Tiny Clanger

If I didn't already have my excellent first telescope, the heritage 150 ... 😀

If I had £200 to spend on a telescope, and had storage space , I'd be snapping this up asap: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/offers/offer_skywatcher-skyliner-150p-dobsonian_170637.html

Excellent advice from Carbon Brush, keep asking questions ! A great advantage you have is that now so many people have a 'phone which can take OK pictures , and can easily upload them to a selling site or add them to a message. If a seller doesn't seem to have much idea about the telescope , and hasn't already thought to provide them, ask for close up photos of any labels on the tube, a shot pointing down the tube at the glass, images of any accessories showing any engraved names/numbers/letters etc. It might save you some fuel and time inspecting the thing in person. If the vendor declined to make that much effort I think it would affect my attitude to them, plus it would suggest to them that you know what you are looking at, (or, at least, know some people here who do !) and can't be easily sold a lemon. Good luck Heather

Yay ! A heritage dob 😀, good choice, you and your little one will really enjoy using it. BTW I have no idea if 'scope is a cool word , neither do I care ... I'm just a very lazy typist ! Heather

I'm seriously under qualified to answer most of your questions in a helpful way, except to mention one small thing : I'm pretty sure I've seen small devices to put in 2" focus tubes to reduce the diameter so you can use 1.25" EPs

First thing I'd do would be an online search and see what reviews of the specific model I can find. Some at around that (original) price will be fancy looking toys, others will be basic proper telescopes, reviews will help you sort them. I'd favour well known brands like Celestron , Bresser and Skywatcher . Then I'd definitely want to see the 'scope rather than have it delivered. Starting ground up, the support might be a dobsonian arrangement or a tripod plus some sort of head, whichever it is needs to be not wobbly, allow free smooth movement in every direction, and stay put when locked. If it is a tripod with legs that adjust for length, be sure the locking mechanisms all work well, and the legs slide all the way shut , sometimes cheap tripod legs get bent and no longer close up. Possibly not a deal breaker, for you but maybe a price reducer ... The glass needs inspecting, surface dust on a lens or mirror can probably be easily sorted, but chips or other physical damage , or fungus threads inside a lens assembly (you see that on old camera lenses, so I'd not be surprised to spot it in a refracting telescope ) would send me home empty handed. The focus device (at the tube where the eyepiece goes ) needs to move in and out smoothly , and you will get the best choice of accessories if it is a 1.25" diameter one, the most common at the moment for proper 'scopes. While looking at that, check if the 'scope has it's original caps on the front and on the eyepiece tube, if not, it's probably not been well cared for. Vital extra stuff you will need to buy make the thing work, if they are not with the 'scope : Some kind of aiming device , probably either a black plastic contraption with a battery holder for a coin cell which should , when switched on, produce a red dot you can see when looking along the tube, or something like a small telescope fixed on the main one. I'd check the battery holder if its a red dot finder (RDF) to see if the cell has leaked. A new finder would cost anything from £20 upward. Eyepieces : usually telescope packages come with one or two not very good eyepieces, if none are included that will be an extra expense. Cheapest viable eyepieces start around £25 - £50 each

'Reasonable amount of confusion' is my default setting 😀

Ha ! Better luck (or skill) than me ... I've had determined attempts on three separate nights with my heritage 150 to find Neptune, all failed . To be more accurate, I probably did see it, as I scanned the correct area slowly and carefully ... I just didn't recognize it as anything but another star . I'm hoping the 127 mak I've added to my kit might help, but at the moment I'm still getting used to it and the alt/az mount. Uranus though, I managed to find that with the dob and see the distinct but tiny bluish disc, it was roughly half way between Mars and the Pleiades as I recall .

Rather than repeat my story about eyepieces, I'll point you to where I told it earlier: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/366444-what-do-i-need/?tab=comments#comment-3989402 and https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/366517-hi-all/?tab=comments#comment-3990148 Any 1.25" fitting eyepiece will go in the heritage 150, what is best for you depends on a lot of things, not least how much money you are prepared to spend ! Heather

Glad it helped ! If you have a clear view to the south west, look there a little after the Sun has set , you will see two bright 'stars' , the lower, brighter one is Jupiter - you will be able to see its 4 moons strung out by it ( altho' check with stellarium, one or more might be hiding behind the planet at the time when you look) and you will also get a tiny but clear view of the rings of Saturn, the less bright of the two. Magic ! Just wait until you get the 'scope lined up with the Pleiades, or the nebula in Orion ... Heather

I went out about 6pm, spent a few minutes looking at Saturn (too low) , switched to Mars and the surface was far less distinct than on the 19th. Covered the 'scope, and nipped in for an indoor coffee break, hoping things would improve , but despite persisting from 7:45 until 9:30 no Martian joy tonight . Had my first good look at the Moon in my new toy (127 mak) though, which was an impressive sight. Proper, settled cold weather should be good for seeing I'd have thought, with less moisture able to be held in cold air ?

