Tiny Clanger

My dad was a philatelist, so naturally as a child I found stamps I was not allowed to touch boring, and began to collect coins instead, I liked that the worn ones I could afford had been in many pockets and purses . I was hooked on UK copper pennies when I found my home city Birmingham, and even my suburb of it, had manufactured some pennies in a few years of the first two decades of the 20th century , identifiable by a tiny 'H' for Heaton's or KN for Kings Norton next to the date. Heaton's had bought up the machinery from Matthew Bolton's Soho Mint, which led me to find out about the Industrial Revolution , and then the Lunar Society of Birmingham . There , I've gone from coin collecting to astronomy in a few steps !

And some have no concept of the difference between child like, and childish, and are so bogged down in the drudgery of keeping up with the Joneses that they forget to look up and wonder. Heather

11 bonus orbits of the Sun , and counting ! Ain't science great ?! 😀

Welcome, what an excellent Xmas gift ! Nikons do not become defunct though, they mature gracefully into classic cameras ... 😀 heather

It appears to me that peer pressure, the need to look 'cool' and the chaotic effects of the hormones that kick in with puberty add up to many teenagers being angsty , inward looking and generally confused, compared with the average under 11 who is still finding the world a fascinating and enthralling new place. Chin up though, Moonshed,, the good news is that the turbulent adolescent brains will settle down eventually, and may come to appreciate your skill and knowledge. What controls exactly when individual people start to realize that the perspective from those with more years experience can mean 'wisdom' rather than 'past their sell by date' I don't know. There's been a huge emphasis on youth being the ideal ( leading to cosmetic surgery, botox, plenty of daft 'lifestyle advice' etc etc) in the English speaking world of late, as if growing older was a bad thing and Peter Pan was an aspirational model. No, growing older isn't bad, it's better than the alternative ... 😀

Baqck on topic : A new thread entitled 'NEWBIE' here https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/368885-newbie/?tab=comments#comment-4008403 just started, and the first few responses were requests for further information as follows: knobby "Hi Andy, lots of types of scopes available, what are you interested in ? Planets , deep sky objects ? This will tailor the scope to suit your interests ..." faulksy "hi andy and welcome to sgl need to know a few things first 1, budget 2, storage (have you got somewhere to store it ) 3, transport (are you planning on taking it with you on trips, have you got a big vehicle)" What might usefully be added to the above questions ? As the consensus of opinion is that a decision tree style setup would be just too complex, avoiding yes/no questions would be a good idea : open ended ones which provoke an answer with some detail . Heather

Welcome and Happy Christmas to you too. I just searched for 'first telescope' on here (the search box top right) and it came up with 'Found 23,324 results' you are not the first ! As others have said, a bit more information will help pare the suggestions down. Another important factor is are you in a town or rural setting ? Light pollution may have a big bearing on what you will be able to see from home. Heather

Seeing that sort of reaction of delight and awe happen is what made teaching older primary age children science such a great job. Unfortunately most folk seem to lose the capacity as they 'grow up'. I've pointed out Venus (as an evening star) to adults before now, and had them say "So what ?" which is just sad.

You're welcome. Two places I've had bargains from : first the forum on here https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/217-for-sale-swap/ which you can keep an eye on, and 'follow' to get updates on new threads, The usual practice if you are seriously interested in an item is to post a quick note on the page saying 'PM sent' , and message the poster privately via their profile asap. While the rules say there is no requirement that a seller give precedence to the first to respond, it does seem to be the usual way things are done. The obvious advantage of this is that you can see the reputation of the seller , and be confident that they know their stuff and will be honest about the condition of the kit. A second thread to keep an eye on is this https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/197-flo-clearance-offers/ where FLO give a heads up on returns they are selling at a small discount . An online retailer is bound to get a proportion of sales returned, and they offer them (well checked and with any problems disclosed) with a small discount because of the opened box. There is always a link to the item's page on their website, so it's just a matter of clicking through to there and buying it smartish ! If the page comes up 'page not found', then it's been sold . I suspect there might be a few post Xmas returns on offer once the holiday is over. Good luck, and look on the bright side ...you can't rush into a hasty purchase at the moment ! Heather

I believe the numbers here are fairly accurate .

