Tiny Clanger

I have used my heritage 150 on a manfrotto 190xpro tripod by using one of these between the standard 1/4" photo tripod head screw to the dovetail rail of the heritage. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html It works OK, but I prefer it on the dob base to be honest, it just seems right ! I don't know your tripod, , but you do need something hefty to hold the heritage without wobbling. My ST80 frac lives permanently set up on that tripod with that clamp at the moment, it is fine with a camera type head and no slo mo controls, because that 'scope is so wide field . For the heritage I think if I wanted to use it on a tripod a lot, I'd prefer to replace the photo pan/tilt head with a proper alt az mount , but that would cost considerably more than the £32 for the Baader clamp ! If you do intend to use a photo head, one hint I picked up on here which has worked very well is to have the 'scope 'on the side', as if it was a camera set up to take a portrait rather than landscape photo. Heather

I was in a local school that day ( a Friday perhaps ?) it was clear round here, and broke a lifetime's rule (NEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ANYTHING.) . The partial eclipse happened to coincide with a whole school assembly , so I did a brief explanation of what it was all about to 180 four to ten year olds , with the obligatory stern warnings against looking directly at the Sun. With side doors on the hall conveniently facing south I had set up some old binos on a tripod (one side with caps left on) and co-opted a long suffering teaching assistant to hold a bit of white card to act as a screen, the entire school trooped past and had a look at the image on the card as they left en route to morning playtime . Quite a few were more interested in getting out to play than the event before their eyes though ! Heather

I've only had one occasion to contact FLO (with a question about a possible order, and probable future stock levels all very conditional, and I knew there was no easy answer ), Martin's answer was helpful, patient, and comprehensive. As a new customer it gave me great confidence in the company, and made a really lovely change from the copy/paste non-answers I've come to expect from many businesses . Thanks Martin, have a happy retirement. Heather

I found this page useful, it attempts to pick up your location (ha ha, I'm not in Coventry, fooled the interwebs !) but you can set any place you wish to get timings: https://in-the-sky.org/news.php?id=20210610_09_100 And a mildly embarrasing footnote ... that first look at the Sun I had ? When I didn't see the sunspot which was there ? Ahem , turns out what I thought was muck on the eyepiece was ... the sunspot . Realised next day when I saw two (and had scrupulously cleaned the EP ...) I think I was expecting something rounder and fuzzy edged , what I saw was like a tiny fleck of paint or metal, sharp edged and irregular. You live and learn , eh ? I'd read somewhere that a green filter can show more detail , and I just had enough time to give it a quick try. I thought I could distinguish more fine edge detail around one of the spots. Turning the Sun green did make it a bit eerie, but I look forward to having more than a 15 minute cloud gap to give it a proper study and the green filter a proper test. Heather

I tend towards nocturnal anyway, so am happy to be up until late , with British 'Summer' Time and the short nights , the window of opportunity (if the accursed clouds ever part here for more than a 10 minute tease 😞 ) isn't great for anything dim, and apart from midnight to 2am the rest of the night is too light . The Moon is going to get some serious scrutiny , I'll be happy to see it, which makes a change from being mildly annoyed it was spoiling my chances of seeing faint fuzzies 🙂 I downloaded the Virtual Moon Atlas which I find a big help , especially as you can flip the view to suit your 'scope, I was getting in a right pickle getting my bearings when swapping from dob to mak or frac ... and the extremely helpful 'heads up' posts of what is interesting/challenging on the night to come which more experienced folk put up on here is enormously useful too. I'm looking forward to the return of Jupiter and Saturn to visibility my sky at a convenient time (not the current 4am) For daytime observing I have bought some of the Baader solar film, made filters for the ST80 (full aperture and cap-within-a-cap small aperture) and with them, have been lucky enough to see two sunspots and the limb darkening , all in brief cloud breaks. Not exactly stunning stuff, but a first for me . With a lot of luck, maybe the partial eclipse next month might be clear of clouds ... Apart from that, I have a stack of reading to do, in the hope that when I can observe more, I will have a more accurate and detailed idea of what I'm looking at ! Heather

Welcome Nick, the problem with looking up at the moment round here is that anyone doing if for more than a few seconds could feature in a bizarre , nowhere-near-the sea-or-lake drowning incident ! (I offer this idea free of charge to any scriptwriters for Midsummer Murders etc " Aha! look sergeant, beside the victim , telltale signs of three tripod feet having stood in the mud ... that strange hood may not be the regalia of some doubtful religion after all ... " ) Heather

A search on the postcode suggests this company, but there may be others with the same postcode ... there are a few reviews which suggest previous mystery packages have come from there ... https://cannock.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/super-smart-service-ltd-25132118.html Heather

I don't know if a repair would be easy, or even possible, but trying and failing might scupper any chance of returning the binos for a refund .

