Gonariu

I too am having the same problems. Here in Sardinia we have the advantage of being few inhabitants, so leaving my village in central Sardinia (Orotelli), I would find quite dark skies but I too have problems making bad encounters; the ideal thing would be to go out in a group, at least to be more emotionally safe. In the end I ended up settling for my terrace, at night you can see the Milky Way, even if less well than 30 – 40 years ago, once using an achromatic 70/400 (the Celestron Travelscope) I arrived at magnitude + 10 observing the Pleiades. Of course if I remember the sky I saw a few years ago in the countryside of Dorgali (village about 40 km from mine) ........, there were so many stars that I could not recognize the constellations, absolutely fantastic!

Wow, very beautiful!!!

I have one degree of astigmatism, when  I observe with the telescope or with the binoculars I forever take my glasses off and I haven't problems.

Beautiful photo! You see well the sun spots, my students  would be interested by it.

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Cider, I've always heard of it but never had the chance to drink it.

If you are thinking to the DSO imaging you will can buy a little ED apocromatic as 70/420 or 80/500, I think that your EQ2 can be enough. I put a Vixen acromatic 102/1000 on a EQ3.2 wich vibrate very much when I focused it  owing to lever effect wich there will be certainly with your Dobson 150/1200 too.

I put a photografy  of the Calone nuraghe I made two years  ago with the Travelscope 70 and my smartphone, a Galaxy J7. This nuraghe is on the hill near to Orotelli. Theare is a few AC but I think that it's acceptable.

9 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

but you need to upgrade the diagonal .........

The tripod it comes with is wobbly rubbish

For the tripod it's very true, I don't understand as the Celestron can make a thing so poor! I repurchased it for staying into his little rucksac but the now is poor too.

For the diagonal I would tell that it's usable although mediocre, I am using this winter when I see the sun in the afternoon why it's low (the morning I am at school); when I observe to telescope I want sit down and with the mirror diagonal is uncomfortable.

I have this refractor, it is very good for portability and it is pretty for contemplative observations of panoramas, DSO, sun and moon, X100 is a magnification which will do again. For planets it isn't the best thing. From my balcony of Orotelli (a little village of central Sardinian) seeing the Pleiades, I saw stars as far as the magnitude 10.

Very  Beautiful! I was from a month that I didn't see the sun, as I saw your photograf I have looked it with my acromatic 80/400; if the sun wasn't about to set I would have drawn it!

I agree  on that you have told;  in the 60s in Italy (for exemple) an acromat 60/700  costed  as a clerk salary,  it was most advantageus  constructing it. Today the prices are much lower, so it better buying it; if one has the hobby of optical-mechanics it is different because constructing of telescope will give him a lot of gratification but he doesn't spend less.

On 14/10/2022 at 18:49, neil phillips said:

I seem to like buying cheap achromatic refractors. And imaging with them. Visual too sometimes. My latest I just got in excellent condition two days ago a Bresser Quasar 80mm/900  F11.3  cost £30 and £9 postage haven't imaged with it yet. Wonder how good the lens is ? will find out soon.

I think too that the little acromatics are good for price, portability and praticalness. This year I bought an vintage acromatic Bresser Optik 60/900 wich had a lot of accessories (five oculars whom two ortoscopic, stellar diagonal, staightening prism) and i paid it 100€. I tested it oberving the Moon wich I saw well a X225 too (with a ocular of 4 mm). But i like very much the Konus Vista-80, acromatic 80/400, whom CA does not disturb too much; I use it as telescope grab & go some for all and for observing panoramas. I paid the Vista 90€ two years ago.

Have you tried to lower the tripod legs a lot? This should make it more stable.

In fact, it rains a lot in Ireland, its climate is "very" oceanic! Here instead (central Sardinia) it has hardly rained for 9 months and it is still quite hot (+34 C yesterday).

How beautiful !!!

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1 hour ago, Gonzo0 said:

I went ahead and ordered a Heritage 150p and a 2x Barlow. Very happy about the purchase. However, the best thing about it is that I am keeping my 8 inch Dob for home use as FLO offers a PayPal pay in 3 system which I didn't know about. That way, I only have to pay 1/3 of the price today and the rest over 3 months which is very managable for me being a student and only having part time work. I feel like I've got all I need now. I have the 8 inch Dob for home use and a 150p for grab and go travelling to dark skies which I will do often. I'm over the moon!! (pun intended)

In fact it is the best solution, giving up an 8 "once you have bought it tightens your heart, then taking into account that in December there will be the opposition of Mars which this year is less favorable (17" this year against the 22 "coupons of October 2020 .......). I too was thinking of a second telescope easily transportable in a small car, the FLO payment facility solved the question. Good observations and, as we say in Sardinia , that you enjoy both tools with health!