The tripod I have the alt/az and mak 127 combo on is an old Manfrotto 055 pro, it is easily up to the task. While considering refractors, do note the length of the tube, if the the depth of your balcony is not great you may find a longer tube awkward , remember the pivot over the tripod boss will be somewhere towards the middle of the 'scope to balance it, so along with the tripod legs setting you back from the front edge, you need to take the tube length into account. Try setting a tripod up on the balcony, to around your shoulder height, ideally rather than using the centre column at all just extend the legs, it is less vibration prone that way. The 127 mak has a tube length of 34cm, with the diagonal adding 10cm at the eyepiece end. I just measured mine, and from the centre of the tripod to the end of the eyepiece is 23cm. It has a focal length of 1500mm folded into that short body. I looked at refractors when I started investigating telescopes to buy 6 months ago, as a longtime photographer they seemed the obvious choice, being so similar to telephoto lenses. I was put off by the cost for quality glass of a decent aperture, it seemed I might as well buy a telephoto lens and benefit from the economies of scale photographic kit manufacturers have (not that I have more than a passing interest in astro photo taking, I simply want to observe ) . First I went for a dobsonian reflector (which I'd not suggest for your circumstances for purely practical reasons) . It has a focal length of 750mm, and an aperture of 150mm which gives it a relatively wide field and good light gathering, which is great for many astronomical targets. But for planets and the Moon , which are relatively bright, but benefit from greater magnification, I eventually found I wanted a longer focal length and was willing to sacrifice light gathering.. Thinking of them in camera lens terms, the dob is f5 and focal length 750mm , the mak is f12 (ish) at 1500mm. Heather

Merry Christmas both ! The burning question is ... did Santa bring Jasonb a BST, or were they out of stock even for magical beings ? Heather

Welcome, you got cash for christmas then ? 😀 I'm sure plenty of suggestions will be posted when others get a break from the festive madness , but for practicality in a small balcony , portability and the ability to mount the thing on a hefty photo tripod I'd suggest the combo I have mounted on a big manfrotto tripod , a skywatcher 127maksutov and an alt az mount. The telescope is around £270, the mount ( a skywatcher az5) around £130 . Sold as a package with a (not very good) tripod it is £430 https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az5-deluxe.html That package deal has the green mounting rail in a better place than the same 'scope bought as a standalone, it also has an optical viewfinder not a red dot finder. I initially didn't buy the alt/az mount, as I have a manfrotto pan tilt that cost about the same amount (20 years ago) and thought it might work, but soon found the tiny field of view of the telescope makes proper slow motion controls essential. You might be able to use a lighter alt/az mount ( I wanted something which would cope with any future upgrades) or even get one with go to capability . There's also a smaller 105 mak in the same range , less light gathering, more compact, and sold as a package https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes/sky-watcher-skymax-102-az-gti.html The telescope is great for planets and the Moon, less ideally suited for deep sky objects. Most people find they want to buy a few better eyepieces (costing anything from £40 to how much ?! ) and often a different style of aiming device to the stock finder too, these start at around £30 and , again, go as high as you like ... As I type, Cosmic Geoff has suggested exactly the same ! Excuse me, my brief respite from the festivities has ended, apparently ... Heather

Greetings and welcome , I spent several Christmases in Bromsgrove when some of my family lived there back in the previous century 😀 Heather

Yes, just today I got round to spending some time finding where to site the quickfinder I got in the FLO black Friday sale on my 127 mak , so can confirm the quickfinder comes with two bases, with differently angled edges to accommodate different telescope tube diameters . Mine came with double sided adhesive foam strips, two per base, they seem to hold the smaller diameter base securely to the mak tube. The bases also have a single countersunk hole in the centre which could be used to fix them down. The bases are both 65mm long x 51mm wide if that helps work out if they would be a practical solution for your binoculars. Heather

