Tiny Clanger

😀😀 I know ! My thought processes (such as they are) went like this : Clanger would be a good user name , especially as a friend made me my very own crochet clanger last year, and it stands proudly on the bookcase, above where the heritage 150 sleeps during the day. Curses, 'Clanger' is taken as a username already ! Major Clanger fits my general demeanour (in a humorous wordplay kind of way) but sounds like a leader, and male, and I'm neither, so better go for a more androgynous and modest space mouse ... Tiny will do. Account set up , hooray. Now, an avatar ... too lazy to spend time making a good image of my own clanger at my 'scope, (something I may get round to one day) I trawled the web looking for a good image, and found some of Tiny plus telescope as you have , but they were too complex as images to make a good, er, tiny Tiny avatar . The simple 'Major pointing' image did crop nicely to a square though, whilst still being recognizable, and I like the way that having flipped it in photoshop, he is pointing to the post above mine . I doubted anyone would notice ... should 'a known better ! Sorry for triggering your OCD, I hope my explanation helps damp down the reflex reaction to the dissonance I've made. 😀 Heather

Just double checked to make sure shotcut can deal with a sequence of timed still frames (I only used a couple as titles ) and found this : https://forum.shotcut.org/t/how-to-assemble-jpegs-into-a-movie-and-set-image-duration/16728/6 so it definitely can .

I've used shotcut https://www.shotcut.org/ in the past , but I was editing video from an action cam with a waterproof housing ( film from a boating adventure) so had no sound to edit and didn't add any, so I don't know how easy that is . I'm sure you can do it though What I liked about shotcut, was it had good reviews , is open source and from a .org, and, of course, it is the ideal price : free. There may be newer, better offerings out there but if I had a similar task to do I'd use shotcut again.

Easy to compare the two spec.s on vendor's websites like https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html or the manufacturer's own site here : https://skywatcher.com/series/dobsonians/ I believe the mirrors are the same in the two, but don't take that as gospel ...

If the 'seeing' is poor, any planet will appear fuzzy whatever your focus , I've found that for me, the best way to try to get focus and find out if the view will still be fuzzy anyway is to concentrate not on expecting the planet to snap into sharp detail (as you might expect in a camera lens) but to concentrate on the apparent size of the fuzzy ball : that apparent size is smallest when in focus, so watch the size decrease , and then as you pass the point of focus it begins to increase again, so stop and slowly & gently reverse your turning direction. Repeat , making finer and finer adjustments until you find the spot where the apparent size is least, and then decide if it seems atmospheric conditions make it worth continuing. One of the surprising * things to me as a beginner in this hobby has been finding that as well as how to use the bought equipment , I've had to start to learn how to get eyes and brain trained to make sense of what I'm seeing. For me, this sort of learning is fascinating and rewarding, well worth the time and persistence, I hope you keep at it, the rewards are great. *Surprising to me, but I imagine every experienced visual astronomer knows it, but has forgotten they had to learn it for themselves. A bit like how difficult it is to recall back before you learned to read, seeing those black squiggles on the page, but not understanding that each in some mysterious way sort of represents a sound .

My first scope is a 150 heritage,and I can assure you that it will give you images similar to the simulations John has posted above. It's not a problem with the optics or your fucussing if you can see the Moon looking really sharp , so although checking the collimation , sorting a 'shroud' for the open part of the 'scope , and adding some PFTE tape to smooth the action of the somewhat industrial focusser (I got 2 rolls of PFTE for under £2 P&P included from an amazon 3rd party seller, its something plumbers use loads of , so it's easy to get ) are all good ideas, However, I think your problem is the atmosphere . Jupiter and Saturn are both very low in the sky now, compared with back in the summer, which means the light from them to our telescopes has to travel through a greater thickness of air , and the image is therefore less steady. Even worse if you have to view above houses where warm air will be rising adding extra turbulence. Plus over the last couple of weeks for me here in Leicestershire the night sky has not been steady, or clear of cloud and mist very often, and when it has it's been so windy the telescope has been battered around . You don't say where you are, but it seems much of the UK has had only short periods of good 'seeing' recently. I bookmarked this page https://medium.com/@phpdevster/help-i-cant-see-detail-on-the-planets-ac27ee82800 as having a good clear explanation of the problems we are facing.. Have you tried looking at Mars ? It is higher in the sky, so should in theory be less affected by atmospheric factors, and it is visible for hours after Saturn and Jupiter have both set, so you have a greater window of opportunity. Some evenings I've gone out to spend time looking at Mars, seen it bouncing around like a little orange ball in the eyepiece, and given up . Other times when it appeared a bit less lively I've spent two hours just looking , and caught some steady views for a few minutes . It seems like a long time for a short glimpse of surface features, but when you do get to see some detail it feels worth it. Don't give in, be patient, let the 'scope cool down outside before you use it for at least 15 minutes to avoid swirling air currents inside the tube adding to the problem, and have some alternative targets in mind to look at if the planets are not working out: for instance, a free enormously detailed PDF book about the Moon can be downloaded here http://alanchuhk.com/

