PeterStudz

Hello Jennifer and welcome! This isn’t an easy question with no simple answer. I started off relatively recently when I bought my then 9 yr old daughter a telescope for Christmas about 2.5 yrs ago. A budget of £100 is pushing it. It’s not a cheap hobby. Although I got something for Alice that cost ~£150 it was rather inappropriate. But managed to get by and make it a success with persistence and effort. I/we find astronomy is something best done together. It also rewards patience, something that children can lack! Eg one night we slept out in the garden under the stars (no tent). Spent a lot of time looking for shooting starts with some success - a lot of fun in itself - then scanned the sky with binoculars, looking at stars & star clusters… learning about the constellations. We looked in the “big telescope” just once (at something called the ring nebula). Spent the rest of the time drinking hot chocolate & toasting marshmallows. What I’m suggesting here is that to do something like this you don’t even need a telescope. And we actually used the binoculars far more. Binoculars are worth considering (Alice also uses them for wildlife), although I know that kids often want something that looks like a telescope. And on top of buying our first telescope (we now have two) I quickly spent at least another £150 on “accessories” - better eyepieces, upgrading the mount, smartphone adapter… There are pictures under this thread that illustrate some of our journey: And a few other important points… AVOID eBay at all costs. Nothing wrong with secondhand but eBay is not great for purchasing astronomy kit until you really know what you are doing. And even then it’s not great. What city are you in, where about are you located? I’m in Southampton which suffers from light pollution. This limits what we can see from our back garden. The moon and plants are fine. But planets can be tricky as they require good conditions (not just clear sky) plus a telescope that can take a high magnification - which means more money. If there’s a club not far away it might be worth giving them a visit. They will be more than happy to help. Even an individual astronomer. People who own telescopes are usually more than happy to “show off” what they have and equally happy to help. The size of your garden doesn’t matter. But is it obstructed by anything? Which way does it face? Eg my best views are to the E to SW. The north is poor. And at this stage forget about trying to attached a DSLR. You’ll need to spend a lot of money to do that successfully. However, you’ll be able to take smartphone snaps of bright objects easily and cheaply which we find a lot of fun. And don’t forget viewing the sun. With a simple white light filter plus precautions and care we’ve found this enormous fun. And no need to hang about in the dark and cold! Hope this helps! Peter

This is an interesting one and has been bubbling away for a while now. I don’t have a Samsung phone so I can’t comment from practical experience. But it seems to be something to do with a feature called “Scene Optimizer” which, apparently, can be turned off. I’ve also hear other completely unsupported comments about “adding stars” that aren’t there and the possibility of “enhancing” other familiar astrophotography targets like the Orion Nebula.

These are excellent! And the montage would make a nice poster/wall chart. I’d certainly have it on my wall. Of course there’s more detail here but I’m a visual observer and can recognise these from viewing Mars over the recent months having started back at the end of June when, of course, it was rather tiny.

And Jupiter with Ganymede. From the same video as above taken on 17th September 2021. As it’s a rainy day I had another go. Will it ever be clear again. It seems like ages since I’ve been at the eyepiece 🙁

That’s great! Just getting the phase of Venus (visually there’s not much else anyway) is tricky given that at the moment it’s so close to the horizon. And it’s rather small too. I did find that looking at it during daylight gave me a steadier view and capture. Probably because at that time it was higher in the sky. And with obvious care taken really fun too.

