PeterStudz

Cloudy here in Southampton at the moment but it might clear. Mind, I got a good look at sunspot AR3576 on the 10th Feb which was also visible with just eclipse glasses. The sun is certainly looking active!

No worries. I’ve done that before. And more than once!

The spring on the secondary? That’s the one I cut down. Is the secondary mirror really that much heavier? PS - the 200p doesn’t have primary springs. It uses grommets instead.

I was surprised how changing to a different primary mirror made so little difference to the collimation. Literally a few tweaks and it was spot on again. Those mirrors must be well made. When I cut the spring down on my 8” Dob it was a shade over 1mm. That was enough to make a world of difference. It still holds collimation well. Eg I’ve taken it in the car for 1.45 hours over country lanes and nothing had moved.

The secondary was in good condition. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the actual mirror, so as far as I know it’s the original, along with the holder, screws etc. Although I added Bobs Knobs. The primary was in a bit of a poor way. It had impact damage from what could well have been caused by a dropped tool/hex key. And scratches where it looked like someone had desperately tried to rub the damage away! I could easily tell that the primary mirror had been removed as it wasn’t put back correctly - there’s a notch in the mirror cell that should line up with the tube seam. But it had been forced in at another position. Interestingly, even with a primary mirror like that the views were surprisingly decent!

I guess it could be something to do with your primary. But I had my primary in and out multiple times. Not only that but a secondhand mirror, different mirror cell (I had two) and lots of fiddling with clips and various springs. Nothing with the primary made any difference. Of course it’s not the same telescope and might not actually be the same issue. But I’m certainly interested to see if you can resolve it another way.

That was my issue too. Nothing to do with the clips or primary. But I could not get a=b - ie the secondary could be aligned equally under the focuser.

Yes, I certainly wouldn’t do it unless you can’t find an alternative or other reason! I fiddled and played with everything (even taking the focuser to bits) before I made the decision. Out of interest, my Dob was also way off too with the secondary obviously well played with - eg the secondary hex-screws were visibly worn. I got the impression that whoever had it in the past might have had collimation problems.

The post you saw with similar issues where a solution was to “cut the spring a bit” MIGHT have been from me - with my 8” Dob refurbishment. From what you described it sounds very similar and I certainly ended up doing that, but it was a last resort. Whatever I tried and looked at - I literally spent weeks - I just could not get the secondary quite far enough away from the primary. The spring would be rammed right down tight, no room left for any more movement, but with a few mm gap. In the end I took everything to bits (I had to anyway as I was going to flock) and put it back together a few times before I finally took the plunge and cut the spring down a little. That certainly fixed the problem for me and it’s been fine ever since.

I use to do that kind of thing when I was younger and would be able to recover quite quickly. But now… if I didn't go to bed for a night it would literally take over a week!

People and people with glasses are different. I observe with glasses and so does my daughter. We have 12mm & 5mm BST StarGuiders and find them perfectly comfortable to take in the entire FOV at once.

A dark sky is very important. And a bright moon can spoil things. I’m not sure how dark your local/garden sky is. But as an example, when I’ve been to very dark sky site (Bortle 1-2) I can see a host of DSO objects inc nebulae and a few galaxies naked eye. No need for a telescope! Things that I can’t even see (there’s nothing when I look) through my much larger 8” or 200mm Newtonian when in my light polluted back garden. In other words - you’d certainly be able to see a wonderful array of objects if you are under a dark sky with eyes adapted to the dark.

To be honest whisky/alcohol is really only occasionally drunk after I’ve been out, or packing up, especially in winter. Hot chocolate is something that my daughter likes (well, I do too) , along with toasted marshmallows - it helps the night along.

Hot chocolate, coffee (although I drink far too much) and to push the boat out a whisky or my own home made cider.

I was Lucky and on a day without work, but between clouds I manage to get some good views of the super sunspot group AR3576. I could even make it out with just eclipse glasses. Apparently there were 36 individual spots in this group when I was looking. At times the seeing was reasonable and I managed some decent, if brief, views at good magnification. Although by the time I tried to take an image conditions had deteriorated and my single shots did not turn out well. However, this video (converted to a short animated GIF) gives a good feel of what it was like at low power. Not what I was trying to do/get but thought I’d post it anyway. AR3576 has now gone from view, but it looks like there’s potentially another big spot - AR3590 - on the eastern rim just coming into view. Hopefully we’ll actually get some clear skies! Southampton urban back garden. Skywatcher 200p Dob, DIY white light filter with Baader AstroSolar Safety Film. BST StarGuider 15mm. iPhone 14 Pro on no-brand smartphone adapter. Video 4K at 60fps taken using the stock camera app. Cropped plus basic editing in the stock camera app. Converted to GIF via ezgif.com.

I have a few BST StarGuiders and think that they are great for the money. I’ve also heard others mention that they aren’t great for people who observe with glasses. However, I wear glasses, as does my daughter and we both find them perfectly fine - no issues here at all.

