PeterStudz

I think that smartphones with these features (and future phones) are potentially a way of creating an interest in astronomy that would otherwise pass by some budding astronomers. I know that my daughter has shown our little phone snaps of the night sky to her friends and teachers. The teachers have been impressed and some of her friends (on the back of the pictures) have come over in order to look through our telescopes. The other thing that I find interesting. She hasn’t got much of an idea of what “proper” astrophotography” is, although I’ve explained how the space pictures she’s seen in books are done. To her all she/we are doing is taking pictures that happen to be taken of the sky. For some people that simplicity will be appealing.

These are just single snaps. And thanks for the nice comments guys!

I had another go at sunspot observing yesterday lunchtime. The benefits of working from home. Managed to get a closeup of sunspot regions 2866 & 2868 by cranking the little Skywatcher 1145p up to 200x - the limit of where it can go. Skywatcher 1145p on EQ1, Starguider 5mm plus 2x Barlow, BAADER AstroSolar filter, basic no-name phone mount, iPhone 12, Imaged rotated with added yellow filter.

If I had the time again I’d still go for a Dob. What I was trying to say is that there’s no “best” solution that fits everyone. There’s also good and not so good features. And some of it is what you get use to. I’m also quite handy with DIY and was able to improve/tighten-up the mount somewhat. Using a smartphone and a Dob you’ll still be able to get nice pictures of brighter objects like the moon, star clusters, even the Orion Nebula. You can also play around with video.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully this might be useful. About 10 months ago I was in a similar position. My 9 yr old daughter had an obvious interest in astronomy and I suggested getting her a telescope for Christmas as I thought it would be something we could do together and it would further fire her interest. Just for the record, we are in a city, Southampton, which is classed as Bortle 8 - so significant light pollution. I did some research (although unfortunately I didn’t find this wonderful forum) and decided that a 130 Dob - the Heritage 130P was top of the list - would fit. However, at the time I didn’t appreciate that there was a big shortage of telescopes and I could not find anything suitable. And for me I wasn’t confident on the second hand market, not helped by the ones I did see going for silly prices. So, partly in panic I opted for a Skywatcher 1145p on a wobbly EQ1 mount, which suddenly became available at £175 and sold out in under 24hrs. At first I thought that I might have made a mistake but in the end it wasn’t a mistake at all. And my thinking was that if it turned out a lemon I could always sell it and buy something else when supply improved. Then last April we were kindly gifted an old Skywatcher Skyliner 200p without a mount and I successfully constructed a Dob mount for it. But we still use the 1145p. On Christmas Day the night sky was clear and the moon in an ideal position so I hurriedly put together the 1145p. Even for me the whole thing was a big learning curve and it took a while to fully appreciate a EQ mount. But looking at the moon had my daughter so excited that she ran inside for the star charts that where also part of her Christmas gifts. Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. A few things that we quickly discovered. For a 9 yr old just learning to look through a Newtonian isn’t that easy. Especially when it’s the blind leading the blind. Eg…. * Does she wear her glasses or not? * Locating objects and using a red dot finder. * Learning to focus. * Eyepieces - there’s even a knack just looking through an eyepiece. Sometimes she’d say “but I can’t see anything”. * Getting her eyes adopted to the dark. * In winter it’s cold. Getting a child to sit in the dark when it’s -2C isn’t easy nor fun. * When the weather gets warmer the sun obviously sets later. Then you have the issue of having children up at silly hours - they do need sleep! * British weather is far from ideal. Many nights are clouded out or have poor seeing. We quickly discovered that using a smartphone as an aid (I’m not taking astrophotography) was a big help and had the advantage that if she got cold she could pop back inside the house. Little need to get her eyes adapted to the dark. An example was the Orion Nebula. Through our little telescope in Bortle 8 it was just a rather disappointing grey smudge. But even holding the camera up to the eyepiece, looking at a live image (not taking a picture) revealed colours. That image literally had my daughter jumping up and down! We also used the smartphone camera to she objects that were impossible to she with our eyes through our small telescope, eg galaxies, even snapping an image (if smudgy) of 3 galaxies at once - the Leo Triplet. She showed our images to friends and teachers at school (at that time via zoom lessons) who were obviously impressed. Kids these days are media driven and love to see pictures even if they are no where near astrophotography level. I invested in better eyepieces and a cheap motor for the EQ1. The motor meant that we could keep objects centred in the eyepiece with little drifting which was a big help. It also meant that we could take longer exposures with our smartphone. Something that’s not easy using a Dob. We also got a solar filter which meant that we could look at the sun, obviously during the day, which added more interest. I also discovered that making observing an event with the telescope(s) the icing on the cake really helped. Eg making hot chocolate and toasting marshmallows, as the weather improved camping outside, often without a tent so she could look up at the stars, get adapted to the dark without trying, then getting up and looking through the telescopes. Having friends over for sleep- overs with added astronomy has also been fun. By the summer we also had a bigger telescope which as mentioned was a Skywatcher 200p, but still used the 1145p as it has certain advantages. At first she found a Dob hard to keep objects at high magnification in view - there’s a knack with that - and although I had to set the thing up, the slow motion controls on an EQ mount a doddle. Shes also become a little obsessed with Jupiter and Saturn and we’ve been looking at these two at every opportunity. Usually with the 200p, but we’ve been observing these since the start of June and her interest is still strong. To sum up - be patient and keep trying. Don’t give up. Observing is more fun when it’s made into an event. It can be more than just looking through a telescope. There will be disappointments but if you keep at it huge rewards. Oh… and a lot of fun!

