Aperture Fever!

[Mr niall]

On ‎26‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 13:44, niallk said:

 Congrats!! 

It's really not my fault - 300p flextube, with baader laser collimator and full astrozap shroud and all original accessories for £460. I'd have never forgiven myself if i didnt get it. And i've been trying to see M51 from my back garden for two years so if this doesn't work....

Edited June 14, 2019 by Mr niall

[Geoff Barnes]

1 hour ago, Mr niall said:

Well having poo-poo'd the practicality of big scopes as recently as 48 hours ago, I've just gone and bought a 300p flextube... I hate this forum sometimes... ??

Welcome to the club, you know it makes sense!  Really a great all round scope. 

[niallk]

50 minutes ago, Mr niall said:

It's really not my fault - 300p flextube, with baader laser collimator and full astrozap shroud and all original accessories for £360. I'd have never forgiven myself if i didnt get it. And i've been trying to see M51 from my back garden for two years so if this doesn't work....

Wow, great deal! Ha ha, yeah M51 & its spiral arms can be elusive I've seen the spiral arms from my back garden with my 15" on transparent nights, but really want to see what they are like from a very dark site.  In addition to  galaxies, globs & planetary nebs will be amazing with increased aperture!

[estwing]

2 hours ago, niallk said:

Wow, great deal! Ha ha, yeah M51 & its spiral arms can be elusive I've seen the spiral arms from my back garden with my 15" on transparent nights, but really want to see what they are like from a very dark site.  In addition to  galaxies, globs & planetary nebs will be amazing with increased aperture!

This.

[quaoar]

Save yourselves it's too late for me! ?

I recently found out a Hubble optics 40" mirror costs around $US30k so that's got me thinking "hmmm if I spread it over five years and build everything myself and keep my old car and don't go on holidays and eat frugally yep totally doable"

[Ags]

On 25/04/2019 at 20:40, ollypenrice said:

I ran a 20 inch Dob here for about 14 years but it was F4.1 and didn't give anything like as good a planetary image as our TEC140 Apo

You don't run the dob any more? Also, there are far too many ones and fours in that sentence! ?

[MoonNut]

Quote:    I recently found out a Hubble optics 40" mirror costs around $US30k so that's got me thinking "hmmm if I spread it over five years and build everything myself and keep my old car and don't go on holidays and eat frugally yep totally doable"

 

Hey Mate, don't forget, you can always sell a kidney 

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

You don't run the dob any more? Also, there are far too many ones and fours in that sentence! ?

No, I sold it because I wanted the space (the only space I have left) to build a remote shed for Tom O'Donoghue. In truth it was not getting much use since we installed a 14 inch GoTo SCT. This has proved more popular with our visual observers. (By the way, the Dob was bought by the guys who are running the Deep Sky Chile project http://www.deepskychile.com/fr/ though it will be staying in France for their recreational use.)

Olly

Edited April 28, 2019 by ollypenrice

[Mr Spock]

There's nothing I'd like better than a huge Dob. Sadly the LP here is so bad it would be a complete waste. This is why I stick to planets and have my trusty C9.25.

[quaoar]

52 minutes ago, MoonNut said:

Quote:    I recently found out a Hubble optics 40" mirror costs around $US30k so that's got me thinking "hmmm if I spread it over five years and build everything myself and keep my old car and don't go on holidays and eat frugally yep totally doable"

 

Hey Mate, don't forget, you can always sell a kidney 

Good thinking - ok 40" binodob it is then ?

[Paul73]

4 hours ago, MoonNut said:

Quote:    I recently found out a Hubble optics 40" mirror costs around $US30k so that's got me thinking "hmmm if I spread it over five years and build everything myself and keep my old car and don't go on holidays and eat frugally yep totally doable"

 

Hey Mate, don't forget, you can always sell a kidney 

Looking at the scope collection, this gentleman ran out of kidneys some time ago. I’m loving the outrageous bino-scope. A big scope for each eye!

Edited April 28, 2019 by Paul73

[JohnSadlerAstro]

23 hours ago, MoonNut said:

Hey Mate, don't forget, you can always sell a kidney 

I would advise against this, I caught a nasty cold after selling three of mine to buy an neq6. 

I wonder how small the fov would be on that 40in though?

John

 

[faulksy]

to the original poster, i see you live in liverpool. have you thought about taking your scope to somewhere dark. it will make a massive difference

[SIDO]

My biggest scope was 16" and that hit it for me, I would say for visual go as big as you are willing to port move lift  or house as long as your heart is in it on scale with the apertures you choose.

