Credit Crunch Astronomy - Some hopefully useful tips

[NickH]

I got involved in the making of a mirror for the Hampshire Astro Group back in the 80's. My god there was a lot of hard work required and the first attempt was found to have a turned down edge. It was a good experience at the time and made good financial sense back then as the cost of buying an 8" scope was beyond most peoples (definitely mine) means. But these days the cost incentive is not really there with good options for a secondhand 6", 8" and 10" dob at such bargain prices. Building from scratch now would be more about the experience and satisfaction.

Playing the secondhand market is a great way to beat the crunch. I just picked up a Lumicon OIII filter for £22 delivered. A crazy price.

Russ

It's more the joy of doing it.... visit the Herschel Museum and see how it used to be done...but yes, second hand prices are astonishing these days..

[russ]

Hmm i'm not sure it was an entirely enjoyable experience. Well perhaps it was to start with but the enthusiasm tailed off. Certainly satisfying when complete.

[NickH]

Few more to add

1: Need a laptop for imaging? refurb laptops from companies like laptopsdirect (and no i have no association with them, I just own 4 laptops, which cost £100 ish a pop for all my daily chores), work fine. They will image deep sky/planetary high frame rate easily and just work. In cold weather the lack of real moving parts seems to help too.. imaging (aquisition) and guideing are not massively processor intensive, and the ASUS900 is more than capable of anything you chuck at it

2: Stand alone autoguiders cost £500 a pop...for £80 a second hand DSI-C coupled with a GPUSB and aforementioned laptop, and you've saved £300 almost, and have a perfect image/image processing machine with a 10 hour battery life in the field, that is as compact as a small hand bag

[Dandobi]

Some great advice, many thanks!

Been watching the sky for about 6months and not been able to afford the scope I want (currently saving for a 12in dobs) so I've just been learning the night sky. Bought myself 'Turn Left at Orion' and subscribed to Sky at Night. Can't endorse them enough and so surprised at what you can see with the naked eye or low power bins. Learning the night sky has become invaluable!

Marc

[angusb1]

I can recommend patient searching of ebay. I got my 10" newtonian and EQ mount for £145. Another £90 has got me 3 plossls and a barlow. There are definately bargains to be had.

[blacksaltire]

bit of a rant there mate ! but i agree !

[oshb5]

Me too

[gedmac]

very informative and sound advice thanks:icon_salut:

[rll1288]

Just came across the posts and must say it has some great points that make so much sense......Cheers

[smulx]

Good read, thanks!

[WayneR]

Excellent advice - thanks guys.

[NickH]

So so pleased that people are getting value from this thread. In these times, it's also great we have a hobby that once you're set up will keep you happy with no additional investment for decades!

[moonraker1234]

Looks like very sound, well balanced advice to me!

[garethmob]

Very good and useful advice! Already got the hat n coat!!!

[delsix]

Thanks for all the good advice.

[Mez7000]

Need an IR torch - here's the credit crunch version

1 x Small torch

Quality Street / Roses

Elastic Band

Use the wrapper from the strawberry version of the chocolate sweets. Place wrapper of the end of the torch and secure with the elastic band, and whilst stargazing, eat the quality streets when hungry

I have an LED torch I bought some time ago and this method works a treat and you also have a multi functional torch too!!

Potential Saving - £16

[ozwebuk]

And don't forget Stellarium< One of the most impressive pieces of free software ever.

[WayneR]

Totally agree there ozwebuk - wouldn't be without it :-)!

[phw26]

Great advice, thanks

[phw26]

Good excuse to eat chocolets:)

[S.A.M]

Great advice Nick:hello2:

[yorks]

Not sure if these have been mentioned but 7dayshop.com binoculars are cheap and surprisingly good for the money

[Nikki82]

This is a great post, I'll definitely be taking up some of these tips

[svetimas]

I'll really must to do number 8:

8: Do some outreach. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more enjoyable than watching someone who has never seen the Moon, Saturn, Venus, a globular cluster or some other wonder of the sky, and the look on their face, when you show them and explain what it is they are looking at.

[chrismills]

Ubuntu is the budget operating system of the moment. Easy to install and completely free. With a bit of work will run all your windows software. Download the live CD and you can give it a try without making any permanent changes to you PC