I had already read this review, but I gladly read it again. I bought the Vixen 102M optics used last summer, I had tried it on Jupiter and on the Moon, having a good impression. On the latter in a calm evening I used 333X (barlow 2X achromatic and a 6 mm Possl, both Celestron in a mini case): simply beautiful! I want to try it on Mars as soon as I get the chance for the December opposition.

This month I made my latest purchase that should arrive these days, the Baader Planetarium Contrast Booster filter. I'm curious to try it on my short focus achromatic refractors, the 80/400 and 120/600 to see how much better the observation on the Moon, Sun and planets. With 120/600 two years ago I had made some beautiful observations of Mars with lots of sketches, let's see a little with the new arrival .......

I too have seen Jupiter and Saturn these last two days. On the 4th evening I used the Nexstar 8 SE. Seeing Saturn you could see Titan well, very faint and with the averted vision you could see some other satellites to the right of the planet (I was using the stellar diagonal) but I did not understand what they were. The Cassini division was sometimes seen at the loops, a gray band was noticed (I believe the equatorial one). There was not a great image of Jupiter, it seemed to me that the seeing was not that great. Exactly for seeing last night I was thinking of giving up, I decided to observe Jupiter and Saturn at a fairly late hour therefore, not having put out the 8 "SCT to thermostatize myself, I use the small achromatic 80/400. Saturn at 160X (Plossl of 6 mm with a Barlow 2X) did not mind, it was practically white and without visible chromatism (strange, given the optics), you could sometimes see the Cassini division at the lugs and, hinted at, the gray band of the night before; Titan visible slightly to the right of the previous evening (yesterday I used the stellar diagonal too). Even yesterday evening the seeing was poor, with Jupiter at 160X slightly deformed by the turbulence of the air, the use of Wratten's colored filters (W56 yellow-green, W8 yellow) and the semiapo filter of Baader worsened the vision of both planets which also appeared less bright; both observing sessions were mediocre. Positive note: the cool breeze that was nice at one in the morning, given the great heat of the day (at the expense of seeing, unfortunately).

20 minutes ago, SthBohemia said:

How do you find the single arm mounting on the Nexstar compared to the CPC fork? The single arm has always looked somewhat unstable to me... I modified a CPC so I can place a refractor stably on it, I guess the a single arm Nexstar could be modified quite easily as well to carry other scopes 🙂 

Actually the single-arm mount is not so stable, let's say that for a visual observation it is sufficient; I want to see how it behaves by connecting the SV 305 planetary camera to it. I also tried the Nexstar 6 SE as I bought it from the school where I teach, for a 6 "SCT lens the Nexstar mount is fine, for the 8" we are at the limit. To put a refractor a couple of months ago I put my achromatic 120/600 without any problem as it has the Vixen bar; however, they advised me not to connect the Vixen 102-M (achromatic 102/1000) because I could have ruined the mount (will it be due to the greater leverage effect?). For the assembly no problem at all, indeed I will tell you that the Nexstar is more transportable than the CPC both for the lower weight and for the fact that the lens and the mount are not a single block, in my car I carry it better.

Beautiful photograph, congratulations!

13 hours ago, col said:

Hi Gonariu. 

Iv actually got one, but it hasn't arrived yet. It has adjuster screws on the frame so it can fit over the top of the tube. I should have it by the weekend. 

Hi col,
excellent buy, I had found it in glass a few years ago, discounted by 50% (I paid 35 euros) and it was a bargain, every time I can I look at the Sun and make a drawing of it with an achromat 80/400; I really like seeing our star.

23 hours ago, SthBohemia said:

The link below provides some history of Celestron, in particular WHICH Celestron scopes to either 'lookout for, or to avoid'. Celestron quality underwent a sharp decline during the mid 80's with the Halleys comet advent, and fell totally flat on its face when taken over by Tasco (does Tasco qualify as the producer of the WORST telescopes ever made?).....

http://www.company7.com/celestron/index.html

The history of Celestron is interesting, I did not know that once it had even produced a 22 "SCT! A few years ago I had heard of the crisis period of the company which in terms of product quality had been surpassed by Meade, however it seems to me that currently the SCTs which produces are good telescopes, I had a CPC 8 (stolen from me by thieves 10 years ago) and a Nexstar 8 SE (the one I currently have).

I imagine that the old Celestrons like them, they were made in the USA, but today they are made in China!

Have you thought about buying a sun filter with full aperture or glass or with a special film (for example mylar)?