Jasonb

Bug'r it!

Hi @Nicola Fletcher! Not to hijack Bogmonster's thread, but I've recently started doing some drives around Wicklow looking for a potential dark site to use, have you any recommendations? I was using some light Pollution maps which suggested around Aghavannagh, but it's hard to find somewhere that's off the main road. I'd appreciate and advice, thanks!

Welcome, another Irishman here, living up in Naas, with nowhere near the skies you get down there! As you're a long time lurker, you already know how helpful this site is! There must be enough of us Irish astronomers on here to arrange a meet up or something? I'd love a chance to talk to people about this hobby, swap tips, get a chance to look at other telescopes/EPs etc.!

Ah yes, and usually it's cloudy for a week or two after you get something anyhow! Hope you're feeling better soon. This is a great place to find out all you need to know, so ask away here!

Hi there! Assuming you mean the big dust cover that "closes" your main telescope tube, my understanding is that the smaller caps can be removed, and the bigger cover still left in place, to enable you to reduce the amount of light coming in. For example, if you were looking at a full moon with the cover completely removed, it would be *very* bright when magnified by the Telescope, and would be hard to look at/see detail. By leaving the main cover on, and removing the smaller ones, you reduce the amount of light coming it, so the moon wouldn't be so bright and you can look at it easier. On my reflector, only one of the smaller covers actually comes off, the other one is used as something to hold on to when removing the cover.

I'm having this same conversation with myself, as I'm currently looking for a good dark site, but by its very nature its going to be remote, and I'll be on my own. I guess I'll just have to see how I feel about it the first time I try it!

Just a quick update on this. I got enough of a clear spell last night to bring out my scope, and had a look at Mars, the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades, with my different eyepieces. I could not notice any reduction in clarity with my glasses off compared to on, and it was a lot more comfortable with them off, not hitting off eyepieces etc. so I reckon I'm just not gonna wear them while observing etc. for the moment, until my eyesight gets worse! Thanks for all your help and advice, I can see contact lenses in my future at some point! Now, the step, finding somewhere darker to observe from!

Thanks again for your replies... To clarify, I already have the Varifocals, have had them a while, but I'm struggling with observing with them the few times I've been out. They do have a fairly wide FOV, as I made sure I picked the ones that do. Once I get a clear night I'm going to try to observe without them, with different eyepieces, and see how it goes...

Thanks for all your replies, much appreciated! I checked my prescription, and I am neither short- nor far-sighted (as I thought). I have an astigmatism of 1 in one eye and 0.75 in the other. From what I've read online, this would be considered mild, with the 1 just hitting the bottom of the moderate scale. My Sky-Watcher Explorer 150P is an F5 scope, and my BSTs are 25mm, 12mm and 8mm, giving an exit pupil size (if I'm correct) of 5mm, 2.4mm and 1.6mm. From what I can tell the BSTs all have an Eye Relief of 16mm. So, that's the data. What I really need to do now is try some observing and see how it works. The first step seems to be do I feel like I can get away without the glasses at all, especially with the 8mm and 12mm eyepieces. Thanks for all your advice...

Hi everyone, I got into the Hobby a couple of years ago, but time is taking its toll on me, and now I wear Varifocal Glasses. I have found this quite awkward when viewing, and sometimes my glasses hit against the eyepiece, and therefore causes vibrations etc. It also feels like if I pull back to stop the glasses hitting the eyepiece, then I'm not seeing the full field of view. The eyepieces I used are BST Starguiders, which have what I think are twist in/out eyecups. I usually leave these twisted in completely, would that be correct? I don't know if my glasses being varifocal suit the hobby either, and I wonder if I should try without glasses, or maybe just get a cheap fixed distance pair or something? I've read about astigmatism being key, and you can get away with glasses if you don't have an astigmatism, and just change the focus. I need to check my prescription to see if I do or not! Any advice appreciated, thanks! Jason.