Clear here in Southampton too. Setup and just letting the Dob cool.

That camping story is great. Reminds me a bit of what we’ve done. Although that’s mostly camping in the garden, looking up at the sky for shooting starts etc and also through a telescope. Only had a couple of true camping trips with my daughter but they’ve all, so far, been cloudy But sure it’ll work out one day. I was being (deliberately) negative with Space Club. When I took a telescope to school back in mid-January it was just dark enough to see Jupiter, the moon and Saturn. Saturn was low and you could not make it out naked eye in the twilight, but fortunately managed to find it in the telescope. Now, for me it was a bit “fuzzy” but you could clearly see the rings and it still got the most “wow”. Even though temperatures were below freezing and most kids had gone home, I quickly got a queue of “non Space Club” members. One comment about Saturn that I well remember was “wow… that doesn’t look real”. My experience of kids (well, pre-teenager) is that they enjoy observing far more than taking and looking at pictures. Whether it’s in books, the internet or astrophotography. But have a feeling that that can change as they grow up. I know that when I first explained astrophotography to Alice she amusingly started palming them off as “those fake pictures”. Recently she made some drawings of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. Even though she’s seen far more images and pictures of the planets from various sources these drawing’s were all “upside down” in “Dob view”. Even Mars had its North Polar Hood at the bottom. To me this suggests that what’s she’s observed through the telescope has made the biggest impression. I also think that far too many simply haven’t see a dark sky. Eg a friend of mine didn’t see the Milky Way until his mid-fifties. Alice is just as obsessed with the internet, mobile phones and social media as any other kid and as a parent it can be very frustrating. But interestingly when we went on Holiday last year to a place that has a dark sky (we’d been before) literally the first thing she asked wasn’t for the WiFi code (which is more typical) it was if she could go and see the Milky Way. All despite having got up at 2am and been travelling most of the day until 6pm.

My comments below are more along the lines of “why don’t more people observe” but maybe that’s helpful… When we went on holiday with friends to a place that just happened to be “dark” the topic of light pollution came up over dinner. Our friend’s teenage daughter had zero interests in simply just looking up. It was almost as if she was frightened of something. I had the feeling that she believed doing so is nerdy and she was cool! She also asked the question: “does it matter if you can’t see the stars anymore? Does anyone really care?”. Attempting to answer made no difference. Her mind was set. When my daughter enthusiastically mentions to my in-laws the enjoyment she gets out of stargazing the response (not said directly but you can tell) is like “errrr… that’s odd… why on earth do you do that?” Alice is in an after school club called “Space Club” which includes astronomy. I’ve taken a telescope along. This initially had 11 kids (Alice the only girl) but now it’s sadly down to 4. If anymore leave it could be cancelled altogether. When I asked Alice why her answer was “The boys were called nerds by other kids for wanting to go, so they dropped out” - what can you say!

Do you ever go on holiday, or maybe thinking of going abroad, to have a family break to somewhere via aircraft that includes a truly dark sky? If so then the AZ-3 plus a small relatively cheap telescope would make an ideal travel package. I’ve done similar and it was brilliant. Eg every single night cloud free and crystal clear. Warm/hot so observing in t-shirt & shorts. Milky Way so bright we could see the reflection on the water. I can remember being amazed that I could see the swan nebula naked eye. That’s before looking through telescope which, though small, gave then best views of DSO I’ve seen so far.

Just been viewing sunspots AR3576 in white light between clouds. What a beast! I can even make it out naked eye using eclipse glasses. If you get any clear patches this weekend definitely worth a go.

Sunday night and especially Monday night look promising in the forecast for me in Southampton. Especially the early hours on Tuesday morning. Moon out of the way too. And looking promising/possible at the weekend for solar with a massive sunspot in view.

This does remind me of my youth. Me and s school friend made a relatively straightforward and standard go-kart. It was fun how it was but his brother (who thought he was a mechanic) decided to pimp-it-up. This included adding the engine from an old Dennis lawnmower. After that it was lethal, especially as the only way of braking was with your feet and it was full power or nothing. Mind, I do love these projects like @Stu has done. Eg I have a shed of old bits (some from my late father) that I’ve kept for future projects. However, I often can’t find or remember where in my shed I’ve put them

Yes, I’ve seen that and have it on my phone. But I haven’t tired it yet. That’s because for about 1.5 yrs I’ve been using the PushTo feature in an app called PS Align Pro, which works, finds targets, perfectly for me. I’ve even used it to find targets, eg Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in daylight. Which I’m not sure this app will do. There are other apps (one web based) that do similar too, although off-hand I can’t remember what they are called.

If you mean something like Philip's Stargazing - Month-by-Month Guide to the Night Sky, then I’ve been buying this every year. It doesn’t cost much (often there’s a deal on it too), and at times I find a paper guide more relaxing, nice to flick through on a cloudy, windy night with a glass of whisky in front of the fire 😀