PeterStudz

I sometimes use a PushTo system which I find really useful. I also want to learn how to star-hop, well, be able find my way around the sky unaided. I’ve found that the  PushTo has help me here. Eg I find it reassuring that if I struggle to find a target I can use PushTo. And even when I’ve used PushTo I’ll randomly “nudge” my Dob off target and try and find my way back unaided. My daughter actually enjoys that as a “game” and so is learning to find her way about the sky without knowing.

And Alice being still 11 yrs old can easily get bored or frustrated with star-hopping. Some sort of GOTO or PushTo is a really big bonus here. I also find that kids like using the tech which helps with the overall experience. 

Yes, I do that with an iPhone app called “PS Align Pro” that includes a PushTo feature. You need to align it to at least one known target in the sky and off you go. Some recent discussion of it here towards the end of the thread…

There’s also a web based app called AstroHooper, although I’ve never used it….

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/800486-astrohopper-new-name-for-navigation-app-aka-skyhopper/
 

When I made the base for my Dob I designed it in such a way that, if I wanted, I could experiment with bearing materials relatively easily. Personally I prefer the traditional laminate/sheet running over PTFE pads. For the AZ bearing I initially settled on an ABS textured sheet running over the pads. This worked well with (being very critical) just a small amount of stiction at very high magnification (somewhere where I don’t often go).  Mind, I can have a tendency to be overly critical.

However, far too many wet, cloudy days/nights and coming across this material by pure chance changed my mind. I do like to experiment anyway - as long as it doesn’t cost much! Haven’t a clue if anyone has tried it before but the material looks the part and is often called “stucco embossed aluminium sheet”. I purchased a 500mm x 500mm sheet (my Dob ground board is 520mm so near enough) from a local supplier which of course meant no postage. It’s thin at .4mm thick and anodised gold. The cost was £13.49 from…

https://hardware-warehouse.co.uk/Embossed-Textured-Anodised-Aluminium-500mm-500mm-0.4mm

But similar is widely available and  not expensive, Eg eBay…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302206497370?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=yc6KhDB0Qom&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=I8jCpZsmREe&var=601049597017&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I chose this type simply because it’s local. The sheet is thin, easy to cut with tin snips (old scissors would do the job) and could be shaped to altitude trunnions by hand.

The picture is after I cut mine to shape. I just tacked it onto my AZ base with small wood screws. I’ve tested it several times now and even at 375x (it’s a rare night when I can go to that power with my 200p) on Venus and initial impressions are great. Starts smooth, has a nice weight, no roughness, moves smooth and immediately stays where you put it - eg no overshoot. It’s fab! Will see how it performs over time. Eg previously, with other materials, there would be a slight change in performance when very cold, lots of dew etc. Will the anodised surface wear? If it does will it make a difference? We shall see.

This started off with a late afternoon look at the sun in white light. Some fine looking sunspots! Here, in Southampton, there’s been so many cloudy days and nights for what seems like an age. And the forecast wasn’t great, but the hope was that I could carry on into the night after a break for dinner.

At about 4:45pm I decided to try and find Venus even though it was still daylight. I used the PushTo feature of an iPhone app - PS Align Pro - which had Venus in a low power 25mm eyepiece with ease. At this time Venus was quite high in the sky. And I could easily make out the phase. Played around with eyepieces but as it was daytime there was no need to use a filter to tone down brightness. At around 5pm I noticed cloud rolling in and decided to take a short iPhone video. I did some initial processing of the video while still at the telescope which was nice. Then went back inside hoping the cloud would clear. Sadly It didn’t

Video taken was around 10 sec - 4K at 60fps with stock camera app, iPhone 14 Pro on a basic smartphone adapter. Skywatcher 200p manual Dob. BST StarGuider 5mm. Stacked on the phone with the VideoStack app. Cropped and processed on the phone using WaveletCam and Lightroom. For a change and as it was daytime, I kept a blue background. Something that the “processing” didn’t like but it worked in the end. Also left it in the same position as seen at the eyepiece.

Towards sunset this caused a bit of interest during our street party in Southampton on the 7th May. A 22-degree sun halo plus an upper tangent arc. I had to look it up! And off to the side an associated supralateral arc which looked like a rainbow. And I had to check for any showers on rain radar just to be sure. These are simple smartphone snaps.