Sounds like a good plan ! Note that the included with the 'scope 25mm is tolerable ,so you might consider using that to start with, and buying the 8mm starguider first to replace the more dubious 10mm. Then when finances allow address the rest of the range. It doesn't seem like such a lot of money if you do it bit by bit ... at least, that's what I tell myself ... Heather

Back in for a short coffee break after about an hour of Saturn , the Moon & Mars (Jupiter had slunk down behind the shed already) I was thinking about your questions (the first ones, not the supplementals !) . The 'scope I needed a moon filter for was my first purchase, a 150mm dobsonian reflector, but using the same eyepieces with my new toy , a 127 maksutov, I was entirely comfortable without any filter. So, wait and see if you need one. Don't fall into the trap of thinking higher magnification must be better, there are limits, a search for 'telescope eyepieces maximum magnification' will get you hundreds of results and plenty of relevant reading.

Hi Jason, and welcome ! So many questions ... 😀 I'll only address the few I know anything about ! Some barlows like the skywatcher one I bought, which if I recall correctly was about £30, ( i.e. at the cheap end of the price range, do avoid like the plague any £15 far eastern offerings, they are plastic tat ) give 2X magnification when used as a whole assembly, but you can unscrew just the lens part from the tube, screw the lens directly on the eyepiece, and get 1.5X. Honestly, while my barlow is OK, it isn't wonderful, just as with eyepieces, you need to pay more if you have high expectations. So, eyepieces ... as I've said elsewhere in threads about beginner kit, I went with the skywatcher 17mm plossl as my first purchase to see if it was genuinely an improvement over the supplied 10mm and 25mm . It was . Since then I've acquired a couple of the much recommended BST starguiders, (an 8mm and a 25mm) which are around £40 each new (plus P&P) e.g. here https://skys-the-limit-108154.square.site/shop/1-25-bst-starguider-ed/8 if you can find any in stock ! The BSTs give better views than the skywatcher plossls, but at double the price. The skywatcher plossls I have bought ( that 17mm, which is my favourite, a 12.5mm which is streets better than the bundled 10mm, and a 32mm which even I can see distorts around the edges, but is still useful . I didn't buy any filters right up until until I tried to look at the full moon and got blown back from the telescope by the dazzle ! Some people don't find it a problem, so I'd wait until you get the 'scope. Some moon filters are a neutral grey, some have a coloured tint ( greenish in the case of the cheap Celestron one) , I've not used the polarizing type ( Santa has it on my list though ... ) but know from (non-astro) photography that what they are is a pair of polarizing filters which when rotated with respect to each other vary the amount of light that gets through, so you can choose the exact amount of darkening you like, not the case with simple filters. Excuse me, the 'scope should have cooled down now, and the sky is clear ... I'm off outside ! Heather

An online search suggested it might be one of these: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/telescopes/sky-watcher-explorer-200p-eq5/ I'm sure someone with more experience than me will soon be along with better info though ! Heather

Hi Katie and welcome ! I'm a quite new telescope user too : it was in the first lockdown when I bought it, and when I went looking for accessories every 'proper' astromomy equipment dealer seemed to be out of stock, so I managed to buy some stuff on amazon, mostly not from amazon, but small camera shops using them as a middleman. The first thing I bought was a cheap (£20 ish) skywatcher 17mm plossl eyepiece. I had read all the comments about the packaged eyepieces not being good ( same pair as yours) but wasn't sure if paying more would show me improvement, considering I had a cheap 'scope in a suburban back garden, and am far from a discerning observer ... I chose the 17mm because it was part way between the 10 and 25mm so wouldn't just be a duplicate if it didn't turn out to improve over what I had. When it arrived, and I used it, I was hugely impressed, the improvement over the stock EPs was easy to see. I've since bought a couple of the highly recommended BSTs (which I've never ever seen om amazon, so I doubt you could spend your voucher on one ) but also a skywatcher 32mm plossl, again between £20-£25 . When I observe now, the 17mm skywatcher gets as much use as the two BSTs , I really like it. I've added 12.5mm and 32mm skywatcher plossls to my kit as well, both are OK and give me a good range. A word of caution though : plossl eyepieces at high magnifications ( low number mm) are harder to use, I'd not go below , say, 10mm. Here's a link to the 17mm from the same vendor I got it from , for £21.95 including P&P https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CYHTQY8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought a cheshire collimator but to be honest, 9 times out of 10 I just use the dust cap with a hole in the middle that came with my 'scope instead, I find it easier to do a quick check with. Easy and free to bodge your own if not. The next thing I found I really needed to make my 'scope use easier was a right angle erect image finder (often shortened to RACI ) , which was the cure for having to do annoying yoga poses to look along the red dot finder that came with my 'scope. I've just cheoked on amazon, and there don't seem to be any available there at the moment If you go for some gloves , I'd suggest 'shooter's mitts' which I've used for years when outdoors taking photos. I found them to be excellent, mine are windblocker fleece and came from go outdoors angling dept years ago. Their huge advantage is the fingerless glove has an extra flap-over bit which turns it into a mitten, but velcro holds the flap back out of the way when fingertips need to be free. Plenty of them on offer on amazon for around £10 , e.g. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089WBVP42/ref=wl_mb_wl_huc_clickstream_2_dp?th=1&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.co.uk/TREKMATES-Womens-Youth-Fleece-Gloves/dp/B00OIVZBGK/ref=sr_1_58?dchild=1&keywords=shooters%2Bmit&qid=1605965095&s=clothing&sr=1-58&th=1&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Pyke-Shooters-Mitts/dp/B01LNYUTL6/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=jack+pyke+shooters+mit&qid=1605966118&s=clothing&sr=1-5 I find I need the thumb of my dominant hand free too, but as fleece doesn't fray I've just butchered my mitt by snipping the top of the thumb off after unpicking the thumb seam a bit, allowing me to use the unpicked thread to secure the top of the seam properly after surgery. One pair I bought had buttons and loops to hold the mitt bit back , which was useless, too fiddly to use with cold fingers , I cut the buttons off and sewed velcro on. They've been as good at the telescope as they have been out walking in the countryside . Something else to maybe think about : a small toolbox or similar to hold your accessories in one place and make it easy to take them outside, keep them safe from any damp surfaces and find them in the dark . Happy observing, and for the cloudy evenings happy shopping too Heather

