Hi!

[Bongo]

Hi all

I'm Rob, from the East Riding of Yorkshire.

I studied astronomy over 30 years ago (and wasn't much good at it) - the little that I did master at the time, I have since forgotten.

Now I have a young son who's showing an interest in planets and stars, so I'm having to swot up a bit! Hoping folks here will be able to help me out when he stumps me with a question!

Thanks for letting me join!

[PeterCPC]

Hello Rob and welcome.

[sloz1664]

Hi Rob, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge

Steve

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you and your lad have lots of fun. 🙂

[Starwatcher2001]

Welcome to SGL Rob. Good to have you with us.

[Mr Spock]

Hi Rob, welcome to SGL 

[banjaxed]

Welcome to SGL Rob.

[PXR-5]

Hi Rob, 

Welcome to SGL

glad you joined us 😊

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Rob, welcome. 

[Bongo]

Thanks all for the warm welcome!

We're hoping our first decent* scope will arrive in time for Xmas, so we'll be out observing the first chance we get after that. Fingers crossed.

 

* OK, nothing fancy, but better than the beaten up, ancient binoculars we've been using up until now!

[Jasonb]

Welcome Rob! I'm only here a couple of days myself, but have already been made to feel welcome and have got lots of great advice.

If you haven't actually ordered a telescope yet, check out First Light Optics (FLO) sale that's currently ongoing, they have lots of good stuff at reduced prices!

[Bongo]

On 24/11/2020 at 18:45, Jasonb said:

If you haven't actually ordered a telescope yet, check out First Light Optics (FLO) sale that's currently ongoing, they have lots of good stuff at reduced prices!

Thanks for the tip - slightly too late for me though.

After much deliberation about various pro's and con's, I figured that any telescope was better than no telescope and took the plunge. I'm very happy to be sat next to a boxed up Meade Lightbridge 130 Dobsonian. https://tinyurl.com/y5nfulfb

Can't wait to give it a go!

 

[Jasonb]

Nice one! Looks like a nice scope! I'm hoping to get mine tomorrow, a similar 130 Newtonian but on an EQ mount. And then all we need are clear skies!

[Tiny Clanger]

3 minutes ago, Jasonb said:

Nice one! Looks like a nice scope! I'm hoping to get mine tomorrow, a similar 130 Newtonian but on an EQ mount. And then all we need are clear skies!

And he's not excited about the imminent delivery, no siree, totally calm, utterly zen ... 

[Bongo]

6 minutes ago, Jasonb said:

Nice one! Looks like a nice scope! I'm hoping to get mine tomorrow, a similar 130 Newtonian but on an EQ mount. And then all we need are clear skies!

Excellent! Good luck with the scope and the weather.

The forecast here suggests at least a couple of hours of clear sky around 8pm... but the current black skies and horizontal rain aren't giving me much confidence in that!

[Jasonb]

Just now, Bongo said:

Excellent! Good luck with the scope and the weather.

The forecast here suggests at least a couple of hours of clear sky around 8pm... but the current black skies and horizontal rain aren't giving me much confidence in that!

Well, fingers crossed you get to use it and see something out there!

1 minute ago, Tiny Clanger said:

And he's not excited about the imminent delivery, no siree, totally calm, utterly zen ... 

Don't you be picking on me, I'm a newbie! I'm feeling pressure now to mention my new scope in every reply I make, just so you don't think I forgot to bring it up!

[Bongo]

1 minute ago, Tiny Clanger said:

And he's not excited about the imminent delivery, no siree, totally calm, utterly zen ... 

I'm not going to play it cool - I was (and am) like a giddy schoolboy waiting for mine to arrive... I'm 48. 

[Jasonb]

2 minutes ago, Bongo said:

I'm not going to play it cool - I was (and am) like a giddy schoolboy waiting for mine to arrive... I'm 48. 

Ha, see! If he's allowed to be giddy, then so am I, especially as he's older than I am!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm 47...

