I love my starblast 4.5

[Chadnich13]

Got home from work with a partial cloudy sky. Was able to setup my starblast 4.5 in under 5 min from case to the yard and observe Jupiter for, on and off, about a half hour before the clouds covered the sky completely. First time seeing the cloud bands!! I am completely hooked on this newfound Hobbie!! I cannot wait to start experimenting with new eye pieces and filters after getting the feel for it. Also, start seeing how many messier objects I can find if the weather will cooperate. Good luck to all! 

[laudropb]

Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself. After all that's what the hobby is all about. I hope the sky clears for you soon.

[ghostdance]

Nice! It's a great 'little scope that could'. Certainly opened up those ol' celestial windows for me.

I loved mine so much that in time I moved without hesitation to its slightly bigger brother, the Starblast 6, which I similarly adore.

I'm giving my 4.5 to a friend, in the hope she'll go from a casual-but-entranced looker-upper like I was, to a grin-happy, still entranced but now enhanced, stargazer...

[Chadnich13]

I think thats a great idea! I feel, like has been said before, that people need to understand what they are looking at... not what they see if that makes sense and I feel like the 4.5 gives me a great variety of options too look at and keep me interested. Did you perhaps experiment with any other EP's or filters? If so, which would you recommend for the 4.5? Best of luck with your friend and thank you so much for your reply! 

[Howie_Oz]

I certainly wish I'd kept my ol Starblast 4.5 OTA - minus the dob base and plus a vixen dovetail. I ended up moving to GEM which carried an 8" newt and later a SCT ... but its so nice to go widefield at dark sites, and the 4.5 OTA on the GEM would have been lovely.

[Chadnich13]

Now this may be dumb, but that is all gibberish to me since I just started out. Are you recommending a gem tripod? Or is that even what that is? And what does the dovetail do for the scope?

[Chadnich13]

Any help is greatly appreciated!! 

[Howie_Oz]

I certainly wish I'd kept my ol Starblast 4.5 OTA - minus the dob base and plus a vixen dovetail. I ended up moving to GEM which carried an 8" newt and later a SCT ... but its so nice to go widefield at dark sites, and the 4.5 OTA on the GEM would have been lovely.

9 hours ago, Chadnich13 said:

Now this may be dumb, but that is all gibberish to me since I just started out. Are you recommending a gem tripod? Or is that even what that is? And what does the dovetail do for the scope?

Sorry, my mistake, a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) is just another type of telescope base on which to stick your telescope tube.

I should have just said something like ... I certainly wished I'd kept my old Starblast 4.5 telescope tube, as it had good optical quality. It got wonderful wide views of the Heavens compared to the larger telescope I now own. But I would have had to buy a dovetail bar to allow the Starblast tube assembly to be put onto the new larger mount, as thats what it needs for the tube to be afixed to the new mount. If I'd kept the Starblast to use with my new equipment, then I could have had the best of both worlds ... use the Starblast's smaller length to look at really big objects ... And my new telescope's longer length to look at the really small objects.

So no, not recommending another telescope nor mount ... just saying I wish I'd kept my little Starblast for future use.

cheers

[Chadnich13]

 

7 minutes ago, Howie_Oz said:

I certainly wish I'd kept my ol Starblast 4.5 OTA - minus the dob base and plus a vixen dovetail. I ended up moving to GEM which carried an 8" newt and later a SCT ... but its so nice to go widefield at dark sites, and the 4.5 OTA on the GEM would have been lovely.

Sorry, my mistake, a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) is just another type of telescope base on which to stick your telescope tube.

I should have just said something like ... I certainly wished I'd kept my old Starblast 4.5 telescope tube, as it had good optical quality. It got wonderful wide views of the Heavens compared to the larger telescope I now own. But I would have had to buy a dovetail bar to allow the Starblast tube assembly to be put onto the new larger mount, as thats what it needs for the tube to be afixed to the new mount. If I'd kept the Starblast to use with my new equipment, then I could have had the best of both worlds ... use the Starblast's smaller length to look at really big objects ... And my new telescope's longer length to look at the really small objects.

So no, not recommending another telescope nor mount ... just saying I wish I'd kept my little Starblast for future use.

cheers

Haha ok ok thank you.. I did some research on google and realized it was not the best question but I'm trying to follow along on the other post in this site and some of the abbreviations are hard to follow. At the same time im trying to retain as much as I can because one day I would love to get a much better scope and seriously get into some real sky viewing. I plan to starts school in the summer to learn astrophysics so im also studying and trying to get a jump start on that. Thank you for the reply!! 