Dob on the street for some classic Dobsonian “Sidewalk Astronomy”. Clouds cleared enough this afternoon in Southampton to do a little solar demo for our Coronation street party. 

On 03/05/2023 at 19:15, cimh said:

First post here for several years! That sounds v interesting - so does the app help you to point the scope? - if so what a clever idea. I have had my skywatcher heritage 150mm dobsonian for just a couple of weeks and it can take time to find very feint objects. eg last night with the moon up and light pollution it was taking me ages to find the beehive cluster. I could see it instantly in my binoculars but I couldn't see it with my naked eye so the red dot finder was no good I could find it eventually but more by luck than judgement. At times like that an app like this could be great - (It could also save me a cricked neck when trying to point at things high up in the sky).

 

 

 

Yes, that’s basically it. PS Align Pro has a feature within it that will add PushTo capability to a telescope when using a compatible smartphone. I think that it’s just available for iPhone. You need to strap your phone to your OTA like shown in my picture above. I have a phone adapter for a tripod that’;s bolted to my 200p Dob. Out of interest, the first time I tested it I simply struck the phone to the steel tube of my 200p by using the built-in MagSafe magnets on the back of my then iPhone 12. Surprisingly the damn great magnets on the back of the phone and in the case I was using, did not hamper the way it worked at all. Obviously not very secure but enough to get the PushTo feature working.

It does require that the long axis of the phone is parallel to the optical axis of the telescope, but it doesn’t need to be extremely accurate. And there’s no need to level anything or point anything north. Smartphones aren’t accurate enough on their own. With PS Align Pro you need to align to at least one known target (eg a bright star) and “Sync To Target". PS Align Pro will calculate and apply an offset or error. Ideally you want to sync-to 3 known targets but I often get away with just one and take it from there. Eg the Beehive Cluster earlier in the year… I’m in Bortle 7 so it’s only on rare occasions when I can see it naked eye. But I can see it in my 9x50 RACI finder. By locating Betelgeuse in my low powered eyepiece (an easy task) and syncing to it using the app I could then push-to the Beehive and it would be in my RACI. But for greater accuracy if I sync to 2-3 known bright stars the Beehive would then be in the FOV of a low power eyepiece. From the Beehive I could then push-to other targets, eg the galaxy M81, and it would be in the FOV of my low power eyepiece. A little nudge and there is M82. 

I found the app intuitive and never had to read a guide/manual. It includes a database of targets in the sky at the time you are observing. There’s also a host of filters, inc types of target,  brightness, distance from horizon, size, sorting, distance from a specific sky location.

Now, I do like to sky-hop and learn/find my own way around the sky. But the knowledge that if I get confused I can quickly locate a target is reassuring. Also been useful having a daughter who can be impatient (like most kids) with a beginner like me to star-hop. I’ve also used it to find planets during daylight. Eg back at the end of January my daughter had some friends over. We’d been looking at the sun in white light and as they were leaving at 5pm I decided to have a look and using the app see if we could find Jupiter. It was surprisingly successfully, seeing was very good and we could even clearly see the GRS despite contrast being a bit washed out in the daylight. The kids were really impressed that looking up at the sky there seemed to be nothing but in the telescope there was Jupiter with its banding & spot. Plus, as it got a bit darker, the moons slowly came into view. A lot of fun!

If you search the iPhone App Store for “PS Align Pro” you should find it. You do need the Pro version. Make sure you include a space after “PS “, otherwise the search can fail to find it. Or use the link…

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/polar-scope-align-pro/id970161373

I use the PushTo feature in an iPhone app called PSAlign Pro. It cost (at the time £2.99). After aligning to a know objects(s) it’ll put a target within the FOV of my 25mm eyepiece every time. Something like Starsense might be better but you’d need to purchase a “cheap” telescope and as PSAlign Pro just works I can’t see the point! I’ve also used it, aligning to the sun with a white light filter, to locate the planets - Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn in complete daylight which has been very rewarding and fun. 

I believe that  @Stu has one of these. And possibly @Ratlet. But apologies if I’m wrong!

Yes, the moon is looking brilliant. 