All joking aside, Heather has definitely exaggerated the work I did (which was mainly me saying "yes, that's a good idea") *and* my technical knowledge, while taking little credit for all the effort she put into it! It is a great list that Don compiled and it's nice to share it with everyone here.

Please let us know if you spot any errors that Heather might have made!

Love it Heather, will you make me one?

Managed to get out for an hour these last two nights, and found a couple of things on the list, and some not on it. Fristly, two nights ago, I found Nova Cass 2021, easy enough to find with the directions on here. Just a faint star really but nice to have seen it! I had a look for a few nebulae, like the Crab and Little Dumbbell, but my skies weren't dark enough. I did get to see C39, the Eskimo Nebula. It was a faint circular smudge, like an out of focus star (but it wasn't that though!). Last night I started with ISS, as my phone beeped an alert as I was starting. It was low, under Orion, but I caught it in my scope. I actually accidentally caught 3 or 4 satellites during the session too, at one time I had two different ones passing by my view. Decided to give the Leo Triplet a go, and while I managed to find M66, the other two were beyond me. Also had a look for the Flaming Star Nebula, but once again the skies were too bright. I had more luck when I moved away from Nebula and on to Clusters. C 13, the Owl Cluster, and found it easily, and for once it actually matched the description! Finally I looked or Caldwell 50, an open cluster in the Rosette Nebula. The cluster was easy to see, the Nebula not so much! That was my two nights, getting better with the new scope and star hopping etc. I've entered the Winter Items into Skysafari which really helps, just click on the next on the list and go searching for it.

Excellent, thanks for the update Zermelo, I appreciate it. Hope it works a bit smoother for you over time.

It was clear for a little while last night, so I got out for about 40 minutes. There were some clouds moving around, but between them was really sharp and clear, not like my previous night when it was hazy. First thing first, I had a look at the moon, the terminator line was a great place to focus on. Was blown away by the clarity and detail with the new scope and the BSTs. The 8mm showed so much sharp detail. Even my daughter's reaction was 'What the hell, it's so close!' For the craic my wife took a pic with her smartphone, and it's not too bad for what it is. Some quick searching on a moon map later showed me that the photo is almost centred on the Apollo 11 landing site, so that's a nice coincidence. After that it was off to the new Marathon list, Telescope (items 26-50). I knew I didn't have long, so I went for the 'easy' ones. First one was M42 (which I'd seen before), looking for some of the details. Item 32 on the list was the 'Fish's Mouth' part of the Nebula, an easy enough to see 'gap' going towards the centre of the Nebula. And then Item 33 was the Trapezium Cluster inside the Nebula. Nice and easy to find and looking good! I spent a while looking for Item 36, Caldwell 50, and I was honing in on it but unfortunately some clouds got in the way so I left that for another night. I also had a go at M78, as I knew it would be easy to find the right region, but I couldn't spot the Nebula itself, might need darker skies for that. I did find Item 42, Beta Monocerotis, a triple star. Easy enough to find the star itself, and I went up to my current max of 211x and could distinguish the three stars, with Mon A a little on its own compared to Mon B and Mon C. I did find the clarity wasn't as great with the Barlowed 8mm, much darker too, I don't know if that's just how it is at that magnification, or if the Barlow really doesn't help. I'll have to take time to compare a Barlowed 25mm (68x) with a non-Barlowed 12mm (63x) to see what the drop in quality is like. And I'm always caught out by how relatively quickly the view changes up at that Mag! While I was at Beta Mon I took the logical step of Item 47, NGC 2232, which is only a couple of degrees away from the triple star. A little star hopping with my finder scope and binoculars and I soon got it, a nice little collection of stars together. Always such a nice feeling when it pops into view, and a quick comparison with Skysafari confirms you've found your target. With the clouds increasing and an upcoming Teams call I left it there, 4 targets off the new list. I really can't get over the jump in quality/clarity with the 150P and the BSTs compared to my earlier scope, and the tripod/mount are behaving perfectly. Hoping for some more clear skies soon, and this set up in dark skies is going to blow me away!

