 40mm came up for sale at a good price, so I went for it. The view is pretty much identical in my little refractor, 32mm to 40mm, the main difference is that the 40mm ( a Celestron plossl,) is markedly bigger and heavier than the 32mm (a skywatcher super plossl) which affects the balance of the light weight 'scope , and puts a bit of a strain on the quite flimsy stock diagonal I use with it . I'd say stick with the 32mm . Heather

That's true : I dislike the barlow in my heritage dob, have never felt the need to even try it in my mak (which gives all the magnification my eye floaters allow with a 6mm ortho ) , but am quite happy to use the barlow in my little ST80 refractor , where it stays in a small case to make a lightweight grab & go kit, alongside a couple of plossls and the stock 25mm !