Tiny Clanger

Well, I'm no help with this one, sorry ! I've run stellarium back & forward , and it didn't show a satellite passing particularly close to Mars (there was the ISS some way off just after 6pm, but that zaps along a lot faster and I'm sure you'd have I.D.'d that ) I'd guess either a satellite or bit of space junk with flat faces rotating so the sunlight reflects off it, or the Martians letting us know they are invading ...

Comparatively free , I'll give you that !

😀 Virtually free from frustration ?

I really was determined not to buy myself any new toys until 2021 , but then a returned Rigel quickfinder pops up in the in the FLO sale with a few £ off, and I immediately fall off the wagon ... Well , it was on my wishlist, how could I resist ? And that is why I just spent 5 minutes stood in the kitchen with a towel over my head , admiring the little red circle in the dark ... I'm not sure if I'm relieved or disappointed though, my small box & jiffy bag didn't get a sticker for clouds or snow . Does that mean .... ?

If it's truly arctic, metal can get cold enough for skin to stick to it ... 🥶 Shouldn't be a problem for most of us in the UK unless up a mountain somewhere, but another reason rubber eyecups are a good thing ! As long as the 'scope has cooled suitably, it should be fine, just the human suffers. Might get dew forming on the cold surfaces of the device , which is why dew shields are a good idea. Oh, and in the spirit of 'I made this stupid mistake, so you don't have to ' , try to not breathe on the eyepiece while faffing around , it mists up ! Heather

Welcome Richard, hope you feel pleased you don't need to worry about polar alignment !

Are you sure you solved your previous problem ? https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/366620-secondary-mirror-keeps-tilting-and-not-staying-in-position-after-first-attempt-in-collimation/

Ah well, I tried !

If that's not what you are after,have a look at smallrig, they make a dizzying range of bits of metal for photo and video use ... and it's got a good reputation for quality https://www.smallrig.com/?setCurrencyId=16 I've never bought direct from them, only via Amazon , here's one thing which might be of interest to you if two tripod screws are what you want https://www.amazon.co.uk/SMALLRIG-Male-Threaded-Screw-Adapter/dp/B00SY3I20A?ref_=ast_sto_dp or if it's threaded holes you need, perhaps a 'cheese plate' 😀 https://www.amazon.co.uk/SMALLRIG-Cheese-Plate-Threads-Camera/dp/B00X752FNA/ref=psdc_1330686031_t2_B00CIHYNVK Heather

This is sort of the opposite of the one you linked to, camera tripod threaded socket below, vixen clamp above https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/baader-vixen-style-dovetail-clamp.html

That looks like a far more robust adapter, similar to the one I bought (mine has straight sides on the vertical bit, and was the one the binocular manufacturer recommended for my specific model) Let's hope it does the trick , and you can get on with your observing ! Heather

That can't possibly be a stupid question, as it is one I've wondered about myself ... 😀 The dob cools pretty fast , and I leave the big cap on the front and have substituted a kodak type film pot (black body, grey overlapping lid) instead of the supplied skywatcher cap, which has a hole in the middle, collimation for the use of. Helpful to collimate, less so to protect the 'scope (I can see why they did it tho' as when the sliding section is closed, the EP tube is above solid metal, so for general closed down storage hole/no hole makes no difference). I have two (not needed for their proper use) rucsac waterproof covers which make good temporary covers for the scopes, they have cords to gather the edges so won't blow away. I've tried just the fabric cover as well as fabric plus caps, and found no difference . Bear in mind though that half the length of my dob tube is space with a gappy ill fitted foam plastic shroud !

My neighbour has storage heaters which provide the background heat in her house : they were popular heating options at some time in the past. What they do is use cheap night time (economy 7) electricity to heat up radiators which are essentially bricks inside a metal box (I'd estimate the radiators are maybe 50x50x10cm) and with an adjustable vent on the top giving a bit of control over the upward warm air flow. A house wall has more volume and can store more energy in heat form. Having my back garden's view with houses nearby to the south east, I can say from personal experience that they cause turbulence and poor viewing above their roofs. Most advice on where to site a telescope outdoors says don't set up on slabs or concrete if at all possible, better get on grass which will not be radiating stored heat as much. Another consideration is the telescope tripod span : in order to rise above a windowledge, you will need a tripod extended quite high , I just checked my tripod (not an astro specific model, but a big solid manfrotto photo tripod) and the closest I could get it to a wall was 29cm .That's from the wall to the centre of the mount, with two tripod legs touching the wall, and the third sticking out where you'd trip over it . I'm certain astro tripods would have a similar span, so please consider what arc of the sky your telescope would have access to not by looking while you are stood at the window, but 30cm back from the window. It gets even more of a problem if you get a newtonian 'scope with the viewfinder out of the side at the front ... Sorry if this all sounds very negative, but I don't want you to have an expensive disappointment ! Heather

