Problems with the andromeda galaxy

[rockystar]

there should still be plenty to see. We'll find you some stuff, there is plenty up there to get you going.

 

[Adamchiv]

5 hours ago, John said:

Double stars, clusters, planetary nebulae ?

Yes I suppose so, not sure about planetary nebulae, would they really be visible in the most light polluted of skies through a 5 inch scope? I have trouble locating star clusters due to lack of pointer stars lol

[rockystar]

Here's a selection from the Herschel 400 that you should be able to see with your scope from Heaton Park

Note, he I said "see", you will still have to find them. Do you have a star map?

adamchiv.txt

[Adamchiv]

1 hour ago, rockystar said:

Here's a selection from the Herschel 400 that you should be able to see with your scope from Heaton Park

Note, he I said "see", you will still have to find them. Do you have a star map?

adamchiv.txt

Thanks very much lee that could keep me going for a while, I have stellarium and use that to star hop, trouble is even with my phone brightness right down and the red switched on I lose my nightvision straight away. Im thinking of getting a planesphere or something

[Charic]

...I even found the planisphere to be too bright on certain nights, some of them glow in the dark?
When I say too bright, its simply when I'm totally blacked out inside my dob tent!
During blackout, the only light I see is through the focuser.

[Adamchiv]

3 minutes ago, Charic said:

...I even found the planisphere to be too bright on certain nights, some of them glow in the dark?
When I say too bright, its simply when I'm totally blacked out inside my dob tent!
During blackout, the only light I see is through the focuser.

I wish I had that trouble lol

[Charic]

...I really do just use  the focuser with my Panaview, I seal  around the end of the scope so the finders don't get any action?
It feels right, and cuts out all the glare, I even have a dew shield made of foam, to extend  the tube, further reducing any light bouncing around, and  limit my viewing angles to better avoid the street lights (direct) or reflected ( structures).
With the present mindset (keeping the 200P) I may even consider flocking, but will just wait a little longer to see how the lighting situation changes here, as the LEDs are getting installed around town?
I've  noticed how much darker the streets are with regards to how the sodiums spread  their light all over the place, but if they just replace the bulb right behind my garden, it will be worse, because the lamp is like a giant fish bowl, the bulb in its base, so for my needs, they need to rip out and put in another lamp, although with  these lamps being  much taller, I may still have an issue, so  its not over until the fat lady sings,  shattering the bulb,  along with the  lens, then the  pole falls down and someone nicks the copper wiring, result , then I wake up? 

[Adamchiv]

28 minutes ago, Charic said:

...I really do just use  the focuser with my Panaview, I seal  around the end of the scope so the finders don't get any action?
It feels right, and cuts out all the glare, I even have a dew shield made of foam, to extend  the tube, further reducing any light bouncing around, and  limit my viewing angles to better avoid the street lights (direct) or reflected ( structures).
With the present mindset (keeping the 200P) I may even consider flocking, but will just wait a little longer to see how the lighting situation changes here, as the LEDs are getting installed around town?
I've  noticed how much darker the streets are with regards to how the sodiums spread  their light all over the place, but if they just replace the bulb right behind my garden, it will be worse, because the lamp is like a giant fish bowl, the bulb in its base, so for my needs, they need to rip out and put in another lamp, although with  these lamps being  much taller, I may still have an issue, so  its not over until the fat lady sings,  shattering the bulb,  along with the  lens, then the  pole falls down and someone nicks the copper wiring, result , then I wake up? 

Hahaha these lucky things just dont happen. I have street lights ruining my time everywhere, I live in apartments and I have to use the car park. Theres a dark spot by the wall that is fairly ok until you have to point south and get a horrible orange light glaring down the scope. Ive had good observations of jupiter standing 4 ft under a glowing white light and it didnt really ruin my joy at all, but this orange light is a real pain. I dont know what flocking is to be honest, is it some sort of internal coating to absorb a certain type of light? Whats it called when you have a cover that extends your scope? Ive seen them but dont know what they are called, it makes the scope longer thats all I know, are they to deter the street lights?

[Charic]

Flocking is a light absorbent material to line the interior of the telescope, absorbs any light from bouncing around in the tube, and the cover to extend the scope, is a dew shield!
My dew shield  is made from camping foam, as a guide,  1.5 times the diameter (inches) of the aperture in length, and just slides onto the end of my scope,.
(just measured and my shield is exactly 20" long)  so there goes the guide theory out the window, but no shorter than the guide is suggested.
I don't use this for frost prevention, as my mirror sits at the bottom of a tube anyway, but I have had  a frosted  mirror on one occasion! 

I recently saw a flexible system, that bends and slides into place, but USA  outlets only, unless I pay the import. That seems like the most effective and quickest install I`m aware of, without dismantling the whole scope?
I would possible just take out and end cell, marked, so that I can return it to its previous location so as not to disturb the collimation, its possible! and its  also quite possible that only the end 1/3 of the scope requires flocking to achieve the required effect.

[Adamchiv]

14 hours ago, Charic said:

Flocking is a light absorbent material to line the interior of the telescope, absorbs any light from bouncing around in the tube, and the cover to extend the scope, is a dew shield!
My dew shield  is made from camping foam, as a guide,  1.5 times the diameter (inches) of the aperture in length, and just slides onto the end of my scope,.
(just measured and my shield is exactly 20" long)  so there goes the guide theory out the window, but no shorter than the guide is suggested.
I don't use this for frost prevention, as my mirror sits at the bottom of a tube anyway, but I have had  a frosted  mirror on one occasion! 

