Orange Smartie

The little dobs like the heritage 130 or 150 only stand about 2 feet tall, so you do need to stand them on something. I have a little triangular table my son made, but a patio table would be fine I think. I would stress that buying a dobsonian requires you to learn the sky. As others have suggested, a goto mount may be preferred, but it does depend on individual preference I think. I've only ever used the dobsonian, so my opinion is based solely on that. Pete

Also one other thing to add (sorry, not wanting to monopolise the thread or state the obvious). If you go for binoculars, you'd want a tripod as well or it's very hard to show someone what you were just looking at.

And shown extended. You can see that the secondary mirror is exposed. It would also be possible to drop things into the tube, which would be a Bad Thing. Hence some supervision required. Most people make some kind of light shield to fit inside the open section, which would also help protect the optics. I haven't made mine yet. Pete

Hi. I'm chipping in here with what I hope is a helpful comment, so you can see one decent but fairly cheap option. Below is my 6 inch Dobsonian telescope - cost me 200 quid, although the prices have gone up. It collapses down to half its length (shown collapsed), weighs only about 7kg, and will give superb views of loads of stuff. Wine for scale. Some caveats - ideally would require adult supervision to avoid sticky finger prints on mirrors, and would occasionally require tweaking to align mirrors (not difficult). Ideally you'd give it time to cool before use - what I do is take mine out as it is shown above as night falls, just to give it 10-15 minutes to cool. When you're ready, you loosen two bolts and slide it out. Easy! Oh and you'd need to place it on a table or something to be at the right height. You'll probably be realising that there are several schools of thought regarding what constitutes a good telescope. This is merely one option, but I think a good one that will give you a fair start for not a huge investment. I should add that this is not automated or motorised in any way - you have to learn where stuff is and find it yourself. But that is half the fun. Pete Edited to say that this is a slightly larger version of what David suggested.

Great report, thanks for sharing it.

Not a stupid question - my fault for not saying. Thanks Pixies for the proper designation of this star.

Everyone on this forum is so helpful, so you shouldn't be afraid to ask if you don't get something.

Beta Mon i have seen, yes, but it's one i like to go back to. 32 Eridani I have yet to see, so I'll add it to my list for this weekend - thank you! When I started being interested in astronomy, I couldn't understand why multiple stars would be worth looking at, but they can be truly captivating can't they?

I made the most of the clear weather tonight to take a look at a few double and multiple stars. I started in Canes Venatici with a nice easy one, alpha CVn - Cor Caroli. This is a very easy split, appearing as a double at 30x magnification, but quite striking with the brighter blue-white primary and yellow secondary. Since I was in the area, I thought I'd also take a look at the famously red star, La Superba, Y CVn. Finding my way was complicated by the lack of guide stars, everything being washed out by the moon. But I knew more or less where it should be and, sure enough, at low power with a bit of waving around (technical term) it appeared, gloriously orangey. I took a quick detour by way of the Winter Albireo (love that double!) and then I thought I'd try to split some of the Cassiopeia multiples. Iota Cass is a triple, with the A/C component easily splitting at 94x. The A/B just about separated for me using the same eyepiece with a 2x Barlow. Struve 163 proved a nice easy split and was an interesting triple with orange/blue/blue components. On to Achird, an easyish yellow/red double. Burnham 1 proved a much more difficult challenge - even finding the star was tricky with the bright moon behind me. I stuck at it and eventually, I think, found it - a fainter system of some 4 or 5 stars. I'll revist when the moon is not so prominent to be sure I was in the right place. Struve 3053 I found in spite of the lack of visible guide stars, as described in Turn Left at Orion, sitting in a line with 2 other stars. The bluer secondary component was dimmer than I expected, almost overwhelmed by a brighter yellow primary. Finally in Cassiopeia, I just about split sigma Cass at around 180x magnification. Since I was pointing vaguely North, I tried Polaris - a new target for me - the secondary appearing very dim blue alongside a much brighter yellow/white primary. At least this one doesn't keep drifting out of the field of view..... Off to Orion and a quick look at sigma Ori, then three failures - 32 Ori, 52 Ori and eta Ori, all just out of my reach. I'm fairly sure I was looking at the right stars, but it wasn't going to work for me given the conditions and my available eyepieces. Never mind! Rigel B, on the other hand, was just visible within the diffraction spike of my telescope at a modest 125x magnification. Satisfied with what I'd seen, I had to finish on a really high note, so off to Leo and a quick look at the shining golden double that is Algieba (gamma Leonis). All in all not a bad session. Pete

According to Clear Outside, you should be ok later - at 8pm for 1 hour, then 10pm onwards. Good luck!

If you haven't already seen it, can I suggest "Winter albireo" h 3945 in Canis Major? Edited to say sigma orionis is pretty amazing too (if you like beta monocerotis).

