Tiny Clanger

Hello and welcome. The learning curve with observing is steep but worth the climb ! Soligor I remember that name from camera lenses ... 🙂 The two eyepieces you have are very similar in what they will show you as far as magnification goes : the 25mm plossl will give you 49x magnification and the 18mm 55.5x ( just divide the focal length of your 'scope(s) 1000 by the eyepiece mm ) The slightly higher magnification more expensive celestron has a wider (60 degree) field of view than a plossl ( usually the design is quoted as 50 degrees whatever the manufacturer) so the actual view in the two will be very similar. Take a look at the field of view simulator at the bottom of this page, you can dial in your scope (or the present day equivalent John told you about anyway) , delete the circles for all but your specific EP and add one for another manufaturer's plossl to see the difference on various targets https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-x-cel-lx-eyepiece.html So if you expected a dramatic change in the field of view or magnification between the two, you won't see it. What you should see for your extra ££s on a clear night is sharper , better detail on whatever you point the 'scope at. If the telescope(s) are so forgiving that you cannot see a difference in quality, at least you have a good EP you can use if you upgrade at some point , and a plossl to bundle with one of the 'scopes if you sell 'em ! Fingers crossed you get the chance to use the kit at night soon . Heather

Not at all shocking if you keep an eye on the political and economic world

I'm new to buying proper astro kit, but I've looked covetously over adverts in astronomy magazines back in the days when the internet was science fiction . I seem to recall that 20-30 years ago the 'name' quality kit was mainly from Meade and Celestron, don't think Skywatcher was even a brand I'd heard of. However, prices (in the UK) were higher, to the point where altho' my disposable income back then was double what it is today, I could never contemplate actually buying any halfway decent telescope. Skywatcher ( perhaps I should say Synta) have built themselves up to dominate the mass market since then, producing acceptable kit at comparatively reasonable prices for years. Hardly surprising that now they have a good name and a huge % of the market, but a reduced ability to produce due to covid19, high demand due to covid 19, and difficulties with shipping (ditto) they are putting prices up. After all , businesses exist to make profit , demand & supply, John Maynard Keynes and all that ...

That is nice to know . Now what shall I spent the £500 I saved by getting the BST on 🙂 ? * Heather * Not really the way my mind works, honest, just joking. Sort of.

The 8mm BST was my first 'really ? £40 on an eyepiece ? ' purchase 🙂 and works fine in my little 150 heritage dob and 127 mak. , no problems with getting everything nice and sharp. The focus however I noticed from the start is at a very different point to that of the stock EPs, so refocusing always involved some major twiddling of my dobs agricultural/plumbing type focuser (the mak focus requires the clothes peg mod for me to achieve sufficient precision !) One thing though ... one of my BSTs, ( couldn't leave the 8mm all lonely now could I ? ) I think it was the 15mm , had a slightly unscrewed lower (silver) section when it arrived, presumably worked loose in transit . Easily tightened by hand, and I did it before using it in a 'scope so no idea if it would have adversely affected focus. Heather

From my suburban garden after about 90 minutes of observing, so eyes well adjusted , I saw 11 , which seemed reasonable as not only was light reflecting off the blanket of snow, it also seemed every neighbour had lights on and curtains open . Conservatories lit up like lanterns too. Wonder if they's close the curtains if they noticed me stood out there with telescope & binoculars 🙂 Heather

Having been prepared to take as much advantage as possible of the promised 7pm to 7am clear sky I went out for a couple of hours of standing in the snow and looking through the little dob , nice, clear and steady skies , an a balmy -3 C . Having seen what I had decided on as targets which would be in tree and streetlight free bits of my view I did the Orion count with very well dark adapted eyes and went indoors for an hour, with new targets in mind which would by then be in 'good' areas and high enough ... Went back out at 10pm and clouds were streaming in. The rest of the night I kept checking, but cloud and mist persisted, and the 'scope came in at 2am. Oh well, at least I got two hours. Heather

Possibly worth mentioning that skywatcher's own website seems to miss out many models or variations of models , it is not up to date. Maybe covid problems ? An advantage of the heritage 130 and 150 is that the mount is basic and simple, as is the focus arrangement. So more of the money goes into the important bit, the optics. Other telescopes at the same sort of price have smaller mirrors to leave enough in the budget to build a metal tripod and head, neither will be of very good quality. Heather

South side of Brum we said 'Bill's mother's' which adds a nice bit of alliteration , I vaguely wondered if it was that bloke from Stratford U. A . Do you 'go all around the Wrekin'' too ? I bemused a few folk with that one when I came to the East Mid.s ... Heather

Went for a little walk earlier, steely grey skies and plenty of snow falling, so left the camera whee it was dry and safe and took a quick snap with the slightly smart 'phone But as I headed home again ... a miracle , the snow stopped falling, clouds departed, proper camera could come out ... And now C.O. says green for go 7pm 'till 7am Beeb agrees . Cautiously optimistic ...

I was thinking of using that quote later on ....

...

