wibblefish

I finally got a clear(ish) night last night after a month, yay! After a quick peek at the moon I decided to have a quick look at what was in the sky in the opposite direction as it seemed very bright even though its only 50% I think. After a quick go at the Leo triplet which failed miserably though I am confident I was in the right place the most prominent star in that direction I identified as Arcturus in Bootis. With a quick cast around with my charts I decided to have a look for M3 which was NW(ish!). Starting with a 25mm I found a patch of grey fuzzy and some further work looking at surrounding stars I am fairly sure it was M3 when studying it more. It appeared mostly as an out of focus star in my 90mm refractor, I tried various magnifications but found that it was best defined at my original 25mm in terms of brightness. Afterwards I had a look at where else I could hop to and decided to make for M53 in Coma Berenices which similarly is a globular cluster. Again I located it with the 25mm & 18mm as a dim grey fuzzy and studying the stars around it I am fairly confident I was in the right place (really enjoying the new Sky & Telescope Jumbo Pocket Atlas instead of primarily using my phone apps!). I then reorientated myself onto Vindemiatrix (I think!) in Virgo and went hunting for some other messiers but I had zero luck spotting any of them, will have to evaluate if my telescope is likely to be able to see them and what they are meant to be In terms of finding objects and doing some navigation I was really pleased with the night but I felt the two globular clusters were a little underwhelming. I was expecting to be able to see something more than a standard nebula looking grey fuzzy, I've been trying to research what it should've looked like and get conflicting reports of people being able to resolve grainy stars across the cluster in 60-80mm scopes, am I expecting to much (especially in a bortle 4-5 with 50% moon)?

Appreciated all, I havent had much time to investigate further 😔

I have had this previously and tracked it across the sky, my assumption was it was a satellite perhaps but would be interesting to know

@MrFreeze yeah its a 90/660, primarily I can't achieve focus with to much glass (i.e. if I wanted to filter + barlow + EP), if I put the filter in the diagonal itself it seems to resolve the issue I bought a new Altair Starwave 1.25" diagonal recently and the problem still persists so my gut feel is its just to do with it being a short tube refractor and I can't have to much "stuff" in the optical path due to the focuser restrictions unfortunately. Thanks for the suggestion about the part however it was definately worth a try! @Louis D I am kind of loathe to buy something so expensive only to find it doesn't fit or won't achieve focus if it does appreciate the assistance from @Waldemar and everyone else though and will report back if I find a different solution

Well I have had a quick go, everything fits but with the additional piece I cannot attain focus. Pesky short tube refractors! I have a similar issue when I add additional filters onto my eye piece or try to use a camera on the visual back. Back to the drawing board!

Nice review, thanks! Look forward to hearing any more thoughts or further telescope reviews in future Enjoy your scope and clear skies!

Thanks for the replies so far, I am still monitoring this thread just been busy I have a part similar to what @MrFreeze has suggested arriving later so I will update if that works. Not sure when I will get to test it (other than the diagonal is secure) though I might have a go during the day to make sure it can still focus! I have been out on two "clear" nights so far and they clouded over as I was setting up Think its been more than a month now since I have managed to get a session, pesky UK weather

@John thats a pain but I guess its not unusual so thats good in a way! Visual back, thats the correct term then good to know maybe I can rustle up some more google-fu and see if someone else has diy'd something

Hopefully this might make things more clear! This bit has two screws but they don't seem to hold the diagonal tightly enough (i.e. it can work loose). Is there something I can replace this section with that perhaps uses a compression ring? (its a 1.25" diagonal)

Im not quite sure if I describing this right but I have noticed since adding heavier EP that my diagonal will sometimes rotate. It is held into the telescope focuser by two thumb screws. Retightening these usually helps for a while but its fairly easy to knock the diagonal and itll spin loose again. This is a skywatcher evostar 90 with a 1.25” diagonal. Any suggestions? I wondered if there is a way to replace the collar(?) of the focuser with something that has a compression ring but Im not sure what to look for.

I forgot to update to say I got my charts and have looked up some of the sissy haas on the pocket atlas think my brain is just about there with the idea of right ascension and declination lol look forward to trying them ... been 3 weeks of no clear skies but maybe later?

I dont have experience but a quick google of this with other ones suggests that with the ST120 focus cannot be achieved unless you use a 1.25” diagonal that came with it? May be relevant seems odd tho...

