PeterStudz

Yes, that’s a good article - thanks for that!

When I started out (well, I still find it very useful) I found the Observation Reports in this forum really useful for what I could try and see and do. And writing these reports is a skill - some are just excellent! Something I should do more of. I think It’s easier to stick up a picture with a load of figures and details about the capture than write a detailed report. Which reminds me of something that I’ve said before. Observational astronomy isn’t just about what you see at the eyepiece. For me It’s also being outdoors, drinking chocolate & toasting marshmallows (if my daughter is around), listening to foxes jump our fence, watching the sun rise and dawn chorus…

Yes, you could be right there. Mind, I can remember loads of people saying that the cinema had its day and would be killed of by VHS tapes 😀

I have an interest in AP and EAA. Although in the strictest sense they aren’t for me. For a start I don’t even have a laptop but it’s not just that. But what is AP and EAA. If I take a smartphone snap of the night sky (which I’ve done) isn’t that AP? Modern smartphones will even do some basic stacking, although most don’t realise. And what is EAA? Eg I’ve just started (used it a couple of times) an iPhone app called AstroShader. Stick it to your eyepiece and it’ll align, stack and give a live preview. A couple of screenshots (live is much better) of the live view of the interface on the phone screen of M13 and M57. Low powe as I was just playing around and in Bortle 7. The direct output from the app without editing of M57 shown below. Is this EAA? If it is I didn’t know that I was doing it I guess that what I’m trying to say is that in the future you might be able to do it all - visual, AP, EAA - without realising it’s one or the other.

Yes, I am an aviation fan (I use to be a glider pilot). It might well now be “just around the corner”, I always thought it would happen sometime. But my point was that I was reading stuff over 50 years ago that said it would be soon. The implication certainly wasn’t over half a century. And it’s not a simple subject.

A few months ago my daughter had a friend over. We looked at the moon through our telescope and towards the end she wanted a smartphone snap. This picture is now the background on her phone. Of course there are a ton of wallpaper images of the moon freely available on the internet. I think it’s significant that she wanted to use her own. And a moon wallpaper would not have even been considered until she saw it through the telescope. I think that’s significant. Recently my daughter made some rough sketches of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Interestingly they were all “upside down”, like seen through our Dob. Eg Mars had the North Polar Hood at the bottom. Jupiter had the GRS towards the top. Saturn obviously a Dob view too. Of course she’s seen a ton of internet images of the planets which are largely the other-way up. Our own rather basic smartphone planet images are also rotated to look like what you see online. To me this suggests that the views at the eyepiece have far more of an impact.

First off. Just about every past prediction that I’ve seen about the future has been wrong. Eg as a boy in the late 1970’s I can remember reading that “flying cars for everyone are just around the corner”. Over 50 yrs later I’m still waiting for my flying taxi to pick me up from my door and take me down the pub. The other issue is light pollution. I can only see this as getting worse. But I guess you never know. Last year I went on holiday with a friend (in his late 50’s) who had never seen the Milky Way. We were in a Bortle 1-2 site and it was his first time. I’m convinced that without so much light pollution there would be more visual. And in a real dark site you don’t even need a telescope. Smart Telescopes (or whatever the are called) are relatively new and a decent one seems to be expensive. Especially for a beginner who might not be sure that they’d enjoy the hobby. But surely they’ll get better and cheaper in the years to come. And then what? I suspect that most people, living under light pollution, will it’ll jump straight in a get one of these. This will then become astronomy to most people. Having said that yesterday night/morning I was up virtually all night with my 11 yr old daughter doing visual on the planets - Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus. We also go nice views of the Pleiades and a peak at the white smudge that is Andromeda. If she wasn’t interested in visual astronomy she would do that! And sadly we are in Bortle 7. Alice, like all kids these days, is into smartphones and she does enjoy taking smartphone snaps of what we’ve seen. I’ve made an attempt to explain astrophotography as initially she was confused by all the wonderful bright and colourful DSO images. After my probably rather poor attempt at an explanation her reply was “so, they are fake then”, which literally made me laugh. Another question that she asked was “if you were in a spaceship and got closer to something like the Orion Nebula would it look like the pictures? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect not.

Thanks! Somehow I missed this bit of your post until now.

I used a phone app - PS Align Pro which has a PushTo feature and from past experience always has Venus in my finder. First I go to the sun (filter on, finder covered of course), sync to the sun, then PushTo Venus, uncover the finder, center Venus, then remove the solar filter. When I’ve found Venus I also tighten up the altitude knobs on the 200p so it can’t accidentally move up/down. Once Venus is centred in the eyepiece I track with the EQ platform so I don’t need to fiddle with too much nudging. It also has the advantage that focusing has been done as I’ve already focused on the sun.

