wibblefish

Wobblewing and Wibblefish, purveyors of quality optical phenomenon est. 2021

@wobblewing I had a similar trouble with M31 with a 90mm refractor and a disappointing night searching for it even though I was sure I was star hopping with the RDF towards it. The next time I did what a @Tiny Clanger suggested and went hunting with a pair of binoculars and found it where I had expected, trained the scope and got it eventually working with the binoculars and the scope together then managed to get it directly with the scope the next night to convince myself I had it down right! Definitely don't give up on it I am sure you will find it eventually, there were also a few suggestions (including the moore winter marathon!) on the thread I created during my M31 disappointment (Winter targets for small telescopes). Happy hunting and please let us know observations and any other tips if you do find things I am always keen to try if I can ever get clear skys again :D

More than welcome I am sure there are older heads who can help more I have only been out a handful of times myself since getting a scope in Nov! Hope you get clear skies and be good to know how you get on

You may find something like https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ useful here you can plug in your scope and EP and get a rough idea what it might look like. Mars to my 90mm refractor is a very small bright dot normally but on a clear night I can make out an edging of the red colour and some shadowing on the surface. I usually locate it with the longer eyepeice (25mm) then try the 10mm once its centered but it doesn't usually yield much more detail than sitting for a while and looking with the 25mm. My guess on the images is focus problems, if you were focusing on the moon beforehand you may need to readjust for further targets.

I think its down to the suggestion that @Pixies made of the es68 24mm, baader barlow, 18mm bst, 12mm bst or stick with a full bst lineup short barlow, 25, 18, 12 for the current discount. The price difference is mostly in the es68 of about £100 which is significant. I am starting to lean towards that as @Mr Spock and @PEMS have suggested perhaps there isn’t going to be £100 of difference to my eyes at least for the moment and Im less concerned about spending that than dropping the majority on one EP and getting it wrong! 😎 Thank you all for the input plenty to consider!

@PEMS I have run quite a few comparisons with a fov tool and the es68 is the widest and by a margin but it is probably fractional gains at that level I guess as you say cheers! @Zermelo yes I am gradually working myself to indecision @Pixies interesting I did actually think that an 18 would be a solid choice from calcs but was unsure wether itd be redundant with overlapping EP at the wide end. @Mr Spock yesh I did originally think several BST 12/18/25 plus barlow might be good value vs quality before diving into the ES68 rabbit hole after looking at celstron Ex-Cels

@Spile I think thats the one I have seen recommendations for. I was going to say its quite large but then I think its smaller and lighter than the ES68 I was thinking of. Food for thought cheers @KP82 @Zermelo yeah I think thats why I had thought of something else as the BST seem to be particularly good toward the higher magnifications so I figured barlow one to give two options for close work. I will do the exit pupil calcs on the vixen vs the es68 I think it was about 3.2 vs 4.1 or something. I think I am a little concerned the ES68 is a lot of cost for a single EP but it does seem to get good reviews plus alot of people seemed to recommend buying some quality rather than scattering lots of lower costs. Hohum decisions!

@azrabella thanks I have looked at the BST range and it seems good in terms of value and well recommended here but seem to ha read the 25 is not so good somewhere. Ill have a play with the nirvana etc in fov calcs cheers for the suggestions. @rwilkey I havent looked at that brand, will have a look now, appreciated! Bit dubious of buying second hand kit though 🤔

Howdy, Ive been lucky enough to get some pennies towards new scope accessories so was hoping you kind people would be able to provide some advice if what I was looking at would be suitable. My budget is up to £250 (seems odd to spend the price of the scope on EP!) though happy to not spend that much if its not worth it! I currently have a 90/660 f7.3 short tube refractor with standard skywatcher super ma 25 and 10mm EP. I have found the 25 is fairly decent but the 10 is not so great for eye relief (targetting the moon). I wear glasses though I am happy not to use them at the scope (I cant with the 10mm but can just about with the 25). I have been mostly targetting star clusters and some nebula type DSO. I would like to be able to go a little closer to the moon / other planets and maybe splitting some doubles but primarily I am looking for more wide field views as that seems to give me the wow factor at present. I am not sure how wide I can reasonably go with this scope as it does seem to go a bit less sharp or something at the edges with the 25mm. With that in mind my thoughts are to get something like the following: - 2.25 baader classic q barlow - 12mm bst starguider - 24mm es 68 I figure the bst will give me a good view for planets and barlow to near the max for the scope while providing more eye relief than the 10mm I currently have. Then I was torn with the ES in terms of spend as it seems a lot for a single lens but it seems like the widest of the available options though streching on the budget. I did wonder wether to get a couple of smaller 60 lenses from BST to cover more range instead (ie a 24 and an 18) or maybe Vixen npl at 30mm instead. Another option might be going for a cheaper set of plossl for more range or maybe even a zoom but Im not sure what to look at there. Again not sure if one or two good quality (and maybe expensive EP are better than lots of cheaper ones). Bewildered by the amount of choice! Any suggestions or advice welcome!

