Virtues of simplicity

[Druid]

So last night was beautifully clear with decent seeing and I had a lovely evening's viewing with my 4" apo and gyro-style alt-az mount. Still learning my way around the sky, but managed a good handful of winter wonders. 

Tonight I thought, 'another clear sky, I'll get the AZEQ6 and the C11 out' ... 

After mucking about for an hour debugging my alignments, grovelling about in uncomfortable positions and so on, I eventually said 'stuff it', stripped down the complicated stuff and went back to manual. 

Enjoyed the last hour or so before the clouds rolled in a lot more ... 

Even in crappy light pollution, there's a lot to be said for simplicity. 

[Moonshane]

yep, that's why I love dobs! different scope, same principles. maybe (altaz manual) newts and fracs are not that different after all

[earth titan]

Joy to my ears! While I love my AP, sometimes I like nothing more than using my NEQ6 with the Syntrek module only. Div on order too.

[LeeB]

yep agree, last night at the local astro club , had all the kit with me but left it in the car and instead helped some new starters set up and use their new scopes, lovelly views of all the major stuff and all seem amazed at what could be seen and how easy most can be found with a little knowledge and a book.

I find that my dob still gets the most use at least 2 to 1 times the goto.

[John]

With the uncertainties that our typical conditions throw up I decided that the simple / no tech approach was the way to go for me sometime back. 

I can get any of my scopes out and set up within minutes and packed up and back inside again just as quickly, which is sometimes very useful !

[nightfisher]

Same here, TAL100rs on AZ4 mount and a box of ep`s, cant remember last time i set up the HEQ5!

[L8-Nite]

Old school simplicity works for me too.      

I want to spend my time Observing, not tinkering.

[Luke]

Having tried my hand at setting up a C11 for narrowband imaging with an off axis guider with no obsy - it was typically 90 mins+ before I would get my first image - I really appreciate simple now

My 10 inch dob is one of my "lazy" setups, and a 100mm frac on a giro mount also ticks that box nicely