Thanks Heather! Great to get out again. I've had a look at the next 25 in the Winter Marathon and most of them are still visible (in terms of their position in the sky etc.) so I should be ok to try that list out once the skies clear again...

First Light for my Exploter 150P. The forecast promised clear skies last night so at around 9:30 or so I got my new setup out the back garden and left it to cool a bit. It was kind of hazy clear skies, but I hoped it would improve. When I got out half an hour later or so, it hadn't really. It wasn't cloudy as such, but it definitely wasn't great seeing. But I couldn't resist finally trying out my new setup. First thoughts were the tripod/mount is very steady, a big improvement on my previous one. It took a little while to get used to the new locations of the slow motion controls, but when I finished an hour later I was finding them by touch. I'm also able to move the whole setup around the garden if needed, but I wouldn't want to be carrying it far like that! I also tried to get used to using the 6x30 viewfinder, I've only used an RDF before. I really liked having a magnified view and being able to see the sky/stars clearly through the finder, but the view not being erect/corrected brought about some issues, and I used my binoculars as well. Anyhow, I started with M42 to get my eye in, and really liked how it looked in my BST 25mm, which I hadn't got to use before. Another favourite, the Pleiades also looked good. Both of them were lowish in the sky and the seeing wasn't brilliant. Lights and smoke from nearby houses really didn't help at all. I tried to find the Andromeda galaxy and eventually found a very faint smudge using my binoculars, but it was so low and in the direction of the glow from my nearby town, so it was on the edge of what I could see. Heading back to the Winter Marathon list, I first decided to find something I'd seen before, the Beehive Cluster (M44). After a minute or two I spotted with with my binoculars but it took a while to get the scope pointing at the right part of the sky. I did get it though and it look really good with the 25mm, and was good practice at star hopping using the finder. Next up was one I hadn't found before, M48. After a little searching I got this too, and it looked great in the scope, so busy! Managed to positively identify it by spotting two sets of stars close to each other, not exactly doubles but I was calling them that to myself. So that's another one off the list. By this stage I was also really growing to appreciate the Crayford focuser compared to my previous rack and pinion, it's so much smoother and more precise, and also I could see how sturdier the set up was with very little shaking/movement while focusing! My three remaining items on the list where all not visible, either beneath the horizon, behind a house or too faint in the light pollution. So I had a quick search for Vesta and actually got it pretty quickly too. Finally, just to see what it was like, I tried a star test on Capella. Using my 8mm and the 2.25x Barlow (giving me 211x) , I was pleasantly surprised to see the star test quite central, with no obvious off centre circles, and when I focused properly I got some very Disney like diffraction spikes. 😀 That was my night, a good first time with the new setup, though the seeing could have been a lot better. I really am going to have to find a good dark site nearby though, the lights from houses around me aren't helping, even just how they affect my night vision. I also think I might have to move on to the Telescope list, from the naked eye list, as the three remaining items are just never visible now. To be fair, it is a winter list, and we are now in spring! I'll have a look at the telescope list and see how many should still be visible to me.

Yeah, there's definitely a chance it will still arrive, especially with how things are at the moment! I just got a little impatient and decided to look into other options. If it does arrive, and it fits, it'll quickly replace the one I cobbled together. But if it doesn't arrive there's no way I'm accepting a reimbursement, it's not your fault it didn't make it through the post! I'm really looking forward to trying it out, I think it's a great size and like you say, perfect for a one scope setup. I've been so anxious to try it out that I even had the OTA under my arm looking at Pleiades for a min or two, trying to keep it steady, before I got the tripod sorted!

