Tiny Clanger

Welcome Love that ! Sounds like the quote currently in my signature !

I was thinking more of the hyundai hatchback as a meteor catcher then chaser, like the Vauxhall mentioned in the article I linked to . Apparently the chap whose viva got bashed in by a space rock had his claim refused as an act of god ... must check the small print on the policies offered 🙂 Heather

As long as it doesn't land on me or the cat, I'm more than OK with that. Which reminds me, must get some quotes for the car insurance ...

Hah , reminds me of the colourful tales my geology prof told in tutorials of his heroic single handed discovery of the Barwell Christmas meteorite, just north of here. , turns out a vase of artificial flowers and Vauxhall Viva did some of the work too : https://spacecentre.co.uk/blog-post/day-meteorite-landed-barwell/ Not sure about meteorites disintegrating fast in UK soil though : as I recall there is a range of compositions between stony meteorite and iron meteorite, I was taught as an undergrad that in the event of being asked to ID a possible rock from space, first field diagnostics were was it magnetic, and did it seem disproportionately heavy compared with, say a similarly sized lump of basalt. Proper analysis of internal structure and the presence of nickel were the next steps, but every bit of 'meteorite' or indeed 'obsidian' I've ever been asked for my opinion on has been blast furnace slag ...

Don't think I'll have any experiences to share, as three yellow weather warnings of snow have been issued for my area too https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings?regionName=EM&from=rss&sn=10581103-ecc8-4c4d-8fe9-612bb8ea483c#?date=2021-01-02 Look on the bright side though : people find meteorites more easily on snow and ice fields because they stand out against the white ground ... who knows, a nice lump of space rock (not necessarily from a specific shower) could land in the garden any time ...

The OP said "I’m a total beginner with imaging, and all of its related software, " , so will be learning whichever image processing software they choose from the beginning.

Now if you'd said that before ... 😀 If you are worried it may be difficult to locate objects without go to , consider that I am an idiot with the spacial awareness of a concussed bluebottle trying to eascape a window , and I've still managed to locate and see Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus (but not Neptune yet : still working on him ... ) and dozens of Messier objects , double stars etc. For me the hunt is part of the fun. A combination of the free software Stellarium , some free observing guides (see jasonb's thread on the Moore Winter Marathon) and a RACI finder added to the RDF one on my 150 heritage dob , and some patience was enough. For a low tech (and low price) dobsonian target locating solution, do a search on here for 'dobsonian setting circles' , a combination of free software like stellarium, a little £15 AA powered electronic level (mine is even magnetic on the base , so sticks on my dob, tube) and a custom made printed circle can cut your search area right down. I've not sorted the setting circle yet (friends with access to large format printers /laminators still off work !) but have tried the electronic level (sometimes folk call them a 'wixy' , which is a brand name, but there's dozens of clones around) and it is really good for the alt part of alt/az. There are also 'push to' solutions available using smart 'phones (smarter than mine, sadly so I can't comment on them) . Heather

If only the O.P didn't specifically want a goto , a dob (and a rather bigger one given their budget and lack of worries over physical size of 'scope) would be great . I think go to dobs are out of this price range though, aren't they ?

That's all useful information which will help you get more properly targeted answers, it would also be helpful to know if your back garden is a truly dark location , or with some streetlights etc, or very light polluted . The best purchase for you may very well not be a packaged tripod/mount/OTA deal , but carefully chosen tripod/mount and separately chosen OTA. Heather

Or for the same outlay as the nexstar, you could buy the 150 newtonian and the 127 mak ota, which I think (do check this though , I've not !) can be used on the mount the newtonian comes with ! So I'd buy the newtonian, and then see if I was happy with it, and think about adding the mak later.

Great stuff ! Uranus is something I was rather pleased to track down too, when I managed to spot it it was roughly half way between the Pleiades and Mars with no obvious pointer stars to help. I probably saw it several times before I actually unequivocally identified a blue green 'star' where it should be in relation to other faint stars nearby, it felt like a major achievement ! Neptune has eluded me so far , but I shall see it .... I shall ... There's a sort of compromise you have to negotiate between what you'd like to see next, and what is a good target on the night , it's all a part of the learning curve isn't it . By the way, if you want some 3mm closed cell foam I might have enough left over from my dob shroud & dew shields for you to use ... it should be cheap to post ... send me a PM Heather

I don't think it is really intended as a trap, so much as the result of less than impressive attempts to integrate online shopping sites with existing bricks and mortar shops. If they have some legacy stock system which doesn't instantly interact with their online shop , or if they have a cheaply set up online shop which doesn't have that integration, they have to check their office computer ! FLO have it all set up so beautifully because they are only online , and don't have some legacy shop stock system to bolt the website on to.

