PeterStudz

Nice images Dave. I need to get a new phone 😀. There are at least 2 adapters made by gosky. One has a circular ring that goes around the eyepiece (like the one I have). The other doesn’t.

I took these while on holiday in southern Crete. Location Bay of Finix, 26th August 2022, 10:30pm looking over the Mediterranean towards Gavdos. Sky Bortle 1-2. Picture taken on my now “old” iPhone 12 on a tripod. Single 30sec exposure with standard camera app. The first picture is the original. The other two I’ve pimped up with some rather basic editing on the phone just to bring out features. Last one probably a bit too much!

A gap in the clouds allowed us to observe Jupiter and the second half of the Europa transit. Seeing average overall to a bit wobbly at times, especially later on. However, me and my daughter were able to clearly see the shadow transit plus Europa itself as it passed over Jupiters disc. I did find that upping the magnification to 240x on our 200p really made the shadow + Europa pop, even though this was too much for Jupiter itself. The GRS also visible. Might just be me but the SEB around the GRS doesn’t seem to look as prominent as it was a year ago. As the clouds came back in watched Europa pass Jupiters edge as Io passed behind the back of the planet.

Interesting, thanks for that. And a useful website that I didn’t know about.

Southampton. Morning of 21/09/22, Skywatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. I haven’t done much observing in the last month as I’ve been recovering from COVID - been too tried to stay up late or wake up in the early hours. But the last few days I’ve had more energy so I decided go to bed early and wake up at ~4am and have a “quick” look at Mars, while testing/fiddling with the EQ platform. The forecast looked good too with the jetstream well out of the way. Telescope out at 4:15am to cool, although I started a bit early and had a look at the Orion Nebula for a while. Always nice to see but I’ve seen it better. The (rather nice) rising crescent moon probably didn’t help. Seeing and transparency good. Then onto Mars. I could have also had a look at Jupiter but didn’t want to push it. Mars is getting high! Not much dew this morning but I can see how that might be a problem as we go into winter. I played around with different magnifications going up to 340x with a 7mm plus 2x Barlow. A little too much, perhaps, but I wanted to see how the EQ platform coped. Worked well and I could get Mars to stay towards the center of the FOV for 6-7 mins - nice to have it just hang there, a real bonus. I also played around with a variable polarising filter, just enough to eliminate or almost eliminate diffraction spikes. Seemed to improve the view until the sky started to brighten with the approaching dawn. On Mars I could make out a distinctive slightly wavy band/dark area in the southern region. And a white area at the north polar region. Didn’t look like ice. Maybe clouds? Probably got the best views at around 5:30-6am. Even at 340x there were moments of good seeing - great stuff. Mars seems to be able to handle a decent amount of magnification which is just as well. It’s high in the sky too. I can see that this will be fun over the next few months. Packed up at just after 6am. Went back to bed for an hour as I had work to do. Not too tired which is good!

Holiday setup looking at Orion. Just making sure everything was working after the flight, taxi and ferry. Location - Loutro, Crete, 23rd August 2022. Picture taken with my iPhone. Mind, not quite my final destination.

From talking to kids most have little to know interest or knowledge. Eg one 16 yrs old who I talked to recently didn’t know what our galaxy, the Milky Way was, and thought that the Milky Way could be our solar system - although I think that was a total guess pulled out of thin air. Mind, my daughter is very interested and we enjoy doing astronomy together. A good friend of mine who has a couple of kids did make the comment of “I’m jealous of you being able to star gaze with Alice” so maybe interest is hidden within our modern age.

Thanks the one I use. Works very well for me.