Hi @Stu, as you say it can be a bit difficult to get a good short video with good content and that doesn’t crash VideoStack. I find that I can’t get over 10 seconds and it helps if the planet is a decent size. Fixed by zooming in a bit. Maybe there’s a way to use something longer? But what iPhone were you using? And what were you recording at? I’ve set mine to 4K at 60fps as it did seem to import things somewhat. There are some other options to play with which I haven’t tried. And I always us the stock camera app (no 3rd party app) to shoot the video. I do need to play around with some of the video settings but there aren’t many! My iPhone 14 Pro does take better videos than my old iPhone 12 (non Pro). I also found that by zooming in while shooting the video using the 2x on the iPhone 14 Pro and something around 1.8x on the iPhone 12 gives better results. I haven’t a clue why. This is from one of my first Jupiter videos taken back on 17th September 2021 using an iPhone 12. Shot using 4K at 60fps, zoomed to 1.8x. Edited using the stock camera app, stacked with VideoStack, WaveletCam and Lightroom on the phone. Difficult to keep the moons when trying to bring out detail on Jupiter. The iPhone 14 Pro does a better job but then the sensor is much bigger.

@Wageslave, yes, that’s my daughter in my profile pic. Taken just over 2 yrs ago on our first night with our first telescope. It’s enormous fun doing something like this with your kids. Although there are frustrations and compromises. Eg sitting out in the cold getting their eyes use to the dark. We go around some of this by looking at the moon and planets - they are bright so no need to get dark adapted. Or camping out in the garden without a tent (my daughter likes camping anyway) which included looking up at the stars with/without binoculars, looking for shooting stars, making hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows PLUS looking through our telescope.

If you go down the tripod route it might turn out easier, certainly more stable and comfortable to use, if you purchased something like a steel EQ5 tripod. I got one second hand for £70 (they aren’t cheap) for our smaller telescope. It was done as an upgrade to the wobbly tripod it came with which had a EQ type mount which yours has. However, it certainly won’t fit the tripod as is. I got around this with a block of wood and some bolts. Although before you make that investment you’d want to ensure that the telescope is in some sort of working order and actually worth the effort. When we restored ours and before I got a working base, I’d literally prop it up with some wood and get it focused on something like the moon or random stars.

I agree with what @Carbon Brush says. After getting hold of a telescope for free from a nice member on here I was able (from knowing nothing) to completely take it apart, fix it, make it better than new and put it back together again. This was with my then 9 yr old daughter. There’s a whole thread on it here… If you take things slowly, bit by bit and have plenty of patience then it’s perfectly possible. Although I’d suggest making something called a Dobsonian base (surprisingly simple) over a tripoid. And at the time we had a small telescope plus binoculars to use which helped keep up enthusiasm while I slowly fixed our “new” telescope.

Hi Yongchong, Thanks for that and good to hear from you! Maybe I’ll see if I can email you a video(s). Got to go off and do a little work now. Peter

I’ve been meaning to update/reply for ages but been a bit busy. And after a little break I had another go at going through some of the videos. It’s all a bit of a learning curve for me. I’m a visual observer but occasionally try and use smartphone snaps to record what I’ve seen and use them along with an observation report. Now that I have a better idea what I’m doing it’s getting quicker and easier. Sometimes I think that I’ve tried too hard and got too much noise, things that aren’t actually there, in some of the shots. It’s also “interesting” trying to process and edit on a small smartphone screen - however good these things are it’s not the same as using a decent size display. The first two of Jupiter and Mars are from the same videos, just taken a slightly different path, rotated etc. And what colour is Mars? Visually it’s more yellow-orange than most of the astrophotography that I see. I also did this of Mars on the 6th February (also mentioned in another thread). By now Mars was getting rather small but seeing was very good and I was able to get the magnification up to x375. At the limit of what my 200p Dob can do. However, I could not get anything decent out of the stacking app VideoStack - that might just be me. This was produced by going through the video manually and selecting a single “lucky” frame. But I did use the WaveletCam to bring out some details plus Lightroom to finish off. Given how small Mars was I’m pleased/surprised to have got anything. This is something new (but also mentioned in another thread) and was totally unplanned. On the 13th February and after viewing the sun in white light, I decided to have a go at finding Venus. With some care it was surprisingly simple to locate and see in the finder. At the eyepiece I could could clearly make out the phase. Then thought I’d try taking a video. The time was around 13:45 so still very light. The video was then cropped, stacked with VideoStack, edited with WaveletCam plus Lightroom while I was still sitting outside at the telescope and only took around 5 minutes to get something decent. Although I could only get VideoStack to work if I made the background dark/darker. Then I played around with it in the evening. Here are a couple of results. It’s captured the phase of Venus very well - something that was previously impossible for me to do by just using a smartphone.