I recently saw a flexible system, that bends and slides into place, but USA  outlets only, unless I pay the import. That seems like the most effective and quickest install I`m aware of, without dismantling the whole scope?
I would possible just take out and end cell, marked, so that I can return it to its previous location so as not to disturb the collimation, its possible! and its  also quite possible that only the end 1/3 of the scope requires flocking to achieve the required effect.

I will look into both, my current scope is used enough in light polluted skies to warrant flocking. So is there a benifit for my skywatcher 130m to use a dew shield? also does it increase the focal length?

[D4N]

The dew shield does not effect the optical properties of the scope at all, it just reduces protects the secondary from dewing up and also helps reduce stray light getting in.

[rockystar]

the focal length is the distance between the primary and secondary, so no you can't change it by adding a dew shield.

[Stu]

6 minutes ago, rockystar said:

the focal length is the distance between the primary and secondary, so no you can't change it by adding a dew shield.

That's not quite true, the focal length is the distance between the primary and where it brings the image to focus which will be somewhere around where the eyepiece is. The light doesn't focus at the secondary.

[rockystar]

I knew it wasn't going to be quite true, but didn't know exactly how it was calculated.

 

[Moonshed]

When I got my current scope, an 8" SCT, I was living n Glasgow and light pollution was really bad. When a good, cold, moonless, clear night came along it proved worthwhile to move to a dark sky site, a forest car park 15 mins drive away. This involved three trips from my third floor tenement flat to my car and then driving to the forest. Another 45 minutes to set up and Polar align. I used my car battery as a power source, and always parked facing downhill in case I run the battery flat! Yes, it was a lot of hassle, but every single time I did it it was always, and I do mean always, worth the effort, as compared to staying at home and making the best of a bad job. I did find that the Lumincon light pollution filter was a help, but nothing can equal the magnificence of a dark sky. Luckily, where I now live, in a tiny village in North Norfolk, by pure chance alone (or so my wife thinks) we have a lovely dark sky and I consider myself very fortunate, I have never lived under a dark sky before even though I have lived In England, Scotland and Spain. All I am saying is this. If you have a heavily light polluted sky and a reasonable dark sky within say a 30 min drive, do the drive! You can't beat if!

[Charic]

10 minutes ago, Moonshed said:

a reasonable dark sky within say a 30 min drive, do the drive! You can't beat if!

+1  Its the get up and go, but even if its for a short session, I agree,  its well worth it.
Lucky those that don't have to travel.

[Moonshed]

Adamchiv, you said how difficult it can be to find an object, a problem I had for many years. The solution was the best thing I ever purchased, an EQ5 GOTO  mount. It cost me £500 and is worth every single penny and then some. I had previousy spent more than that on EP's and filters alone, a poor choice with my limited funds. The point is there is no point in having a large aperture scope but not being able to find DSOs with it, this would be like spending a fortune on a high power sniper rifle but not leaving yourself enough money to buy the rifle's high power scope, without which the rifle is all but useless! With the benefit of hindsight, the only perfect decision making system known to man, the right mount should have been the first upgrade I  made, not the last...well, you know what I mean, we never really come to the last. If I could go back in time and had the same limited funds, I would buy the same scope, which I love and still have as my only scope, an 8" Celestron SCT. My second choice this time would be to upgrade the mount to the EQ5 GOTO, and THEN  upgrade the EP's etc. I appreciate that others may disagree on this or that, but my point is that the importance of a good mount CANNOT be overemphasised. Buying the right telescope gets tons of coverage, but so should the importance of a good motorised mount. As always, budgetary considerations have to taken into account, otherwise I, for Instance, would have an observatory with a pier mounted 18" SCT on a suitably  driven GOTO mount and it would absolutely HAVE to have fully automatic star tracking built in. If only.....Back to reality, a good mount is indispensable!!!! 

[Adamchiv]

On 09/12/2016 at 20:55, Moonshed said:

Adamchiv, you said how difficult it can be to find an object, a problem I had for many years. The solution was the best thing I ever purchased, an EQ5 GOTO  mount. It cost me £500 and is worth every single penny and then some. I had previousy spent more than that on EP's and filters alone, a poor choice with my limited funds. The point is there is no point in having a large aperture scope but not being able to find DSOs with it, this would be like spending a fortune on a high power sniper rifle but not leaving yourself enough money to buy the rifle's high power scope, without which the rifle is all but useless! With the benefit of hindsight, the only perfect decision making system known to man, the right mount should have been the first upgrade I  made, not the last...well, you know what I mean, we never really come to the last. If I could go back in time and had the same limited funds, I would buy the same scope, which I love and still have as my only scope, an 8" Celestron SCT. My second choice this time would be to upgrade the mount to the EQ5 GOTO, and THEN  upgrade the EP's etc. I appreciate that others may disagree on this or that, but my point is that the importance of a good mount CANNOT be overemphasised. Buying the right telescope gets tons of coverage, but so should the importance of a good motorised mount. As always, budgetary considerations have to taken into account, otherwise I, for Instance, would have an observatory with a pier mounted 18" SCT on a suitably  driven GOTO mount and it would absolutely HAVE to have fully automatic star tracking built in. If only.....Back to reality, a good mount is indispensable!!!! 

Yeah totally, im thinking of getting a 200pds on an eq5 goto mount next, either that or a goto dobs. Either way I wish I had goto, I know its not perfect but im sure it will be better for me, I could spend all night punching in messier objects and at least I could be pointing at them. Thats always a great start ?

[spillage]

flocking is an easy and cheap solution to helping against lp.

 

flocking material