Moon-Monkey

Great thread sorry your struggling a bit with collimation I’ve had my SL 8” about 14 months now and the things I see seen with this little beauty is outstanding !!!!! The 2” 2x Barlow is also excellent as it’s convertible with a separate removeabke cell giving about 1.5x I think which is nice to be able to do too I’ve been recommending this scope to people now for over a year !!!! Quality product from FLO and GSO 🙂🙂🙂

🤣🤣 tell me that when you hear it first lol

Totally agree that’s how I do it too when I’m going for a particularly faint target otherwise star hop 🙂

The original 4000 series was a 5 element then a jap 4 element and then went to China so perhaps it was seen as that at the time but they were good plossls

Yes I posted a wanted add on here for exactly those I know a lot of people don’t particularly find them amazing but the 3000’s were particularly sharp so I’m told and I wnat them for double star and solar observing so field of view isn’t as important to me 🙂

Lol yes i am actually working on an observing podcast now that sadly Dons podcast has ended really miss Don both as a friend and podcaster 😞 but it has given me the bump to make it happen do not expect a podcast like Chris and Shane’s podcast though I will refer people to episodes of theirs for specifics I think they are great people and great friends

See what I mean I have a loooooong way to go in this medium of white on black 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It’s no work of art buddy and flawed in many ways but Thankyou my friend I’m leaning now towards black paper and conté white pastel pencils now and learning that medium in my sketching a long way to go again but it’s fun one thing that sketching has taught me over the years is to truely “observe “ the detail in the wondeful views that we get 🙂🙂🔭

I lost out on a 40mm 3000 series last night so today I’m sad 😞 lol oh well I’m sure I will pick some of these up soon currently I only have the 6.7mm 3000 and it’s absolutely on point !!!!!

As said above the one thing in Solar is you only get two chances one for each eye !!! Double check then check again always hold your hand over the eyepiece to check before you place your eye anywhere near it cover your finder up and remember that unlike nighttime astronomy you may wnat to throw a sheet over your head as the ambient light coming onto your face is distracting I will only use BAADER planetarium sheets and make sure it’s the ND5.0 as ther is also an astrophotography one that’s not safe to use visually other than that be cautious and have fun solar is a great subject after all it’s the reason we’re all alive today 🙂

Interesting to read mercury is on my list of things I haven’t observed and don’t get me wrong I know the lack of observable detail in less than perfect conditions is non existent however I will try my luck one morning 😉

It’s ok for planetary or Luna I guess but having said that if you can’t find the moon in the sky perhaps a new pair of glasses may be a better investment 🤣🤓 I don’t know bud I’m old school like that I prefer books and atlas to mobile phone apps having said that for indoor cloudy nights planning sessions etc it’s great !!

Hey Buddy having appeared on the podcast quite regularly with my observing reports and questions I can honesty say that’s my goto resource for info and a great Chat Chris and Shane not only are very knowledgeable but also great friends too Phill From the Uk 🇬🇧 😉

Yes that’s starlink whike on holiday last year we watched with my kids a massive train of this was quite mesmerising actually lol

Wish I had seen this back then have read about it but before my time unfortunately

Thankyou I have progressed a lot (I think ) 🤣 since then

That’s just lovely well done buddy

Nice sketch bud

Ok so after some trial and error I ended up using an artists “pack “perse which consisted of a zipped up case with pencils smudging stick etc on the left then on the right was the pad it’s nice and stable and I added a modded reading light (reddened of course) it works really well for me as it’s a solid place to work on while at the eyepiece 🙂

This sketch was done a few years ago with a little tabletop Dob and a 4mm TMB II it was also my first sketch before I got into some more pleasing techniques … yes this was just an HB lol clear skies

Now that’s something I’d like to try !!! Wowza bet it’s amazing for planetary

Ok so I found on flow’s site a little while ago the Ursa Major branded scopes a 6” with 2” Crayford some eyepieces and all for £250 seems a beginner bargain to me bud …

Ok so I won’t touch on bags and collimation as others already have above what I will say however is this .. if you live in a really light polluted area a 10/12” is going to make that light pollution far more obvious through the eyepiece I live in a Bortle 4 area and I’ve personally found the best fit for me is the Stella 8” and even that I can observe a visible difference between an 8&10” here I would advise to and try a impulse size instrument where you intend on observing from before you purchase

I know two people that have a celestron star sense setup and both of them do not enjoy the function of the system you may have better luck but do remember if your looking at DSO’s a mobile phone will destroy your night vision the second your look at it for planetary I guess it’s ok though 🙂🙂

Buy your scope from an experienced telescope shop like FLO yes it will sometimes be marginally more expensive but you know that any product they sell will be fit for purpose and the after care will be there 🙂