I’ve done a bit of this with my daughters friends. As others have said definitely the moon, Jupiter and Saturn. I’ve also had some success with kids and binoculars, looking at star clusters eg the Pleiades. Most kids like the fact they are holding the binoculars, finding it themselves and focusing. During daylight then the sun in white light. Some kids like it more that others but often enjoy the safety chat (I think they like the idea of doing something that has potential “danger” attached to it). I’ve also done Venus when showing a crescent relatively recently and that has impressed. It’s also the fact that if the look up at the sunlit sky they can’t seen anything, but in the telescope there’s the planet. One example of this that really impressed a few of my daughters friends was Jupiter in daylight back in January. Look up at the daylight sky and nothing. Look through the telescope and there was Jupiter plus the GRS (that was lucky). And even I was surprised how good the seeing was. Then, as it got dark, watching the moons pop into view, finally seeing the dot of Jupiter become visible naked eye.

I had hoped to observe Venus (daylight of course) just before or on inferior conjunction. But the weather had other ideas. Yesterday there were breaks in the seemingly endless cloud and it was a possibility to at least see the now thin crescent. Which would be a first for me. Although it’s rather close to the sun and if it didn’t work out I wasn’t going to push it! Started off doing some white light solar at about mid-day, which I hadn’t done in a while. The sun in and out of fair weather clouds. Then it almost completely clouded over and I had to take a break. Now I wasn’t sure it would happen at all. At around 14:40 the clouds started and I had a chance. Could just about make out Venus in my finder. It’s obviously larger than before but so thin that it’s tricky. The thin crescent looking stunning through a BST StarGuide 15mm and the capture doesn’t do it justice. Mind, conditions not ideal with some “boiling” - in the past I’d been lucky and it probably would have been better earlier on (higher in the sky) if there hadn’t been so much cloud. Took some iPhone video. Quickly processed/stacked using the app VideoStack. That’s my last Venus for a while. I’ve got images since February and I might but some together in a composite. Skywatcher Skyliner 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform in back garden, Southampton. BST StarGuider 15mm. iPhone 14 Pro attached to a no-brand smartphone adapter. Video taken at about 14:50 - 4K at 60fps using stock camera app at x2 zoom. All processing on the phone using the stock camera app, stacked via VideoStack. Cropped and edited in SnapSeed plus Lightroom.

Looks excellent and wish I could go - Very jealous. Have fun!

And I agree with @IB20 . I was recently observing Uranus at & after sunrise with my 200p. I certainly haven’t seen any surface detail or moons, but it’s obviously a disc/planet and I can see shading towards the edges. It’s a lovely shade of blue and I was surprised how long after sunrise I could see it. And looking at the blue of the planet against the blue of the sky was quite special. Helped along by the dawn chorus - great stuff!

Thanks and no worries! My 8” Dob can fit in my car and I keep on meaning to take it somewhere darker. It’s actually not that far. But there’s something special about observing from your house. I also got the Dob given to me for free by a nice guy on this forum. It had issues (like no base). But I stripped it down, fixed it up, put it back together and made a base at minimal cost using plywood from Wicks. So look around, there are bargains out there! And some of the 8” DOBs being sold are really excellent value.

For what it’s worth here’s my experience with my 8” Dob and planets. I flocked my whole OTA. The difference is minimal but I’m convinced it makes a slight improvement on contrast. And with planets you are looking for slight contrast differences, especially in colour contrast. I’m in an urban environment and use a dew shield to try and keep out stray light. Let your OTA cool down. I find that I need at least an hour before things are at their best. Get a jet-stream forecast. It might not always tell the whole truth but some of the best views I’ve had are when the jet is well out of the way. Do NOT get you eyes use to the dark. You see colours and colour contrast better if you aren’t use to the dark. I’ll look at a light (eg my phone screen) or pop back inside for a bit - eg make a cup of coffee. I have a EQ platform - DIY - made from instructions on this forum. It’s great having a planet at high magnification stay within the FOV for minutes on end. It means you can relax more. When relaxed you can see more. For some reason I’ve had my best observations when it’s not completely dark. Very often this has been in the early hours as the sun is coming up. I’ve also had good views during the summer months. I’m in an urban environment and one thing that might be going on is that there’s less rising heat as the night goes on. Also houses aren’t heated in the summer. Last year on Jupiter and Saturn was typical. By the autumn I struggled to get good seeing when I was observing in the evening. Often it was obviously at least partly due to rising heat.

I have a Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145p and a Skywatcher 8” Dob. I’m also in Bortle 7. The real difference (and it’s massive) is on the planets and to a lesser extent the moon plus white light solar. Not really the extra magnification but the contrast. Eg Mars through the 114 was just a featureless small dot. You could tell it was a planet but that was about it. Through the 8” Dob and on a good night, I could make out a polar ice cap, the polar hood, darker albedo features, even clouds. With the 8” Dob on Saturn I could see cloud banding and the Cassini Division in the ring. Occasionally other, if rather subtle, ring divisions too. Through the 114 the ring itself was clear and obvious but not much else. Jupiter through the 8” can easily resolve the GRS, and cloud banding with much greater detail. Plus things like shadow transits which just could not be detected through the 114. For DSO there isn’t a great deal of difference apart from some of the brighter objects. Like the globular M13, Orion nebula, ring nebula, dumbbell plus some open clusters. Eg M13 - through the 114 it’s just a fuzzy blob. But on a good night in the 8” I can make out literally dozens of stars in the globular - kind of twinkles in and out of view like a glitter ball. However, a good night is key. Some nights, even in Bortle 7 are “darker” than others. And I find that here, after about 1:30am, things are generally darker. So usually worth staying up late. Oh, the galaxies M81 & M82 are obviously better in the Dob too. Of course nothing beats a dark site. Last year I took the 114 on holiday, and on an aircraft, to Bortle 1-2. Obviously not possible with an 8” Dob. And the views were stunning. Things like the lagoon, triffid and swan nebula were breath taking. Mind, it was so dark that I could even make out the swan naked eye. At home, even through the 8”, it simply isn’t there.

