Sargares

Sat on an AZ GTI.

I think curiosity of the limits is a big factor as you say. “Seeing what all the fuss is about.” I’ve not been into astronomy long enough to know really but guitars I’ve had some absolutely eye wateringly expensive guitars over the years. That’s another hobby with extremely diminishing returns at the top end haha. Bang for buck? Hell no. But it’s nice to have had them anyway. Also it’s nice to own and thus support something that’s been loved and made with passion rather than something that’s been knocked off a Far Eastern production line. Even if said production line does a sterling job these days.

80mm ED for me last night. Plan to drag the dob out tonight if I can be bothered and the clouds aren’t too heavy although I’ve pretty much deciding I’m buying a 5inch doublet to replace it for home use. lots of time on the moon then did Rigel, Polaris and a few easy doubles. Then had a go with 30mm UFF on Pleiades then had a pop at orions nebula which was just about naked eye visible despite a nearly full moon nearby and looked fairly good even in a 3” scope with no filter on. Great seeing for me last night though and not a cloud in the sky. Didn’t even mind the full moon as I was using a small frac. Wanted to try for Uranus but it’s in no mans land a bit so I was having a hard time hoping to it and gave up a little after midnight as I couldn’t bare the cold any longer. Oh and I did the winter triangle stars too just because. First time I’ve looked at Orion since last winter. My garden faces south and this was first session out in the front in ages. Obviously Sirius is too low and Procyon isn’t getting separated with an 80mm and Betelgeuse is fairly uninteresting but thought I’d have a look anyway as it’s been a while. Nice to see Venus too although that’s setting before I’m home this week and it’s extremely low.

Missed a trick there. Crazy price considering how competitive they are with Pentax and Delos which are double that price.

It’s still a good price to be fair to them but the cheaper the better for us.

Yep, next session I’ll have to get the dob out just to justify its existence. Great little scope.

Little bit more time on this scope now. For planets it definitely beats 4.5 newt. Jupiter main bands are fairly obvious although faint. I can make out slightly more detail than in the newt although I suspect this is mainly contrast helping. Saturn is nice but so far can’t get the Cassini division. Can’t do it in the 4.5 either though. Saturn’s really a pain due to being so low though. I tried to push up the mag tonight to almost 200x and it was a no go, just to see. Saturn was visible and distinct but slightly blurry and too dark. I think about 140 maybe slightly less would’ve worked ok but I don’t have enough eyepiece graduations to figure it out. no real benefit going over 100x anyway. Haven’t had another chance on the moon yet. For open starfields it’s actually better than I thought it would be. Not as good as the 4.5 newt but totally useable. I just had a quick look at m29 before the clouds roll in and the main stars that form the cooling tower pattern where all clearly visible through a 9mm Morpheus. vega through the 5mm Delite which is as much power as I’ve got without Barlowing was a small tight disk and totally colourless.

Yeh the superior image control might allow dialling up the magnification enough to manage it. It’s certainly within the resolving power of the scope.

I’ll try with the 80mm f10 haha. Definitely have a better shot with 250p though after a good collimation I suspect but it’ll be fun to try with the Teeny tiny refractor.

I think I might have a useful perspective as I’m not Uber experienced and recently bought my first proper refractor. snagged the stellamira 80 f10 off the classifieds. I’ve got a 10” SW dob and an Orion starblast on an EQ1. Starblast is great by the way, super wide field of view and surprisingly good light capture but a newt on an EQ is a truly horrible combination. Get a 4” refractor…. I’d like to upgrade my dob at some point too but it’d be for limited gain in performance in truth. My next scope will almost certainly be a 125ed like @johninderby to give me a refractor with more aperture. Yesssss the dob beats everything else I’ve got. When the seeing is good it beats them by a LOT. Lugging that god awful mount out into the garden though and then bear hugging the tube out after it puts me off using it 80% of the time. If I’m not having a big session I won’t get it out, and I’m relatively young, have no injuries, good eyes. Prime candidate for using a large reflector, and I still can’t be bothered usually. The refractor just feels right to use. It’s nice to look through rather than into. The contrast on the refractor is better than the reflectors. Sharpness is better. The image may not have as much detail but it’s more pleasing and easier to pick out the detail that is there. Stars have much better shapes, especially the bright ones. It’s almost strange to see vega as a disk floating in the blackness compared to a big cross sat on dark grey. The moon looks especially good through the refractor. no worries about collimation. Fast cool down on a doublet. If I was going to have only one refractor (which I’ve already decided isn’t enough personally) I think 4” apo doublet is probably the one to have which covers the most ground while still being grab and go sized. look for a used mount, don’t bother with goto IMO. The eq1 if that’s what you’re planning on using will struggle with anything but the very smallest and lightest scopes. imo blow the entire budget on a tecnosky 102 f7 or Altair 102ed-r and worry about a mount diagonal etc later or just go over budget by a couple of hundred quid. I suspect the above options will be good enough to scratch the itch without leaving you with a what if thought that you might get going for something on the very budget end.

I’m the unlikely event it’s clear I’ll probably have a go myself. Probably need to lug the Dob out of the garage though to see much.

400quid on eBay for 8-10” SW dobs at the moment. And all the risk of buying telescopes on eBay!

I reckon a 12” is probably on the list for next years acquisitions. Trade up the skywatcher 250. 2 inches more aperture, better f ratio and by the time you’ve replaced all the junk stock parts on the skywatcher you’ve paid for the stellalyra…. No brainer. Nice one @FLO

Az Gti seems to handle it fine. Not used at night yet as I’ve only just slung it up. It’s actually ok even without the counterweight but with the counter weight on it settles much more quickly. Good times ahead!

@johninderby that’s impressive for a smart phone. I may have to have a go myself. I usually don’t bother much when the moons out but with this little thing I think I’ll be doing a LOT more lunar observing. I’m really looking forward to getting the Delite 5mm in it.