First night out in a while since our holiday. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering from COVID. The actual COVID wasn’t that bad (I’m fully vaccinated) but I’ve been really feeling tired and fatigued so lots of early nights and sleeping. Still far from 100% Put out the SkyWatcher 200p Dob plus the relatively new DIY EQ platform at around 10pm in order to view Jupiter, Saturn and play around with the platform. Didn’t plan to stay out long. My daughter also had her ballet class in the morning, so an early start for a Sunday. Moon very bright but looking at the stars seeing looked good. First up Saturn. Straight away I could see that conditions were good. Put the magnification up to x240 and the details were still sharp. Anything more was too much. Could clearly see the Cassini division at the ring tips and most, if not occasionally all, the way round. Some colour variation at the right tips too. There was a thin ring shadow on the disc and a shadow from the planet onto the ring. Obvious shading on the planet surface towards one pole with very subtle banding. I could easily make out two moons, and another two which were faint. 4 moons in total! All strung out in a line towards the east with one appearing very close to the disc and faint (flicking in/out of view). I later found out that these were (form furthest out to nearest in) Titan, Rhea, Dione & Tethys. My daughter was impressed. The EQ platform really helps here. Saturn at x240 staying central in the FOV with no need to nudge really does help in picking out small details. Then onto Jupiter. At x170 the details still sharp, the maximum before things started to go fuzzy. We could see Io just appearing form behind the planet (lovely sight) and the GRS which was very orange. Some lovely details around the GRS including what looked like a couple of white spots. Details in the banding and the even within the polar regions which is usual - I’ve hardly ever been able to see this. Later on, as the GRS approached the plant limb, we could clearly make out some darker areas in and around the NEB which looked different/relatively new. My daughter declared this the best views we’ve ever got of these two planets. Well, we only started last year. I think I/we have seen better but only just. The EQ platform also helping. To finish off we had a quick tour of the very bright moon and a look at Neptune. Just a blue-ish dot but you could see it was a planet and not a star. Pleased to actually find it in the strong moonlight. Packed up quickly at just after mid-night (I think) and went straight to bed.

This is what I do. Even with end caps on (I have a dust cover on the bottom too) it’s surprising and annoying how much dust can accumulate if stored upright. Not sure if it’ll spoil the views but if you can avoid then why not.

Haven’t noticed the need for both arms with light binoculars. My daughters 8x42 can easily be used with one arm. We’ve also mounted them on a tripod & monopod with pistol grip - no need to use both arms there.

Looks a bit bulky and heavy These cost £20 secondhand from a member here. So much fun for such a low price! It’s our second pair of binoculars so we can both scan the sky at the same time. We also use them to plan/work out star hops and for wildlife.

I think it can be even more complicated than that. Eg I thought I wanted to see DSO and so did my daughter. It was only after months of observing that we discovered how we liked the planets. I still prefer DSO but for my daughter she prefers the planets. For a start there’s no need to get eyes use to the dark and many of the planets have been around in the summer when it’s not freezing cold. Cold and dark adaption aren’t kid friendly. And then there’s the sun. I initially only got a solar filter to see the partial eclipse (of course it was cloudy) but we both found how much we both enjoy solar. So much so that I’ve seriously thought about investing in dedicated solar gear. Basically many people don’t know what they want to see until they’ve spent considerable time observing.

When recommending anything (not just telescopes) you need to find out some details about the individual. I would have thought that was common sense. When I bought our first kit I did a lot of my own research (not 100% successful) and went on the principal that if we didn’t get on with it I would cut our loses and sell secondhand. So I made sure we had something that had reasonable second hand value. After all, we didn’t even know if astronomy would be for us.

Hi Dave, I’ve been meaning to post more. Using PushTo in PSAlign Pro was one topic, but often struggle to find time. I also find it hard to write things down! Young kids is also a good one too. What I have learnt and works for us, is to make the session an event. One recent example is my daughter inviting a friend over for a sleep-over. Her friend saying she was interested in looking through the telescope. Alice and her friend camped in the garden. It was summer so no issues with the cold. I got them up at about 2am, although they hadn’t gone to sleep as they were too excited. Not really excited about the astronomy but excited about the sleep-over, camping etc. We viewed the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, a couple of star cluster and the ring nebula (only DSO that stood out in the moon light). There was also a shadow transit of Io which was fun. Oh and the GRS. Kids love seeing that. Plus they saw a few shooting stars. In between I made them hot chocolate and toasted marsh mellows. As the sun came we saw a fox with its cubs and heard the dawn chorus. Alice’s friend had never heard the dawn chorus. After that they finally went to bed. It didn’t end there as when they woke up we did a little solar. At the time there were some big and beautiful sunspots. I find that kids like looking at sunspots. Often more than DSO which require some skill, patience, eyes use to the dark etc. The whole event was finished off with a cooked brunch in the garden. The whole thing literally took me 3 days to recover from But see what I mean by an “event”.