Astronomy Cameras and Night Vision equipment can add many inches to a given aperture so if you have a dual purpose visual/eaa (electronic assisted astronomy) 8" telescope you will see far more than someone using a much larger aperture for visual only (especially with light pollution). For a user like this one a small/medium aperture telescope may completely satisfy the need for further aperture.

Travel to a darksite will also help you see more with less, gas is cheap if a darksite is close by.

Starting out folks often buy smaller more reasonable scopes that are usually quite forgiving with faster cool down times, easy setup and are quite workable and rewarding to use, going up in aperture it's good to keep one of those small scopes available as the larger apertures will have you reminded of how handy and useable they were/are.

Best of Luck and Clear Skies Everyone...

                            Freddie.

Edited April 29, 2019 by SIDO

[Timebandit]

 

 

Bigger is not always better with the faint fuzzy hunting.

A smaller aperture under truly Dark Sky's will out perform a larger aperture in a light polluted area.

The 8 inch Newt I have at a dark site will best my 14" Dob at a light effected area on the faint fuzzy .

Best of all I can have the smaller newt in the car and going in a couple of minutes. The larger Dob takes Sooo much more time and effort to move. And you have the same problems at the dark site and at packing up time. 

A truly Dark site can really make the most of a smaller aperture .

 

 

 

[KP82]

For me 5 inch is the biggest I'd go for refractors and 8 inch for newt. Portability, ease of handling and quick setup are the top priorities here based on personal experience. I find that if a scope takes too much effort/time to set up and it feels awkward and uncomfortable to handle, I'll not use it as often as I'd want to.

[Ledge1962]

I started with a 4", then went to a 10" SCT and now a 14" Dob. I have a good area in New Zealand that doesn't suffer from light pollution, and have a good view of the sky so I do not need to move them, so housing them gave me the freedom to go to whatever size I could afford. I have looked at 16" but the change from 14 to 16 is not worth it, so a 22" will probably be next.  If I had gone straight to a 22, it would have been a lot cheaper and then I could have started saving for the 36".  Aperture fever is very contagious. 

[Ags]

Turns out the biggest I want to go is a 5-inch mak and a 3-inch frac.

People also get aperture fever with eyepieces, chasing after enormous 2 inch and even 3 inch hand grenades, but I don't want to go bigger than 1.25 inch there either. ?

And some people even get aperture fever over finder scopes. My finder scope is 80mm, so i definitely have that form of the fever...

[kirkster501]

Some of the best views you'll ever get are with a 3" refractor.  There is a reason that Sir Patrick always raved about this scope.

[andrew s]

3 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Some of the best views you'll ever get are with a 3" refractor.  There is a reason that Sir Patrick always raved about this scope.

...and why he also had larger ones.

Regards Andrew 

[kirkster501]

Just now, andrew s said:

...and why he also had larger ones.

Regards Andrew 

Very true.  I don't think he ever had anything humongous though.  I seem to recall a 12" or maybe a 16" reflector.  He was such an experienced observer that he could wring every ounce of benefit out of a scope.

[Grotemobile]

On ‎28‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 08:43, Mr Spock said:

There's nothing I'd like better than a huge Dob. Sadly the LP here is so bad it would be a complete waste. This is why I stick to planets and have my trusty C9.25.

Same here. Got rid of the C11 & bought the CPC 800 HD. The amount of use I have had out 

of this scope. So easy to set up use. The optics are so good. Worth the extra dosh. 

[estwing]

3 hours ago, Timebandit said:

 Bigger is not always better with the faint fuzzy hunting.

Since when?...I'm constantly toying taking my Telementor to Elan instead I have to make do with the 18"...

[Timebandit]

14 minutes ago, estwing said:

Since when?...I'm constantly toying taking my Telementor to Elan instead I have to make do with the 18"...

 

Try a 14" in light polluted area, and then a 8" at Elan. The Faint fuzzies pop . 

Aperture rules only when you have the Dark Sky's to benefit from all that extra aperture (for faint fuzzies) .

In my opinion Dark Sky's Rule ?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Timebandit

[Stu]

35 minutes ago, estwing said:

Since when?...I'm constantly toying taking my Telementor to Elan instead I have to make do with the 18"...

I think we can all agree that the biggest dob under the darkest sky will give the best results for deep sky objects Calvin. The issue is having the means and time to transport the scope to those sites, so if all you can fit in the car is an 8", it's surely better to get that to your dark site than nothing?