Another for Turn Left at Orion I also liked Night Watch but not sure if either books might be to much. There are others I have on my list as recommendations such as The Practical Astronomer or Collins Beginners Stargazing which may work better but I havent got those so cant comment on content, you may be able to raid your local library. Sky At Night is a good site and also they have a magazine which may be of interest (I get a digital copy free from my local library in the UK). I also use an app on my phone called Skyview (there is a lite one that is free but the pro is not overly much) which is good for identifying objects and tracking them at various times.

Thank you all for the replies. Sounds like another interesting thing to do in the sky, never honestly thought there was so much variety of things to see. I will have to as you suggest and find some suitable targets to add to my lists😀 Guess if it takes some magnifications Ill be looking for new EP at some point in the new year for definite then! Though I fear I might outspend the cost of the scope on a few EP 🤔

Im going to be very newbie here. I see a lot of people saying “splitting doubles” what exactly does that mean / how does one do it 🤔 Thanks for the suggestion I will go look those books up!

Let me see what I came up with during my quest to buy one recently, I am not sure I can come up with good questions though and wether the answers are right is debateable! - Storage, do you access to a large storage area (i.e. conservatory, shed, garage etc.) Yes (any scope), No (consider Mak, short tubes, tabletop, binoculars) - Portability, do you need to be able to move to a different location (other than easy access garden etc)? Yes (consider Mak, short tubes, grab and go, binoculars etc.), No - Goto, do you want a scope that can find stars rather than manual moving? Yes (consider some sort of NexStar or whatever), No - Grab and Go? i.e. something that doesn't need collimating etc.? Yes (consider pre-collimated scopes / refractors / maks / binoculars) No - Imaging, are you interesting in using a dslr with the telescope? Yes (consider spending more £££) / No - What are you interested in observing? Planets + Moon / DSO / Other? - Ultimately one of the other things was is it in stock somewhere. I was considering the same thing after seeing that post and what I was thinking instead of a flow chart was you could have some sort of list of telescopes and "tags" with different things that when people select various bits (i.e. budget, ratings, what I want to use it for, space, weight etc) then it would be able to cull the list to relevant scopes. I could see it being a website database and maybe some sort of reviews thing, might be a fun little tool to build. I am pretty sure all roads lead to Dobsonian

Appreciate the advice, thanks should give me plenty to plot for new year purchases 😎

Hi John, thanks! This version of the Evostar 90 is a F/7.3 rather than F/10 since it is a short tube in case that modifies your advice at all! I did indeed read that about 40mm vs 32mm that there isn't a massive difference in terms of wide field so I had figured 32 would be the top end.

Appreciated, I was trying to work out some eyepieces earlier. I was thinking of getting a 30 (maybe 32) ... so that would be 30 / 7.3 = 4.1mm ... I assume I don't want that number to go above maybe 5mm?

Thanks, I already have that one and a couple more beginner books (NightWatch / Backyard Astronomers Handbook) and got my eye on a more comprehensive atlas as I find I am quite enjoying having actual real books again (convert to ebooks here) Wise words indeed

Newbie here but I have joined the frac club, I assume the first rule is we don't talk about frac club? Got it about a month ago maybe and had 5 nights out with it so that must be a record of some sort for a new scope? I am a little in awe of the setups on this thread but hey got to start somewhere, SW 90/660 so its only a nipper but provided me with some fun sights so far and it fits snug in the small space I found in the garage that isn't clutter

Thank you! I will have to see if I catch the live stream on youtube I have a combination of poor weather and it being far to low in the skys here so this is perfect!

