GrumpiusMaximus

That could be lens fungus? Could you get a picture of the outside of the lens?

Decided to use the moderate cloud layer as an impromptu Moon filter this evening. Not a bad view with my 70mm ED and a 20mm William Optics 'Swan' eypiece through a 2x Barlow. Until the sky Gods detected my presence and rolled in even more clouds out of spite.

My Mum and Dad (mid-60s) are going on a cruise with Havila from Bergen to Kirkenes in a couple of months time. Apparently if they don't see the Northern lights at any point on their cruise, they get another half voyage for nothing. I think that's hilarious.

I do occasionally think that the Oxford English Dictionary's definition of 'optimism' should simply read: "See also: 'Astronomy - United Kingdom'".

You've bought a telescope. You'll soon learn that this angers the sky Gods and guarantees at least a week of thick cloud.

You've got yourself a nice telescope there. Other than looking through it the right way, the best tip I can give you is to make sure that you get the red dot finder aligned properly. During the day, find a chimney or similar as far away as you can reasonably see and then get that chimney (or equivalent) in the middle of your centre of view in your telescope. Then, using the adjustment knobs on the red dot finder, get it so that the red dot is also pointing at the chimney. Obviously, do NOT point the telescope at the Sun. This means that when you're pointing the telescope around the sky at night, once you've put the red dot over the object you want to view then in theory looking through the eyepiece should show you that object. You use the finder as it has a much lower magnification and it's surprisingly hard to find objects directly with a telescope as you can see a lot more than you can with the naked eye, and what you can see loses context quickly because it's magnified. If you're using the Virtuoso system you'll probably need to point the telescope at a known object to start with to set the position of the scope in the software so that it can find things for you. Most importantly of all, have fun. Once you get the hang of it I'm sure you'll find it rewarding and fascinating!

Certainly looked like the one on Wikipedia, in fact this is pretty spot-on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolide

Thick clouds in my locale tonight but last night (23rd) I saw the biggest meteor I have ever seen and I very much doubt I'll see anything like it again. I was driving out of Aldi in Faversham and just ahead of the car as I was turning left was a light green fireball, with a reddish tail. Right to left at a shallow angle for about a second, around 50 degrees declination, just above the roofline of the houses on the other side of the road. I reported it with the open form on the UK Meteor Watch website and there were a couple of other similar reports from the South of England so I don't think I was the only one but it was awe-inspiring. EDIT: Looks like some viewers across the Channel saw the same thing: https://ukmon.imo.net/imo_view/event/2023/8195

An excellent first telescope choice and one that you can use for years and years without feeling any need to change it! In my (limited) experience you'll probably find yourself settling on a couple of the eyepieces as your go-to and then maybe using the Barlow occasionally. I regularly use a 20mm and a 9mm. Of the two, the 20mm gets a lot more use and often I'll use the Barlow with the 20mm in lieu of the 9mm and rarely use the 9mm with the Barlow as there are other limiting factors at play. Sounds like you've got yourself a nice, versatile spread there and a very decent telescope.

I bet you get some good views over there around Göteborg. I was there in August and we had three days of excellent weather followed by some of the heaviest, most persistent rain I've ever experienced - was like being in Orkney all over again! Will be back in April but staying near Haga renders a telescope almost useless... My partner has just applied for a job near Stockholm, so I rather hope (should we get lucky) that the rain is offset by the lack of light pollution compared to the South-East UK...

Finally got out tonight for the first time in a week. Clear skies, decent seeing but absolutely knackered so only managed about 15 minutes of Jupiter. Equitorial bands were very obvious, lots of contrast. Really enjoyed the view! Was out too early for the GRS and probably wasn't at a high enough magnification to see it without wishful thinking or a lot longer looking but even ten minutes scratches the itch and keeps me in the habit!

Profoundly clouded over here. I've just been down to Dover and there is thick fog over the channel. Boo.

