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tea_subtle

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Everything posted by tea_subtle

  1. Hi and welcome. Lovely scope to get you going. New interest for me too but plenty of help and advice to be had here.
  2. tea_subtle

    Hello!

    Hi and welcome.
  3. I was doing some house keeping on the recently acquired skywatcher 200p and noticed that the focuser is very slightly out of square with the tube. The top two adjustment screws on the focuser body are at different depths. And looking at the body of the focuser with the barrel turned all the way out you can see that the focuser angles in very slightly towards the primary mirror. is this normal? I assumed it should be at a perfect 90 degrees to the secondary mirror. would it be beneficial to get the focuser square to the tube and then pull the secondary back to centralise it in the focuser or is the extra work not worth the results. when collimating I can get the mirrors lined up but there is a slight tilt on the secondary as the reflected circle is not totally central to the surrounding black area you see with the collimation cap on. apologies for being a bit vague on the last bit. I’m not sure of the full technical term. I have read though some scopes won’t have a perfect ring around the reflection and some do. thanks.
  4. I use the sky portal by Celestron app which is powered by sky safari but free. does anyone know the differences between the two apps and is it worth paying and changing to sky safari. thanks.
  5. Went up to Sutton Bank tonight. Aside from the kids in cars popping in and out it was amazing viewing. So much more to see. Better views of Orion Nebula. Managed to see the whirlpool galaxy, Andromeda, Pleiades and many other objects with so much more detail. only downside was that I was starting to do a little star hopping to find our way around but there with so much more visible, I got lost. Plus side was it was another wow night. The best so far.
  6. The Beehive cluster definitely needs to be appreciated from pulling back on magnification. you have more light pulling power than our 8 inch dob so it will look even more amazing.
  7. Hi. I’m new to the hobby so no expert but as stated above it sounds like you have found the trapezium in the centre. if it helps at all when I started this voyage with my grandson I thought getting up close was the secret. For us it certainly isn’t now. Much better views and perspective are to be found using lower strength eyepieces. last night was clear here and spent the evening looking at Orion, the beehive cluster to name a couple on a 20 and 26mm lens. maybe as time moves on we will get more orientated and observe things in more detail but at the moment it’s really interesting just seeing a bigger picture of the clusters etc.
  8. Thank you all for input on this. Plenty of food for thought.
  9. Steel tube on the dob. not sure what system apple use for the compass. They do use the inbuilt inclinometer and I believe Gps but anything else I’m not sure. I’m new to the hobby and just wondered if it was to feasible to use this method to find objects.
  10. I was going to print off a setting circle to put on the base of 200p dob. mainly so the grandson can understand more about findings things in the night sky. ive use a digital inclinometer with magnetic base on the tube to get the angles what I was pondering on is, is it possible to just use the iPhone compass set to true north and lay that flat on the base of the dob pointing forward or is there something I’m missing.
  11. Thanks for the link. This will handy. 👍
  12. Yes that was it. Thank you for finding that. I googled m34 after reading your post and recognised the stars immediately. I took a mental note of the three arcing round at the top. im not sure how much is normally visible with an 8 inch dob on a clear night. We are Bortle 5 here. I could just see faint wispy cloud like in the very centre. Thank you for the effort. I’ve just text the grandson to let him know what it was.
  13. It is mainly for the grandson who’s interest I’m encouraging. It’s a learning curve for us both. I’m getting on and my eyesight is not the best. I think it is the fact I can focus and see. It reminds me of my childhood. I still have memories of looking up at skies full of stars. I have Stellarium installed. Though I’m struggling a little with it. I set the software up with my dob as default and inputted the specs for the eyepieces but Stellarium shows an awful lot more in ocular view than I see on the scope. Not sure where I’m going wrong on that score.
  14. Well it was clear from midnight above us in York last night and it was the first chance to have a proper look around with the 8inch dob. Went outside, copy of turn left in hand with all intent and purpose to find somethings for us as beginners to view. I never picked the book up again last night. Started at Orion Nebula and after viewing that just spent the next two hours just looking around in amazement at the night sky through the scope. with 26mm eyepiece in all night I just kept staring at the night sky. I know and slightly regret I didn’t focus my energy in finding objects to view but I was just blown away by the amount of stars. I found a cluster very near the horizon in a NNW direction havent a clue what it was but I was just mesmerised by it all. some would say wasted opportunity maybe but to be honest we loved every minute. Next time will follow the book more and be even more amazed
  15. tea_subtle

    Hello

    Been browsing the site for a few months to get a bit more up to speed with astronomy. my teenage Grandson has an interest and we’ve got him a skywatcher 200p dobsonian. together we are learning the ropes, which has been easier thanks to YouTube and this site. so it’s a hello from me and and a thanks to all who post and have helped us to date.
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