Orange Smartie

Re cleaning the mirror, does it definitely need it? I'm no expert, but I gather that it's something you shouldn't do unless really necessary and could cause more harm than good. Your telescope will tolerate a bit of dust or dirt on the mirror as discussed in many threads on this forum. Personally, I've learnt not to look too hard at mine! Collimation on the other hand, is something you should learn to do. Pete

How did you get on? I had a very nice clear evening, probably the last for a little while, so I had a go a revisiting Jupiter and Saturn. I've never made collimation adjustments on Polaris before, but tonight I thought I would give it a whirl and managed to centre the Airey rings a little better. Could be just that the seeing was better, but I definitely fancied I got more detail out of both planets, with the Cassini division appearing fleetingly on Saturn and more banding visible on Jupiter. Pete

There are a lot of choices! As you can see, Peter's experiences with an equatorial mount are very different to mine. Ultimately, what you use most is best and that can be very personal. I would recommend that before buying anything you check out neutral reviews. This site: https://telescopicwatch.com/ is quite informative.

One quick comment on Heritage dobsonians regarding the user mods - agree with happy-kat about not needing a light shroud in a dark location. The moon can be a distraction if it's shining on to the secondary, but if the moon is up, dark things are difficult to see anyway, so maybe more sensible to look at the moon itself. However, the optics are open to the elements in a reflector telescope and if you're observing with small children around, I WOULD shield the secondary to avoid them touching it/dribbling on it/dropping things in. For this reason a solid-tube dob might be a safer bet, although I think the Heritage 'scopes (I have a 150p) give an incredible view for a relatively modest outlay. I'd budget for at least one extra eyepiece (I have BST Starguiders and find the 8mm particularly useful). My own first purchase was a smaller reflector on a German equatorial mount. I found it heavy, bulky and difficult to use and the truth is that I didn't use it half as much as I thought I might. The dob is a delight to use - I had a friend round the other evening and against all expectations, the sky cleared. I nipped inside to get my dob, set it on a small table in the garden and in 5-10 minutes we were observing. I really like them and I would make the same choice again, but note that my view is based only on what I have actually used. Pete

Sounds like a great session. I was looking at Jupiter last night through my 10" dob and found the surface too bright to easily discern detail (the view through my Heritage 150p at the weekend was probably nicer). Do you use a filter? Or am I doing something wrong?

Thank you for sharing. Great idea! Pete

Agree with chiltonstar that you might want to check out the ridgeway. This spot just outside Woodstock is dark... The views NE, to South are good, some tall trees looking west. No guarantee about nocturnal comings and goings although I've walked around here at dusk with a bat detector and not had any hassle. Photo is southerly view. There is a small layby here where people park to walk dogs. Maybe worth a daytime reccy?

That looks really good. Wouldn't work for me though, as I have to negotiate 4 steps and two narrow passages to get to the part of my garden with the best view.

Quick update - following recommendations from @Louis D and @Spile, I got hold of a water butt stand from Wickes. This simple add-on has made a massive difference to viewing comfort, so thanks both for your advice. We had an unexpected break in the cloud last night, which I was able to exploit, seeing the dumbbell nebula and the veil nebula for the first time ever. Pete

My own experience was very positive with FLO. They have agreed to honour the prices for out of stock items, which must have knock-on implications for them. Ultimately, I chose to go with a different telescope and I'm glad I did - they were very helpful in allowing that. I did wonder about the delivery times advertised on their website, since these seemed a little optimistic; however I'm sure in retrospect they are reflective of the best estimates given the exceptional circumstances. Pete

Re the Rollrights, I believe this is the dark site used by the Chipping Norton society - I'm not a member but I've been thinking about it. You could contact them. How big is the kit you're going to be using? Can you walk any distance with it? Pete

Unless you already know what you're looking for, can I suggest that you purchase a copy of Turn Left at Orion? It will help you find your way around the night sky and show you what you're actually going to see (depending on light pollution) as opposed to Hubble-type photos. My copy, now very well-thumbed, has proven itself well worth the purchase price. Pete

Also if you have clear skies to the South, you should be able to make out Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter looks like a very bright "star", you'll also probably see 4 of its moons strung out in a line (unless any are currently in line with the planet, in which case you'll see fewer)....it should look like a disc, rather than a point of light. Saturn will be to the right of it as you look southish, and also will look like an elongated disc, rather than a point - I imagine you should be able to see rings.

Hi and welcome. The magnification you will get from any particular eyepiece is calculated by the focal length of the telescope divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. So your 10mm eyepiece will give you 650/10 = 65x (650mm is the focal length of this 'scope) and the 20mm will give you 650/20 = 32.5x. You can, in theory, use a very short focal length lens to increase the magnification, but there are some practical limitations on that (how stable the atmosphere is, how wobbly your tripod, etc etc) and I personally prefer to have a better image at lower magnification rather than zooming in on a ball of fuzz. One cheap-ish solution would be to buy a Barlow lens, which will shorten the focal length of whatever eyepiece you use it with, so a 10mm behaves like a 5mm, giving you 130x. First Light Optics sell Barlows from about £25. A couple of things to note: I have no experience of your telescope, but I would imagine that the supplied eyepieces are of fairly low standard. That seems to be fairly common marketing practice. If you look on here, you'll find loads of recommendations for upgrades. Secondly, before you'd buy anything, you need to know the diameter of the eyepiece at the point it slots in the telescope - it's probably 1.25" but you should check first. Pete

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/637655-turn-left-at-orion-5th-edition-oct-31st/ gives you a discussion of 5th vs 4th.

