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First / Second /Third light with my 10” Orion Intelliscope

Cjg

By Cjg
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Cjg

Cjg

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Since purchasing this in June from ebay, I’ve yet to have a full clear night under dark skies at Norwich Astronomy Society. So here’s an amalgamation of some nights under dark skies at Seething and from a slightly “polluted” sky at home in South Norfolk.

Have been interested in the stars since 11, when we lived in a small town, but spent most of my adult life in London, where there was little opportunity to see a great deal from home.

Having moved to Norfolk and noticed the dark skies I purchased a Star Watcher heritage mini dob as a “starter” scope. As beginners scope this is a super bit of kit. With the help of the Go Sky Planetarium on my iPad we say the Saturn for the first time from home – a jaw dropping moment!

But looking through the bigger scopes at Seething, it was clear that where DSO are concerned, “bigger is most definitely better” and here was my dilemma – on a Friday night with the friendly folk at Seething, I’ll happily play and hunt for the various objects, but at home with the streetlamps, on a “work night” I was getting frustrated at not being able to find the DSO and spending more time hunting than viewing.

More experienced observers have discussed the pros and cons of a GoTo scope here and elsewhere; I felt that an Intelliscope was a middle ground (at this stage I’d not come across setting circles), so when a 10” appeared on eBay…

An Intelliscope has sensors (magnets) fitted to the mount to record the altitude and azimuth, a small PDA sized controller records the settings and guides you as push-to your target – it runs off a 9 volt battery that lasts ages and there are of course no motors to go add weight or complexity to the mount.

In use you point the scope vertically in the mount, and align the scope against two stars – I have been using Arcturus and Vega to set up the controller – the more accurate the alignment the closer to the centre of the field of view the target appears!

In use, Saturn was larger, with more detail visible. The DSO are much, much clearer. From my front garden, with a streetlight at the end of the road I’ve managed to see M27 the Dumbbell Nebula. M13 is awesome through the standard Orion 25mm Plossi eyepiece.

Mizar and Alberio are great with the 8mm Celestron eyepiece that was on offer from FLO.

Have I lost the satisfaction of finding an object for myself? Possibly.

The Push-To has helped me grab the odd hour of observing on a work night and in less than ideal skies.

Chris

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Chris and welcome to the forum.

Healthy size of scope you are observing with. In reality, time unfortunately is against many of us and so any assistance with finding objects is a pragmatic reality. Personally, I have found that GOTO has helped me learn more and is fun for family and friends to dial items in and to take a look for themselves. Each to their own I guess but if it is the difference between using or not using the scope then use what ever you can to assist.

Continued clear skies for your next observing expedition!

James

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Cjg

Cjg

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Thanks everyone.

The seasoned, experienced amongst you will probably put your head in your hands and sigh, but when I managed to find M13 with the Heritage Dob, unaided I was sooo happy! So yes, think the intelliscope is helping me learn to star hop.

Clear skies everyone

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Cjg

Cjg

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Thanks everyone; I forgot to mention was that joining my local astro club - Norwich Astronomical Society was certainly a smart move, the support, help amongst the members has been great; for those of you in Norfolk / Suffolk close to Seething it's well worth a visit.

Thanks,

Chris

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