PeterStudz

What are the targets that you are trying to observe that aren’t clear? And when they aren’t clear what eyepiece(s) are you using? 

And watch out for spider poop! I had that on an old secondhand Dob. Surprisingly hard to remove from the primary too and obviously can’t do it any good. 

@JamesGlasgow, when I got my Skywatcher 200p it didn’t come with an extension for 1.25” eyepieces. But I found this (link below) worked perfectly and was ideal. It’ll fit into the short adapter you’ve bought already and give perfect focus using BST StarGuiders - which I have too.

https://www.meadeuk.com/Opticstar-1-25-inch-Extension-Tube.html

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

I’m out again tonight to capture Jupiter again hopefully with better seeing conditions. After which I will switch to visual on some of my favourite targets. I’ll try and squeeze in a bit of Lunar also if I can bear the cold that long.

 

Good luck and Gods Speed! Seeing not the best here in Southampton and I’ve come in for a break. Although I could easily make out the GRS.

8 hours ago, GasGiant said:

Tempting. Expensive, though that version looks well made.

Apart from being tarted-up the one at FLO looks like that in practice it’ll will work the same as the design on this site. The drive motor is identical, the pillow bearings look practically the same. The only real difference I can see is that the segments are made out of wood faced with metal. Where as the design on here has the segments all aluminium.

Although personally I wouldn’t have the drive motor hanging off the end (more of a chance of it getting accidentally knocked) and I’m not a fan of the cut-outs. Although they will obviously make the unit lighter it will flex more and possibly introduce unwanted vibrations. 

Far too cloudy here tonight. Mind, the forecast for tomorrow looks promising if rather chilly, but I can live with that!

19 hours ago, bosun21 said:

No derotation as I could tell looking at them that it would be a waste of time and effort. This is just a single 90 second SER through the usual steps of Autostakkert III and Registax. I didn't even open Astrosurface for final tweaks. Oh well, onward and upward as they say. I'll be back at it the next clear night.

I think it’s still worth a go. Not that I have much imaging experience. Eg at about this time last year I got some really good visual views of Jupiter. And of course at that time it was much lower in the sky than it is now. In fact the only reason I gave it a go was because my daughter had some friends over and they wanted to see a planet. Jupiter was really the only option. It was probably one of the best views I had of Jupiter that apparition and better than a lot of this apparition. I nice surprise.

I’m also thinking of investing in a planetary camera. My daughter now has a laptop so I might be able to pinch that. I appreciate there’s a lot to learn, so giving it a go and practicing whenever possible sounds like a good idea. It’s what I’d do too. And even though it might not turn out quite as expected it’s a learning process so the time isn’t wasted. 

On 15/01/2024 at 13:55, Kon said:

I wanted to finish my planetary season with Mercury. As it is low on the horizon, I thought I will try during daylight. Unfortunately, at mag -0.5 it was not possible to locate it manually despite finding the much brighter Venus at -4.4. I captured Venus in IR as I was already setup. A tiny disc to end this planetary season or until Venus is much larger later in the spring. My usual 8" Dob setup.

 

Hi Kostas, 

Yesterday I had an attempt to find Mercury during daylight with my 200p. I have never actually seen it as my views low to the horizon are obscured. I didn’t want to image it, just see it! To try and locate Mercury I did my usual way of finding Venus during daylight, by syncing on the Sun (white light filter) as I’ve described before. In fact I went to Venus after the sun as the more points I can sync to with the app the better. I located Venus straight away in the middle of my finder which showed I was accurate. Synced on Venus then pushed to Mercury. From experience I know it would be close to the middle of the finder and within the FOV of a low power eyepiece. But as hard as I tried I just could not make out Mercury and after about half an hour I gave up.

Ahhh, well, there’s always another time.

Well, it depends on what you want and I can see that it could be fun on holiday.

But I’m more of a visual observer and I’ve taken a small telescope on holiday on carry-on to a bottle 2 location. The views through it were stunning! 🤩 

I’m not knocking the Seestar, it’s a wonderful bit of kit and as you say it’s not for planetary but then I can get something like this by just sticking my phone on a good old Skywatcher 200p Dob.  Editing in the stock iPhone camera app (it’s basically a live view) and converted to gif.

Personally I wouldn’t rush into anything “astronomy is a hobby that rewards patience”.

@Kon does some amazing planetary imagining with just a manual 8” Dob. I can’t see any difference between his results and others that have tracking. And, if I did imaging beyond using my smartphone I’d be more than happy with these results. You could try similar and decide at a later date if you really want to splash the cash on a more expensive setup. 

I  made an EQ platform for my Dob using the details below. I had some of the bits already and it cost me about £85. If you are OK with a bit of DIY something like this is so easy to make and tracks visually and for short exposures really well. Plus you can still push the Dob around, to new targets etc in the usual manner, with it still running. 

Don’t worry. According to the forecast it’s the return of wet, windy & mild weather for the UK by next week 😀

I finished by about 5:15pm after taking the Dob to my daughter’s school Space Club. Between 4 & 5pm, despite the streams of thin high cloud I managed to give a explanation plus beginners lesson on how to use and work a Dob, EQ platform, show them the moon, Saturn (a bit fuzzy & low but clear view of the rings) plus Jupiter, it’s banding and moons. As always Saturn caused much interest. 

