Tiny Clanger

Welcome Pete, It is a great little scope isn't it ? I'm hoping to spend some quality time outside with mine tonight too ! Heather

Newbie question : Does SGL scheduled maintenance always have this (forecast) effect on the weather, and if so, could you do regular updates, say once a week please ? FLO delivery box :'May contain clouds' . SGL forum update 'May repel clouds' !

Oh yes, I saw that too ! 10pm until sunrise, clear over Leicester ?! I'll believe it when I see it though. Meanwhile I'm just popping up in the loft to borrow a tarpaulin and some groundsheet pegs (the flat topped ones you don't trip over) from the camping kit. I plan to lay it out on my 'lawn' before sunset, as it seems to have turned into a rice paddy , and I'm worried the telescope (or observer ) might sink without trace ... Heather

Wow, you really aren't from near me ! I'd thought you were some way away from the UK because of the timing of your posts, but your English is idiomatic and showed no trace of the awkwardness you often see in a second language, so I had guessed you were probably in the USA. Wrong direction entirely , I should know better ! 😀 I'll be fascinated to hear how your observing goes with the combination of dark skies yet considerable atmospheric pollution. I guess your weather must be very variable throughout the year too ... summer heat, humidity and monsoons (if I recall my 'O' level geography correctly !) , then cold air rolling down from the mountains ... utterly different from the UK ! Good luck, hope you can keep us updated Heather

That seems an expensive way to get the 127 mak to be a wider field 'scope ... I just looked on FLO, and taking the very cheapest options for each component would cost £36 for a 2" visual back, £99 for a 2" diagonal and £70 for a single 2" eyepiece. I've read that some newer SW maks do not need a thread adapter, but if your model does add the cost of that , which looks like at least £30, so all together at least £235 . For that you could by a 150mm aperture, 750mm focal length OTA which comes with a 2" focuser and get a 25mm BST too ! Heather

Wow, over six hours of clear sky ... you're certainly not anywhere near where I live ! 😀 What a great start you had! If your experiences carry on anything like mine have, expect the feelings of awe to keep on coming . Heather

Great outcome, and good to know the the impression given by their website is backed up by the reality of their response , it's not always so ,appearances can be deceptive ! Heather

Thanks Stu, Funny thing , now I've an az5 on a hefty old Manfrotto tripod for the little mak , but whilst aware that I could try the dob on it, for some reason I've not yet wanted to ! I suppose good observing time has been at too much of a premium since new year , so on the odd night I've managed it's been a scramble to get the dob outside asap before the window of good sky opportunity closes . Best keep it simple under the circumstances, but I'm sure I'll mix & match at some point. The Jones-bird celestron 114 EQ I inherited put me right off EQ mounts , I don't doubt the very expensive EQs are ideal for imaging , but can't see much point in EQ for visual use , especially not at the cheap end of the market , which is where I am . 😀 Heather

Excellent news, hope the delivery goes safely ,and you get clear skies to use it soon. The rueful joke on here (and referenced by a sticker on the box of 'scopes sent out by the FLO) is that every telescope box 'may contain clouds', so in the meantime get used to your new kit and set up the finder in daylight if possible (it's easier when you can see what you are doing the first time) . I put step by step instructions on an earlier thread I;ve linked to below , if your 'scopes finder is a tiny telescope rather than a red dot finder, just think 'cross hairs' when I say red dot and the procedure is the same (with no switching on required , obviously) Heather

Excellent that it has arrived safely, but if your area's weather forecast is anything like mine, you have plenty of time to set it up at leisure and read up on targets before you can get outside and use it . The size is quite impressive isn't it ? And that's a small dob ! With only a small modern house with little spare storage space I had to go for the heritage 150 , same mirrors but smaller base and tube half the length when closed up. Heather