I'd return them , you have the same rights for refund & free return on an Amaz, Warehouse deal as any other : I bought a ' no damage, box opened , perfect condition item, customer return' Nikon lens from 'the Amazon warehouse ' a few years ago , on delivery as it auto focussed on my camera it made a noise like a door in a horror film. Thoroughly checked ? Yeah, right. Printed return label and had it on it's way back to them within 2 hours of me receiving it ... Heather

I'll second that . The sense of achievement from actually eventually managing to see some elusive tiny faint thing is enormous for me. And I actually enjoy the process , an exercise of various strategies to (I hope) overcome environmental difficulties . I'd liken it to travelling to a fairly distant destination by train , it takes time, but if you can enjoy the journey as well as the destination and may see some interesting things along the way , it's a lot more satisfying to me than being delivered there by 'plane , which is admittedly faster and more efficient, like go to ...

That is true, but the 1/4" thread is standard for the connection between photo tripod head and camera. On most good quality photo tripods you can remove the photo head (on some, like Manfrottos, you may need to turn the tripod over and undo some grub screws to unlock it , but in most cases, just unscrew the head anticlockwise ) The screw from the tripod legs to the photo head is a standard 3/8" (so photo heads are swappable between brands) Not every tripod has a detachable head, some small travel tripods are column and head all in one. I have no idea if the AZ4 base is flat and would work with the column top platform part of a photo tripod , I know for sure the AZ5 is (I have one on a Manfrotto tripod) and searched in vain for information about the AZ4 removability/compatibility when I was deciding which to buy. That's why I am watching this thread, in the hope I can finally find out from an owner ! Heather

Is this the meeting for Takophiles Anonymous ? 😁

You may be pleasantly surprised , the one I had stayed pretty much lined up as long as I didn't bang it against the door frame when carrying the setup outside.

I don't understand the title of this thread ... unless ... should it actually read , "6" Refractor vs 10-12" Dobsonian, which should I buy first " ? Heather

Ha, exactly what I did with the RDF on the Celestron 114 EQ a decade ago ! Have Celestron really not bothered sorting the thing out yet ?!

A further random thought ... Such an open area ... what sort of wind speeds does it get ? It sounds like a flat featureless arable landscape , which would give you clear views all around, no trees ,no other buildings, just a sea of crops ... would you actually need to be on the roof ?

I use a Rigel Quickfinder and a RACI on my mak and dob, neither 'scope would be long enough for proper use of a telrad, and the elevated sight on the Rigel works perfectly, as does the built in pulsing facility and the variable brightness. The Rigel has never dewed up on me either , despite having no aftermarket shield or heating . My ST80 is so wide field it doesn't really need a finder, but the stock RDF which came bundled with the mak is on it, just so it has a use. Weirdly the hardest thing I've tried to line up on with the ST80 is the Sun ... Specialist finder bought for that. The OP has their starsense device which should, if the adverts are accurate, mean he does not need to add a RACI as the 'phone should perform that function (and more) for him .

You'd think so, but (slightly bitter ) experience has taught me that most telescope packages have at least some accessories which are little more than flimsy 'get you started' barely adequate items . Eyepieces are often the cheapest the maker can getaway with, ditto the finders. Guess who happens to make some better eyepieces and finders , and would be happy to take some more of your money for them ? (Well they would if any were available at the moment ... ) Yep, got it in one .... the telescope manufacturers.

The interesting planets are not very well placed for viewing at the moment , that's something to look forward to in a month or two ! Looking at the images on FLO's site, it looks like your RDF is not on a standard shoe (like the image posted above) but is held on by a couple of screws or bolts . If you can't shim the thing (and if the base is small, you may not be able to ) there are two well known finders which operate in a similar way , but show red circles rather than dots, and being light weight have the rather handy feature of coming with stick-on bases and sticky pads, so there's no worry about fixing metal finder shoes and the heavier optical finders which are essentially small telescopes themselves. The two types of red circle finders are Telrads and Rigel Quickfinders. Both have their advantages , and their adherents (it's a bit of an apple vs android scenario , so I'll tread carefully ...) The Telrads are long, um, utilitarian looking, but have been around for ages and have a reputation for longevity. Rigel Quickfinders are taller but with a smaller footprint, and have some built in features which come as optional extras on the Telrad. Either will do the job, and have inbuilt adjustment so you can align it properly, but do check if the Telrad would be too long to fit your tube . Heather