[Chadnich13]

Also I did get the EQ mount that came with the scope... it seems to be ok and I'm able to find objects fairly easy with it so far but I have not aligned it properly yet. I have more so just been taking it out setting it up towards the way i want to look and moving it along both axis to follow the object. Definitely will continue researching and learning but having loads of fun so far and started a notebook to bring out to the field to help locate more objects. Is the full list of messier objects available to my scope in dark skies or will I need something a little better? 

[Nyctimene]

You will be able to see all Messier objects with a 4.5", even with smaller instruments.

If you are going visual only (at the moment), don't worry too much about aligning the mount precisely. Set the mount to your geographic latitude, and then point the polar axis at Polaris, roughly, as good you can do. You will be able to track the stars using the RA drive, and sometimes you have to do minor corrections in declination. More important is to get a good finder (red dot will do) and align it precisely.

(By the way, I don't like GEM's, belonging to the Dob fraction since 1986, when I started observing DSO's with a Coulter Odyssey 13,1" f/4.5).

As the Starblast 4.5 works best as a wide field scope, you'll need an eyepiece, that will give you a low magnification paired with a wide field, e.g. a 24 mm f.l. with 68° apparent field of view (Explore Scientific IIRC) or Skywatcher UWA 20 mm 66° You will perhaps notice some coma at the edge of the field, but that should be not too annoying.

The Starblast 4.5 always gets good reviews, and it will serve you for many years as a travel scope (put it on a Dob mount), and a grab-and-go scope.

I sometimes observe with a Skywatcher 4.5" f/4.5, and have a lot of fun with it. It's also good for outreach.

Have fun!

Stephan

[Chadnich13]

1 hour ago, Nyctimene said:

You will be able to see all Messier objects with a 4.5", even with smaller instruments.

If you are going visual only (at the moment), don't worry too much about aligning the mount precisely. Set the mount to your geographic latitude, and then point the polar axis at Polaris, roughly, as good you can do. You will be able to track the stars using the RA drive, and sometimes you have to do minor corrections in declination. More important is to get a good finder (red dot will do) and align it precisely.

(By the way, I don't like GEM's, belonging to the Dob fraction since 1986, when I started observing DSO's with a Coulter Odyssey 13,1" f/4.5).

As the Starblast 4.5 works best as a wide field scope, you'll need an eyepiece, that will give you a low magnification paired with a wide field, e.g. a 24 mm f.l. with 68° apparent field of view (Explore Scientific IIRC) or Skywatcher UWA 20 mm 66° You will perhaps notice some coma at the edge of the field, but that should be not too annoying.

The Starblast 4.5 always gets good reviews, and it will serve you for many years as a travel scope (put it on a Dob mount), and a grab-and-go scope.

I sometimes observe with a Skywatcher 4.5" f/4.5, and have a lot of fun with it. It's also good for outreach.

Have fun!

Stephan

Thank you very much Stephan! I will definitely look into a dob. Kind of sad I didn't ask before considering the dobsonian mount was 15 dollars cheaper, but if I was going to learn I wanted to try and learn the more complex system for when I moved up. Now I'm starting to understand its more for imaging. Also, do you think it's more important to get the dobsonian mount or i was looking at saving up to get a different focuser in the 2" range. Wondering if that Is worth it for my scope or if I should wait until I get something bigger? 

 

Thanks Again,

 

Chad 

[Nyctimene]

Chad,

I would stick with what you already have and point the Starblast at many  celestial objects of different kinds, so that you get a feeling for it and learn more about it's potentials and limits - that may last some months, a year or so. After that, you will know way better than now, where you want to go.

Keeping some kind of astro-diary on your observations and experiences with the equipment also might help. Go to some star party, and look at and look through as many scopes as you can.

Don't save on a 2" focuser for the Starblast- it's way too big, and the secondary too small for that.

"Dobsonian" always refers to the type of mount, by the way; and almost always Dobsonian mounts carry Newtonian reflectors. So, looking into a dob means observing with a Newtonian on a special, simplified type of mount.

Stephan

[Chadnich13]

Ok Stephan, That is what I will do. My plan is to join the astronomy club nearby and start going to events. Also, I am looking forward to studying astrophysics starting in the summer. So enjoying researching and studying as much as I can right now. I plan on keeping two different field books, one for helping me while observing which I've already got some extensive notes in and the other exactly what you said. Sometimes it's so nice to be new into something because there is just so much to learn. Looking forward to enjoying the ride. Thanks again for all your help!

 

Chad 

[Chadnich13]

Ok Stephan, That is what I will do. My plan is to join the astronomy club nearby and start going to events. Also, I am looking forward to studying astrophysics starting in the summer. So enjoying researching and studying as much as I can right now. I plan on keeping two different field books, one for helping me while observing which I've already got some extensive notes in and the other exactly what you said. Sometimes it's so nice to be new into something because there is just so much to learn. Looking forward to enjoying the ride. Thanks again for all your help!