New toys for me and the 90mm achro - Baader Semi-Apo filter - Camera adapter for my micro 4/3rd for a play with astro (maybe, didnt get anything at all the other night need to try during the day in case it needs extension tubes!) - Pocket Sky Atlas (jumbooooo!) and Sissy Hass double stars (both from sky and telescope direct via the States)

Unfortunately I have zero drawing skills and even less with digital I suspect 😂 I figure paper sketching at least would be simple and I have the materials to hand. Plus it might be fun to try you never know I might not be terrible at it! Astronomy is all new to me so I am just trying lots of things to see what aspects interest me and maybe sitting and drawing will mean I “see” more as I wont be ticking off targets oh my lists and moving on which I feel I do a lot at present. Thats a lovely picture, you have some talent and its interesting to see what digital is capable of. If I go down the route of digital maps etc and get a tablet that can support that (I am not sure my little iphone will cut it) that would also be an interesting thing to try thanks for the suggestion and something to aspire to be able to do 😎

Yeah I thought I'd gone blind when I tried it without and a high mag lens recently (massive black shadow in the middle of my vision for a few mins), stuck to the ND filter I got from FLO for the moon since https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/astro-essentials-nd96-0-9-1-25-moon-filter.html I have tried the wratten #8 (light yellow) when attempting to reduce halo'ing on double stars like Rigel but I didn't find it did very much in that scenario. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08QZNXSKD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I did read the thing about the end cap to reduce the aperture, I am so trying it next time I am out, I always wondered about it! I decided to try and combat the skyglow primarily and allow for some more double star work the other day and have a Baader Semi Apo on order to stick into the diagonal (my short tube does not focus if you have an EP + Barlow and add a filter :() will let you know if it makes a difference, it seems to vary by person when you read about them! https://www.firstlightoptics.com/achromat-semi-apo-filters/baader-semi-apo-filter.html Honestly CA has never really worried me and its kinda what you expect with archromat refractors, they are awesome within the limitations of what they can do like all scopes. I am currently debating the merits of different scopes for my next one already, so far we are down to bigger achromat (probably go up to 120mm), skymax 127 or just go for the 8" dob with the last one being most likely as I don't have to spend any extra money on a new tripod and mount head.

Sounds like a great night, looking forward to the next scope night been a couple of weeks due to the cloud cover and unfortunately it looks like it might be another couple at the rate its going! Will definitely have to try some of the brighter ones of these if they are in the right position

I use an ND filter when observing the moon primarily to reduce the glare (moon blinded the other night when I was trying without it!) and it seems to reduce the CA to if it bothers you (which never really worried me anyway on the moon) to fairly minimal levels

Been there I got mine early Nov last year it was a long 2 1/2 weeks for first light!

Congratulations! Takes a lot of deliberation I found 😎 Hope you get clear skys soon and let us know how you get on!

I would like to do sketching at the telescope actually at some point but waiting for my Orion Astro Lamp to arrive 🧙‍♂️ Apparently my books will arrive on 11th March pretty quick turnaround 😀 Exciting!

Thanks @AlexK for the suggestion that looks quite cool so I imagine I will look to invest at some point, Amazon always do fairly cheap tablets especially around Prime day and I have an old iPad kicking about I could repurpose perhaps though iOS is a pain for older OS support so that is probably a no go. Honestly it'll sound odd but I am really enjoying the novelty of having real books again as I have been digital only for many years but a lot of the astronomy books are very badly formatted / don't work well on a small eReader I have found. I often sit with the turn left at orion book at the telescope as well but I wanted something that show more of the sky during sessions or when planning. Maybe I'm just being a bit stupid and romantizing (if thats a word) the whole thing but I'd like to be able to go out with the telescope and a map and just work things out without having to rely on the phone app to do all the heavy lifting. I imagine I will mostly end up doing a bit of both or graduating to a full tablet map like you suggest eventually.

Bit the bullet and have decided to purchase the pocket sky atlas jumbo edition and took the opportunity to grab the equally annoying to buy in the uk sissy haas double stars book. Will be interesting to see if / when they arrive and whether there will be additional import / delivery charges as its been a while since I imported anything from the US

Thanks for the advice all, I didn't realise you could order the pocket sky atlas to the UK I might be tempted to do that and pick up the Collins Gem stars or Cambridge Atlas in the meantime I will also look at the free charts, the wife has a laminator

I was tracking down the Eskimo nebula the other night and whilst my phone apps (Stellarium and Skyview) work fine I was hankering for a proper star map as I thought I'd identified various bits of the star hop across to it but struggled to pin it down (my mobile phone screen is super small which doesnt help!). Whilst this was likely due to the moon + some extra cloud cover that appeared (plus not really knowing what to look for at that point) it made me think maybe having a proper star map at the telescope would be a good thing. I read the best one is Pocket Sky Guide by Sky & Telescope but it seems to be out of print and horrendously expensive to purchase. I was debating one of the Cambridge Atlas's (double stars or normal) or maybe Interstellarium (desk) but not sure wether any are suitable for outdoor adventures. Any recommendations?

Well put @Tiny Clanger @vlaiv Personally I imagine the price rises will be here to stay, its very rare for them to go down generally unless the market for the product collapses. That said how much the current stock exhaustion was driven by the lockdown boom in hobbies (rather than general factory / shipping issues) is probably going to be the key factor if they are to go down. I imagine that whilst people who are in the know will grumble they will still purchase because they want the item (they are already invested in an expensive hobby). People not in the know will not know any different and will assume as all retailers are running at the same price that this is standard entry cost into an expensive hobby. I don't really see much price differences between retailers, its mostly down to specific items they sell that others dont or they have available stock.