Recommendations for discouraged beginner

[RainLaw]

Every Wednesday? I bus it past there every day going to & from work. What happens exactly at these meetings?

Cambridge & pocket sky atlas seem to be the main one's people mention. Might pop into town tomorrow and have a look at them both.

if I buy a EQ mount what size rings do i need to get for the 200p I've got, the explorer & skyliner are slight different are they not?

[Hex]

You been given some sound advise. You have 3 realistic options as far as I can see;

Option 1; forget DSO altogether and concentrate on Solar system objects. You can do this with your dob. If you really get into it you could then consider either a decent refractor or perhaps a MAK.

Option 2; get in your car and drive, the cheapest and most effective answer to LP, not always a option after a full day at work mind!

Option 3; get a GOTO set up, while not helping the views it would certainly help finding objects easier.

[PorkyB]

Every Wednesday? I bus it past there every day going to & from work. What happens exactly at these meetings?

At the moment it's mostly tea and chat, but by next month it will be dark enough for an hour or so observing from the roof. By November it will be dark for the whole session.

[GrantR]

I too was a discouraged beginner and took the plunge of offloading my Explorer 200p and motor driven EQ5 for a NexStar 5se and can honestly say I've not looked back. I get loads more observing time, less fiddly to set up and I've seen more than I ever did with the bigger scope.

With regards to AP, depends what you want. I've had some modest results on DSO's with a DSLR attached, hardly Hubble quality but enough to give me enough encouragement to keep trying. Purists will tell you the scope and mount are hopeless for AP but they are not, just depends what you want from it.

For me I've learned loads with the smaller scope and goto, its got me keen again and I wouldn't have the bigger scope and EQ mount back for anything right now.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[mart rich]

Purely a personal opinion of course, but I would wait until you get a star atlas and Turn Left at Orion and really try and use your scope to the max ability before spending any more money upgrading or getting a new scope. Easy to say of course - I am fully aware of the lure of spending cash.......

If you can, wait until Jupiter is up in the evening - then you should get some cracking views.

Have you spent much time observing the moon? I find that it is often better than I expect.

HTH

Martin