That's one for the list. Thank you!

It's very hard water here, but I can honestly say I've never noticed distilled water in shops. Perhaps I haven't been looking hard enough.

Given the choice then, RO or distilled? I fancy RO might be cheaper to get hold of.

Ha ha, sure! It's a really old telescope, recently superseded by a 6" dob, so I wouldn't be too upset if I couldn't get it clean. It's filthy, after about 25 years of accumulated muck so it really does need a clean. And I'm not kidding, I really did have to ease it out by tapping on the mirror cell with a hammer and screwdriver...... Thanks for the tip re distilled vs deionised water. I'll make sure I get distilled.

Now I know little bit more about telescopes, I thought I'd take the mirror cell out of my old Konus 114mm reflector. The primary is filthy and could do with a proper clean when I can get hold of some deionized water. I was amazed just how much force was required to remove/replace it though - had to actually tap it with a hammer to force it off. The end of the steel tube is bent inwards to accommodate a mirror cell that is clearly slightly too small for the diameter of the tube. Surely this is not normal?!

I managed to find both M63 and M94 last night with difficulty. The moon was very bright and casting a clear shadow and I was having issues with stray light hitting the secondary of my flex-tube dob (must get round to making the light shield). With M63, I was definitely looking in the right area but could only actually see the galaxy after I orientated myself with respect to 19/20/23 CVn and HR4997, which confirmed to me the value of reference points. At what time were you observing? If I'd waited a bit longer to take a look at them I'm sure I'd have found it easier.

Thanks once again to all for the sugguestions. I had a night of mixed success, as it turned out. I saw mention of the Blue Snowball, NGC7662 elsewhere on the forum and this fascinated me, so I thought I would attempt to find it. It wasn't all that easy to locate, but I did manage to pin in down eventually. I'm very patient, unlike my wife, so I thought if I was going to look for it, I'd better have found it before I called her out. Amazing (I thought). Not amazing enough (she said). So off to find some "space bling" - we took a long look at the Owl Cluster, NGC 457 and of course had to go back to Perseus for another visit to the double cluster there. NGC 7789 and M52 I struggled with (moonlight was very intrusive and since I still haven't made a light shield for my Heritage dob, was streaming into the secondary mirror). Deciding I would come back to these later, we looked at M35 and M41, but couldn't find NGC 2129 in Gemini. Mrs S now retreated indoors claiming to be cold (ha!). Part 2 After a hot drink, I went back out to try to track down some of the other clusters you good folk had recommended, and maybe try a galaxy or two. M52 I did pin down, ultimately (very nice), but I really couldn't see anything resembling much of a cluster where I was looking for NGC 7789 (Caroline's Rose) - again maybe that's because of having the moon shining behind me, but I wasn't able to say with confidence I was looking at a cluster there. I did have a pop at the galaxies M63 and M94, the former I only saw after referencing its position near to a squat T-shape of stars - and suddenly there it was - very dim, but most definitely visible. I did manage to find NGC 1647 in Taurus, and again, struggled with NGC 2129 in Gemini. I must've looked for it for at least 20 minutes on and off, waving the scope around in the general vicinity. Every time I thought I had it, oh no, it's M35 again! At last, by starting at u Gemininorum, I hopped my way west along the "foot" of Castor, and there it was at the end, quite small and compact, but unmistakeable with a vague cross arrangement of stars within the centre. Fancying something a bit easier, I then dropped into Canis Major for a look at NGC 2362 and the lovely Winter Albireo, then did a few doubles (Meissa, in Orion, Almach and Algieba), before returning to the Winter Albireo to watch their courtly dance across the night sky. And then beer. Pete

This is brilliant, thank you.

Thanks - they're on the list now!

Brilliant, many thanks both. Yes I'd forgotten the Owl Cluster - saw that the other day but Mrs S hasn't seen it yet, so I'll revisit tonight. M3 might be tricky, as I have tall trees to the east, but I'll keep my eyes open. Cassiopeia should be nicely visible, M39 will be a bit low for my horizon. NGC 1647 also very possible. Great stuff, can't wait. Pete

Great, will take a look this evening. Forecast is promising reasonably clear skies.

Thanks Pixies. I managed to find M51 the other day (I think), but was a little underwhelmed. Is M94 brighter than M51?

Mrs Smartie loves a good open cluster and I was hoping to take a look at some with her this evening. We've looked at M35, M44, double cluster in Perseus, Pleiades, M36/7/8 (which I always struggle to find). She does have a fairly short attention span, so it helps if I can find them reasonably quickly. Can anyone recommend any other relatively easy to find clusters, either open or globular? Pete

These look like fun targets. Do you think they'll be visible to me tonight (Bortle 4), given the current moon phase? Edited to say that this would be in a 6 inch dob.