So I managed to get out both nights at the weekend, had an excellent clear night on Saturday and an okish one on Sunday. I did note that the later session on Saturday (10-12) vs the slightly earlier on Sunday (830-10) that the LP was more marked on Sunday so I suspect my disappointing night was more due to the timing (730-930) and maybe some atmospherics. I also made sure I had a garden chair to lean on which improved things no end rather than trying to stand at funny angles for extended periods! I am happy to report that I picked out M31 on both nights, I found it in the place I was looking before very easily with binoculars and used that to help guide the scope, then managed to find it with just the scope on the next night in the same place An elongated smudge around a central brighter core so I think it matches with the descriptions I have of it from various books / sites so very pleased. I have a feeling I will be using the binoculars quite a lot more to help locate approximate positions of objects to observe as the field view is much wider than the telescope, its making me also think I should consider getting a wider EP than my current 25mm. I had some fantastic views of Pleiades on both nights as well, the constellation is nice and bright so that helps. I am trying to work out how I would be able to get enough light to do some drawings of what I see without having to turn on the red light led torch I have, maybe they do little red light book lights? (or could mod one with some nail polish or some such.) After this I turned to Mars, unfortunately even under 10mm it is still mostly a bright dot, though I could discern a red tinge to it (its more obvious in the binoculars oddly). I have managed to see some shadowing on the surface on other nights but not much over the weekend. Orion's nebula was fantastic as always, it seems to be my go to target at the moment, really enjoyable and seem to be seeing more detail every time I look at it! On the first night I saw an odd set of stars that seemed to be in two parallel lines, a little to the north of Auriga but I'll have to hunt them down on a star map to see what they were though I forgot to look and confirm the next night. Sunday I did a similar set of targets initially but I then turned towards Auriga in a hunt for M36,M37,M38 .... I am pretty sure I saw at least one, alas at the moment I am uncertain which, will have to try and confirm next time! The best was a small grey cloud that after observing for a longer period (and trying averted vision which I think worked at times) seemed to have a central orange-ish star and then a host of other smaller stars in a diffuse cloud around it. The other two I believe I located around the area were more clusters of brighter stars without the more diffuse cloud so that is why I am uncertain of them as I was expecting them all to be similar. I'll have to do some sleuthing with the internet to try and determine what I really saw but from descriptions in TLAO I suspect the cloudy one was M37. Thank you all so much for your kind replies, I will have to work my way through the Moore marathon as well @Marvin Jenkins hopefully you will see this as I am not sure if I should put this into the observing section as I don't want to clutter up the forum with my inexperienced ramblings when I already have this post! @MARS1960 thats a great site, thank you very much!

Excellent thank you, I found them in the Orion book after looking at this. I think I need to go through it again as I only really looked at the winter skies section and those are under an earlier bit!

Thank you all for your kind posts plenty there to look for I will hopefully get a clear, later night tomorrow if the weather holds so will try some of them!

That is such a cool tool especially for orientating the view of the night sky to what I am seeing many thanks! Definately will add the Moore Winter Marathon to the list

Hi, I am looking for recommendations on some easy, winter targets for a beginner with a small telescope (3.5" refractor). I live in bortle 4 (supposedly) with a slightly restricted garden view due to trees (e.g. Polaris / ursa major is not visible) and quite a bit of light pollution from very bright streetlights in several directions plus neighboring security lights. I had a bit of a disappointing evening yesterday trying to find m31. Despite struggling with the acute angle (the short tube helped but I am swapping the slow mo's for next time as they got caught against the tripod leg!), I managed to locate the great square, star hopped to Mirach (or at least some very bright star that looked in the right place!) and then hopped to what I think was Mu. Andromeda but I just could not locate m31 for the life of me. I was expecting to see some sort of smudge with a bright core (similar to the nebula in orion?) but whether I just didn't find the correct star or it wasn't visible due to light pollution / early night sky (900-930) I am not sure. I read some advice to try with some binoculars first and to also try navigating between known constellation stars to get a feel for telescope hop distance which I intend to do next time. Other than thinking about better EP / LP filter or a finderscope / telrad upgrades it got me thinking what else can I see from my little(?) patch of sky. Some research and combo with my sky app set to around 930pm has yielded possibilities (tho some I think will be blocked by houses I think): - Crab Nebula - Almach -Algebia - m35 - Double cluster in perseus - Orion Nebula (I have seen it several times its my go to atm!) - Sirius - Beehive - Hyades cluster - Pleiades I've been trying to follow some of the TLAO maps but a lot of the targets are unfortunately either not visible from my location, not recommended or are at a similar acute telescope angle as m31 which is a bit tricky I found. Any recommendations for something easy to get my confidence with are welcome (or tell me if the ones above are unrealistic!)

@jambouk appreciated, Ill add them to my list! I expect much rereading will happen 😎 Good idea on the app side I had forgotten you could switch dates around will have to have a play. @Alan64 I was fortunate to get it before the xmas rush though it was a bit of a hit and hope as I couldn’t find any reviews. It seems to be good so far (at least to my inexperienced self!), it would be interesting to know what a more experienced person makes of it though. Thanks for the link, yes I probably should read some by Patrick Moore, lots of positive reviews on his books being quite accessible.