Jump to content

Hi from Bavaria


Tomintoul

Recommended Posts

Evenin' All,

My name's Bob and I'm a Brit living near Munich (seems to be the Expat Bob week here :) ).  Cuurently have a SW 8" Dob that my wife bought me a few years ago when she got fed up with me saying "I'm sure that's Saturn" while looking through my Grandad's old cricketing binoculars :) (couldn't see a flaming thing through them, but they were great for watching Derbyshire play!).  We're thinking about getting an EQ mount, so you can look forward to plenty of n00b and obvious questions when I can't find something obvious through the search bar :D

Anyway, hi

Cheers

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Bob, welcome to the Lounge from me, here over in blighty.  I would avoid getting an EQ mount, they are difficult and a faff to use.  The Dob is an AZ mount and easy to use with its up-down right-left movements.  Where I have had EQ mounts I have changed them to AZ.  The trouble with an EQ mount is that looking in directions other than north you have to twist the OTA around in its retaining rings to get the focuser and the finder scope in the right position again.  Just my experience.  Clear skies!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A warm welcome, Bob, from a German stargazer and Dobsonaut!  Fascinating avatar picture - does it name the town you are living in? (In German, definitely by no means malodorous....  ? ).

Btw., some nice dark sky areas just about 10 km NNW of your location - suitable for your Dob! Have a look:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=10&lat=6219211&lon=1307602&layers=B0FFTFFFFFT

Stephan

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, Bob, and welcome to SGL.

8" dob is a nice instrument. If you only want to do visual, I would stick with the dob mount - much more intuitive. If you want to get into imaging, then you will definitely need an EQ mount, but you will probably want a whole lot of other new gear as well, including a different OTA!

Enjoy the journey.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, rwilkey said:

Hi Bob, welcome to the Lounge from me, here over in blighty.  I would avoid getting an EQ mount, they are difficult and a faff to use.  The Dob is an AZ mount and easy to use with its up-down right-left movements.  Where I have had EQ mounts I have changed them to AZ.  The trouble with an EQ mount is that looking in directions other than north you have to twist the OTA around in its retaining rings to get the focuser and the finder scope in the right position again.  Just my experience.  Clear skies!

Thanks for the welcome, all.

Robin, I hear you about the difficulties of using an EQ with the Newtonian, but figured I could knock up some rotating rings.  I'm still trying to work out what mount to get next, and was thinking of maybe getting an AZ/EQ.  Hopefully it'll give me the best of both worlds?  I can use it as an AltAz for observing and if I fancied getting into a bit of imaging down the line I'd be able to without having to lay down another chunk of cash

13 hours ago, Nyctimene said:

A warm welcome, Bob, from a German stargazer and Dobsonaut!  Fascinating avatar picture - does it name the town you are living in? (In German, definitely by no means malodorous....  ? ).

Btw., some nice dark sky areas just about 10 km NNW of your location - suitable for your Dob! Have a look:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=10&lat=6219211&lon=1307602&layers=B0FFTFFFFFT

Stephan

 

Stephan, I actually live near Erding - that picture is part of an incredibly childish collection of amusing town names I've ridden through on my travels.  I know, I'm probably too old to find that kind of thing as amusing as I do, but hey, everyone needs a hobby :)  Thanks for the link to the light pollution map - hadn't seen that before.  I'm actually lucky enough to be in a tiny village and it's nice and dark here, and just outside the village there's very little light pollution

3 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Hi, Bob, and welcome to SGL.

8" dob is a nice instrument. If you only want to do visual, I would stick with the dob mount - much more intuitive. If you want to get into imaging, then you will definitely need an EQ mount, but you will probably want a whole lot of other new gear as well, including a different OTA!

Enjoy the journey.

Hey DP, I've managed to knacker my Dob mount (don't ask how), so I've got to decide whether to repair it / build a new one or get myself a new mount.  Coincidentally, a mate of mine from Brighton sent over some shots he took of the Andromeda galaxy the other day, which got my wife thinking that she'd like to give it a go - hence the thoughts of getting an EQ mount, but I am warming to the idea of an AZ/EQ (as I mentioned).  I'll have to dig into it and see whether it is best of both worlds, or whether they just do both things not as well as dedicated mounts, if you follow what I mean.

Anyway, once again, thanks for the welcomes

Cheers

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, bobmay said:

Welcome Bob from Bob.  I lived on the Dutch German border at Laarbruch for 3 years.  Drove a few miles myself.

Hey Bob, I'm going to hazard a guess that that was RAF Laarbruch - my neighbour's from just over the border in Nijmegen.

Hey Jon, I'm already knees deep in the search function, and I can already see the answers to my first few questions being along the lines of "you need to plug it in" or "that thing on the end needs to come off before you can see anything" :)

Cheers

Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 23/11/2018 at 14:51, Tomintoul said:

Hey Jon, I'm already knees deep in the search function, and I can already see the answers to my first few questions being along the lines of "you need to plug it in" or "that thing on the end needs to come off before you can see anything" :)

Yup, sounds familiar to me! ?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.