Went out for about 45 minutes this evening. Air completely still, although clouds to the North - but South and West were fairly clear. Got a quick look at Jupiter but spent most of my time on the Pleiades. One of those short sessions where the longer you look, the better it gets and the more you see. Turned to M42 (as ever) and with averted vision had a wonderful view of the whole shape of the nebula, with the 'wings' covering most of the FOV at 42X and a good view of four trapezium stars. At 21X a great wide-field of the general area around M42 as well. I think I get refractors now...

The exact eyepiece will vary but generally speaking, the shorter the stated focal length of the eyepiece, the greater the magnification, e.g. a 10mm eyepiece will give you twice the magnification of a 20mm. They don't gather any more light though as that's purely a function of the aperture of the telescope - in effect, a shorter eyepiece just gives you a bigger picture - but the picture is fundamentally the same. The limiting factor on magnification is a combination of the aperture of the scope but (more likely) the stability of the mount. You might be best off getting a 2x Barlow lens as they can be had cheaply. The Celestron 'Omni' model is inexpensive and gives reasonable performance. Don't always assume that a higher magnification will give you more detail though, sometimes you can get a sharper view at a lower magnification, even if the object is smaller. What did the scope come with, eyepiece-wise? A reflector shouldn't be giving you much CA at all. Can you describe it? Usually, CA is a purplish fringing around a bright object.

Congratulations! I've heard of people using PTFE tape on the helical focuser to make it a little stiffer to turn but other than that, the 130P seems to get universal acclaim as a scope. Regarding any scope (and apologies if you've heard this one before!) make sure that you align the red dot finder on a distant object during the day (e.g. on a chimney or a tree) as re-aligning at night can be a real pain. All I can really say is go and enjoy yourself and enjoy the clear skies! I know the excitement you feel!

I personally would be looking for something like a Sky-Watcher Heritage 100P. I own one and it's a very decent little scope for the money, needs virtually no additional setup and the 25mm eyepiece it comes with will at least get you started. As with all things, it can be fragile if thrown about so supervise carefully! You'll probably need a circular table to rest it on as it's on a mini-Dobsonian mount but as a cheap scope that delivers decent, low-power views I'm quite impressed with mine. I got mine for less than 50 Pounds from eBay but was lucky with that price and it needed a good clean and a couple of minor issues addressing.

Seeing here is fairly decent despite terrible weather today. It cleared up around 4PM and I've had a half-hour or so in the garden. Jupiter was looking good. I did a quick comparison between my C5 and my 70ED. The 70ED won. The C5 with a 9mm Plossl and a 2x Barlow gave me around 280X apparently - which was a bit stupid and excessive given the mount (an AZ-GTI) and the wind (moderate). Backing off to the 9mm Plossl at 140X gave reasonable views but I couldn't get 'snap' focus and I wasn't overly happy with it. So I grabbed the 70ED and with a 20mm WO Swan and the 2X Barlow at 48X, got a better view. Going to the 9mm Plossl and the 2X Barlow to 106X got me (I think) my first ever view of the Great Red Spot but with some CA, which when I backed off back to 48X was visible but not obvious and without any CA. Stuck the scope on the Pleiades for 5 minutes or so at the end and have a really stunning view. Absolutely beautiful and in prime position. Definitely one to go for again, the 70ED is absolutely razor-sharp on it. 'Diamonds on velvet' or so the cliché goes.

Glad this got sorted out. That 200P was in a very sorry state and somebody with some experience could have brought it around but they were asking silly money for it in that condition. Good luck with the 130. What model did you get in the end?

