PeterStudz

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.

Thanks Lee, I look forward to seeing your images. Although I know it was especially interesting seeing the arc that Jupiter was taking - it’s going to be significantly higher in the sky this year and potentially very good! Exciting stuff, let’s hope that the weather improves. I’m not a morning person but it was nice packing up to the dawn chorus. For me astronomy is about the whole event, more than just looking through the eyepiece/taking pictures.

On the train today I did another Jupiter. This one is a bit more ‘subtle’. I think I went a tad too far with the first attempt!

If you haven’t already it’s worth having a good search on this forum. I found a wealth of info on here when I worked on my telescope. Sometimes I had to try and search multiple times before I found what I was looking for. Here are a couple of examples I found which might help. The first obviously has an upgrade to the focuser which might be reassuring… You could try and contact the post authors. Some people don’t come to the forum often or won’t see a post. There must be others on here who have some Dark Star knowledge. It would be interesting to know what the tube is actually made of. This would help with selecting glue, flocking, drilling holes etc. the paint is certainly Hammerite, which of course is still available although the formula has changed (more environmentally friendly) over the years. I’d certainly at last cover that crack and do something to stop it spreading. My DIY experience of cracks is that however much filler/sanding/painting I undertake the crack is always still somewhat visible. As suggested some sort of strap would work. You could even make it look part of the design. I made a dew shield out of very thin veneer. Go around with some of that plus glue and it works out very thin and stiff. And it’s easy to work, sand and paint with just about anything.

Taken me a while to post and I wasn’t sure if I should do it all in one post, as an observation report… but here goes. I noticed that the forecast was for a clear night and that the jetstream was well out of the way, so I decided to wake up early (2:30am) on the Friday morning even though it was a school night. Saturn was above the moon which did create a some glare. Still, the seeing was very good and I could make out the Cassini Division towards the tips even at x375. Maybe pushing it a little but it’s the first time I’ve viewed Saturn at that power and it hasn’t been a wobble fest. I could also see a thin but strong ring shadow, plus banding on the disc. And things improved as it got higher, although the increasing light didn’t help with contrast. I went back and forth between the moon, which looked lovely, and Saturn until Jupiter appeared between two trees. By this time the sky was noticeably lighter. On Jupiter the four moons were strung out in a line. And banding easily visible. Between 4-4:30am I took some pictures and video with my phone. By this time it was obviously getting light, so not ideal and colour contrast wasn’t great. However, I could see that Jupiter is going to potentially be great this year. A really fun morning, although it took days for me to fully recover from the lack of sleep! Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. iPhone 14 Pro fixed to eyepiece with a no-brand smartphone adapter. Saturn using a 3.2mm BST StarGuider. Video (Saturn & Jupiter) 4K at 60fps. All editing on the phone, Planets stacked using the VideoStack app on the phone. Moon a single shoot in RAW. Saturn. The rings are much tighter this year. Hard to visually make out the Cassini Division. I’m sure details and colours will be better when Saturn is aroun d in an actual dark sky. Interesting comparing to an iPhone 12 capture from 2021. Jupiter with Io. Hard to capture details/colours as it was so getting light. I attempted a double exposure in order to get a capture of all four moons. Amazes me how far from the planet they can be! Moon, single shot in RAW format.

The Teflon sheet that I bought was a relatively small rectangle. I cut into squares with a hacksaw and drilled a hole in the middle to make pads (see picture). It would basically be a replacement for what you have. The textured aluminium is on the top surface and just tacked on with a few very small wood screws. Just enough to keep it flat and keep it fixed to the base. Personally I’d just clean it up and replace the pads. Then see how it performs - you might find it perfectly satisfactory. Many of the commercial Dobs with Teflon pads just have them running on some sort of smooth surface. This can be a bit ‘sticky’, especially at high powers. Eg when trying to move a target into the middle of the FOV it’ll jerk and overshoot. Ideally you want enough of what’s called ‘stiction’ (the holding force that must be overcome before the bearing can begin to move) to change eyepieces etc without risk of the OTA moving, but at the same time will move off smoothly without jerking and without overshooting. I tested mine by having Mars at a silly magnification of around x400 and I could still center it smoothly. And when stopped it stayed where it was left. The lazy suzan that I tried (could have just been too cheap) was too free running. And there was some unevenness at higher power. To increase tension I needed to tighten and fiddle with the centre bolt, but it was never as good as the Teflon pads plus textured aluminium. Again, it could have just been the lazy susan that I bought off the internet.

This looks great! I restored an 8” Dob as a beginner and I really enjoyed the experience. I’d definitely go for flocking. It was easier than I thought (I did the while OTA and things like the focuser draw tube) taking about 1/2 a day. Personally I’m not a fan of a lazy suzan bearing. After some experimenting I used Teflon sheet like this fro eBay… https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123981266447?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4pKUCQI7T5S&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=I8jCpZsmREe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY That would be enough to get it working and see how things are. But it looks like the top surface is smooth? Which isn’t ideal. I found this to be ideal. Cheap and easy to cut too. But of course its up to you…

I enjoy mostly visual. The smartphone images are a combination of recoding what I’ve seen plus I also find it interesting what the device in your pocket can do. My daughter also likes to have a record of what we’ve seen.

OK, I’m in Bortle 7.

Due to life getting in the way I have a backlog of images. Mind, just as well that the weather has been poor! This is a shot of Venus, taking during daylight at around 6pm on 9th July. Seeing a bit wobbly and not nearly as good as it was a few days before. Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. BST StarGuider 3.2mm (I’m getting to like that eyepiece), 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, edited using the stock camera app, WaveletCam and Lightroom. I’ve cropped and rotated to give an arch as is sometimes done with Venus images - it does look nice! Managed to keep the horns with a decent level of pointyness too. I have a number of Venus images. Recently playing around with composite images has given me an idea. Ideally need a couple more images. Will see how it goes.

@Richard As you probably know AstroShader does live stacking. There are a few apps that attempt this but AstroShader is the only one that I know that does this well. However, there isn’t a way of ‘unstacking’ the images. The developer is active on this this thread so yo could ask there… https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/857117-astroshader-ios-ap-app-intro-beta-testers-wanted/ @StarDuke82 The lasted version of VideoStack is more stable. I’ve got it to process videos over 20 sec without issue. I’m certain that it can now handle more.

@StarDuke82, these are great and an obvious improvement. Especially the third capture of M57. You can even see the central white dwarf which I think is visual magnitude 15.75 - a tiny camera in phone picking that out is amazing! Can I ask what Bortle level were these taken at?

Thanks! And yes, I’ve also noticed that the granulation does become more visible at higher magnification. Although you can often make it out, it doesn’t always come out in a single smartphone image. Interesting idea and coincidently I’ve also been playing around with creating composite images. Recently with Jupiter and its moons. As the weather is awful I might go and post some of the images.

Interesting discussion. If I do an early morning observing session it can literally take me days to feel fully recovered. I’m not a morning person but I do enjoy it when I make the effort. And in the summer I’ve camped out in the garden “no tents” with my daughter, looked for shooting stars, scanned the sky with binoculars and looked through the telescope… fun but tiring! And as suggested there could be health implications. Being in an urban environment I’ve found that my best skies are generally after 1:30am. Even for the planets and lunar seeing is generally better in the early hours of the morning - I’m guessing less rising heat from buildings and other man made structures. So I tend to be drawn to the early mornings.

That’s very nice! - many thanks. I’ve done another more recent Venus and got a good result showing the horns using the current version of VideoStack. I’ll post that here soon - work getting in the way. Looking forward to the latest version.