Maybe the purpose of it was something like the network of ROC posts http://www.roc-heritage.co.uk/underground-posts.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Observer_Corps_Monitoring_Post which covered this country during the Cold War . Most of the ROC posts are small underground bunkers though, but I know of a couple near me which have small above ground buildings for aircraft spotting . Fascinating bit of history, and dark and dismal places to climb down into, I've been inside one in Nottinghamshire in a farmer's field where he allows access , but many ROC posts have locked hatches, or have flooded, or been filled in with rubble now the farmers have reclaimed the land . Anyone in Britain can check out their county's Cold War structures here https://www.subbrit.org.uk/locations/ , I got interested in what they were when coming across strange above ground vents and things when out on walks in the countryside. A Fascinating bit of history . Probably no help at all the the OP though, sorry ! Heather

Ha ! That was exciting, an unexpected 15 minutes break in the clouds allowed , and I saw two sunspots, my first ever ! The Baader solar film purchase has been worthwhile just for that 😎 Heather

I think there are no easy answers here, only conditional ones, all that can be offered is speculation. So here's mine ! The thermal mass of, say, an above ground, low height but relatively large area roof, thick walled concrete ammunition storage bunker would be worse from this point of view than a small roof surface area, thinner walled building with door/window apertures open to allow air circulation. But then there's the question of thermal conductivity of the material, would the heat energy be lost quickly and equilibrium soon restored , or would rising currents persist for many hours ? I'd think a competent architect or building engineer would be able to do a survey and make a report ... for a price. Insulation and passive heating for eco homes is a big thing at the moment. Then there are local environmental factors which come into play , such as sunshine received, wind exposure (a breeze will help disperse the hot air) altitude, shelter, aspect , vegetation and probably many other things .... The upshot of which is that the only practical way I can see to find out with any accuracy is to try it out, actually go and observe from there over a few nights. Predicting how much of an effect the structure will have with so many variables is like trying to predict the UK weather ,hopeless without specialist knowledge, precise measurements, and a supercomputer. And even with all that, microclimates still defeat the broad predictions.

Excellent news, great to hear the 'scope looks like it will live up to expectations , and that the Starsense proved easy to set up. Can you slide some card or folded paper under the front of the red dot finder (RDF) base to give it a little extra elevation ? I did that with a 'scope I inherited (also a Celestron !) , I had to loosen the pair of bolts the RDF was held on by to do it, but once done,and the bolts tightened it cured the problem. As for the tripod , make sure any fastenings are as tight as possible, and if you can use the 'scope without fully extending the tripod legs, perhaps observing from a seated position, that will help . There's an old photographers trick to steady any tripod : hang a weight off the centre to add some mass , a bottle of water suspended on a length of cord works . Fingers crossed for clear skies soon 😉 Heather

Well, I'd constructed two filters for the ST80 as planned, one a flat card sandwich to be taped in the small cap within the dust cap , the other a substantial 3D effort of photo mount board sandwich to the front, corrugated card collar (courtesy of FLO good packaging on the Baader film 🙂 ) attached by glue and gaffer tape, I'm going for a belt and braces setup ... Both filters have sat waiting patiently, and when the little solar finder I ordered off Amazn dropped through my letterbox on Saturday, I reckoned I had totally jinxed the weather for at least the next month . But today around elevenses time I saw actual shadows in the back garden, so sprinted out with ST80, very carefully put the small filter in place , peered at the solar finder (which is a simple pinhole camera type thing) and actually saw the Sun . Carefully swapped to the whole aperture filter, and looked for a few minutes more. Then the clouds crowded in, but I had managed sharp but apparently featureless views (apart from some limb darkening giving a 3D effect) which I suspect may be down to a lack of sunspots at the moment. I could see obvious CA on the whole aperture filter, but none on the reduced aperture one. If the sky ever clears again , I hoe to have a better look . Here area few photos taken before those clouds brought in showers : Yes,that bit of green is some gaffer tape holding the cap on .... you never know .... Heather

I think they may have changed the packaging , presumably to avoid this : I read the included instructions very carefully when I received mine from FLO last week, no mention of any transparent film to be removed . The mylar arrived sandwiched loosely (i.e not adhering) between an opaque white plastic sheet and a white tissue paper sheet, with instructions printed on another couple of glossy paper sheets within a poly bag.