I also had a little look at Mars. It’s obviously very small but there’s an unmistakable little dot of an ice cap at the North Pole. Can just make out some albedo features to the south and around the North Pole but that ice cap glows. Looks very different to the North Polar Hood. 

Had a little late afternoon/early evening session here in Southampton. Clouds, at times around 50/50, coming and going so far from ideal. 

Started off with the sun in white light, then onto Venus, followed by the moon. All in daylight. At the moment Venus has practically the same phase as the moon. Seeing surprising good. I could get Venus up to 300x in my 200p Dob and it still looked reasonably sharp. The moon also looking good despite the lack of contrast in daylight.

Had a break to go and get fish & chips. Hopefully out later if it’s still clear. Although I have to get up early so can’t spend too long. 

On my first telescope, a small skywatcher reflector, I had an issue collimating - every time I move the OTA it would go out a bit. As a beginner it took me several months to work out what was going on.

Eventually I found that a couple of primary mirror clips were not done up properly, so much so that they would physically rattle around, causing the primary to move in its cell. Of course it’s a fine line between too tight & too loose. 

8 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Aligning to North is easy - my patio is perfectly aligned. It's the azimuth I'm confused about - something tells me I need to lower the S or raise the N for it to track accurately. With the old motor, E-W tracking was perfect. It's that little bit of N-S drift I need to eliminate.

Polar aligning will fix that as it includes raising/lowering the platform depending on how Polaris behaves. 

There’s some good info about doing just that from John at the end of page 5…
 

I polar aligned mine following the details here (right at the end of the link) It’s a faff but I did it once and marked the position of the platform on my patio. As long as I place it right there it’s all that’s needed to be bang on.

http://www.astrosurf.com/aheijkoop/Equipment/EqPlatfor2.htm

8 hours ago, Stu said:

With iOS you can set the phone to sim red for everything; I have mine setup so three clicks on the right button turns it to red.

Got to:

Settings > Accessibility > Display and text size > Colour filters

The choose Colour tint and out both Intensity and hue sliders fully to the right.

In the Display and text size menu you can also select reduce white point which cuts the white level back.

In the Accessibility menu there is an option for Accessibility Shortcut which I have set to colour filters.

Very handy features which apply to everything including the Home Screen so no bright screens if flicking between apps etc

 

Yes, I use that. And it’ll stay set to red for everything without any issues for hours on end.

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

They are great! The more I use mine, the more I like it. Sorry Celestron, but it is way better than the NeXYZ, you need to up your game now!

I’ve been looking at this, although I do just fine with my rather basic adapter it might offer an improvement. And I never got on with the NeXYZ!

25 minutes ago, 900SL said:

It's a bit of a grey area, but anything that could be used as a weapon (eg a club) has to go in the hold.

I always check a tripod and take a carry on backpack for camera, lens, scope, Fornax LT. Not had a problem with a vixen dovetail attached to a telescope

I didn’t have any problems with a dovetail. But I did have a counter weight & bar that I put in the hold with the tripod. I did think that the weight plus bar could be seen as a club type of weapon so better to be safe rather than sorry. 

On 19/04/2023 at 14:30, Stu1smartcookie said:

If enough of us actually look through our scopes we might start a revival . Lets have a dedicated "visual obsy only night " with sketches rather than pictures posted . 

I know that this isn’t too serious but I find the exact opposite! I’ve tried sketching many times but I find it just gets in the way of my observations. I completely understand that if you are decent at sketching then it can help you see more but that’s not me! I’ve had many frustrating and sometimes comical sessions trying to sketch at the eyepiece and it’s often ended up with much huffing, puffing & cursing.

On the other hand I’ve found using a smartphone has helped me record what I’ve seen, helped me see things that have been difficult to observe and occasionally even shown something that I would have missed altogether. I can give loads of examples but I’m sure you know what I mean. 

49 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Depends on airline and destination 

I believe it’s all UK airports.

https://www.gov.uk/hand-luggage-restrictions/work-tools

When I took a telescope on an aircraft I made what I could out of what I already had. Obviously taking my 200p Dob wasn’t going to happen but the little 4.5 inch reflector was perfectly practical to take on as cabin baggage. Plus the mount and accessories there was still room for some cloths too.