 

Chad 

[Alan64]

Hello Chad,

Congratulations on your new 114mm f/4 telescope!  Recently, I almost got one like yours, either a Zhumell or Meade, but instead I chose a smaller one: a 100mm f/4...

Yours and my smaller version are great for low-power wide-field views, and with a barlow, for higher magnifications, too.  I've even taken a few photographs with it...

...and simply by holding a small camera up to the eyepiece, then snapping a shot, on the fly.

About three years ago, I got a StarBlast 6.  It's great for low-power wide-field views as well...

But I eventually found that the particleboard mount was not very comfortable to use, nor fun to haul around.  It's up in the attic now.  I then got a dovetail-bar for the telescope's tube-rings, and mounted it on an alt-azimuth mount w/tripod...

After placing the telescope on the tripod, a whole new world opened up, allowing for much greater control of the telescope, and much more fun.  Why, you're enjoying that now with your mount.  You did well in getting that version, as you get the tube-rings along with it, for as with many kits the telescope is the prize, not the mount.  Now, you can even convert your EQ-1 mount into an alt-azimuth, and very easily.  Private-message me if you'd like to learn how. 

If you ever find the EQ-1 equatorial difficult to use, or if you just want to upgrade in future, you already have the tube-rings for your telescope, therefore all you need is a dovetail-bar and an alt-azimuth w/tripod; for examples...

http://agenaastro.com/agena-8-anodized-dovetail-bar-for-eq5-and-other-mounts.html

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech-voyager-2-altazimuth-mount_p20295.aspx

You can also get a used alt-azimuth w/tripod in the astronomy-site classifieds online, Astromart(fee), eBay, and Craigslist even; as long as it has a Vixen-style dovetail-clamp, like this one...

If you come to prefer an equatorial's way of moving the telescope, then you can get a slightly larger one in future, like this one...

Equatorial mounts, or "GEM", are not just for imaging.  I've owned an EQ-2, an EQ-5, and now an EQ-3, and not once did I ever put a camera in place of an eyepiece in order to image.  They were, and are, all motorised.  You can motorise your EQ-1, too...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=546195&gclid=CJDW2bWxrNECFQONaQodx2cIIQ&is=REG&ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876%2C92051678402%2C&Q=&A=details

Attach it to the RA-axis, and you can counteract the rotation of the night sky; and for automatic, hands-free tracking of any object.  Observers use equatorials for studying an object for longer periods of time, and for sketching them even.  The image of the object being observed stands still, right there in the center of the eyepiece, and for as long you'd like.  It's much easier to look at something when it's not moving all over the place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx6XXDgf2E

"...one day I would love to get a much better scope and seriously get into some real sky viewing."

I have so-called "better" telescopes, but I enjoy them all, equally, including the pea-sized one I just got.  After you do get a larger telescope, a Dobsonian, or a Newtonian or refractor on an equatorial, in future, you may very well find yourself returning to this one, time after time after time; decades later even, if you take good care of it...

Enjoy!

[Chadnich13]

Alan,

Thank you for all your information. It is definitely a helpful post for the situation I am in. I love how you spelled everything out in such detail. I'm definitely looking forward to keeping this scope in very good shape as well and learning more about it along with experimenting with EP's and filters through out the next couple of years. I've read numerous times that with telescopes, bigger is not always better and I definitely did not mean it in that way. More so looking forward to finding the EP's that work best with this scope for me and using a bigger scope for different purposes. I love how portable and light weight the 4.5 is and am looking forward to enjoying the learning experiences with it as well as different locations to view from. Also im looking forward to learning without the goto for now because I feel like that is part of the fun for me. However, it would be nice once I found an object to be able to stay on it and not have to track by hand. Unfortunately, money is tight right now and I feel I'm going to be saving for other accessories first.  The first night I was out, finding the great orion nebula and seeing it as clearly as I did was a moment I will never forget. Right now, I live in the somewhat suburbs so a big scope would basically be collecting dust until I learn more and get better and am able to travel longer distances.  I'm willing to learn as much as anyone is willing to teach. Again, thank you so much for your reply and wishing you clear skies!! 

[Chadnich13]

On second thought that motor drive is fairly cheap and may have to be in the budget much sooner... Sorry to misunderstand and assume the goto

[Howie_Oz]

When I had my little Starblast 4.5 I bought a Baader zoom eyepiece (EP). Yes, for sure you can get better individual non zoom eyepieces, but the Baader zoom has a good reputation for quality optics. Saved carrying around a bunch of EP's.