I like this. The blue colour of the sky/background compliments the moon and gives it a realistic and atmospheric feeling. And you’ve got a nice tint to the moon without it being too dark or too bright. Personally I’m not a fan of the really dark lunar images.

I’ve got one of those large patio parasols. It’s wind resistant too, although for me heavy dew nights have been when it’s calm anyway. I might put it up one night and see how it goes. As long as it doesn’t get in the way I can’t see it’ll case a problem.

I think you mean this article… https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/equipment-diy/dealing-with-dew/ ”Then there's the observing umbrella, not a widely known accessory but one that works. A beach umbrella blocks the chill of outer space the same way it blocks the heat of the Sun. It can help shield all your gear and you too from the cosmic deep freeze. On a still night a thermometer under an umbrella can read more than 10° Fahrenheit (6° Celsius) higher than when it is exposed to the open sky.” I’ve never tried. But in my younger days I’d go wild camping and sometimes use a tarpaulin (open on all sides) in order to keep dew off.

I’ve download it. I have a phone mount on my 200p that should work. Just need the clouds to go away! Under Settings there’s an option “Align Scope” - I’m guessing that might do it?

An early morning of blue dots and other things! I was keen to try something as the forecast looked promising, but with it tuning poor again in the near future. I took these during and towards the end of an early morning session in my garden in Southampton. At the time I had no intention of looking at these two planets. The intention was to view Saturn, Jupiter and a few other targets before sunrise. However, to begin with seeing was a bit iffy. So after some time on Saturn I took a look at M13 (surprisingly good given that it wasn’t completely dark), M2 (a bit underwhelming) and the owl cluster - NGC 457 - which really does look like an owl. Also takes light pollution well. Before Jupiter cleared my neighbours trees I decided to have a search for Neptune. Found it eventually which is a first for me. Crumbs, it’s small and faint! Even at high powers. Although I’m sure that it would be better if it had been darker and higher. I could only just make out that it wasn’t a star! And it had a blue, maybe slightly purplish colour. Tried to take a video with my iPhone. More of an exercise than anything else. After that I thought of Uranus. A look at Jupiter showed that seeing had improved, although it was now near sunrise. Uranus was far easier to find and although small not nearly as small and faint as Neptune. A nice and obvious disc with a pleasant almost luminous blue-green colour. A quick video, which was far easier than Neptune, and back to observing. Really enjoyed viewing Uranus as the sun came up. I was surprised how long after sunrise that Uranus was still visible. And nice/unusual against a lighter early morning sky. For a blue dot I’m pleased with the Uranus capture. Although I’ll look for it visually I’m not sure I’d bother imaging Neptune again. Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. Southampton, Bortle 7. BST StarGuider 3.2mm, iPhone 14 Pro Plus on no-brand smartphone adapter. Image from a video using the stock camera app - 4K at 60fps. All processing/editing on the phone:- stacked on the phone using the VideoStack app, cropped & edited using the stock camera app, WaveletCam and Lightroom.

PS - I’ve also found that using a magnifying a bit above what looking by eye through an eyepiece suggests can give better results. Maybe the stacking is helping here.

Thanks! I do enjoy seeing what the phones can do. For the Saturn above it was 12 seconds. The latest VideoStack app is much more stable and I’m able to get it to take/us longer videos. Although I often find that anything more than 10 seconds doesn’t give much of an advantage. That might be something to do with the video quality from these small devices. Doing some basic editing of the video before trying to stack often seems to help. An EQ platform obviously allows longer videos and time to play with settings before pressing the shutter. The conditions (good seeing) and the quality of the video you take makes the most amount of difference. Eg using Saturn as an example - if you can make out the Cassini Division in your initial video (it’s not easy now due to the angle of the rings) then you know you’ve got something decent. With the processing it’s easy to go too far and over sharpen your subject. And a small phone screen doesn’t help. So looking on a larger screen, like a tablet, can bring up and show things that haven’t quite worked.

Handheld? - I don’t think I’d be able to do that! A single shot yes but not a video.

Taken during daylight at around 5:40pm in Southampton. The crescent is getting thin! And an obvious difference from just 10 days ago when I last looked. It’s also larger in the eyepiece. Had a lot of fun with Venus and it’ll be sad to see it go. Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. BST StarGuider 5mm, iPhone 14 Pro Plus on no-brand smartphone adapter. Image from a video using the stock camera app - 4K at 60fps. All processing/editing on the phone:- stacked on the phone using the VideoStack app, cropped & edited using the stock camera app, WaveletCam and Lightroom.