Welcome, hope you are able to keep your head above the water after all this rain ! Heather

(Engage Austrian accent) "I need your clothes, your boots, your motorcycle and your high end telescope set up ... " 😀

Yes, also the economies of scale keep the Synta prices down, a small scale producer simply isn't going to be able to compete on price for a telescope of similar quality. Heather

Thanks for that reminder, we used it on the moving bits of the long rotary trimmers in the photo finishing area when I worked as a photographer years ago, I'd forgotten all about it ! Heather

Wasn't me who said what you quoted I said No idea how you managed that, when I click 'quote' it inserts what was added by the poster, not any quote they included within their post. You need to address Moonshed.

Now I have to re watch my DVDs of the series ... I thought Summer Glau did a great job as a terminator, her dance background gave her a very different but effective presence. I liked her performance in the excellent Firefly / Serenity and watched the SCC because of it. However, I'm slightly worried that the whole time traveling humanoid self healing robot concept gets through your suspension of disbelief with ease, with just the astronomy component a sticking point ! 😀 Heather

Mars is going to scoot across your view really fast with a 7mm and 2x barlow ! My 150 heritage dob is the sort that closes up, but has a similar turntable base. What I've found when looking at planets is that shifting the az with it in tiny increments is an art : it resists turning ( because of friction ) then when the force of my push overcomes that friction it's easy to overshoot, plus it takes a moment for the view to settle as the 'scope vibrates. I get more precise control by using a finger and thumb grip on the outer edge of the circular plate rather than any part of the telescope. I believe some folk improve the 'glide' of dobsonian bases with teflon pads , but I've not done that myself so can't comment on how useful it is, I'm sure someone with the relevant experience will come forward. I've used a 2x barlowed 8mm EP on the odd occasion, but find it a more comfortable view without the barlow, more time to actually view Mars before the 'scope needs adjusting. I've spent hours at a time watching Mars with my 150, and had good views of Saturn and Jupiter too when they were high in the sky in the summer , rings, moons and all ,so when Jupiter is favourably placed you should be able to see it too ! At the moment it may well be too low , and sets so soon after twilight you have to have an unobstructed view to the SW to stand a chance, but if there's a clear evening give it a try. Heather

It's not just you 😀

All accords with what I expect, apart from the vaccine roll out going smoothly and swiftly , which I'm less than sanguine about, despite the sterling work of the NHS . Keeping up with the news, (not the pap from the BBC or most newspapers) and predictions of knowledgeable people about the likely effects of brexit and the general official unpreparedness shambles with added covid difficulties is exactly why, rather than saving up for it to buy in the new year as I'd intended, I raided the rainy day fund and ordered my second telescope at the start of October. It was delivered at the end of October. The current lead time estimate for that 'scope is 30-40 working days. I expect prices will increase as well , partly supply & demand, but also what will be going on with the £. Not just astro kit will be hit .

My first shroud and dew shield combo for my heritage 150 were cut from a light blue, closed cell foam camping mat I already had (not for camping, I prefer to actually sleep in a tent so have comfier solutions, I snap up cheap mats when I see them, handy material for all sorts of things ) . I found no problem with the colour , either from an aesthetic or optical point of view , after all, it's dark ... human colour vision is poor in low light . The only worry I'd have would be if the mat was one of the camping versions you sometimes see, with a silver layer to reflect heat : if I used one of those, I'd definitely want it shiny side out, just in case of reflections. I tied my dew shield on with string to start with, later , neater attempts have had velcro added , surprisingly I found it stuck on best with hot glue gun . Some brands of duct tape seem to stick well to foam, some just peel off , best experiment on a scrap bit if you decide to go down the tape route . Heather