I splashed out on the NeXYZ phone holder but found it rubbish and far over priced for what it is. The £9 no-name brand I got off eBay works far better for me and is far less faff.

I have been reading this thread with “interest ” and wasn’t going to reply but this amused me. I’ve only been into astronomy for 18 months partly because my then 10 yr old daughter showed great interest. But one thing I/we did regret was NOT getting a Dob in the first place. We now fortunately have one and have never looked back. And we’ve never had any of the problems mentioned above! Now, we are in Bortle 7 and if we have to we can find anything in a few moments using the PushTo feature of PSAlign Pro - it’s an iPhone app that costs a few quid. At the moment I don’t have a lot of spare cash so have appreciated the value a Dob gives. As for tracking I made an EQ platform for under £50.

Was out late/early last night/this morning. The moon, Saturn and Jupiter, although seeing was poor & the moon very bright so I called it a night. However, the best part of the night was when packing up - a very bright and orange Perseid passed just to the left of the moon and even with the bright moonlight it lit up the sky for a brief moment.

I first saw Saturn in a small and cheerful Prinz Astral 60 (I think) as a equally small and cheerful boy back in 1970-something. It was so small that I could only just make out the rings but I still remember it well. Apart from looking at the moon it’s the only thing that I can remember viewing. Sadly my mother gave that telescope to a charity shop after I went to university 🙁

I’ve got to make the effort and get to a darker site. I’ve been saying it for ages and a 25 min drive will get me to a Bortle 3 location. I’m also going on holiday to a place that is Bortle 1-2, although probably won’t have more than binoculars I’m still really looking forward to it. Planets are OK here, recently seeing has been good. At the weekend I did language 300x on Jupiter when the GRS was visible. I could see swirls and details around the GRS and banding. Banding and details in the polar regions too which I’ve never seen before. My daughter was sleeping in the garden and had been awake earlier with our telescope. But it was so good that I got her out of bed again.

Nicely done Dave. I tried last year but I must give that one another go. Although judging from your nice dark background you have a darker sky than my annoying Bortle 7!

Interesting read. I’m from Southampton and was observing that night from garden with my daughter. She was sleeping in the garden all night, getting up a few times to have a look in the telescope with me, look for shooting stars etc. We also had Mars at 300x in our 8” Dob but this is our first year observing Mars and I assumed it was normal stuff! We could make out some dark banding on the planet that made a rough “X” pattern. And maybe a small icecap but it wasn’t obvious. Jupiter was really very good. We could even make out banding and details in the polar regions, something I’ve never seen. And lots of details around and near the GRS. In some way I found Mars more interesting back in June when it was obviously rather small. Then the southern icecap kind of glowed and although tiny stood out like a sore thumb. It was like a snow caped alpine mountain but tiny and looked like, well, sunshine on ice. I think just seeing an icecap on another world for the first time had me! And the best view I got back then was well after sunrise. The sky so bright I couldn’t even see it in the RACI and had to use PushTo.

Mammoth session with my daughter camping out in the garden in Southampton with our Skywatcher 200p Dob plus binoculars. Could do with a full report but too tired! Targets included a few open clusters eg Double Cluster, Andromeda (first time looking at that since last year), Ring Nebula, M15 Globular Cluster, Pleiades (haven’t seen that for a while), Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and finally, when it got light and woke up, the sun. I’ve probably forgotten something. Also saw a few nice shooting stats. Seeing very good, transparency decent. With Jupiter we got some of the best views of the GRS that we’ve seen. Probably because Jupiter is at a decent hight and the GRS was visible during that high point. Some really good details on the banding too - fantastic! Mars of course still tiny but visibly less tiny than back in June. Could make out some dark surface details, but only just. Could not see any ice caps. Sun in white light and (by the look of things) sunspots starting to get active again. Oh… I was also testing out my almost finished DIY equatorial platform. Working well and a novelty having the planets just “hanging there” at high magnification without nudging!

Not forgetting a bit of scrap plywood for the reactor core and we have fission. Not quite finished but it works!

There’s some good info here. I do “woodwork” too and my woodwork shop is an old wooden table next to our bunny cage. Of course the “shop” is only open if it isn’t raining. And the price of wood has recently skyrocketed. Even more so than astronomy gear. I’m surprised that the chair hasn’t gone up, although now it’s very good value!