As a relative beginner, I'd be interested in this too. My thoughts (such as they are) would suggest that you get the most benefit from an increase in aperture from a refractor due to the lack of obstruction and the percentage increase in light transmission inherent in a non-obstructed system. I have very limited experience with refractors in general but may get to play around with an 80ED next week and do a side-by-side with my smaller scope. For SCTs, a Celestron C5 has around a 38% obstruction and similarly the C6 has a similar 37% obstruction, so I'd expect the difference in observability to be a direct function of the increase in aperture. A C8 with 35% might get slightly better viewing than a 2-inch increase in aperture over a C6 would suggest. However, a number of years ago I did a Messier marathon and the two scopes that we were primarily using were a C5 and a C6. We had a very successful night (over 90 objects) and the C6 did have a significant advantage over the C5, even though there was only 1 inch in it. Perhaps at the smaller end of the aperture range you get a disproportionate benefit with an SCT and from 8 inches up, it's a matter of diminishing returns? That also doesn't necessarily take into account the quality of the view in terms of contrast. My experience is limited but I currently own a 5" SCT, a 4" (parabolic) reflector and a 70mm ED refractor. In terms of the quality of the view, the refractor is the winner, hands-down. To the point where I have been using it in lieu of the C5 on Jupiter, despite the native focal length being less than half that of the C5. I can make out the same if not superior levels of detail with the 70ED, even though the object is much smaller. A 20mm WO Swan eyepiece with a 2x barlow gives very nice views indeed. The C5 also delivers excellent views but with a slightly lower contrast, although I really do need to do a proper side-by-side with both mounted next to each other on the same night. That could just be my eyes and my limited abilities as a beginner though. Tl;dr, in my view refractors may theoretically offer the greatest benefit from an increase in aperture (although this isn't something I have empirically observed due to my lack of experience). SCTs do offer quite a difference by small increases in aperture but I suspect have diminishing returns and between a good small refractor and a good small SCT, the refractor gives a better 'quality' of view in terms of contrast, even if the aperture and focal length are much smaller to the point where it becomes a personal preference.

I'm in Devon seeing family at the weekend. I'm a member of an astro society down there (based at an observatory) so I think I'll pop along next Saturday and take my small setup with me as the skies are much, much better than I get here and the horizon is good. I'm actually quite excited about it.

For planetary and visual DSO, a C8 is a good choice. My Dad has a C8 and it's a nice, capable scope and a very good all-rounder. They do have a long focal length so definitely not a wide field and if you do get into imaging it would be going in on 'hard mode' (and expensive mode). You'd get more light from an 8" Dobsonian but you wouldn't get go-to (unless you spend a lot) and it would a lot less compact than a C8. A typical 8 inch Dobsonian would have a significantly shorter focal length - which is neither a good nor bad thing but if you're really set on planetary, you'll want the focal length. C8s are well-regarded scopes. I have a C5 and it's very easy to live with and my Dad likes his C8. The only thing I'd warn you on is learning to align it well when you first use it as at 2032mm, it's going to be hard to find things by scanning around.

My garden is quite well sheltered due to having 6-foot fencing and being quite small but we're on the top of a hill here. I found a slightly more sheltered spot, re-aligned and pointed the scope at Andromeda and had a good look for about 15 minutes, which was great. Clear but lots of atmosphere going on and the rate the stars were twinkling said it all. I'm making a point of going out every night there's even a vague chance of seeing anything to get myself into the habit. At least I wasn't being ambitious tonight. Still great to get a telescope out although I may have to invest in slightly warmer socks and not venture out in Amazon-bought knock-off pink Crocs...

I'm near Canterbury, so we're right on the verge of the yellow/orange. I've just been out for 20 minutes. It's supposed to be getting better at around 11PM so I'll go back out again but I've had a good look at M42 and a general look at a few other bits and pieces. A bit cloudy and it's clearing but the seeing is not great so my 70ED is struggling a bit. However, when there's a good patch, it's decent.

Had another go at Jupiter with the 9mm Omni and a 2x Barlow down my new 70ED. Reverted to my 20mm WO Swan instead because although the magnification is lower, it's a crisper view with better eye relief (and I appear to have issues with eye relief). Lovely view, really clear. All four moons, clear banding and a little bit of detail in the bands with some lovely contrast. For about 15 minutes. Then it got a bit dim. Went to look at M42 and couldn't see a thing. I'd only done a quick one-star alignment on Jupiter anyway so thought I'd re-align on Betelguese. Couldn't see that either. Thick cloud... Went outside again ten minutes later just to see Jupiter clear and bright again but thought better of playing that game. I'm just glad to have a setup I can have up and running in under 60 seconds.

I've just realised we're dealing with a Powerseeker 127EQ. I suspect we might also be dealing with the Bird-Jones curse here.