PeterStudz

I do have the budget SvBony SV135 7-21mm and although the FOV is a bit of a pain (my daughter doesn’t get on with it at all) I find that the contrast a bit poor. And for planets you obviously really need that. The BST StarGuiders that I own are far better in that respect. But of course it’s a budget zoom, so I’m sure that the non-budget zooms are much better.

I’ve just come in after a session on Saturn, Jupiter & Mars. In fact it’s the first time I’ve seen mars other than a tiny dot. Got up at 3am and set the 200p Dob outside to cool down for 30 mins. Seeing quite good. I could make out the Cassini division on Saturn, some banding and several moons. Jupiter showed multiple banding. I had to wait until Mars passed a big tree at the end of a neighbour’s garden (I’m sure that thing has grown since last year). By this time it wasn’t far off sunrise. The whole thing was small/tiny, however, the southern ice cap was obvious, like it was wearing a small white hat - it seemed to glow. I also thought that I could make out some dark markings in the southern region - have just noticed that @Nik271 reported similar yesterday, we can’t both be mistaken! I went back to have a look at Jupiter again. By this time it was 5:05am and after sunrise and I could only just make it out by eye. Interestingly the contrast, although a bit washed out, with some sunlight was better and I could make out features in the banding. To my pleasant surprise the GRS was also visible and seemed a bit more prominent than last year, but that could just be the light. Then went back to Mars for one last look. By now I could not even see it by eye and had to use the PushTo feature in PS Align Pro on my iPhone in order to locate it. I could not even see it in my RACI but could see it in a low power eyepiece. Increasing the magnification revealed the ice cap again and it’s waxing gibbous kind of phase. Packing up I was over the moon, or is it over Mars

I believe that’s out of date. From the 10th Feb things changed. https://www.easyjet.com/ejcms/cache/medialibrary/files/business-partners-library/cabin-bags---tmcs---en.pdf Mind, they have never ever checked the weight of my cabin baggage. Size yes. If they did then I’d just show them their own information Although I’d be struggling to get a small reflector, mount and small tripod to weight over 10kg.

It’s correct. I’ve been there and done it before, although not with a telescope! 15kg is for checked baggage which you pay for. Cabin baggage has no weight limit and is free.

First light for my DIY solar filter for my Skywatcher 200p Dob using Baader solar film. Seeing a bit average but nice to see that it works. Quick single shot with an iPhone 12 held at the eyepiece with basic editing on the phone.

Doesn’t it depend on the airline? EasyJet don’t have a weight limit and will accept larger bags than that. I intend to take a small reflector. https://www.mybaggage.com/shipping/airlines/easyjet-baggage-allowance/

What a nice video. The guy has a lot of enthusiasm and whatever he’s doing you can tell he’s had great fun doing it, which is what it’s all about.

Hmmm… iron pyrite is hardly or weekly magnetic at best. So maybe it isn’t that! Although another iron/mineral nodule might be possible.

That’s useful. It’s London Clay. As it says in Wiki… ”Nodular lumps of pyrite are frequently found in the clay layers.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Clay Of course this doesn’t mean it isn’t a meteorite! Although out of interest and as a confession - I use to fool my school friends by pretending that the ones I found were meteorites.

Might be wrong but looks like what’s commonly called an iron pyrite nodule. I use to collect them as a kid. Often eroded out of cliffs - what part of the country did you find it as that would tell us about the geology. Sometimes called “Iron-oxide concretions and nodules” which have been mistaken for meteorites… https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/concretions/

Nice job and thanks for posting this. It’s given me a few tips and ideas for making something similar.

As a boy In the late 1960’s I can remember being confidently told that there would be tourists flights to the moon in about 1980-something. In fact some airlines (Pan Am is a classics example) offered a waiting list. So I’m not convinced amateur space telescopes will become a thing relatively soon. But before they do, or before any of this advanced astronomy becomes reality, it would be nice if things could be a little more standard. Eg as a beginner I find it frustrating and confusing that this mount takes a M10 bolt yet this tripod has a 3/8”. I’d be a little cheesed off if, after launching my space telescope, I then discovered that I had a 3/8” bolt that was trying to attach to a M10 thread. Then had to order an expensive adapter from FLO and request yet another expensive delivery to orbit.

Although I have a 200p I agree with this and it’s my experience too. On a good night last year I got some excellent views of Jupiter and Saturn. But it had to be a good night. Saturn more so as it can take a little more magnification. I’ve also had great success on the planets with a 2x Barlow on the 12mm BST. More than the 5mm alone. And as I sometimes view wearing glasses I find that using a Barlow gives better eye relief. My daughter prefers wearing glasses so this is another good reason.

That is actually very good! And I like the large background of framing stars. It puts it in context. Yes, I can see NG6207.

Have just come in after looking at the moon. Clouds came in but it was about time to got to bed. Copernicus did look stunning - it’s got to be one of my top favourite lunar crater. Could also make out Thors hammer.

