Life without my kit.

[sbooder]

As some of you may know, I put my kit up for sale on SGL and on a French site, a little like ebay called Leboncoin. I thought it was time I gave my reasons and what I am doing now.

Well I managed to sell it all to one nice Frenchman just before Christmas 2015.  There was really only one reason I sold the kit, and that was lack of opportunity to use it!

During 2015, I managed to use my kit only 4 times.  I set up many more times but by the time it was ready to observe, the weather forced me to shroud it with a tarp, until such time as I could use the small break in the rain to strip down and stand it in the corner of a room.

We all have to be patient people to be AAs but there comes a time when you feel days are wasting away and you achieve nothing. So I decided to sell all and invest in some better birding kit, which I did.  I am so glad I did this, as apart from getting out every day to do some birding, I have used the spotting scope more times under the stars in the first two months of 2016 than I did during the whole of 2015.

It is so nice to now be able to grab the scope and take advantage of a 5 minute window in the weather, and just plonk it down and view, no Polar alignment, no balancing, no attaching cables..etc! Just plonk, view, grab and back in doors.

I have had the odd pang for my old kit of course, but overall, it is the best decision I have made in a long time.

 

[Stu]

It's often said that the best scope is the one you use most often. How true it is.

Im sorry to hear you decided to sell your kit, but am very pleased that you have found a new way to enjoy the stars. Perhaps you can invest in a proper Astro scope at some point which is just as easy to setup to catch those brief clear spells?

[sbooder]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

It's often said that the best scope is the one you use most often. How true it is.

Im sorry to hear you decided to sell your kit, but am very pleased that you have found a new way to enjoy the stars. Perhaps you can invest in a proper Astro scope at some point which is just as easy to setup to catch those brief clear spells?

I will probably (at some point) invest in a pick up and go scope, something like the Celestron NexStar 6SE or similar? But for the moment, you are correct, the best scope is the one you use.

[Stu]

6SE is nice, but I would avoid anything with a significant cool down time perhaps? It's hard to beat a good 4" apo frac in that respect, views are nice too

[laudropb]

I sympathise with you. The weather during the past year has been terrible. As a birder of many years standing I am glad that you have found enjoyment in your new hobby. I often use my spotting scope to have quick sessions in between the clouds. You could also invest in a decent pair of astronomical bins. Best of luck with your new hobby.

[sbooder]

2 minutes ago, laudropb said:

I sympathise with you. The weather during the past year has been terrible. As a birder of many years standing I am glad that you have found enjoyment in your new hobby. I often use my spotting scope to have quick sessions in between the clouds. You could also invest in a decent pair of astronomical bins. Best of luck with your new hobby.

Thanks for the reply, but just to let you know, birding has been my mian hobby for over 30 years now.  I just spent most of my money on astro stuff.

[mikeDnight]

48 minutes ago, sbooder said:

Thanks for the reply, but just to let you know, birding has been my mian hobby for over 30 years now.  I just spent most of my money on astro stuff.

It seems from your signature that you already have a decent stargazing set up with your birding gear. With your 85mm ED scope and your ED binoculars, I'm sure you'll still eñjoy an active role stargazing.

 I made a similar move some time back and relieved myself of unnecessary clutter and heavy gear. Astronomy is my first love, so I've maintained a quality set up, but boy have I been liberated! Like you I can now take advantage of gaps in the clouds and go out for a quick, casual look, or if the night allows, I can become enveloped in my hobby for hours. Since I made that bold move of going down the grab and go route, I've spent many more hours at the eyepiece than I'd managed for several years previously.

Mike 

[trazor]

This is why I have an observatory, I can be observing in 2 minutes 10 seconds, from walking out the house.

Closing up is even quicker.

And yes I did use a stopwatch to check this.................

[sbooder]

28 minutes ago, trazor said:

This is why I have an observatory, I can be observing in 2 minutes 10 seconds, from walking out the house.

Closing up is even quicker.

And yes I did use a stopwatch to check this.................

An Obs is just about cost for me and the fact we rent in France at the moment, so any Obs would have to be moved at some point.

[laudropb]

Sorry I mis-read your post.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Set-up time can be a real problem, which is why I have big binoculars to back up the scope. Regarding cool-down time of a 6SE: I store my C8 OTA in an largely unheated garage, which minimizes cool down. I can be up and running in about 10 minutes for DSO. Planets have more stringent requirements, and are good after 25 minutes or so. My mount is a Vixen Great Polaris, which does require some balacing, but I know where to set the counterweights, and usually just leave them in place. I do not use GOTO, which speeds up the set-up time a lot. It also means I can get away with very cavalier polar alignment (point mount north and leave polar axis at 53 deg). I do not mind GOTO systems, just not those that demand you go through the whole alignment procedure before doing anything else.

[sbooder]

Although I am on a Slik Master Classic tripod, the scope only being 85mm means I have quite good viewing time before having to re-centre the object.  I am quite enjoying getting back to finding objects.  I got a few minutes to look at Jupiter last night, I used the fixed 33x EP and it was very good, I can still make out the bands and the image was crisp.  I have both the EP that came with the scope, 20 -60x Zoom and I bought the fixed 33x EP.

At the moment I tend to only use the fixed EP, but as I become more accomplished with the tilt & pan tripod head, I will pop on the zoom...and maybe, just maybe, I will see a transit shadow?

[mikeDnight]

9 minutes ago, sbooder said:

Although I am on a Slik Master Classic tripod, the scope only being 85mm means I have quite good viewing time before having to re-centre the object.  I am quite enjoying getting back to finding objects.  I got a few minutes to look at Jupiter last night, I used the fixed 33x EP and it was very good, I can still make out the bands and the image was crisp.  I have both the EP that came with the scope, 20 -60x Zoom and I bought the fixed 33x EP.

At the moment I tend to only use the fixed EP, but as I become more accomplished with the tilt & pan tripod head, I will pop on the zoom...and maybe, just maybe, I will see a transit shadow?

I've had some large, really high end scopes over the years and although they gave me pride of ownership, the larger they got, the less I used them. December before last I bought an Equinox ED80, and that little scope reinvigorated my observing. I found I would go out to have just ten minutes observing the moon just before I go to bed, and find that I'm still observing over an hour later. Jupiter was superb in that little scope. The 80ED would often show more belts more sharply than my 120ED set up in my observatory. The great red spot and shadow transits were easily visible at X100 to X150. I felt that if all I had was that 80mm ED, I could still play an active role as an amateur astronomer.

I enjoyed the liberating experience the 80 ED gave me so much, that I wondered, "I a grab and go 3" can  show such excellent views every time, what would a quality 4" grab and go show me"? I thought a 4" would be the perfect combination of punch vs portability, but it had to be a refractor, as I wanted both a high power planetary scope that would also deliver great wide field views too. Hence my move to a FC100D. I have no regret selling my kit off as the FC is everything I'd hoped for and more. I'm one happy camper! 

Mike

[StuartJPP]

The best of both worlds...

 

Birding during the day and imaging at night...when either allow...unfortunately clear night skies normally coincide with clear sunrises and I have to choose one, much too tired after being up all night to do both...astro usually wins if conditions are right as there are much less opportunities due to moon, seasons etc.