The seller who lists the Meade 82mm on amazon has the scope on their own website too. It's no cheaper than via amazon (once you factor in the extra delivery which is free from amazon) and it does say it's a time limited offer until Monday ... 'while stocks last'. There's more info on their own site though, including a downloadable instruction manual. https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/meade-dobson-telescope-n-82-300-lightbridge-mini-82-dob/p,54294#tab_bar_0_select

The 82 means 82mm, which would make it slightly better than the 76 as far as mirror size goes. https://www.meade.com/lightbridge-mini-82.html suggests it may be discontinued, which would explain the reduced price. From that it appears to come with a couple of eyepieces , you can see it has a red dot finder,. There's an old mention of it in a thread on here : https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/260219-have-anyone-tries-this-scope/ To be honest, the way things are with availability at the moment, I'd have it in my Amazon basket immediately, then check out any reviews ...

A good starting point : https://www.firstlightoptics.com/beginner-telescopes.html But ... whilst your budget would get you a telescope, it would not be one well suited to astro photography , which is an expensive pursuit. And (as you can see from many recent threads asking for similar advice on here) telescopes are difficult to buy at the moment, deliveries have been badly affected by the current situation, and it may be difficult to buy any worthwhile instrument (i.e. one which is not a toy) before Christmas. Maybe think about https://www.firstlightoptics.com/first-light-optics-gift-vouchers/first-light-optics-gift-voucher.html

After the thread has been silent for 2 years, I don't think anyone would see a new post is a rude interruption 😀 I was in a similar position, £200 to spend, back in the summer, and I went for the heritage150 (which had only just arrived as a new addition to the range, so could't have been mentioned in the discussion above.). I've found it very good, I like basic, simple, robust and faff free things, and enjoy the learning process of finding out how to best use them, and amateurish tinkering to improve things, so the dob is ideal for me. I can't compare it directly with the 130, I've never used one, but the 150 is an appreciable step up from a 114 eq, which I have.

My thoughts would be that any binoculars (as long as they can be adjusted so the distance between the eyes is small enough for a child) will give at least a somewhat enhanced view : you probably know the first number (the 8 in 8x42s) is the magnification .Apart from showing a bit more detail when looking at the Moon, the main thing increased magnification is going to do is increase the jiggling around of the view when held by an excited small person, so low magnification is no bad thing. Greater magnification for handheld binoculars won't affect views of planets (which will always be little featureless blobs whatever the mag.) and stars (which will be bright points) . The advantage binoculars give for stargazing are to do with the size of the front lens, the 42 in the 8x42, a 42mm diameter lens. It is bigger than your eye pupil, so improves your view of faint stars etc.However, as those front lenses get bigger, the whole instrument gets heavier. I have a pair of the opticron 10x50s , and they weigh just over 800g, whilst the 8x30s I inherited from my dad come in at 510g. The 8x30s are less good for looking at the night sky than the 10x50s, but they are significantly better than the naked eye ! I think that putting heavier binoculars on the meade tripod would be a faff, awkward for you to set up at a height where junior can see through ... you'd have to be sat or kneeling or on all fours . I suppose you could get the binoculars lined up at adult height (if the tripod is tall enough, I have no idea !) then have the little one stand on a box or something to see through it, but that sounds a dodgy dangerous thing to do in the dark ... My suggestion : lightweight cheap binoculars for junior to feel he owns, light enough for independent use (including taking along on daytime walks to the park to spy on squirrels , ducks etc) .Don't worry too much about high quality, think about practicalities of holding, eye spacing and weight, discard any that boast about high magnification then consider what would most please him as far as colour and design go . Then either hang on to the 'scope you already have ( Alan64 is obviously your best source of information on if that's a good idea) or think about one of the tabletop dob.s , where instead of the cost being spread between a 'looks the part' metal tripod and a complicated mount (head) and a telescope , most of your cash goes just to the telescope, with just a simple wood base. The firstscope you linked to has the drawback of no aiming device , so I'd be more inclined to go for one of the 'Heritage'series. which do have finders on them. Whatever you do, make sure you can get an in stock telescope before you return the one you have : old Chinese proverb (which I've just made up) Confucius he say, a telescope in the hand on Christmas day is superior to a better telescope on a container ship on its way from China ...