[Alan64]

Equatorial mounts are notorious for being heavy, and cumbersome; mostly heavy.  When a counterweight or counterweights are placed on the mount, and to balance the telescope, it's essentially the equivalent of placing two telescopes on the mount, instead of just the one, weight-wise.

The EQ-1, however, is the smallest equatorial on the market, and certainly qualifies as a grab-and-go.  I had looked into getting an EQ-1 for myself this holiday season, but I went with the 100mm f/4 telescope instead.  Both were at about the same price.  Now that I have a few smaller telescopes, I can now plan on getting the EQ-1 next, and that small motor-drive for it as well.  I miss my slightly-larger EQ-2, but I still remember that it was somewhat of a chore hauling it in and out of the house, but not that bad, when I was younger, so I think I'll go with the EQ-1 instead, and give it a spin.

Your kit came with a collimation-cap, just like this one, according to the kit's specs...

That one came with my 6" f/5, and to examine the entire optical system at a glance, on the inside of the optical-tube.  I took a small table lamp, laid it on its side with the bulb pointing towards a white wall or other, then laid the telescope on its side right next to the lamp and aimed at the wall too, and to illuminate the inside of the telescope.  I then racked the focusser out a little, put the cap in, took a small camera, positioned its lens over the pinhole of the cap, zoomed in a bit, and snapped a shot...

Great fun, that is.

[Chadnich13]

I read somewhere on here or a youtube video to put a white piece of paper on the inside of the scope opposite of the focuser and thay worked very well... i adjusted it and seem to have a very similar image to yours. They did however say to be careful not to hit the secondary mirror which i was very careful of. It felt good to know i was able to do something good right off the bat. Still getting a little used to the eq mount but for the most part am able to track objects fairly well after 4 short observing sessions... suppose to have clear skies tomorrow night and taking a road trip with my girlfriend to a dark site in the north central part of PA. I will be doing some reasearch tomorrow to see what I will be searching for but any advice for this region of the world and what to look at is very appreciated. I will update how it goes on the way home. Also thank you for the advice on the EP. I will definitely be looking into that as well!

 

Good luck to all

 

Chad 

[Chadnich13]

Here's a good question I believe. What is a good atmospheric pressure, ozone and humidity level for clear skies? 

[ghostdance]

Hi Chad

Sorry for the slow response! Work plus putting in a new kitchen = no time!

You've had some great and very helpful replies, which is good to see...

The 4.5 really will take you a long way and I agree with Stephan  re the 2" focuser - put the money towards a filter or two - a UHS can be useful for nebula viewing - or a good star atlas ( cough, Instellarum....or a good Lunar atlas, that will really enhance those bright moonlit nights) and a solar filter for some daylight fun.

Sorry, no idea re your last question ( bear of little brain, me) but I'm loving your enthusiasm

PS I tried a GEM for awhile, but must admit I very happily returned to alt-az for my little family of small scopes. The AZ3 with slo-mo is ample ( and simple!) for my needs.

 

 

[Chadnich13]

No problem Ghost! Thats what im thinking too. I just ordered the sky and telescope pocket atlas so excited for that to get here. Also printed off some very helpful PDFs from other threads on here about star hopping, locating things in the night sky, and Collimation. Read those today and i'm going to continue to read as i practice the techniques while observing. Also found an amazing chart online of the top 650 deep sky objects and theire constellations, magnitudes, sur brightness and a couple other categorys. If you would like i can go back and find the link. Looks like the clouds will be rolling in again tonight. Debating wether or not to make my girfriend drive me about an hour and a half or so where it will be clear, but have some extensive light pollution. Most likely going to hold off and continue researching. Also reading turn left at orion which I downloaded on my phone so the images are a little small, but I have been getting alot of helpful information from there as well. Loving all the knowledge I'm getting thrown my way and just trying to retain as much as possible. Im glad I heard very on not to let cloudy nights get you frustrated. Its making the learning process much more fun, instead of just worrying about being out under the skies. Thank you again for all of your replies! If you dont mind, where are you all from so I can get an idea of what kind of skies your working with compared to mine? Good luck with your kitchen ghost! Ive worked construction on and off for the past 8 years and no how frustrating it can be sometimes.

 

Chad 

[ghostdance]

I'm in London, England. So no dark nights for me....tho now I have my Orion ST80, I plan to have it with me on any nights away (with the usual accompanying binoculars).

You're in the US, Chad? ( an utter guess based on very little!)

Edit / Aha, Pennsylvania!  

No psychic powers, I just visited your profile

The S&N Pocket Atlas is a fine book and popular here on SGL - as is TLAO, tho I'm glad I have the paper version!