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Goto in a Dob...what's the fuss?!

emadmoussa

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scarp15

scarp15

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However, planets and the moon will - more than any other celestial objects - show how handy auto tracking could be. As you know I'm not a keen planetary observer, but I'm not a keen justify-er to fiends and family of why Jupiter went out of the field of view either :D

Teach them to nudge.

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John

John

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I must be very odd but I actually enjoy nudging the scope to keep track of an object at high power. The process makes me feel in touch with and connected to the Universe that I'm observing. 

As usual though, there is room and facilities for all preferences within the hobby :smiley:

I do use tracking scopes and enjoy those as well.

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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I must be very odd but I actually enjoy nudging the scope to keep track of an object at high power. The process makes me feel in touch with and connected to the Universe that I'm observing. 

As usual though, there is room and facilities for all preferences within the hobby :smiley:

I do use tracking scopes and enjoy those as well.

I can identify with that :smiley:

There is something satisfying looking through a 5mm ortho with 40 degrees or so and extracting the most out of it, Though it is seldom I get those real moments of good seeing where and when I am close to on axis where I go wow to see that little extra, but I believe I have done on a few occasions where my jaws dropped to the floor.

On average though, without having tested it side by side, for best planetary views for faster scopes, say roughly  below f/5  or so, either autotrack with an ortho, or use a well corrected eyepiece like a Radian or pentax for example with a coma corrector is my feeling  with manual nudging and drift for a large part of the FOV (without ever having tested it).  In my experience the orthos are very much on axis performers for planets in my f4.7 Dob, I would say about 3/4  that already small  FOV gives max performance. A radian or pentax on the other hand is better in this regard in my scope over a wide range, but on or close to on axis the ortho 5mm I have is superb for planets IMHO.

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Myopicus

Myopicus

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Hhmmm.

On consideration, so far astronomy (for me) has been 99% academic.  I love using my scope on the odd occasion that it happens. But mostly it's bedtime and bathroom reading, along with this weird astro forum thingy that I occasionally check in on. 

That's what makes it interesting; needing to find out what one is looking at, otherwise it's just white dots and smudges.

That said DOB DOB,  DOB DOB DOB, DOB DOB DOB . . . . DOB DOB!

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Paul73

Paul73

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The only time that I would use it (tracking) is to keep a planet in the centre of view. Seems like a lot of money to pay when, with practice, nudging works just fine.

For low altitude planets, sticking my knee under the OTA usually does the trick (wouldn't fancy it for much over x200 though).

Spend the money saved on a gourmet UWA eyepiece or two. Problem solved!

What is polar aligning? You do this every session? Power issues? I can recommend the non GoTo or Tracking Dobs. The batteries never run dry. :)

Paul

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glappkaeft

glappkaeft

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Came home from an observation trip to Teneriffe a few weeks ago. When the image in your air-transportable 38 cm dobson is sharp even at 500+ magnification you really miss tracking if you want to do some serious observing or sketching. The vibrations of the last nudge will just have died when you have to nudge it again.

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  • 3 months later...
nicks90

nicks90

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I have a tracking dob - goto is way too much like cheating - but I don't use the tracking cos it hardly ever works as well as advertised.

However I do like the ease of using the handset instead of nudging. Sat comfy, little handset in my palm and press the slow button and it stays pretty much centred without even thinking about it.

Makes keeping something precisely in the centre of fov at high maths a breeze with almost zero vibration.

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mitchelln

mitchelln

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I have a 300P Flextube Goto and I use it a lot for both visual and planetary photography. It's a fab bit of kit, especially with a few upgrades like a MoonLite focuser. These can be added as you go along.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

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nicks90

nicks90

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The base on my tracking DOB is the same as the GOTO, just the handset is different I believe. It is bigger than a standard 12" DOB base.

Its heavy too!

The base fits in the boot of my Audi a6 estate with room for all my clobber, chair, coat etc and the tube (collapsed) fits across the back seat. But I doubt it would fit in a focus / astra sized hatchback.

Setup, base on the floor. Put the tube on the rollers and tighten a little bolt. Plug the battery in and I'm observing before the others have finished putting their tripos/eq heads together! 5 minutes tops from opening the boot to being at the eyepiece.

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