Wise words, and a realistic approach.. I taught the 7-11 year old age range for many years, and would absolutely go down the cheap kid's binos route , children generally like to own and control something themselves. Imagine being given an Xmas gift, then told don't touch it, someone else must do all the setting up for you, and you can just look through it without having any input ... Having their own instrument to role play with while someone gets a 'scope set up though, that would be less frustrating. I have a relative whose first words were 'Mine !' (directed at his older sister who was about to try and play with the toy which was the subject of his second word 'tractor' !)

Will be giddy ? 😀 You sound so excited already I think you may explode ! Fingers crossed for you to get some nice clear skies for that first light ! Heather

I think amazon pack stuff they dispatch from their own warehouses. I've had things (small ) inside boxes ( large) with twists of brown paper filling the spaces. My cat likes those. She is less keen on the little plastic pillows of air . Amazon delivery around here seems to be done by self employed folk in white vans one guy (Romanian I think) who has delivered my orders a few times actually runs from van to door, rings the bell and once he sees movement through the glass of my door, runs off, but still manages a cheery wave when I shout 'thank you' at his receding figure ... He looked so stressed in the height of summer that I gave him a bottle of chilled water , they must be under terrific time pressure to fulfill the round amazon gives them for the day. I've had many small items (both breakable and not) dispatched from China through the post, they inevitably come in a grey plastic bag, occasionally with a single layer of bubble wrap inside, and if you're lucky a flimsy white card box or plastic bag inside that. Remarkably nothing has ever arrived broken .

I bought my second 'scope from FLO, it was out of stock but expected in a similar time frame to yours. I contacted them by email asking what happens if you order before it's in stock . The answer was, payment is taken immediately , but if you have to change your mind for some reason , they will refund you. They prioritize orders by date, so by ordering and paying, you secure your place in the queue for whatever arrives. I also asked if they'd be able to give me some idea of how likely I was to get my order from the delivery that was scheduled, making it clear that I understood they couldn't be absolutely sure until the delivery arrived at their warehouse. I was told they only had a few orders already for what I wanted, so I was likely to get it. I ordered, I saw the delivery estimate roll up to 30-40 days a few days later, but sure enough, the estimated date from when I pushed the 'buy' button was when my order arrived. If I was you, I'd trust FLO , make my order very soon, maybe after making an email inquiry about your specific item as I did, then keep my fingers crossed ! Heather

To me (and bear in mind I'm pretty much a beginner myself ) that sounds like the sort of out of focus view I get when swapping from plossls to my 8mm BST, or adding in the barlow to any of them. Have a look and make sure nothing bad has happened to the focus device on your 'scope, and it still has full travel in and out . It's another 'I never realized that' thing which surprised me when I found I had to re focus when changing between some eyepieces. Now I know why some eyepiece adverts boast the range is 'parfocal' , and why it is a good feature !

As far as I know, tripod to binocular mounts usually use a standard photographic tripod screw thread. The telescope you have already purchased may or may not have a standard photographic screw, probably not if it has an eq mount. I doubt anyone here will have one of those telescopes to check it for you, maybe do an online search for the instruction manual to find out without opening the box.

Brilliant, thanks.

I keep mine in the house , partly because the shed is a disaster area of garden tools, bags of compost and spare bits of timber, but mostly because it's convenient to take them outside through the back door and plonk them close to it to cool down. If the weather changes, it only takes a moment to bring them back in. I put waterproof covers over them while they cool , just in case . The covers are the ones that came with my Lowe Alpine 35L and 45L rucsacs , I don't need them for the 'sacs because I use roll top drybags inside instead, but I knew those rectangles of waterproof orange material with elastic shock - cord around the perimeter seam would come in useful one day !

Yesterday, an unexpected delivery by the postie of a little far eastern thingummy I ordered 10 days ago which had an expected delivery date in January ... Now I need to think about making a setting circle ...

It can't hurt to ask them what 'available to order' actually means for this specific item at the moment. I'm afraid I don't recall if the listing said that when I bought mine, or if it actually said 'in stock'. Good luck ! Heather

Yes, it's wrong 😀 This is the proper sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OvefhhMbbg

Good choices, the 8mm BST is great in my 150 dob. should work really well for you too. Getting the hang of observing takes a bit of practice and perseverance, and there is a huge amount of information around to take in, get your daughter to do some of the research too, it's all useful exercise of her academic skills (don't tell her that though !) Heather

You need an observatory spider (one specifically trained not to spin webs across tempting metal tubes)

I found mine at Bristol Cameras, they seem a decent outfit : https://www.bristolcameras.co.uk/p-sky-watcher-6x30-right-angle-erect-image-finderscope.htm only a 6x30, not the larger one generally seen as ideal, but I'm cheap and it was in stock ...