Hello and welcome. This is a very friendly and helpful forum, so if you have any questions, I'm sure there will be loads of help. If you haven't already got a copy, I'd recommend getting hold of Turn Left at Orion. Pete

A water butt stand sounds like a very good idea. As requested, here she is!

I am extremely grateful that my family wanted to chip in to buy me something "special" for my birthday this year. Although I've not been doing this astronomy thing for very long, the nights I have spent outside have been massively rewarding, yet I did feel somewhat limited by the Heritage 150p I bought at New Year. Although it is a cracking scope and will still be my go-to for short windows of opportunity, I really fancied a bigger dob for a) better resolution and b) better light-gathering. Everyone now knows the extended waits we've had to put up with for astro gear and the short version of this story is that @FLO very generously agreed for me to switch my order to one of the new Stella Lyra 10" dobs, paying the difference in price. Given the improved focuser, finder and base on the Stella Lyra, I think this is a no-brainer. Thank you FLO for helping me out with this - excellent customer service that is very much appreciated. My previous "normal" for telescopes is a Heritage 150p, as I said above - a scope I can lift with one hand, with an unusual helical focuser, a collapsible body and a small base that needs a table. The Stella Lyra ("Nelly") is a different beast altogether. The scope arrived in 2 boxes - the larger one containing the optical tube assembly and a smaller, but heavier box containing the base. The larger box is MASSIVE - it's on the landing at the moment, awaiting the grand-opening-of-the-loft, and nearly blocks the passageway. Packaging seemed pretty good, with the telescope well-supported by expanded polystyrene. A large-ish cut/ding to the side of the cardboard box made in transit seemed not to have caused any damage to the contents as far as I could see. I couldn't find any instructions on assembly in the box, so needed to download them from the FLO website. The dob base went together pretty easily in the style of flat-pack furniture and all fixings seem robust and up to the job. The lazy-Susan bearings for the base seem lovely and free-running and have a nice tension adjuster to set their friction level. One point to note is that the bearings run between two circular metal plates which are, I guess, stamped from a larger sheet and which have very sharp edges. I found this out the hard way! The optical tube assembly has two tension adjusters for Alt tension - these are mounted on an adjustable scale on either side of the OTA tube and allow compensation for different ocular weights. I can't imagine changing this during an observing session so not sure how well it would cope with your oculars if you had a miss-matched set. I did notice that the tube was a little front-heavy when set to the zero point of the scale, so may need to tweak mine a bit. As you will imagine, the complete set-up is large and heavy and I personally would not want to attempt to move it all as one (unless on a trolley etc). However, the OTA simply lifts out of the base, whereupon you can leave the OTA somewhere soft/safe and take the base outside. This telescope comes with a fan fitted as standard, with a battery pack to accept 8x AA batteries. I tested it to make sure it worked, but didn't use it properly as the telescope seemed to cool down enough being left outside for a short while. I'm glad to say that the weather was pretty clear here in Oxfordshire and I got to catch some photons in this light-bucket. Took a quick look at Polaris to make sure that the right-angled finder was pointed in the right direction, set my Rigel finder to the same target and away we went. First up was the Double Double, epsilon Lyrae. I've not been able to split these in my Heritage - not sure if that's because seeing has been against me, or due to any limitations of the scope, but I thought I'd risk "zenith neck" to have a go. Even with my 25mm BST Starguider (around 50x), I could tell there was a pair of doubles here - moving to the 8mm split them and 5mm, easy-peasy. I then had a pop at Saturn, just clearing some trees to the south of my garden. Looked fantastic, although I wasn't seeing the Cassini division. Jupiter was also quite impressive, the stronger bands really showing up nicely. I then took a look at some of the other double stars near the Summer Triangle (from Turn Left at Orion) - Gamma Delphini, Struve 2725, 61 Cygni and Albireo, this last looking simply gorgeous. I did chance a quick look at M13 in Hercules, although I really feel that would benefit from a darker night. I realise this doesn't constitute a proper test or review of the telescope's capabilities, but my initial impressions are very favourable. LIKES: Nicely made Looks beautiful (even Mrs Smartie thinks this, which I'm glad about because it's now living in the front room...) Crayford dual-speed focuser Decent finder Lovely smooth azimuth bearings Seems like a massive improvement in optical quality and light-gathering over my existing kit NOT SURE ABOUT YET: Will I slip a disc or bash it on the door-frame? Extreme height difference between looking high and looking low - probably need an adjustable chair Needs to be on the flat or doesn't hold azimuth very well Final word - I'm delighted I bought this telescope and grateful to FLO for allowing me to change my order. Pete

I may have caused some clouds to appear. Sorry. Pete

These look so good that I've ordered a 10 inch. Pete

Thank you!

How heavy is the OTA for the 10"? Pete

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing. The ring nebula is on my "to do list" and I haven't seen Jupiter or Saturn through a telescope for about 25 years, so I'm looking forward to having the opportunity soon.

I agree with this sentiment. I'm lucky to have a wife who is very supportive of my many hobbies and even encourages me to buy stuff for them. She does get fed up with me when I'm TOO focused on them or obsessive and I can understand why.

You haven't mentioned it yet, but the moon is a great target for your 130mm scope. It's not around tonight, but when it is, you will see the view change every night- and light pollution will not be a problem. Also try looking at some double or multiple stars. Edited: I realise you said you didn't want to look at stars, but not sure if you meant single stars or binaries.