Orange Smartie

Thanks Mike and Cajen,

I'm going to go with a Geoptik one from Rother Valley...they think it will fit (will probably need to remove the alt bearings). I'll report back when it comes.

For the record, FLO got back to me quickly and said they didn't think their bag would fit. The Orion bag obviously would, if it fits Mike's telescope, but I can't find a supplier in the UK.

Pete

I don't think it will fit. The bag is described as being 116cm long, but my OTA is around 121cm....longer than a typical 10" dob, apparently. 

Not exactly the solution I was looking for Dave.

Morning everyone.

I'm hoping to do some observing at a club site in the near future and I'd like to protect my 10" StellaLyra in transit. FLO sell a carry case from Oklop, but it seems that it probably won't fit my SL as it's a bit bigger and fatter than your standard dob OTA. Any ideas for a big case (or a DIY solution to protect it in transit)?

Cheers,

Pete

Hi J123,

It will be easier to see detail on the moon when it isn't actually full - the bit that show the most detail is the bit nearest the terminator (where the shadow starts). The moon won't be great at the mo'.

Pete

I use the Cambridge star atlas for a general overview of a wide area and the Interstellarium Deep Sky Atlas where I'm having trouble finding my way exactly (good for planetary nebulae). The latter is a fantastic resource, but I don't use it outside as it's big, expensive and each page only covers a very small area.

+1 for a Heritage 150p. I have 10" Stella Lyra dob, plus the 150p. The Stella Lyra is, of course, a much more refined instrument, but there's virtually nothing I've seen with it that I haven't seen with the 150p.

My first opportunity since early April, spent mostly looking for galaxies; the Leo triplet was very distinct. I bagged 26 in total, including Markarian's Chain, which I haven't looked at before.

Highlights: M3 globular cluster in my 8mm eyepiece (just mind-blowing), and M51.

I bring my dob in in two bits, capped to prevent damage. Once inside, I remove all caps and leave it pointing down on the base. I usually stick the fan on to get a good airflow.....whether this is a good or bad idea, I'm not sure, but it seems to work OK.

I think "shopping" normally refers to shopping for clothes and I personally never understood the appeal of that. Perhaps that's why I have a hobby that involves standing alone in the dark where noone can see me!

This is an interesting thread. I've got back into astronomy over the last 15 months or so, and I would argue that the hobby has a fairly universal appeal amongst inquisitive types, but there are many obstacles to getting started. For example, most people I've spoken to are completely unaware of what's up there in the night sky. Everyone knows about the planets, but they typically know nothing of the other things you could be looking at; clusters, nebulae and double stars, for example. I showed the Cambridge Star Atlas to a friend on Sunday and he was completely unware that such things even existed! Equipment choice is another barrier - most I've spoke to wouldn't know what constitutes a good beginner telescope, or appreciate that binoculars are a good way into the hobby.

All this said, nearly everyone I've spoken to about astronomy has expressed some level of interest in looking through the telescope. One of my wife's friends spent about an hour last summer, just looking at the moon. My sister and my boss (plus his son) have both enjoyed observing sessions and I have a small list of others who are planning to have a go when the weather is suitable.

So that's my experience - I think astronomy would be more popular if more people were given a gateway in. Perhaps as a hobby it attracts people who aren't particularly outgoing and aren't that bothered to recruit others to join in - I think that's also a factor.

Pete

Two good nights in three days - what's going on?

I thought I'd make the most of the absence of moon to try for some new nebulae, as well as visiting some I've already seen.

NGC 1514 (Crystal Ball) in Taurus - found by going East from Zeta Persei and looking between a couple  of field stars. With my OIII filter, could easily spot a faint shell surrounding a brighter core.

NGC 1499 (California) - didn't expect to be able to see this, having read about the need for a dark site. As expected, nothing doing.

NGC2174 (Monkey Head) - at best I would say I could pick up hints of nebulosity (using OIII again) in a region with an open cluster (NGC 2175?).

Rosette Nebula - it's a biggie, so not easy to see the wood for the trees, but I fancied I could see some nebulosity around NGC 2244, with the appearance of darker patches or lanes just about there. 

M42 - using the OIII there was splendid contrast, especially near the centre and the extent of the nebula was really obvious using my filter.