Not quite from the postman, but the final part in my mid-life crisis upgrade! After getting a second hand Meade Field Tripod, then an almost brand new Skywatcher AZ5 Mount (thanks @Dean Hale) I also splashed out on a new Skywatcher 150P OTA, luckily finding it in a shop in Austria that still had pre-price rise prices. All that was missing was a 3/8 bolt to connect the AZ5 mount to the Meade Tripod. @wookie1965 very kindly donated me one that might do that job, but after over 2 weeks it still hasn't arrived, so I fear that's lost in the post. A few days ago I started working on plan B, and managed to find a local motor factors who could order a 3/8 threaded bar for me (they're fairly rare over here in Ireland as we use metric for bolts etc.). I got my hands on it today, all 5ft of it! Thankfully, a few minutes with a hacksaw and I had it down to a more manageable size, and added a nut to it to hold up the spreader for the tripod, and it all worked great... Which means I finally have my new setup complete, and it feels steady as a rock. I now just need to wait for some clear skies...

Welcome to SGL! I started with the StarQuest 130p, it's a great scope! I just upgraded to a 150P explorer, but that was more to do with a mid life crisis/retail therapy then any issues with the scope. I got lots of great advice on here (and still do!). I upgraded to BSTs, I eventually went with a 25mm, 12mm and 8mm. I had looked at other ones (like the 5mm), but I decided that would be a little overkill. For example, with the 5mm and the 130P, you'd get 130x magnification. However, another good upgrade is a Barlow lens, as that effectively doubles the options for each eye piece. A 2x Barlow means the 5mm jumps up to 260x, and that probably not much good considering the average seeing conditions we get. I went with an 8mm, which gave me 81x on its own, and I got the Baader Q-Barlow, which gives 2.25x the eye piece. That brings my 8mm up to 183x, which is decent enough but not pushing it too much. So, I'd recommend a Barlow (the Baader Q-Barlow is well recommended on here) and some BSTs, with replacing the stock 10mm that comes with the scope your first one to replace. I got a 8mm and a 12mm as that gives me a good range of magnifications, and I replaced the stock 25mm too, just to complete the set! Between my 3 eyepieces, and the Barlow, I now have 6 magnification choices: 26x, 52x, 54x, 81x, 122x, 183x. And the Q-Barlow also has an option of removing a lens from it and it works as a 1.5x Barlow, though this only works if the eyepiece can take the lens. Regarding the RDF, that's all I've used so far, but considering how much I enjoy star-hopping with binoculars (i.e. magnified with the right way around and right way up), I'm definitely going to upgrade to a RACI finder, so that the view in the finder matches what I'd see in binoculars etc. I just haven't done it yet.

Yep, I found it helpful to check the primary first. Like I said, it seemed to work for me, and hopefully a star test will confirm that.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, I appreciate it. I do believe I have a collimated telescope. I went with the Gary Seronik guide (thanks @Tiny Clanger!) as I found it very easy to follow. My Cheshire has a collimation cap built in, but when you unscrew it (so you can use it as just a cap, without the whole Cheshire tube) it's too big for the focuser tube. So I attached it to a tube from my Barlow (after removing the Barlow lens of course) and that worked perfectly. The next issue was I was finding it hard to spot the hole in the cap in the refection, so I decided to make it easier to see. I recently got some glow in the dark number stickers, so I got one of the number nines, cut off the tail, and positioned the remaining 'o' in the inside of the cap, centred around the hole. Then, after shining a light on the sticker, when I put the cap back in, I could see the outline of the sticker glowing, and I could see it wasn't centred on the donut on the primary mirror. I loosened the locking screws on the primary, and some slow and careful adjustments got the donut in the centre of the glow in the dark sticker. I then tightened all three locking screws pretty tight, and I found that as long as I did them equally enough, the donut was still centred. Next step in Gary's guide was looking at the secondary. I had a good look at this, but try as I might, I couldn't see any obvious issue, it all looking very centred and circular and concentric etc. etc. So I left well enough alone! Checking the donut and glow in the dark sticker were still centred, I then used the full Cheshire and I could see the crosshairs nicely centred too. So I'm calling that a success. When I get a clear night and my mount/tripod talking to each other, I'll try a star test too to see how that looks. So thanks for all the advice, so far I think it's worked.

That said, I love Edinburgh, so maybe I'll just bring it to you!

I live in Ireland, so I'm not sure a four-pack will cover your travel expenses!