RACI and Rigel !

Excellent, thank you. "Last chance to see Neptune for a few months " Hmm, well I've had 4 or 5 tries already, but the blighter is in a really inconvenient area of skyglow from my back garden and I've not identified it yet (although I have certainly looked in the right area and may have seen it without knowing !) Wonder if the clouds will clear for long enough that it's worthwhile me heading a few km out into the rural darker skies to have another go, or will I just have to wait and hope I'm better at finding things when it comes around again ! Heather

OP is young and may have unrealistic expectations of what their parents will be willing to pay, as well as being in an almighty rush . It may be some time ago for me, but I do recall the mindset ! I'm absolutely happy to spend time helping (even) newer beginners than me when I can, but sometimes it's best to step back and let folk do their own learning. They have been repeatedly advised against an expensive mistake, not much point in repeating the advice ad infinitum ! To answer your question :I use the heritage 150 for everything except the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. If I'm intending to look at any of those as my main targets , out goes the mak instead. I bought it for that purpose , and over the last two months with Mars Jupiter and Saturn (and the conjunction) it has seen far more use than the dob. With the forecast bad for the actual solstice I met up the afternoon before (the 20th) with a couple of good friends (in a covid secure kind of way, natch) in an elevated rural spot a few km from home with a good view west, set up the mak and was able to show them the near conjunction with Jupiter and Saturn just squeezed into the view of the 8mm eyepiece, that's 187.5 x magnification. They were enormously impressed that their first view through a proper telescope showed banding on Jupiter and the Galilean moons as well as clear rings on Saturn. When those planets set I showed them Mars and the Pleiades, but trying to locate any of the 3 Messier objects in Auriga for them to see ( I've found and seen all three with the heritage dob from my much more light polluted back garden) failed, so finished with the double stars in the Plough instead . If I'd taken the heritage along instead they might have seen the Messier objects, but the same 8mm eyepiece in the dob would have given 93.75x mag, and the planets, our main targets, would have looked smaller. Also, something you might have noticed with the 150 is that for planets and the Moon it almost collects too much light ! I need to use a moon filter on the dob, similarly for Jupiter and Saturn I could see nothing but a bright shape without adding coloured filters . The mak has that bit smaller an aperture, so the brightness is lower and the detail more visible , I can look at the full moon without being blown back from the eyepiece ! Don't get me wrong, I love the heritage 150 and it was the right choice for a first telescope for me , it is a great general use 'scope as well as a better tool for faint DSOs etc, I think if I'd started with a mak ,and its tiny field of view, and the consequent difficulty aiming it, and the precision of focus it needs, I'd not have enjoyed my first few months of 'scope using as much as I did. As it is, I reckon (again, for me I'm probably not typical) that a heritage dob + a small mak is an ideal toolkit : bit like having a quality multitool + a set of jeweller's screwdrivers ! Heather

For a few years now I've been using what are often called 'shooter's mitts' like those fwm891 linked to while out walking, geocaching and taking photos in winter. Mine are made of windblocker fleece and I found the first pair in go outdoors fishing kit section (no I've no interest in angling, but anglers sit immobile in the cold rain and mud for hours, so it's worth seeing what they use to keep comfortable ... I've recently been wondering if one of their plastic tackle boxes that can be used as a seat might be a good telescope general accessory case/ observing seat too... ) The shooter's mitt is perfect, your non dominant hand can stay most of the time with the fingers covered, but it's a doddle to uncover the dominant hand fingertips . Two details to look out for : some have a useless button arrangement to hold the flap back when not in use: rubbish, cut it off and sew some velcro on, and the second pair I bought had the thumbs completely covered , so a bit of surgery on the fleece (which does not fray) was needed for a proper primate opposable thumb capability. I absolutely love my shooter's mitts , can't recommend them too much . Made of windblocker fleece they are light, warm windproof and reasonably water resistant. Easy to wash too (mine get muddy) although when drying you have to remember to turn them inside out to be sure they dry on the inside too , first time I washed them I took them out to the car in my jacket pocket, only to put them on when I arrived at my trail head and find that whilst the outside of the mitts was dry, the inside was damp. Had to walk 15 miles wearing inside out gloves ... Heather