Oh dear, I've been sussed 😀😀 Yes, I bought a heritage150p nearly 6 months ago , and have found it to be a great starter 'scope. I wrote a fairly long post about it on another beginner thread here recently (first time I've tried an internal link, no idea if it works this way !) https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/366397-hi/?do=findComment&comment=3994800 Heather

My spare bedroom faces south and has no heating (except when specifically needed for visitors) and has the door shut all the time (to keep the cat out : one of my family has allergies and whilst they have to put up with my feline overlord's presence in the rest of the house, the cat is excluded from that room so at least they can sleep easy ).The room is cooler than the rest of the house, but still noticeably warmer than outdoors in winter (and very hot compared with outdoors in the summer ). Internal house walls and ceilings/floors are not particularly good insulators. You'd need to open the window wide for a few hours before use to get the temperatures matched. House external walls though, in the UK are probably cavity walls with an exterior skin of brick : they are great at absorbing daytime warmth and radiating it at night. So even if your room is as cold as the outside, you will get a 'curtain' of turbulent, rising, heated air from the house structure. That's why the observatories you see are not brick but wood or fiberglass or plastic.

Welcome ! I'll endorse everything that has been said above. £100 is not enough to get a telescope which would be more than a toy. £150 is a more realistic minimum price , so I'd wait until his birthday. The heritage 130p would be a great choice, and some members who have only just received their first telescopes will I'm sure soon give their opinions either here or on other threads , have a browse. As has been said, supplies of telescopes are pretty desperate at the moment, covid + xmas means most good stuff is sold out, and the next delivery to the distributors is on a boat en route from China. Second hand might be an option, but you have the disadvantage of not being to spot a lemon, and you might not want to give a second hand gift ... Whilst £100 wouldn't get you a decent 'scope, had you considered binoculars ? Plenty of reasonable ones in that sort of price range, and more likely to be in stock somewhere. Heather

As Keats nearly said in his poem, Autumn : Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him to goad and distress With cloud cover the stargazer clan

Thank goodness for that, I was starting to worry ! Great that you got to use it immediately too 😀 Heather

Whilst entirely ignorant of the nexstar , I do know a bit about converting between co-ordinate types with my geocaching hat on (in case anyone wonders, in winter it's one with earflaps ) https://www.gpscoordinates.eu/convert-gps-coordinates.php Usually does the job well.

Actually, if you go to the FLO gift voucher page and click the V by the £5 box, the drop down menu has lots of options up to £200

Hi Kevin, welcome. I bought the 150p as my first proper telescope, it's great if you can find one in stock, buy it ! The Moon, Jupiter & Saturn will just be the start ... Heather

Two more resources which I've found very useful as a newbie : the binocular sky monthly guide (see the binocular section on here ) and the really well written and illustrated monthly online guide from a local astro soc here http://www.whitby-astronomers.com/sky-notes/sky-notes-december-2020 I'm slightly irritated that before lockdown #1, way back in March, my sole trip away from home this year was a few days near Whitby, and it was only after that I got into the astronomy thing again. It would have been great to go to one of their meetings ...

The Moore W.M. is 50 objects in total , the first 25 are listed as best see with binoculars (or the naked eye) , but that doesn't stop you pointing a 'scope that way. For anyone who hasn't found it, here are links straight to the first 25 PDF http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/skyatnight/moore-winter-marathon-guide-1-25.pdf and the second 25 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/skyatnight/moore-winter-marathon-guide-26-50.pdf Good printable to give us beginners some easy starter targets of various types , and to tell us what we are seeing. The only thing that is outdated as far as I know (it's a few years old) is the information on where & when to view a planet (I think it was Jupiter ? ) which is specific to the year. The date/time option on the main Moore W.M . page is an online sky map. Heather PS, is it there yet ?!

I saw a 'planes contrail streaming right across the sky more or less horizontally expand and disperse incredibly slowly over the course of a couple of hours (it still hung there at 2am when I gave up and bought my telescope in) The light from the nearly full Moon above it lit the water droplets (actually more likely to have been ice crystals up there last night) beautifully, making it really stand out, and the length of time it sat there without being broken up showed how still the atmosphere was. Might something similar be what you saw ? You're bound to have more flights and therefore contrails nearby than I do !