But I decided on a basic tripod over a Dob base. Where we went the ground was uneven and rocky so I simple tripod was far more practical. I just used a lightweight tripod from my old EQ1 which went into the hold. You can pick them up for peanuts. Sure, it’s wobbly but it was rarely necessary (if at all) to go over around 40x and the stunning views made up for any shakes!

And it was so dark. Eg we could easily make out the swan nebula naked eye. Through the telescope the lagoon and triffid nebula were outstanding. Especially the lagoon - I’ve never even anything like it and this thorough a small reflector. So whatever you take/do have fun and enjoy yourself.

Only other advice that I can think of is to be careful with any tools like screwdrivers or allen keys. These items are prohibited in the cabin so need to go into the hold. 

It seems like an age since I’ve had a telescope out and I’m clouded out now (might clear later) but had a pleasant early evening session doing solar and looking at Venus during the day - just finding it in daylight is fun! Got a quick smartphone snap which clearly shows the phase. 

Spoke too soon. Just as I was typing this a shower came through and I’ve had to quickly whisk my kit inside

On 09/04/2023 at 07:50, NGC 1502 said:

The mirror must have a tiny amount of slack.  With due respect to popular opinion, a credit card is a bit too thick for measuring how close the mirror surface is from the clips. I’d suggest something much thinner is sufficient, whilst still leaving a tiny gap.  
 

This works for me-  A piece of stiff paper.  For radial movement, gaffer tape or similar can be used to fine tune the tiny gap needed between mirror and side restraints or cell.

I agree with this. When I put the primary back in my Dob I initially used a credit card in order to set the distance. However, when I tried to collimate the primary was so slack that I spent at least 45 frustrating minutes chasing the donut (it was impossible to collimate) before I worked what the problem was. 

I then used some thick/stiff paper which did the trick. 

This is just a little fun. I took these videos with my old iPhone 12 back in 18th Sept 2021 while I was observing Jupiter and Saturn. It was my second attempt at taking a video of Jupiter (well, any planets) and no more than an experiment. 

The first was taken at 21:16 with the GRS just about central. The second taken at 22:33 with the GRS right on the limb just before I packed up. At the time I tried to get something decent from a single frame but wasn’t happy with the result. So gave up and filed the videos away. I don’t own a PC or similar so stacking was opuntia of the question.

Then one recent cloudy and rainy day (one of far too many) I had another go. But this time I had the iPhone planet stacking app “VideoStack” and editing app “WaveletCam”.

The results (after all it’s just an iPhone 12) aren’t that bad and didn’t take long. Although I didn’t try hard so sure it could be better. And quite a few features are showing. Eg on the second image there are some barges just above the North Equatorial Belt. Here you can just see the GRS as a smudge against the planets limb. Having said that a more modern smartphone would do better.

Then I had the idea of making a mini animated GIF. Of course it’s just two images but it does show how fast Jupiter rotates with just 1 hour & 17 minutes between the two. All good practice in what is a learning experience. And it does give me a few other ideas to try in the near future.

Skywatcher 200p Dob, BST StarGuider 5mm, iPhone 12 on basic smartphone adapter. Short 7 sec videos (4K at 60 fps) zoomed at 1.8x using stock camera app. All editing on the phone using the stock camera app, VideoStack, WaveletCam and Lightroom.

18 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I am thinking about flocking my 12” but would most probably do it the conventional way. Slow and steady gets the job done in my book. This is a good method to avoid the wrinkles and bubbles, not to mention the swearing fits.

When I flocked the whole of my 8” Dob I thought about doing the method mentioned here but bit the bullet and decided on the conventional way of just sticking it down.

And I was surprised how well it went. Easier and far quicker than I thought. And no swearing fits - honest! The flocking material wasn’t as sticky as I expected and any “errors” I was able pull it away and stick it down again. I did find that a head torch helped (it’s dark in there) and flexible hands and wrists. Any bubbles were easily removed by pricking them with a needle then rubbing down.

As I had everything apart I even flocked the inside of the focuser draw-tube. Not sure if it’s necessary but it was literally a 5 minute job.

4 hours ago, Kon said:

I am happy to return the good karma of getting a camera on loan from sgl recently, so if you want to try, you can borrow my colour camera but you will need a laptop for it.

That’s most generous! I’ll see what I can do.