Two images in white light. First taken today on 06/09/21 when seeing was better. Still suffered somewhat from thin high cloud. Second image taken yesterday on 05/09/21 through almost constant high cloud and haze. Although when I started observing it was much better. Still useful to illustrate how the spots have changed in the last 24 hours. Skywatcher 1145p on EQ1, BAADER AstroSolar filter, basic no-name phone mount, iPhone 12, Imaged rotated with added yellow filter.

If it’s the same thing then the Daily Echo has it at around 9:45pm. If so I wasn’t out then. https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/19560617.meteor-seen-hampshire-last-night/

I was outside observing in Southampton during those times but didn’t see anything apart from the occasional “normal” meteor.

Lovely seeing here in Southampton last night and early this morning. Some of the best views I’ve had this year which surprised me. Europas shadow transit looked stunning right next to the GRS before it unfortunately disappeared behind a tree. But by then I’d seen the best of it. Ganymede wasn’t due to transit until just after 2am BST and by then Jupiter was partly hidden and far to low for me anyway. Earlier in the evening Saturn also looked superb. A good night, although the fun and excitement made it hard for me to sleep.!

Exactly this! At this time of year the first thing I tend to look for is the Summer Triangle. Then from there the constellations. But to start with I struggled even with that. Jupiter was easy to spot but Saturn was lost in the great “noise” of stars.

I really like those as for my taste they aren’t over done. They are close to what Jupiter looks like this year through my telescope on a good night of seeing.

These were taken last week on holiday in Loutro - SW Crete, Greece. My daughter, who is now just 10, hasn’t seen the Milky Way and this was a chance that could not be missed. Had to walk behind the village but as soon as we did the sky was stunning. I’ve never been to such a dark place and it was hard to know where to look. Bortle 2 according to Clear Outside, however, looking to the south & SW there’s nothing until you get to Africa. Only had about 1.5hrs before the moon made an appearance so spent most of the time looking at the views, spotting shooting starts and looking at objects in our binoculars. First time we’ve seen andromeda (even though it was low) with the naked eye. And never thought that the pipe nebula would be a binocular target. Mind, at the time I wasn’t even sure what it was. Pictures taken quickly right at the end (so not to ruin night vision) as an afterthought using a cheap selfie phone tripod. iPhone 12 in night mode, single 30 sec exposure, minimal basic editing.

Great views in Southampton with excellent seeing just as the shadow reached Jupiter’s meridian. Even better as I wasn’t expecting it and caught me by surprise.

Not great seeing for me in Southampton but it wasn’t difficult to see the transit before it clouded over. Mind, I managed to catch the last transit which for me had good seeing.

Hi, And welcome. I’m in a similar position having returned after many years. In the mid-1970’s my parents bought me a Prinz Astral but it was so long ago I’d long forgotten how much I enjoyed looking through a telescope. Eventually my mother sadly gave it away to a charity shop But I well remember seeing Jupiter and it’s moons, plus the rings of Saturn. Although I could not see any more details on the planets. Probably just needed a filter but helpful forums like this didn’t exist in those days. Sky at Night and Patrick Moore was the limit.

The cloud over the last month has been terrible. I’ve spent a couple of nights in and out of bed hoping that the cloud would clear only to be disappointed and rather tired.

I could just make out the Encke gap, although it would “flick” in and out of view - a second or two now and then. But I could see a difference in colour - eg the A & B. Often, even if I can see the Cassini (and this is new to me) the ring appears as one colour. This was between 1 & 2 in the morning.

Yep, I agree. I popped out for a bit and basically saw the same. Saturn wasn’t bad too with surface banding clearly visible and I could see several ring divisions. Not just the Cassini. And here the last month has been so damn cloudy. Looking up now.