I agree with everything said by Zermelo and Spile , all good advice . I do not know what equipment availability or prices are like in the USA, or what retailers are reliable, perhaps one of the US based members will add something to help you with that. I still think it is extremely difficult for someone with no knowledge of a complicated topic to buy a secret surprise gift for someone, especially if the person getting the gift has more knowledge: It is likely that the gift recipient will have an idea about what he would like already, and spending a lot of money on something not quite right would be disappointing. So, I have two suggestions 1) Buy him something small ( perhaps a zoom eyepiece like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html or this book https://www.amazon.com/Turn-Left-Orion-Hundreds-Telescope/dp/1108457568 which is a practical guide ) and buy a gift certificate so he can enjoy researching and buying exactly what he wants. or 2) ( this is advice from a sneaky female 😀 ) Your husband must have a good friend, work colleague, neighbour or relative he chats to and who you trust ... tell them you have a secret mission for them , they must ask him how his stargazing is going , how his binoculars perform , would he recommend them for someone else interested in the sky ? They could even tell him a friend is thinking of buying a telescope , does he know anything about what would be a good one ? If that works, make a note of what your spy reports, and come back here for further advice ! Heather

As in, looking at (rather than putting it in ... ) ? Not being entirely sure which question to answer, I'll try both 😀 I am still naively enthusiastic and undiscriminating as far as targets go (or I would be, given the blasted clouds and the handicap of being confined to my suburban back garden ) and essentially try to have a look at whatever presents itself , trying any and every eyepiece to find out what works for me. Happily the garden has a decent view to east & south . The what it will be used in answer is probably mostly my 127 SW mak. I found that my BST 8mm was often a little bit too much for the conditions when viewing Mars Jupiter & Saturn in the mak, but ideal in the heritage 150 dob. which was my first 'scope. Heather

Another BST Starguider to finish off my set nah, who am I kidding !? Thanks Daf1983 😀 Heather

OK, this (to save typing it again) is my step by step align your red dot finder instructions. If (as it appears from that PDF manual) your dob comes with an optical finder, it's the same process, you just don't have anything to switch on, and need to think 'cross hairs in the mini telescope thingy ' instead when I say 'red dot' Heather

Are you in the UK ? If so one of these https://www.firstlightoptics.com/first-light-optics-gift-vouchers/first-light-optics-gift-voucher.html will avoid you buying the wrong thing, he may have a specific telescope type he wants, there is no way we can guess what it might be.

Welcome to SGL, do not allow any equipment snobs to make you feel bad. The best telescope is the one you can afford to own, and get outside to use . There are plenty of free resources online to help find targets , stellarium is a great start ! Heather

Nah, it's easy peasy, it's just difficult to explain a 3D operation in a 3D (plus time, so really 4D ) situation simply in writing . Essentially, forget all the stuff about altitude and azimuth to start off with , just swivel the dob base and tilt the tube , using the (properly lined up ) finder to get the Moon (or whatever easy target presents itself on the night from your location) lined up with the open end of your 'scope tube, put the 25mm eyepiece in the focus tube, twiddle until focus is achieved, look through and (if it is the full Moon) get blasted back by the dazzling light and recall why you bought that filter 😀 Heather

I can't guarantee this is the most up to date manual, but reading this now might get you ahead of the curve https://www.apm-telescopes.de/media/manuals/skywatcher/en/25.pdf Unpack, assemble the base, attach the tube, mount the finder, line up the finder on a distant object in the daytime so it accords as accurately as possible with the view through the telescope (I explained exactly how to , step by step on here for an RDF not long ago . If your 'scope has an optical viewfinder it is the same process) then ... welcome to the club ! Like the rest of us, you just need clear skies ! Heather PS I was given the much recommended book 'Turn Left at Orion' for my birthday, and can say it is genuinely a very well set out and informative read, strongly tilted towards the practical astronomy side .