Considering this date was organised some time before  and it was so early I  don’t think that’s bad. I had planned for a cloudy sky and just showing the telescope. Happy kids and teacher too. Interesting how much interest there was in just turning the EQ platform on/off too and looking at the planet drift, or not, through the FOV.

It’s clear back at home but I’m exhausted. 
 

Fantastic and looks superb. As far as I’m concerned there should be more of this kind of thing. Maybe even a model telescope challenge on this site 🤔 

Hmmm… I can suffer from this issue which is, when it happens, very annoying. So next time I’ll definitely give it a go. If it works then surely this must go down as a “top tip”. In fact, maybe there should be a list of these. 

PS - to me it looks like the secondary adjustment bolts are there. Just recessed (as they should be) and difficult to see. 

As mentioned above - on these SkyWatcher telescopes the outer secondary adjustment bolts are usually recessed bolts that require a hex/allen key for adjustment. Unless someone has removed/replaced them. 

However, unless you are 100% certain that the secondary requires adjustment do NOT attempt to touch it. I have a small SkyWatcher 1145p reflector and I’ve never had to adjust the secondary. Even after a journey that involved taking a four hour flight on an aircraft, 2 hours in a car, another 2 hours in a taxi on mountains roads. Wheeling the case over cobbled streets, finally a short journey on the sea via ferry. Oh… and back again. In fact I was surprised to still find the primary spot on too. Phew… I’m exhausted just from typing that! 

Hi, @geoflewis. Thanks for that.

I think I paid a small fee, something like £2.99 for VideoStack and WaveLetCam. And I think that they are iPhone only. The original version of VideoStack crashed far too often. But the latest one is much better. Mind, there’s still a bit of learning (at least for me) but easier now that I have a workflow that I know. 

I do enjoy just doing this just on the phone. Maybe if/when I get a laptop I’ll give it a go on there via the more “traditional” route. Oh… and get a camera!

Mostly cloudy here in Southampton with a few breaks starting to appear. But the forecast doesn’t look promising.

I posted the video/GIF in another thread, but thought it might be worth mentioning here in a bit more detail.

I’ve been playing around with smartphone video (especially planetary & lunar). Eg I find that video can be useful when observing with my daughter. For Jupiter I can stick the camera to the eyepiece, run a live video, and use it to point out various features without going back and forth. Then back to viewing with eyes at the eyepiece. 

Also with animated GIF. For converting video to GIF I’ve tried various apps on my phone/iPad (I don’t have a laptop/computer), but this website is better and the best I’ve found…

https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif

Does anyone know of a decent GIF maker app? I’ve tried a few but they’ve been disappointing.

As a simple example I converted a short sequence of one of my recent & decent-night video captures of Jupiter. It’s been taken using the stock iPhone camera app, adjustments made using exposure/brightness etc within the app. Obviously cropped too. But no third party camera apps. Seeing was good relative to what I’ve had in the last few months. But it gives a good example of what the view was like through the eyepiece and is very close to the live on-screen view.

In fact for recording observations at the eyepiece the animation alone is just as good, probably better, for being used as a record when compared to a static image. And this is really what I’m trying to use the phone camera for. Moreover, under the image/animation Caption I can add a full observation report (there doesn’t seem to be a text limit) which is searchable too. 

However, I’ve also tried to stack, edit and process the same video all on the phone using just phone apps. One thing I have noticed is that using a BST StarGuider 3.2mm, which gives me a power of x375, almost always gives better video results. Not sure why as visually it’s far too much for a sharp image. Because of that I can set it up, with the adapter & phone attached to the eyepiece at the start of the session, all ready to just pop into the focuser. 

Taken from Southampton from urban back-garden - 12th December 2023 at 21:30pm. SkyWatcher 200p Dob on DIY EQ platform. BST StarGuider 3.2mm, no-brand smartphone adapter holding an iPhone 14 Pro. 50 second video captured with stock camera app, 4K at 60fps. Sacked edited and processed using the iPhone apps, VideoStack, WaveletCam, SnapSeed and Lightroom.

I’m sure a dark site would make all the difference. My 12 yr old daughter took this at a Bortle 2 location using an iPhone (no astromode stuff). There is a lot in there too! A bit more effort plus a filter would be interesting. But one of the nice things with modern mobile phones is that you don’t, or shouldn’t, require a lot of knowledge or faffing about with “stuff” and it’s literally child’s play. 

PS - I should do a little write up on this picture. 

Unfortunately I’ve been given a “job” to do and must go out 😞. However, I’ve quickly set my gear outside to cool in the hope that I can get back before the fun is over. Still, I have a totally clear sky at the moment so I’m sure it’ll be great!

It is impressive. And if you’ve already got a UHC filter etc worth experimenting with. Although I might struggle from my Bortle 7 garden.

The adapter I’ve got is very similar to this. Although there are so many copies about it probably isn’t the exact same one. I bought it a few years ago now and I can’t remember exactly where.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145307233381?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xwdw2abprfk&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=I8jCpZsmREe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Nice idea! Im going to give this a go with my iPhone. I can use my trusty smartphone adapter for eyepieces to hold the filter. Holds it well and dead centre without fiddling. And of course there’s a thread to attach it to tripods. You can get these off the likes of EBay for less than £10.