[Tiny Clanger]

15 minutes ago, Jasonb said:

Well, fingers crossed you get to use it and see something out there!

Don't you be picking on me, I'm a newbie! I'm feeling pressure now to mention my new scope in every reply I make, just so you don't think I forgot to bring it up!

😀😀 You out newbie me, but not by long you know ! In every reply  to a desperate 'what should I buy for £200 '  plea, I struggle to not reply " I got a heritage 150, I love it, everyone should get a heritage 150,  it's great.  I've got one you know ..."

14 minutes ago, Bongo said:

I'm not going to play it cool - I was (and am) like a giddy schoolboy waiting for mine to arrive... I'm 48. 

Enthusiasm is great. Cool just looks brain dead to me. Something I really enjoyed when teaching 7-11 year olds was their unembarrassed enthusiasm, and the way they responded to my slightly bonkers teaching, especially when we got to do some science, It's just a shame so many people suppress their excitement.

Oh, and I'm even older than both of you  ... but often refer to myself as theoretically adult !

Edited November 30, 2020 by Tiny Clanger
Grammer and spelling, tsk tsk, must try harder ...

[Tiny Clanger]

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/367362-sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope/?tab=comments#comment-3994722

Customer return bargain, I've got one you know ...

[Jasonb]

Would have loved to go up to 150, but it was out of my price range. Looks like a lovely scope Heather, how have you found it? Any highlights in your observations?

That link is a great price, though it is without a base.

[Tiny Clanger]

I like the simplicity and solidity of the dob base, it takes a bit of getting used to making fine adjustments though. Chasing Mars across the sky with an 8mm EP you learn to shift it  in tiny increments: I find it easier to hold the circular base rather than the tube itself to do this, and there can be a skip when you overcome the initial stiction (I think that's a word! ) and the turntable bit then moves more freely . I read somewhere of folk taking the thing apart to improve the bearing surfaces with teflon, but I manage OK as it is.

The 'scope is easy to carry outside, I made a low but sturdy triangular 3 legged table from some scrap wood (recycled IKEA sofa actually, I knew the bits would come in handy ... ) to stand it on, as my garden table has cast iron sides and is too heavy to shift around. When I want the tube up higher and more horizontal  to view lower things without the fences trees etc getting in the way so much, I drag the old knock-off pseudo B&D workmate type bench from the shed, it's heavy enough to be a stable platform.

I've done the well documented easy and cheap upgrades of PFTE tape on the focuser and a 'shroud' to keep stray light out, both work well.

What highlights ? Well, the day I got it, I home too late to be able to sort the RDF aim in daylight, but unpacked the 'scope and (gasp!) actually read the instructions, then took the packaging upstairs out of the way.  I happened to glance out of the back bedroom window,  and there was Saturn, so dashed downstairs , grabbed the 'scope, took it up, plonked it on the box it had come in, lined it up by eye and had my first ever view of Saturns rings : tiny, but distinct. Given I was doing everything wrong (indoors, scope perched on wobbly box, through never washed window ... ) it gave me great hope for  what I'd see when I used it properly !

Since then (and using it properly!) I've been stunned by the Pleiades ... so many stars ! Spent hours looking at Jupiter and Saturn , and in good moments managed to make out bands of colour , although my timing has been all wrong to see the Great Red Spot, something I hope to manage. On Mars after a lot of time spent looking, the scope has shown me brief steady glimpses of features I was able to identify here https://britastro.org/node/23843  Earlier in the summer I saw the southern polar ice cap on Mars too,  altho'  that seems to have shrunk beyond my power to see it at the moment.

The planets at the start all seemed just too bright to me, the light overwhelmed any detail , I tried parking the (removable) lens from some cheap cycling glasses atop the eyepieces and found it helped , so bought a Celestron 'moon filter' for £5 from Amazon, it's not wonderful, I'd probably have done better to get one of the two rotatable polarizer ones which allow you to adjust how much light gets through, but they were out of stock ... I've also bought a set of ultra cheap coloured filters from China to play with, and the orange & yellow have been good for bringing out Martian detail.