Looking at your daytime photo makes me wonder if internal reflections are degrading the image : have you considered flocking the inside of the telecope tube ? It's not expensive, FLO sell black sticky backed flock sheets for this purpose, plenty of how to vid.s for the process . It's on my to do list . A home made dew cap (like a camera lens hood) might cut out some stray light too. Are you using a remote to release the camera shutter ? If not, try using the shutter delay to let any vibrations die down . Finally, I'm not familiar with your 'scope, but know that on the Celestron 114 eq (jones bird ) I inherited , the focus tube tends to creep under the weight of a DSLR body .

Only just spotted the 'clubs' tab and investigated it , but thought I'd join despite the lack of recent posts here.

Yep, that is very similar to what I saw, except for me the lower triangular patch appeared a little darker, but then I was using an orange filter. I couldn't see the Southern Polar Cap at all (filter or none), even when I had my DOH ! moment and began looking in the correct area , having remembered the new mak does not invert the image N/S like the dob I've become accustomed to 🤡

Me too 😀 In answer to the OP, yes, Zaphod Beeblebrox , President of the Galaxy had the exact same experience in the Total Perspective Vortex . In case you are unfamiliar with the sorely missed philosophical colossus Douglas N Adams, here is the relevant passage :

I'll second all the above ! I bought a 150 heritage dobsonian in early summer, and have been learning with it that it's not just the telescope you need to know how to operate, you also have to learn how to see . Sounds stupid, but getting your eye in line, and at the right distance from the eyepiece , and then keeping both open whilst concentrating on the image from the 'scope ... it didn't come naturally to me. Wanting to add a longer focal length 'scope specifically for observing planets and the Moon , I just bought a 127 skywatcher Mak. , and if I hadn't already had some experience with the dob, which has half the focal length, therefore half the magnification of the Mak. I suspect I'd have struggled to use it. The greater magnification means the Mak needs to be aimed with greater accuracy , Mars scuds across the field of view faster, and the focus is more finicky too. Take your time, be patient, use the 25mm eyepiece , let the 'scope cool down for at least half an hour , try to use it outside. And remember you are peering up through a sea of air , conditions in the atmosphere are enormously , annoyingly limiting, but some time a good clear night will happen ... Heather

I got the first chance to use my shiny new 127 mak this evening, clear sky from 6.45 pm until nearly 8pm when the clouds rolled in. The conditions were too poor for my 8mm EP to be useful, but the 12.5mm cheap plossl and an equally cheap orange filter and persistence got me some decent glimpses of the Red Planet. Having written my notes up, and compared what I thought I saw with the mars mapper , I was doubting my eyes, but the three roughly triangular dark shapes I noted accord pretty well with the flipped image John posted . Wow, did I really just (intermittently) see traces of a dust storm on Mars ? !

Step by step instruction video here, it's a few years old, but will probably still be relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_KnCxm98eI

Stellarium ( the downloaded program, I've not used the online version much, and doubt it has this facility anyway) has a dead handy feature , the oculars plugin. You can set your telescope focal length and the image orientation (reversed l/r or up/down or not) to match whatever telescope you have , and add the parameters of your eyepieces , barlows and camera . The plugin provides quite a lot of standard ones, but you can easily delete any you don't need. Then you can select any object, click the oculars tool bar, and stellarium will let you cycle through the telescope/s and other kit you have entered , showing you a circle corresponding to your chosen combination of kit's view. It can show you telrad circles too . Combined with the night mode I find this very helpful to have outside with me if I'm searching for something a bit elusive. Here's a link to the relevant wiki page : http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Oculars_plugin Heather

XKCD has wisdom to impart on the topic. The resistor code mnemonic seems particularly appropriate :