I’ve only been intro this hobby for just over two years. I have a small 4.5” reflector and an 8” Dob. I’m in Southampton which is Bortle 7. Generally and as far as DSO go, there’s only a small difference between the two in the number that I can see from my back garden. Although the 8” does resolve more details. And it does blow the 4.5” away as far as doubles, the planets and moon go but thats a different matter. An example are the galaxies M81 & M82. In the 4.5” I can only JUST make these out. In the 8” they are both obvious. And globular clusters are far better in the 8”. If I crank up the magnification on these, so that they fill the whole FOV, then I can resolve far more stars and many will “twinkle” - I assume due to the atmosphere. I also have an EQ platform and this allows me to view things like this at high magnification without constant nudging. Allowing me to relax at the eyepiece and just take in the view. On a good night they can be magnificent. In the 4.5” globular clusters are no more than a fuzzy blobs. A few other points. Not all nights are the same. Even though I’m in Bortle 7 there have been a few times when I could easily make out the Beehive Cluster naked eye. These are the nights that you want to get out. Generally my sky is at its darkest around 2am. Of course this does make for late nights. And the darker parts are straight up (obviously) and to the E-SE. If possible I’ll try and look at DSO at this sort of time and when they are at these places in the sky. Personally I do get pleasure out of what I can see from my back garden. But I’ve actually seen more/better DSO in the small 4.5”. And that was because I was able to pack that up in a small case, take it on holiday via an aircraft and use it at a true dark site. There, it was Bortle 1-2, the sky was amazing and I can well remember being able to see the Swan Nebula naked eye. The views in the little 4.5” were, for me, stunning. As far as star hopping goes I do use an app on my phone called PSAlign Pro that includes a PushTo feature. The phone being mounted to the OTA. Just sync to a known star or two, select your target from a list and push to it. And there it is in the eyepiece. For me it works every time.

Hi Mark, I’m not 100% sure but the veneer I used is almost certainly something called “obeche veneer”. Looking on the internet it seems to have gone out of fashion. In the good old days you could pop down to your local model shop and select a nice piece without splits and with a nice grain. It was cheap too and was also used for furniture and picture frames. It might still be possible to buy some somewhere. Other thin veneers will probably work too. You need something around 0.5mm thick. From memory the veneer I used was 0.45mm. Looking around The Balsa Cabin have poplar veneer which they say can be used for model aircraft wings, so it must be similar. Although I have no experience of using it, but it doesn’t cost much. https://www.balsacabin.co.uk/product/poplar-veneer/ There are other thin veneers around including fleece backed, which is very flexible and should also work. But seems to be more expensive. You could try a small sample size of veneer first and make a finder size one. If it works on that it’ll be fine on something larger. I first cut out the foam mat to size. Then bonded the veneer to the foam FLAT. This made it easy to form the cylinder of the dew shield. Although for the much smaller finder dew shield I soaked the veneer with water after It was glued to the foam using a brush before forming the cylinder. This did make the whole process easier. I’ve been using these dew shields regularly for almost a year now and there’s been no splitting of the veneer, or any other issues. Hope that helps. If i see or find anything else I’ll let you know.

I made an EQ platform for my Dob. They are great bits of kit and I now couldn’t do without it.

I missed the previous day on the 1st March due to clouds and I’ve been very busy recently so it was nice to get something. Venues and Jupiter still looking wonderful in the evening sky. I didn't have much time as the planets were rapidly approaching a neighbours house just as it was getting dark. Took a little smartphone snap in my small 4.5 inch reflector. Tricky to include the Galilean Moons in the shoot without blowing everything out when it wasn’t quite dark. SkyWatcher Skyhawk 1145p, BST StarGuider 12mm, iPhone 14 Pro on no-brand phone adapter, single shot using stock camera app. Edited in Lightroom on the phone and in the stock camera app.