Thanks for that @russ I’ll certainly look into it. @Z3JohnLB I was thinking more of DSO as that’s what I struggle with in Southampton. Certainly try something when the nights get darker. My daughter told her friends at school about seeing Jupiter and Saturn. And last weekend she had her best friend over for a sleepover, in part so that she could look through our telescope. On Sunday morning, at some silly hour, we did have success at viewing Jupiter and Saturn. Although the seeing wasn’t as good as before (got to around 170X before things got fuzzy) we could see the ganymede transit on Jupiter. I had to explain the transit using a football & golf ball. It impressed me more than the girls who were slightly disappointed that on this night there was no GRS. Apparently Jupiter isn’t Jupiter without the GRS. My daughter was clearly more interested than her friend but I did get a “wow… look at the rings” from her friend for Saturn which was nice. You could make out the Cassini division so for a first view it was impressive. I helped the night/morning flow along by making hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows. Kids do need some other entertainment as well as looking at the sky. The other advantage with planets is that you don’t need your eyes dark adapted so they can dip in and out of the house. All in all a successful night. Had another look at the gas giants on Saturday morning 17/07/21 as I realised that there was a chance to see the GRS and that would make up (at least for my daughter) for not seeing it the week before. Again, seeing started off being poor so initially I didn’t wake up my daughter. But as the morning went on things improved. I found it fascinating watching the GRS appear at the edge of the disk and slowly move across the planet. At about 3:40am the GRS was towards meridian and looking relatively crisp so I went and got my daughter out of bed. At times you could easily see structure to the Spot. And for a brief period of 5-10 mins we managed to get the magnification up to 240x. Extra entertainment was provided by a fox who came within 10 feet of us before bolting away and an extra loud dawn chorus. For me observational astronomy is about the whole experience, not just what you see through the eyepiece.

Hi, I have an EQ1 and a very similar economy motor. I ditched the little 9v battery and replaced it with a bigger 12v rechargeable plus a power converter to knock it down to 9v. The idea is that the voltage would be more consistent and I will obviously wouldn’t need to buy batteries. I also added a small volt meter. Now this hasn’t been calibrated, so max/min probably isn’t accurate. However, after trial and error I know that when the volt meter reads 2.32v it’s sidereal. Or as close as this economy drive plus mount can get to sidereal.

Hi @Z3JohnLB, it certainly hasn’t been all good. Most of June has been terrible cloud wise. It’s got to have been the month with the most cloudy nights this year so far. I had one night last week where the forecast suggested a break in the clouds between mid-night and dawn. Including setting up I was in and out of bed four times before giving up as the sun came up. The forecast was wrong as there was total cloud cover the entire time. I’m interested in going to a darker site(s) in the New Forest at some point, especially when the nights get darker. If you know of any good spots or would be interested in someone coming along please let me know. If not then no worries. I also know the chef and some of the people who own one of the big hotels in the New Forest. It has a big lawn although views of the horizon might be limited because of trees. But the advantage here is that you could park, walk a very short distance, setup and be/feel perfectly safe. But would need to look into it. Eg would the lights of the hotel be an issue.

Some good advice here. I did get 240x on Jupiter & Saturn for a brief period on 16th June using a Skywatcher Skyliner 200p before things got mushy but I think I was lucky there. The few other times I’ve tried this year I couldn’t get more than 130x.

Personally I’d go for the Sky-Watcher Heritage-130P Flextube or the Sky-Watcher Heritage-150P Flextube Dobsonian Telescope form FLO rather than buying something from Amazon. Both are highly regarded. If you have any problems I’ve found that the service from FLO is second to none. The Heritage-150P is slightly cheaper at £199 and is more portable. Sure it’s out of stock but the website says it’s due in 10-15 days. You can always check with FLO. And with the summer night sky’s so bright at the moment you really won’t miss much by waiting. The Heritage-150P costs a little more but is in stock now. Of course it’s your decision!

@MarkRadice yes, it certainly is wonderful. When observing Jupiter and you get a good view it doesn’t quite look real. As if it’s been painted there but dynamic, almost alive. At least that’s the only why I can describe it!

I certainly agree with the first part. I’m new to all of this and I’ve been restoring an old Skywatcher Skyliner 200p. The secondary was way off under the focuser. At first it was most frustrating as I’d get it aligned under the focuser (which required large adjustments), but when I then aligned the secondary to the primary, also requiring large adjustements, the secondary was then back to being out of alignment with the focuser. In the end I found it necessary to do small adjustment steps - getting the secondary slightly aligned to the focuser, then getting the secondary slightly aligned to the primary, going back and working on focuser alignment - repeat - until it was all in the right place. And I must try the washer thing. That sound like a great idea!