NGC 2438 (planetary in Puppis) - with OIII again, a clear (but dim) disk within M46.

NGC 2359 (Thor's helmet) - a tricky find, eventually got to it by navigating from Sirius, East to Gamma CMa, to NGC 2360 (an open cluster), then moving North just past a loose group of stars. Nebulosity was visible but with very little detail (even with OIII).

NGC 2440 (Bat nebula) - a tricky find again - I went from M47, via 6 Puppis and triangulated with the brightest field stars west of 6 Puppis. A disk was clearly visible with OIII, but I didn't see anything else.

Also took a quick look at:

Clusters M41, M46, M47.

Galaxies M81/82, M51, M65/66.

Lastly, that beautiful thing, my fave double, h3945. And that concluded my session. Shame about the breeze and that the sky was really not as dark as I had hoped, but I'm grateful for the opportunity to get the scope out again.

Pete

Tuesday Night

I had my sister staying for a couple of days and, since she was a very kind contributor towards the purchase of my Stella Lyra 10" dob, we'd been keen to get a viewing session in for some time.

Conditions were quite good in Oxfordshire, with 0% cloud over us and the storms had abated, so we weren't fighting a shaking telescope. The sis is very susceptible to the cold, so we started quite early and finished early, but this is what we looked at:

We started with M42 in Orion, first with a 25mm eyepiece (50x), moving up to the 12mm (104x) with an OIII filter. We tried the Crab Nebula M1 with the same filter - visible, but not that distinct - I need to check the suitability of the OIII for this DSO. Without a filter at all, we could make out the nebulosity, but it was early in the evening and the sky wasn't really dark enough for it to pop out. The Crab isn't the most beautiful object in the night sky, but its backstory is fascinating, so we enjoyed thinking about the history of it as a "guest star" appearing in 1054.

I took the sis on a tour of some of my favourite doubles, staring with Polaris, then moving to Castor, Mintaka, Meissa and Rigel; a bit of a "wow" moment with Sigma Orionis and finishing on one of my very favourites, the "Winter Albireo" of h3945 in Canis Major. This last pair was showing some beautiful colour with a very distinct orangey-yellow offset against a striking blue.

We then took a whistle-stop tour through some of the easiest and most obvious open clusers - Pleiades, Double Cluster in Perseus, M35 in Gemini, the Auriga clusters of M37, M36, M38 (noting the small cluster NGC 1907 at the edge of the FOV) and M44 in Cancer.

I tried and failed to locate the M81/M82 pairing of galaxies and didn't want to keep my sister out in the cold for too long, so we swung over to Andromeda, noting also the smaller fuzzies of M32 and M110.

A final view of the h3945 pairing, only just visible above trees capped a brief but enjoyable session.

Pete

Like this. With hindsight, I would probably put it level with the RACI base, bit it's OK......I only occasionally hit myself in the eye with the finder. 

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

@Orange Smartie or @Astro_Dad

I assume you've put your Rigels to the right of the finder scope? With sticky pads, I want to get the location right first time.

Mine's in a similar position to John's, although a bit further forward. 

I have the SL 10 inch, as I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum and originally I was worried that I'd use my Heritage 150p much more because of the hassle of moving the big dob.

In practice, the opposite has happened - the whole experience of observing is so much better with the SL (proper focuser, RACI finder plus add-on Rigel, smoother base etc, not to mention better resolution and light grasp) that I hardly use the 150p now. The SL is a big thing, however and I'm lucky that my super-tolerant wife is ok with it sitting in the lounge.

Other, more qualified people will be along shortly. However, quick answers:

Your mirror will take a lot of dirt before it needs to be cleaned, so unless it's really filthy, I wouldn't worry. It is something you can do, but needs to be done with care, so I personally wouldn't be in a rush to do it.

There are normally 6 screws on the base of the tube - as you note, 3 are to adjust collimation, the other 3 are to lock everything in in place. You can get replacements if you feel you need them, but they aren't strictly necessary for the normal function of the telescope. As it happens, I noticed this week that mine were all loose as I'd forgotten to retighten them after adjusting the primary mirror.

Pete

Edited to say that I wasn't implying that the above 2 posts weren't from qualified people - they must've posted while I was typing - merely that I myself am a relative newbie.