Yep, most current scopes have a standard rail attached to their tube, the usual size is often referred to as a Synta or Vixen rail or bar or dovetail ... all those names seem interchangeable as far as I can see (please someone correct me if I'm wrong, the vagueness of the naming annoys me, I appreciate different manufacturers want to make their own brand distinct, but it's accursedly confusing !)) The length of the bar/rail/dovetail allows you to adjust the precise balance point, different accessories on a 'scope will affect it Similarly , most mounts have a standard dovetail clamp of matching size. The heritage 150 has a standard vixen/synta/rail/bar/clamp/dovetail/whatever the heck, and the tabletop dob stand it comes with has the matching clamp , so the telescope tube can be taken off and shifted to any mount with a suitable matching clamp. One thing to be aware of though, which may be a limiting factor if you are thinking aha ! Buy Heritage 150 (or 130 for that matter) now, and buy expensive tripod & EQ mount later to move it to ... There is a good reason why reflector 'scopes on EQ mounts have rings which their standard vixen/synta/rail/bar/clamp/dovetail/whatever-the-heck is fixed to. It is so that when the angle of the telescope makes it really hard to get your face in position to see through the telescope eyepiece, you can loosen the rings a little, and turn the telescope inside them, so the eyepiece tube rotates to a more convenient angle. The Heritage 150 (did I mention how much I love mine ? 😀 It's a great little simple 'scope ) does not have tube rings, but rather a bolted in place rail (bar/vixen etc etc ... ) You could add tube rings afterwards , but they cost quite a bit, and I think would have to be carefully selected to not interfere with the mechanism which allows the tube to, um , telescope down . Don't be put off the heritage 150 , the simple dob base means you get a lot of telescope for your money, rather than a similarly priced package which includes a flimsy cheap EQ and necessarily cheaper optics. If you started with visual, and thought you might want to move on to astro photo eventually, the heritage 150 could be supplemented with a more specialist 'scope & mount when you are ready, it is well regarded as a 'grab & go' option by folk with bigger instruments , or I suspect if you decided to move on from it, selling a heritage 150 second hand would see plenty of eager buyers ... Heather

Bet you are looking forward to that! Which 'scope dd you go for in the end ? I ordered my heritage 150 from RVO and collected it because It was almost as cheap for me to go up the M1 and collect it as to have it delivered, plus (back in the lax late part of lockdown #1) not only was I stir crazy, but my car seriously needed a longer run than 10 min.s to the supermarket once a week. RVO have a shop ( not actually trading for visitors at the time, just click & collect !) not far off the motorway south of Sheffield. I parked outside, called them and they bought the 'scope out and put it in the car boot in a socially distanced way. Since then I've inquired about perhaps half a dozen things following their website instruction to contact re low stock situation, and every time the item has been out of stock. Heather

Another reason binoculars are a serious consideration is that economies of scale makes those little twin 'scopes relatively cheap, so someone wanting to spend not very much can get a respectable pair of binoculars for £50, whilst a £50 telescope will be more decorative than useful.

In answer to a similar question about 3 weeks ago , I posted that I'd just seen this in B&Q https://www.diy.com/departments/really-useful-wrapping-paper-storage-box/287461_BQ.prd and it fair shouted 'telescope box' at me 😀 Well except for the price (£12) which is most non-telescope-kit like ! There's even a 1200mm one intended for storage of artificial xmas trees for a really long refractor . Heather

And there's me deducing long ago that this way of using it is the obvious reason for an ironing board being pointy and narrow ... not that I've ironed anything apart from some edging strip onto MDF for at least a year . 😀

I'd check the box (or whatever packaging the bino mount came in) to see if the relevant bit was still in there first, then if I'd bought the binos very recently from a trader I'd contact them, failing that, if I'm correct and these are opticron brand, the UK distributor appears to have a spares & repairs setup https://www.opticron.co.uk/help-support/service-repair Heather

Thanks, interesting info, if slightly weird to see the illustrations with the copy paste Moon ! Looking at that site gave another neat feature, the nightplanner , which includes some UK locations in the drop down location list, and might be handy. At the moment though, it's more an annoying 'things you can't see tonight due to cloud cover ' at the mo. ... https://calgary.rasc.ca/darksky/nightplanner.htm Heather