SuburbanMak

One thing worth noting that i didn’t mention is that using the cunning hole-in-the-lenscap technology supplied, that cuts the aperture down to the central 50mm, CA disappeared entirely!

Great thread - & a good description from the OP, for me its not just that it hits the retina, but that it burns through into the brain and stays there, "unforgettable". Those views I can recall when I close my eyes and some will never fade. A tiny but perfect Saturn set me off again on this whole thing for the first time since being about 14, first view of the M42 trapezium in my new Mak & of course the moon. Then there's the Double Cluster, Alpha Perseii, Pleiades & Beehive - frequently in 'scope and binos. And new ones being added all the time - M31, M67, M35, M41, Castor, Algieba, and Beta Monoceros .... The good news is I suspect the sky is full of them.

Agreed - like you I can see myself tinkering and learning a lot based on the video @Tiny Clanger posted earlier, all good experience for later becoming self sufficient in maintaining more exotic future equipment , which will inevitably follow

I absolutely stand corrected. No intention of starting an international Moose vs. Elk incident!

I'll certainly dig that episode out - I love this podcast btw, two very knowledgable chilled out dudes nattering about astronomy and tangential topics with a uniquely Canadian vibe -30 degrees observing sessions disturbed by Elk etc, a great listen.

Another good tip here, too many handles and knobs to manage on my existing tripod, used to have an old Cullman ball-head so can imagine exactly how this would work.

Its certainly not a toy - once you take the dew shield off you realise just how short tube it really is & are struck immediately by just how wide the ratio of lens to focal length and how bomb-proof the whole thing seems, like something you would have seen bolted to the bridge of a WW2 destroyer

This is great thank you, I will be certainly doing the black marker trick as soon as I feel brave enough! Also good to see it taken to bits and put back together again, its a robust piece of kit & yes my understanding is that all the Synta ST80s are essentially the same just with different finishes.

Picked up a used ST80 on EBay as a wide-field companion to a SW Mak 127, and had only been able to point at terrestrial targets, align the RDF etc until last night presented an opportunity for a quick view of the moon, the only object visible through a blanket of high cloud. I was keen to do this as have read widely varying reports of ST80 performance on bright objects so the moon was a good "how bad can it be?" test. With a Baader Zoom and stock SW star diagonal (90 degree) quickly thrown on to a lightweight photo tripod I was really happy with the view - very crisp, bright, not difficult to achieve focus and a pleasingly wide field with no appreciable loss of quality from 17x - 50x. Terracing & hills in Copernicus small but really sharp for example. I can see I am going to use this low magnification combination a lot as you can be up and viewing in 2 minutes. The much complained about chromatic aberration was not to my eye too disturbing and limited to a very narrow green fringe on the brightest edge of the moon's disc & not in evidence along the terminator. Be interesting to see if this is more evident and the expected red/blue when the moon is at full brightness not partially filtered by cloud. Not that I plan to use it for the moon much given the Apollo 8 experience offered by the Mak, but it's good know the ST80 is perfectly fine for a quick peek I suspect its one of those things where if I had spent a long time looking down expensive refractors I might be disturbed more, but as I haven't it has just left me kicking myself I didn't pick one of these up years ago. Looking clear tonight so now I have the dilemma of which scope to sneak out to the park...

@HollyHound Oh wow, that's fantastic! I have to do that...there's SO much additional spending potential there I don't even know where to begin!

+ 1 on the Baader Zoom Mk IV 8-24 mm, worth every penny. I am using this on a 127 Mak along with the associated 2.25x Baader barlow. I am using one other EP which is the fixed Baader 24mm 68 degree to gain maxium AFOV in the Mak, which provides an interesting comparison. The fixed EP is a fraction crisper but its marginal & offset by the convenience of being able to zoom to the optimal magnification for seeing without changing EPs - found this to be particularly helpful for lunar & double star viewing. Haven't a huge amount of experience to draw from but the Zoom knocks spots off the 2 SW 25mm & 10mm (particularly poor) EPs that were supplied and means so much more time spent observing rather than fumbling with thumbscrews. Am sure other requirements will arise but for now I go out with one in each pocket and am sorted for the night!

@johninderby that is an impressive bit of engineering!

It’s weird, I mean it’s not like any other hobby involves this much gear...

Today the postman brought a little wide-field ST80 mate for the 127 Mak. That’s it I definitely don’t need any more gear now... unless I upgrade to an EQ mount that takes both scopes of course, then, I could buy a wedge to the AZ GTi for photography, & then... This is never going to end is it?

After enjoying fainter things over the new moon, I finally had a quick play with the Baader projection ring - these are taken with a 24mm 68degree fixed Baader Hyperion and a Nikon D90. I would say promising & worth a longer session.