First, please be aware I'm no expert : I started to look at astro photo and decided , despite being a photographer who already owns DSLRs, lenses, tripods etc, that doing it properly was out of my financial range. However, at some time in the future I might buy a mount for simple landscape type stuff ... so I've done a little casual research when clouds have stopped me going out with a telescope to observe. As far as mounts go , essentially the idea is they rotate the camera so it stays still relative to the stars (you knew that though, didn't you ) thing is, the angle the mount needs to be tilted upward at to do this depends on how far north or south you are on this planet. So as I understand it , you can achieve approximate tilt of a tracker by using the tripod head it is mounted on, and your latitude , which for Nott.s will be around 52 degrees (I know these things, I'm a geocacher ) . Thing is, when longer exposures are needed, or longer focal lengths are used, greater accuracy is required to keep your target centred, so precision wedges can be added between tripod and head to do this. * Dovetails are the metal bars which are a commonly used way to mount telescopes onto things, so you probably don't need to worry about them, your camera will have a standard tripod screw hole in the base ,which will be what you use to fix it to a tracker using a ball head (a standard tripod accessory) . Also counterweights get mentioned in some packages, they are only needed for big heavy camera/lens or 'scope setups, your bridge cam or my Nikon with a 300mm lens wouldn't need it. I found this interesting enough reading to bookmark the page, it may help you : https://www.peterzelinka.com/blog/2018/8/which-star-tracker-should-i-get Heather *The big boys (and girls) who do the serious stuff go as far as to have a small 'guide scope', a telescope on top of their actual telescope (the actual telescope has an actual specialist camera on it, obviously !) , the guidescope has another camera attached to it which feeds an image back to a computer which then tells the mount when to move. .., I could buy all that, but I'd have to sell my house and live in my tent ... where would I plug all the cables in then ?

You can certainly take a few steps into astro photo with a bridge camera, but there will be severe limitations. The principal one being that the image sensors in them are typically small, so that they can produce great magnification like 600x . The lens is quite small aperture at high zoom levels , so will not collect much light. Does it have manual focus ?Auto focus may be a big problem in the dark... I've owned a few of these superzoom bridge models( a Canon powershot x20 and a Panasonic Lumix) as cameras to carry every day, and the sensor size and propensity to suck dust in when the telephoto extends and have it land on the sensor , where you can't get at it (as you can on a dslr by simply removing the lens) made me give up on them eventually. Photos of the Moon should be doable though , I'd just get a good hefty tripod with a smooth pan/tilt head, and a remote release (or use the delay release to let vibrations calm down if no remote is available) and take series of photos keeping your target centered by hand. Then try stacking them with some free software. A heavy tripod is a good investment for any photographer , and handy for lightweight telescopes in the future should you get sucked in... Don't have high expectations, but do have a play around and give it a try.I'd be interested to see what the latest generation of bridge cams can do ! Heather

I think you might need a new image for the wall, you will forever see a Davy Crockett dinosaur in your photo now ! 😀 PS, that's Dave Bowman in your icon isn't it ?

I've no idea about the go to mounts, because a) I like simplicity and finding objects for myself and b) I'm cheap. But, an my first 'scope (purchased in the summer) was a 150 newtonian (actually a heritage dob) with similar characteristics to the 150p, and my second was a 127 skywatcher mak bought around 6 weeks ago I can say that the two are different tools ideal for different purposes. Briefly, the reflector has a 750mm focal length, the mak has double that at 1500mm (as does the other mak you mention) Greater magnification comes with longer focal length, but with it also comes a smaller field of view. If I want to look at a planet, I use the mak, if I want to look for messier objects etc , I use the dob. Heather

All together now , "Davee, Davy Crockett..." If you know the next line of the song, you will appreciate this terrible and equally old joke: Q : What wild west hero had 3 ears ? A : Davy Crockett. He had a left ear, a right ear, and a wild front ear ... I think the same joke later got recycled for Capt.Kirk ... Heather

I'm seeing a new to science species of dinosaur ... I mean, just look at that tiny arm , this is obviously a snub-nosed T.Rex .

I love my 150 heritage, but the OP specifically asked about seeing planets , and the dob (750mm focal length, but good aperture) is not ideal for planets. Looking to add to my available tools an affordable 'scope for planetary and lunar viewing I bought a 127 mak . It has a focal length of 1500mm and a smaller aperture, but that's fine as planets are comparatively bright. As the OP is in a town with many streetlights , DSOs are probably not going to be a likely target anyway, so a 'scope which is good for what they may see despite the light pollution , the Moon & planets, seems a better choice to me. However, given that they have thrown out various random ideas with an equally random price range (£300 telescope, £700 telescope, £1000 telescope ) without seeming to have done much research themselves about them makes me wonder how young they are and serious they are. I don't think I'll be contributing here after this post . Heather

I ask again, why are you so keen on an EQ mount ? Do you understand the differences between EQ and alt/az ?

Oops, I missed that detail from Geoff , that helps you see the problem Mark out an equilateral triangle with sides of 120 cm on your balcony and see if there is any chance to stand behind it and move around it without tripping up . Heather