I had to look back at my pictures & files and I was using a BST StarGuider 5mm. I also bumped up the video to 4K at 60 fps, zoomed at 1.7x. For some reason zooming in the video at between 1.7-1.8x makes an improvement. Not sure why as it doesn’t when I take single images. On the 8” Dob I find the 5mm quite useful. Especially on the moon. Although for planets like Jupiter and Saturn seeing does need to be good. I had about 7-8 nights of trying when seeing was good and it only worked out well a couple of times. Not that I tried to do this every time. Often I just enjoyed the view. I also like looking a globulars and the ring nebula in the 5mm. Can also be handy at splitting some doubles, although I’m still learning about that. I think you’ll find it worth getting. Out of interest. I only started taking smartphone snaps because my daughter wanted pictures. She likes it and it helps keep her interest up. I can remember when we first tried this on the Orion Nebula. Just hovering the phone over the eyepiece had her literally jumping up and down - you could see colours on the phone screen. Although I’m more interested in just observing I have to admit it’s nice looking back at my “astronomy” folder and seeing all the pics that I’ve taken. It reminds me of the whole night itself, although I’ve had plenty of good nights without fiddling with smartphone images. And I always like seeing other peoples images, like yours, too. It all adds to the fun of what is a great hobby.

Here are a few pictures with an iPhone 12. Orion Nebula and sunspots with a 4.5” reflector on a wobbling old EQ1 with cheap motor drive. 30 sec exposure single shot for Orion, single shot for the sunspots. Jupiter and moon via an 8” Dob. Moon single shot, Jupiter a single frame from a video. The black dot is Ganymede. I don’t have a PC so no stacking for me. Any editing done on the phone.

Interesting. I found the Celestron NeXYZ to be a royal pain in the… over engineered and unnecessarily heavy but then I do have a small telescope. The one that worked for me was a no-name brand off eBay. I think I paid about £10 for it. I mainly use BST StarGuiders and do remove the eyecup. Been doing it for about 18 months and there’s no damage. In fact I often remove the eyecups anyway - I sometimes observe with glasses and find that in order to get my eye close in the eyecup just gets in the way. The mount grips the eyepiece very well, it’s not going anywhere. Might be different with other eyepieces. And to make things easier, once I found the sweet spot, I stuck a screw in the mount (see picture). Now I only have to adjust the “Y” direction. No faffing about with “X” & “Z”. With this mount and BST StarGuiders I’ve never found it necessary to adjust in “Z”. It’s simple, light and with a little practice I can mount it in the dark.

Thanks @westmarch. I think you are the person who started the thread “10” Equatorial Platform for Dummies”. I’ve been following that with interest as it’s something I’d like to make. In fact it’ll probably be the next thing. Thanks for the hand warmer tip. I’ll certainly try that. My red dot followed shortly by my RACI are there first to dew. Not that bothered by the red dot but when the RACI goes it makes life much harder.

I don’t suffer from dew that often but in the few occasions that I have it’s obviously annoying. And there’s quite a bit of stray light when I view from my back garden in Southampton. At the end of last year I got a thin 4mm yoga mat (£6.50 from eBay) in order to make the standard foam mat plus Velcro strip dew shield for my small Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145P. Incidentally, good old fashion Evo-Stik contact adhesive (I prefer the stuff in a tin - see picture) bonds Velcro strip to foam mat so well that if you try and remove it, like I did in a test sample, you’ll take part of the foam mat away - ie the bond is stronger than the foam itself - it’s not going anywhere. Then, sometime back at the end of Feb this yr, I wanted to make a shield for my 8” Dob. The thin 4mm foam mat was ideal for my 4.5” telescope but far too floppy for an 8”. Not wanting to waste the foam that I had I went down the shed to see if there was something I could use to stiffen it up a little. There I found some thin veneer (0.45mm) from my model aircraft days. Using the trusty Evo-Stik I simply bonded the veneer to the foam, trimmed it all to size, wrapped it around the OTA and stuck it all together with more Evo-Stik. I also bonded a strip of veneer at the end just to prevent any splitting. Then finished of with tung oil in order to waterproof. Tung oil is also flexible. Simple stuff. The result is light (about 185g) and stiff. It all slips on with a tight fit. I also made a little version for the finder using veneer and 2mm craft foam. Of course it won’t roll down but I can live with that.

Fair enough. Although it’s the length that can make it tricky. Eg the inside of the focuser draw tube was really easy.

I flocked the complete inside of an old Skywatcher 8” Dob using flocking material from FLO. I also flocked the inside of the focuser. Didn’t bother with acetate, just stuck it all to the surface. No problems and actually far easier than I thought it would be. Here are before & after snaps.

I use the PushTo feature in PS Align Pro for iPhone. Works really well. Here are some quick snaps of the mount. I have a handle on my Dob so I’ve used a bicycle handle bar holder plus tripod phone mount. Never needed to level anything, it just works. Interestingly, even though there’s a damn great magnet on the back of the phone (MagSafe) and I have another magnet in the case (MagSafe case) it has absolutely no impact on how the thing works. In fact it’ll work just as well using the MagSafe magnet to simply attach to the phone to the steel of the OTA - no mount required - although maybe the phone is a little precarious stuck on like this!

And the obvious question - did you buy it new or second hand? If new then it really should have come with suitable adapters.

I very occasionally have issues with dew on my secondary, although a simple dew shield is usually enough. But it takes a while. @spike95609 - my Dob is often out for 3 hours, sometimes more. Eg when camping out in the garden with my daughter it’ll be out all night. There’s nothing more annoying than waking up after a bit of kip and encountering dew issues.