Looking good! If someone could also get round to inventing a right-angled Rigel or Telrad as well, I'd be happy.

Just for your peace of mind, here's my Heritage 150p secondary - looks just the same as yours. 

.....or this:

https://popastro.com/documents/PA_jan-mar2009_p12-13_telescopetopics_startesting.pdf

Which mentions the "bleeding effect", which I hadn't realised was attributable to inadequate cooling. You learn something new every day....

Hi. Do you mean the sides of the secondary (appear frosty in your picture)? These aren't going to be in the optical path so shouldn't make any difference. You may be experiencing coma, especially at the edges of the field of view (especially with lower-power eyepieces) - in my 10" dob, the coma can be quite bad (the dreaded "seagulls"!), but as I'm normally concentrating on the centre of the field of view, I tend to ignore it. Obviously that doesn't happen when you look at a photo.

Have you tried a star test to make sure your collimation is ok? Find Polaris and switch to a high power eyepiece. When the star is slightly de-focussed, you should see the rings all nicely concentric - if they're off-kilter, you may need to tweak the collimation. Search this forum for "star test" or see this:

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/how-to-star-test-a-telescope/

Pete

My "go to" is the Cambridge Star Atlas, which although not really that small, at about 24cm x 30cm, is spiral bound and gives a good overview of the constellation you're looking at. Stars down to mag 6 are included - sometimes I need a bit more detail than is available and defer to the Interstellarium Deep Sky Atlas, which is definitely NOT small (or cheap).

The Cambridge atlas lists the major astronomical features on the page with the RA and Dec, so if you're trying to find an interesting target within a constellation, it gives you the best (or easiest) things you might want to look at. I've used it loads now.

Pete

1 hour ago, UniDonk said:

 Some practical suggestions for how to introduce my daughter to astronomy while giving me some practical tips on how to improve my own skills in a stepwise manner would be much appreciated!

I've used a 6" Dobsonian, which is only a little bit bigger in size to your daughter's and have managed to see a lot of stuff in a relatively short space of time, so you've made a good choice with what you bought. A lot depends on the conditions you're going to observe under so it's difficult to make specific recommendations for targets. However, I would recommend a couple of things: 1) a copy of Turn Left at Orion and 2) a good free astronomy app such as Stellarium or SkySafari for your phone. That's going to help you see what part of the sky is in the right place at the right time to match your viewing schedule.

Don't forget the moon as a target - it's a fabulous sight in my small binoculars and will blow you away through your telescope. The Turn Left at Orion has sections outlining what features you'll see based on the current moon phase.

4 minutes ago, JDF said:

No never tried splitting any doubles before, reading a few of the other posts from tonight Rigel seems to split at lower mags, did I possibly jump in to high starting with the 10mm ortho at 150x

Just from memory I think it was easy to split, but more a case of being able to see the B star with all the glare around it. If you know the angle it should be at, I bet you'll see it no problem. 

Have a look at Almaak (gamma Andromedae) if you get the chance - not hard to split and a lovely colour contrast. Also tonight I saw eta Perseii for the first time, which appeared as a lovely golden yellow primary with a dimmer blue secondary - gorgeous!

4 minutes ago, JDF said:

Had a tour of the sky earlier with the 10x50's , got M31 ,mesmerized again by M45, I also find Hyades to be beautiful to look at. Popped over to M42  and then had a look for some others, think I had a faint glimpse of M35.

Moved over to the mak127 for a look at M42 with the UHC in, best i've seen it tonight 🙂. Thought I would have a go at splitting some doubles for the first time but failed miserably, tried both Rigel and Mintaka up to 214x with no joy, anyone any thoughts on why this would be?

Have you split Rigel before? It's a while since I've looked at it, but if my memory serves me right, the B component is very dim and easily overwhelmed by the primary star. You almost need to know you're looking at it to see it.

I've been cluster-hunting with Mrs Smartie, who loves her OCs.

M37/38/36/NGC 1907 in Auriga. Double cluster, M34, NGC 1342 in Perseus.

Chucked in a quick look at M33 in Triangulum and a definite but unimpressive positive ID of NGC 1023 Perseus, now after a hot drink I'm off to see if I can find the emission nebula NGC 1491 and the OCs NGC 1528/1582. 

It's great just to be able to see something again!