PeterStudz

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 😀

Good question. I’m very short-sighted. In the past I use to be able to get glass lenses for my spectacles. In fact I preferred glass, as compared to plastic it was thinner (I have to pay a lot more for thinner plastic lenses), as they were thinner they were lighter, and they didn’t scratch as easily. I assume glass became obsolete for safety reasons.

Thanks for posting that @Louis D… very interesting.

Yes, I’ve had one for a few years. Doesn’t do anything that I can see for light pollution - I’m in Bortle 7. Although strangely it does bring out granulation and sunspot details when doing solar.

Unless you know the individual very well then you really are generalising. And knowing them well from a brief post on a forum isn’t possible, so you go on what they’ve said. People do have different requirements and lives. I first went with a small grab and go but wish I hadn’t. Then got an 8” Dob and love it. And I’m no spring chicken, with a weak knee (dislocated 5 times now) and I find moving the Dob from my house to garden very easy. I’ve also taken it in the car for outreach events and it’s been great. Not to say that the “grab and go” was wasted/sold. It’s now our holiday telescope as I can take it as hand luggage on an aircraft (tripod in hold). That’s obviously rather tricky with an 8” Dob. So if I was travelling a lot then the Dob would be rather useless.

I rather like it too. And unlike most of my astronomy gear that my other-half thinks looks “ugly” or “shouldn’t be in the house” this stool is an exception and is more than accepted as part of the furniture. Eg we also use it as a drawing/art stool.

You can’t have too many 😀

I Agree! There’s no contest. Eg the Dob base for my 8” that I made out of cheap plywood from Wicks is far more stable and more useable than the little 4.5” Newt that I have on a EQ5 steel tripod. The stability is so important as I can focus without wobbles. And it’s rock solid in a wind, unlike something on a tripod. As for height. I’m 6ft tall and my 8 yr old daughter (no 12) is somewhat shorter. Easy to get around with an adjustable stool. I got this for £10 via Gumtree. She stands and I (being lazy and old) sit

All looks great and what a wonderful new telescope. Although I’m kind of sad that there’s no more 200p - end on an era! I always enjoyed seeing what you were doing with that as I obviously have one too.

I agree with @dweller25. I have an 8” Dob and it does give good views of the planets, better than the two telescopes mentioned. For planets you don’t really need GoTo as they are bright and easy to find. But you could argue that tracking is useful for planetary. GoTo does make finding DSO easy but then I enjoy finding them myself and also use a smartphone app to help.

We do take some skills (even small skills) for granted. Eg I’ve noticed how some children initially struggled to look through an eyepiece, especially something with a narrow FOV. I’ve had frustrated comments like “I can’t see anything? It’s just black”. But after a few goes, or change to a less “challenging” eyepiece, they usually get there. I’ve even had a few try and look down the far end of the Dob, trying to look through the primary mirror, thinking that with all telescopes you look through the far end. But it’s not surprising given that when a telescope is shown in the media it’s nearly always a reflector.

Sounds good… brave to give that a go at this time of year. But what’s not to like! The advantage with camping tent/no tent is that eyes are adapted to the dark from the word go. Well, as long as someone doesn’t switch a torch on! Another thing my daughter has done when it’s a bit cold to camp outside is to “camp” downstairs. Sometimes with a friend for a sleepover. I’ve set the telescope outside and come down at some point during the night so that we can look at the sky. Again, eyes are use to the dark without trying.

I agree with @Jules Tohpipi that it sounds like something in the Celestron StarSense range would be a safe bet.

Yes, indeed. I also go through a lengthy safety briefing which kids often seem to enjoy. Usually I’ll get loads of questions before even getting near an eyepiece which surprises me.

I started out when my then 8yr old daughter (she’s now 12) expressed an interested in astronomy and wanted to get a telescope. There’s quite a difference between 8 & 5 yrs old but some of what we went through might help. At the time I thought this would be a great thing to do together, and so it has been, but it’s been a lot of effort, work, fun, rewards and the occasional disappointments. You need to have patience in this hobby and kids (some adults too) aren’t skilled at this! I’m almost tempted to write up our experience as I find I’m often repeating myself but it’s finding the time. So a few things we’ve learnt… Try and find out what they are into. This can be surprisingly difficult as both being beginners you have little idea what to expect. Eg the ZWO Seestar smart telescope has been mentioned, but my daughter has virtually no interested in seeing stuff on a screen. She wants to see things herself through an eyepiece. So much so that she calls astrophotography “those fake pictures”. Others are obviously different. It’s not something that a young child can easily do themselves - sticking them out in the garden and leaving them is unlikely to work until they are older. It’s something that you do together. For us this is ideal, but maybe not for everyone. Kids have very short attention spans. Getting them to sit still in the garden, get their eyes use to the dark etc, when it’s freezing cold (best time of year for astronomy tends to be winter, spring & late autumn) isn’t going to work. We got around this by making “astronomy” an event. Eg my daughter loves camping. So on clear nights during the warmer months we’d camp in the garden (no tent), look for shooting stars, scan the sky with binoculars, learn the constellations, toast marshmallows, drink hot chocolate, listen out for foxes, hedgehogs, the dawn chorus... The telescope being the icing on the cake. I can remember one such camping night when we were both very much beginners and in the end just looking/finding one target (the Ring Nebula). We tried to find the likes of the Dumbbell and failed but it didn’t matter as we had so much else going on. Alice has also had friends who are interested over for “astronomy sleepovers” and these have always gone well. We also do solar and after a night camping/astronomy, breakfast on the outdoor stove, we’ve observed the sun too. These type of things have proved great fun. Of course you could do much of this without a telescope but it just would not be the same. Oh… with obvious precautions solar has been great. Obviously you can do this in the day when it can actually be warm, have a BBQ etc which makes things a lot easier. After gaining experience here we were even able to view a couple of the planets during daylight too - Venus and Jupiter. Hope that helps and good luck!