Uranus showed as a tiny bluish disc , when I eventually managed to find the blighter, but I've still not managed Neptune , it is in an inconvenient part of the sky for me, at the moment, everything there apart from the brightest planets is drowned out by street lights  I've seen a dozen or so Messier objects  too, and the Moon shows just amazing detail : craters within craters, rills, and the fascinating way the view changes night to night with the angle of light skimming the terminator and showing the relief, But while they are in the sky to see, the planets have been where I've spent most of my time.

And I've only just begun ...

[Jasonb]

Excellent Heather, it sounds really cool! I was chasing Neptune a couple of nights ago with binoculars, but that was a lost cause. I think the first time I look at a planet in the scope and see a small disc instead of a point of light will be pretty amazing. After I bought the 130 Heritage (for approx. 21 hours before I changed it for the StarQuest 130) I did a bit of research, and the PFTE tape and shroud were mentioned a lot. The tape seems easy, the shroud maybe a little more fiddly. In the end I was delighted to get the StarQuest instead, as it was the one I'd decided on originally. A quick question, using something like a 8-10mm eyepiece, how long does Mars etc. stay in view? A few seconds? A minute? I'm assuming it 'moves' quicker in a 10mm than it would in a 25mm, as you're more zoomed in?

That's a great website on what to look for on Mars, nice one! I reckon I'll end up getting a few bits and pieces, (Barlow, Eye Pieces, Filters etc.) but I'll see how I get on with the 25mm and 10mm first. 

Did I mention I should be getting it tomorrow?

P.S. Sorry Rob, for hijacking your thread!

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by Jasonb

[Tiny Clanger]

On 30/11/2020 at 21:19, Jasonb said:

Excellent Heather, it sounds really cool! I was chasing Neptune a couple of nights ago with binoculars, but that was a lost cause. I think the first time I look at a planet in the scope and see a small disc instead of a point of light will be pretty amazing. After I bought the 130 Heritage (for approx. 21 hours before I changed it for the StarQuest 130) I did a bit of research, and the PFTE tape and shroud were mentioned a lot. The tape seems easy, the shroud maybe a little more fiddly. In the end I was delighted to get the StarQuest instead, as it was the one I'd decided on originally.

That's a great website on what to look for on Mars, nice one! I reckon I'll end up getting a few bits and pieces, (Barlow, Eye Pieces, Filters etc.) but I'll see how I get on with the 25mm and 10mm first.

Your starquest 130 has a 650mm focal length, very similar to the heritage 150 which is 750mm, so your magnification with the bundled eyepieces should be very similar, and what I've seen, you can (clouds permitting ) The eyepieces are tolerable to start with, sensible to wait and see how you get on with them, as lots of folk say, the 25mm is not bad, but you might find the 10mm the first thing you decide to replace. I'd done my research and wanted a BST starguider 12mm, but guess what ? They were out of stock . I managed to track down an 8mm at 'The Sky's The Limit' and bought that instead, it is an enormous improvement but too expensive for me to think about buying more new BSTs.

If you can get hold of some closed cell foam (cheap camping mat is what I used initially) make a dew shield out of it and some string or tape to stick out in front of the 'scope like a lens hood on a camera lens, its a cheap easy addition.

I've found loads of free printable stuff (mostly in PDF form) on the internet , a whole book about the Moon, star maps , Messier lists with diagrams, star atlases ... perhaps the best thing for me, wanting to see some of everything but needing it to be easy, is the Moore Winter Marathon , if you've not seen that I'll find the link .

On 30/11/2020 at 21:19, Jasonb said:

Did I mention I should be getting it tomorrow?

I think I may have read something to that effect ....

One sleep to Telescopemas ! 🔭

Heather

Edited December 2, 2020 by Tiny Clanger
failed to qote previous post correctly