My first report

[Jasonb]

Cool, thanks for those details, I appreciate it! Definitely think just focusing on one subject and watching it for a while can be very rewarding. I'm also getting used to the slow motion controls, though I have noticed that I tend to need both to keep things in view. And if I rotate the OTA in the rings at all, for a better angle of viewing, I think that also changes the orientation on the EP (I *think* it does, am I right in that assumption?) which means I've a slightly different orientation to get used to. But the slow motion controls are definitely very handy. I did the maths and you were basically at what, 187.5x; the 8mm BST with a 2.25 Barlow will give me 183x, so definitely within my reach!

I have noticed that the image in my scope is pretty shaky, I think that's down to the tripod, so I'm guessing that's another potential upgrade further in the future some day!

Edited December 13, 2020 by Jasonb

[Paz]

Great report - you have covered a lot of ground there!

[Tiny Clanger]

🙃😀

53 minutes ago, Jasonb said:

Cool, thanks for those details, I appreciate! Definitely think just focusing on one subject and watching it for a while can be very rewarding. I'm also getting used to the slow motion controls, though I have noticed that I tend to need both to keep things in view. And if I rotate the OTA in the rings at all, for a better angle of viewing, I think that also changes the orientation on the EP (I *think* it does, am I right in that assumption?) which means I've a slightly different orientation to get used to. But the slow motion controls are definitely very handy. I did the maths and you were baiscally at what, 187.5x, the 8mm BST with a 2.25 Barlow will give me 183x, so definitely within my reach!

I have noticed that the image in my scope is pretty shaky, I think that's down to the tripod, so I'm guessing that's another potential upgrade further in the future some day!

 Yep, mak and 8mm last night at 187x, remarkably tho' the dust storm light patch showed itself on the mak with a 17mm plossl , only 88x !

Old photographers trick (yes, I am an old photographer ... ) if a tripod is wobbly, try hanging a bag of bricks/rocks/tins of beans/whatever off the centre , it can be surprisingly effective. I don't imagine your 'scope tripod has a convenient centre point like the column of a photo tripod, but you should be able to bodge something up.

Rotating the 'scope in the rings, hmm , not a think I need to contend with !  I'll have a guess and say is it like tilting your head ? The primary obviously is the same however you turn it, and the secondary just relays that to the EP, but you are changing the angle of your view compared to the ground .... now I've confused myself ... someone will be along with more spatial awareness and a proper answer later I'm sure ! 🙃

[Tiny Clanger]

Oh, and your mount is an EQ isn't it ? In which case when polar aligned (even approximately) and set to your latitude it should let you track with just one adjustment to keep  on top of.

[Jasonb]

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

🙃😀

 Yep, mak and 8mm last night at 187x, remarkably tho' the dust storm light patch showed itself on the mak with a 17mm plossl , only 88x !

Old photographers trick (yes, I am an old photographer ... ) if a tripod is wobbly, try hanging a bag of bricks/rocks/tins of beans/whatever off the centre , it can be surprisingly effective. I don't imagine your 'scope tripod has a convenient centre point like the column of a photo tripod, but you should be able to bodge something up.

Rotating the 'scope in the rings, hmm , not a think I need to contend with !  I'll have a guess and say is it like tilting your head ? The primary obviously is the same however you turn it, and the secondary just relays that to the EP, but you are changing the angle of your view compared to the ground .... now I've confused myself ... someone will be along with more spatial awareness and a proper answer later I'm sure ! 🙃

Yeah, I read about hanging something off it, I'm gonna get some cord and a 2lt milk carton with water in it and see how it goes, should be able to hang something off the little tray that is between the tripod legs.

I've confused myself too about whether rotating the OTA within its rings changes the orientation of the view I get through the eyepiece or not, but I just did a very quick test indoors, without even using the eyepiece, and yes, if I rotate the tube, then the view I see through the focuser rotates as well, so that does change orientation!

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Oh, and your mount is an EQ isn't it ? In which case when polar aligned (even approximately) and set to your latitude it should let you track with just one adjustment to keep  on top of.

Yep, it's an EQ mount, but you're able to set the angle to 90 degrees and set it up so that it works like Alt-Az, so that's how I've been using it so far!

Edited December 13, 2020 by Jasonb

[Tiny Clanger]

I don't know how that little tray is attached to your tripod, if it's as flimsy a set of little fold up brackets posing as spreaders as on the elderly version of an EQ1 the Celesrton 114 I inherited has, I'd not trust them to take a couple of kilos of water .... if there are holes in the tray for EPs to stand on, I'd tie the cord higher up somewhere round the centre, drop it through one of the EP holes as close as possible to the centre line, then tie the weight on so it hangs as low as you can, even touching the ground, you want the centre of gravity as low as possible . 

Also the shorter the tripod legs can be, the steadier the scope will be. Trouble with that is you probably need to sit down to use it, and (in my little garden anyway ) your surroundings may then block too much of the view.

[Jasonb]

Yes, good points, I'll need to check how much weight the tray and its supports could take. From what I remember the tray screws on to the three supports, which are all connected to each other as well, but I'll still test it to see.

The first couple of times I used the tripod I had it at the smallest height, thinking like you say that it would be steadier. But also as you say, it's far more comfortable for me to have it at full height so I can stand, and the back garden wall and other houses block out less of the sky the higher I have the telescope.

In the end though, I know a stronger steadier tripod would be a long term upgrade plan if I keep at this for a year or two, right now I have enough to be getting on with, especially when I get the Barlow and one or two eyepeices.

Am now waiting for more clear skies to start on the 50 Moore Marathon items though obviously I'll have seen some of them already. I was thinking that once I have that done I will have by default made a start on the Messier Catalog, so I might as well continue on that. If I can get both of them done then I should know my equipment, and the skies, a good bit better!

Edited December 15, 2020 by Jasonb

[Tiny Clanger]

On 13/12/2020 at 19:36, Jasonb said:

Any chance you have a pic of your 150 with the Dew Shield, just want to get an idea of how it looks, how long it is etc.?

 

Here's the heritage 150 extended ,  first pic. no dew shield in place, just the shroud (which I stuck together as you can see with duct tape, when it eventually tears I'll make a neater one now I know what glue to use to make the tube) Then on the right, with dew shield added. It looks a bit lumpy and out of circular because the front ring has moulded protrusions to hold the ends of the rods that do the sliding open/closed thing.

     

 

Quite possibly overkill, but while I was playing with bits of foam and glue, I made a tiny dew shield for the finderscope , here it is stored slid back along the tube for storage, then deployed by my beautiful assistant :

[Jasonb]

Excellent, thanks for.posting that, it's good to have a sense of how long the dew shield is!