I too am a beginner (making up for lost time after re-kindling in lockdown a childhood astronomy obsession that fizzled out after the purchase of a wobbly toy telescope) & would say don't be overwhelmed - there's a wealth of amazing knowledge and experience on here and I've noticed lots of patience too! To echo what others have said, while waiting for my "big" birthday & hence telescope to come I bought a pair of 10x50s and spent a few evenings out on a sun lounger in the garden with them, re-learning some main constellations and finding a few favourite things to look at in more detail later. Really helpful for getting my bearings and very enjoyable, in fact I have found myself finishing up most longer observing sessions with a relaxed quick tour of my favourite binocular objects. As above I am now using the binoculars to confirm what I am looking at in the finder - I have a Telrad sticky-padded to the telescope barrel to get me in the general area and a 9x50 finderscope to centre - the bins are great way of confirming what's in your finder scope and its relation to the rest of the sky.

This is great thank you - nice to have some realistic galaxy targets to start on.

Thank you - as a recent 5" Mak owner I'd be interested to hear of any of the other Messier galaxies you consider worth trying to track down under similar skies (I am in Winchester) with this 'scope. I've seen M31 & understand M81 is possible, but otherwise drawn a blank in this category of object & already had a number of fruitless earches for the Leo Trio etc...

@ScouseSpaceCadet I did go back the following evening and after using Regulus as second alignment star quickly found and easily split Algieba thank you for the encouragement! As you say beautiful golden colour, great to compare with Castor straight after, much brighter white. The realisation I'd clearly not been looking at the correct star the other night sent me to re-find a couple of the targets from toward the end of the previous session - M34 in particular captured the attention far more than first time around. Moral of the story I guess is not to try and pack in too much new stuff in one go, track down a few targets and have a good look while concentration is fresh (& feet warm) and maybe spend a bit longer looking at the highlights as I get tireder. I am ending up with a greatest-hits and target list of doubles which as the moon comes back will be handy!

Good choice! I am loving mine and am sure you'll get some great views. On Eyepieces I went for the Baader Hyperion Fixed 24mm which gives a 68 degree field of view which translates to the 1.04 degrees apparent - which I am reliably informed is the most you can get on this scope. In real terms that is just about the whole of the main body of The Pleiades or both sides of the Perseus Double Cluster. In the other pocket I went for the Baader Hyperion Mark IV Zoom, 24-8mm which covers magnification up to 187X and I've found brilliant for finding the optimum magnification for splitting doubles, filling the field with star clusters etc. Also with the matching 2.25 Barlow this can go up to really high power for the moon & hopefully in the summer, Jupiter & Saturn . The dew shield is an absolute must - on cool down time, I've got mine in a holdall and I just put it outside in that for a while, haven't noticed a huge problem with this . That finder is awesome - I got on much better once I swapped the Red Dot Finder supplied for the finder you have + a Telrad. Congratulations

This is a good call - was thinking of some kind of padded envelope solution for finders etc, like you get in some laptop bags. Coolbags much more cost effective!

Another Double Cluster fan here, it has become one of my “last look round” binocular targets after packing it in with the telescope (along with Pleiades, Beehive, Hyades & Alpha Persei). I think it’s the dark space separating the 2 clusters that makes them look spectacularly deep-spaceish. Great thread this thank you, I am really enjoying tracking down winter clusters - M67 in Cancer is a good one, lots of red stars and managed to locate M41 south of Sirius earlier in the week, well worth a look when it’s not too murky low down. M35 is at the “foot” of the Castor twin in Gemini & is quite bright + M34 East of Algol has a nice contrasting Orange star among the white-blues. +1 on the Auriga clusters too! Some new targets for me to aim for in this thread, just need clear skies...

Down up! As it were. Basically I’m dressed for a winter ascent of Ben Nevis to hang around by the bins at the bottom of the garden. I was out tonight & forecast said -3 feels like - 8 with windchill. With a down gilet under a North Face down Parker & insulated hood all was toasty, hood acts as a handy ambient light barrier too - think Kenny from South Park. Thick soles walking boots & bridgedale walking socks a must for me - it’s my feet that go first if I’m not moving about much. If it gets really cold I’d deploy Helly Hansen thermals under that lot. That and a whisky when I get in

Thank you it was an amazing night. This is really helpful advice I was wondering if picking stars further apart might make a difference. When I got back home I did also notice a little bit of play where mount meets tripod which I’ll make sure is tighter, hopefully tonight. On galaxies, LP isn’t disastrous here but may wait until lockdown eases and I can drive out of town to get serious about inter-galactic travel. Will have another shot at M81 though. Meantime there’s plenty of clusters and doubles to keep me busy - will definitely have another go at Algieba and I read someone recommending Almach as a good colour contrast - have been really surprised how satisfying I find doubles to be! Looks clear right now...

Thanks - it was a great night, thing about being a beginner is there are so many firsts! Yes that was frost