Weeeeellll ... I'm not getting too excited ( English weather ...) but the forecast for my bit of the East Midlands is looking hopeful for ... the whole night . I may need to brew another jug of coffee this evening ... ☃️ 🔭 ☃️ Heather

We had a discussion with a young guy a month or so ago who only after some questions mentioned he would be using a telescope from a balcony, and went through the practicalities (or impracticality) of a telescope on a tripod with him , you can read it here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/369179-i-am-a-beginner-what-can-i-expect-from-the-skywatcher-telescope-n-150750-explorer-150p-eq3-2/

I can confirm what Orange Smartie says, the heritage 150 is real, I'm looking fondly at mine right now 🙂 For portability, it fits on one seat of a small car (with it's seat belt on ) The 130 has a long history, it s sold under the name 'OneSky Newtonian' , there is a thread here about them which runs to hundreds of pages https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/463109-onesky-newtonian-astronomers-without-borders/page-195 The larger 150 was only released in the summer of 2020 (just in time for me when I was looking for my first proper 'scope) . There is plenty about it in earlier discussions on here, including some videos, just do a search for heritage 150. Key things to know are that both heritage models need to go o top of something to have the viewfinder at average adult height, and that thing must not wobble. Also there are two simple improvements which make a big difference in use : first some PFTE tape on the screw threads of the focus tube, second a 'shroud' of foam or card or something around the open part to block stray light. All basic Skywatcher telescopes come with a pair of eyepieces, a 25mm which is fine, and a 10mm which is not so good. Most people replace the 10mm if they find they are using the telescope a lot. If you get a slightly cheaper 130 and don't like the views with the 10mm, you could use the saved money on a better high powered eyepiece Plenty of time for you to think about it , as you say, the shops are cleaned out. This is due to problems in the factories in China where the telescopes are made, and more problems with transport, added to increased demand as many people are staying at home and pursuing hobbies in their free time, rather than going out to spend their money ! Heather

Neither definite or indefinite article precedes "highest useful magnification : 307x " on the skywatcher website or in my quote of it. Can't quite see how twice the diameter in mm of the 'scope in question (2x130) comes to 307 either.

While you save up for all those exotic filters I don't need to know about (because if I did, I might feel I need one, which I don't) here's a few web pages and a free PDF which might help you : https://www.cambridge.org/turnleft/seasonal_skies_january-march https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellations-by-month/february-constellations/ https://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclubs/caldwell/cldwlist.html https://las-astro.org.uk/docs/Loughton_List_v2_0.pdf Heather

Alpkit and chocolate 🙂 that combo gets my vote any day ! I've spent more on lovely alpkit stuff than I have on astro kit ... so far ... Heather

Assuming this is the 'scope in question https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9338821 Celestron claims a somewhat optimistic "Highest Useful Magnification:307x" I think I'd probably disagree with their definition of 'useful' ! Heather

One thing I've found when trawling astro retail websites is that there is always an adapter to do what you want, altho' it may be eye-wateringly expensive ! I've seen some SW 'scopes come with 2" focus tube , and have an adapter included to use 1.25" , if that's not so on the one you are looking at, something like this might do the trick : https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-2-to-125-reducer-adapter.html

Hello and welcome, I agree with Second Time Around a 2x Barlow is fine . With your zoom eyepiece the 1.5x facility 1.5x would yield 6mm - 18mm, the 2x will give you the range 4.5mm - 13.5mm . Your scope has a theoretical limit of 260x magnification using the usual rule of thumb ( twice the aperture in mm ) , a more realistic maximum for most conditions is rather less than that, maybe 160 or 180x Your 'scopes focal Length is 650mm. To find the magnification divide focal length of scope by eyepiece rating (both in mm) so with the 2x Barlow and your zoom at 9mm you will get a maximum of 144x which is a reasonable highest power for the odd time when the sky is steady enough for it. If you were thinking about a 3x barlow, that would push your 'scope (and the uk skies !) to 216x, which would probably be too much magnification to ever be practically useful . Heather

Nice solution, for under my little heritage 150 I made a triangular table from scrap wood and similar tubular metal furniture legs (which cost under £10 for a set of 4 legs) because I was too cowardly to drill holes in the dob base ... Plenty of snow here in Leicester ! Heather

Oh, that's bad news ! 😞 Good job you are an optimistic alpaca , hope you are a patient one as well . Heather

The heritage dob base is some sort of particle board stuff , and has 3 plastic (or possibly rubber) feet, each about 3cm long which should keep the board part of the base clear of the ground. I'm pretty sure the big skywatcher dobs would have a similar arrangement. My 'lawn' is sufficiently swamp like that I'd not want to place anything much on it at the moment which I then bring into the house . Mind you, the snow is doing a good job of levelling it off at the mo.

Ah, did you order it from FLO ? If so, they operate a proper British orderly queue for anticipated stock. I had a similar situation where their projected 'in stock' date took a jump in the wrong direction. I emailed to ask and got a helpful reply to the effect that they assign the next delivery batch to folk pre ordering in strictly , um, ordering date order . When the number of pre orders exceeds the number of that item expected in the next delivery , the delivery date thingy on the item's webpage rolls over to the expected delivery after that. Your order reserves your spot in the queue. So if you ordered with FLO the delivery date when you placed the order should hold. Any other retailer .... your guess is as good as mine ! Heather PS the tortoises will be hibernating for the winter, further delays may be inevitable as the sloths struggle to take over the work. 🙂