I use an app for my iPhone. It’s the PushTo feature within PSAlign Pro. Just line up on a known star or two (can usually get away with one if the target isn’t far away) Sync to it so that it can calculate any offset and off you go. Gets the target within a low powered eyepiece every time. I’ve even used it to find planets during the daytime eg Venus Jupiter and even Mars.

That’s a very good image of Venus! I did wonder if you were going to give Venus a go during daylight. And I have heard from somewhere that in the daytime UV filters don’t give worthwhile results.

For sure it’ll depend on your favourite eyepiece(s). And I do have to remove the eyecup on the StarGuiders (which for these is easy). But once on it requires some force to pull off! When/if you buy one it’s worth making sure you purchase from somewhere that can return without issue if it doesn’t work out for you.

I really enjoy white light solar. And initially it was an afterthought. Gives a whole new dimension to the hobby.

The one I use cost £9.50 and I can put it on and off the eyepiece in the dark. Fits my StarGuiders like a glove. No screws as it twists onto the eyepiece bang on centre every time. No need for fine adjustment controls - it just works as is. I know that some love it but I tried a Celestron NeXYZ but found that it wasn’t for me - far too heavy, over engineered and would sag. For the moon and solar I often don’t use an adapter and just point the camera down the eyepiece. Takes a little practice but the results for me have been good.

It depends on what you are trying to do. I use my phone to help record my observations. I rarely start out to take an image, but will sometimes take a snap(s) towards the end, just before I pack up. However, I’m certainly not always taking images and I don’t spend long doing it. Fiddling around with a smartphone with its bright screen will spoil your dark adaptation. Eg I can spend several hours observing. But if I do decide to take some images it’ll only take around 15 minutes, often less. I also find it interesting to see what the device sitting in my pocket can do. And afterwards, on those far too many cloudy nights or on the train etc. I’ll have a go at processing some of the pictures I’ve taken. Here are a couple of examples (iPad snapshots). One recent & one not so resent. This is for an iPhone but I’m sure other phones can do similar. You can add a Caption of text that has no character limit. So I can add a whole observation report. The image isn’t always of a target(s) as in the second example. Tapping on the “i” icon reveals the text/description/report. This all syncs with my other devices like my iPad. I’ve also got these in a shared folder so that I can share them with my daughter. The text in the Caption is fully searchable. Eg I can search for “Jupiter” and all my Jupiter sessions that I’ve recorded come up. I find it really useful on a number of levels and it helps, doesn’t hinder, my observations.

Nice clear night here in Southampton. Unfortunately I have to go off and be “romantic” 😀

I’m very short sighted and a couple of yrs ago I was recommended varifocals. Nothing to do with astronomy but I just couldn’t get on with them. They gave me unpleasant headaches even after several months. So I went back to my standard glasses and have not had any problems. For observing at the telescope, sometimes I wear my glasses, sometimes contact lens, sometimes I’ll take my glasses off when looking in the eyepiece. Doesn’t bother me too much but I have a slight preference to NOT wearing glasses. However, my daughter prefers to wear her glasses at the eyepiece so often I’ll wear mine so that I can see in the same/similar way that she does. I also have BST StarGuiders. In order to get closer-in while wearing glasses I sometimes totally remove the eyecups. Very easy to do even in the dark. Then use a hood to keep out any stray light.

I agree. I also found it very useful on Mars when it was very bright at/near opposition. Not so much use at other times but then it allowed me to see features on Mars that I would have struggled with if I didn’t use it.

Thanks! I was surprised how well it turned out and without much effort - always a good sign. I’m sure that being higher up helped. Visually it was the most steady view of Venus that I’ve had (not that I’ve looked at it a lot!). A little boiling but I was sure, maybe my imagination, that I could make out some very subtle colour variations on the surface.