StellaLyra 10" f/5 Dobsonian - essential accessories?

[Dadders]

In a few weeks times, I'll finally have my own home and be able to start my lifelong ambition of astronomy as a hobby.

After some mulling I've decided to go to pick up a StellaLyra 10" f/5 Dobsonian as my scope and with ~£100 left in my budget I wondered what would be the best accessories to start me off? I've already got a Rigel Quikfinder on order so that's covered. I was thinking perhaps a nice eyepiece? The scope comes with 9mm and a 30mm eyepieces which are supposedly pretty reasonable. What would be a good peice to round those out? Any other essential items I should consider?

[Orange Smartie]

If you don't already have it and you're starting out, a copy of Turn Left at Orion is worth buying.

[Dadders]

2 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

If you don't already have it and you're starting out, a copy of Turn Left at Orion is worth buying.

I picked up a copy at the weekend and spent most of yesterday plowing through it. I'm very excited to try making out M31 in a few weeks time!

[Orange Smartie]

How about an observing chair? If if your budget doesn't run to that, something to stand the telescope on. I use a water butt (barrel) stand. Unless you're Danny DeVito, in which case, a stepladder!

[Dadders]

Haha, luckily I'm not quite that short. I've got some garden furniture that might do in a pinch but I'll take a look at observing chairs, thanks! 

[Orange Smartie]

You'll also need something to collimate (align) the optics, as you'll probably find things will move about a bit. There are various ways do this, from laser collimators to a simple collimation cap. I have a cap (came with my little telescope) and a cheapo cheshire collimator from eBay (cost about £10). The latter seems to work ok in my hands. And before you actually do any collimating, checkout the interweb for guides on how to do this.

[Dadders]

Ahh great suggestion, I'll add those to the list!

[Ratlet]

When you do collimate, do not loosen more than one screw at a time!  Loosen one to get some give then tighten the others to adjust the collimation.  If you loosen 2 at a time the secondary can rotate which means you've just given yourself an extra step to do.

I'd get a cheap sketchbook with thick stock paper.  It'll be good for making observation notes and the thick card will help it not get dewed up.  You should also get a cheap compass (for drawing circles) and a cheap sketch kit so you can do some sketching.  That's £20.  Sketching DSO's is super fun and I find I can see more detail.  You might want to get a cheap head torch and put something in to dim it right down too (cheap gel filters, plastic sweet wrappers, etc).  So dim so it illuminates the sketchpad but not bright enough to illuminate the ground.  We'll call that another £10.  Your sketches will probably look awful, mine do, but it's a nice kick the next morning to match it up to Stellarium (or Cart Du Ciel).  I'll add that I've done a grand total of 3 sketches, but I'm enjoying it imensely.

Next get some black 2mm craft foam and some sticky back velcro to make a dew shield for the quickfinder.  Might just be my location, but mine dews up badly some nights.  I don't use my finder anymore because I prefer the quickfinder and 32mm plossl in the scope so the quickfinder dewing up is fairly inconvenient.  You could get a dew heater but honestly as bad as my quickfinder got my telephoto lens I had out was completely untouched with a lens hood.

If you get another sky atlas (or print your own from Carte Du Ciel) you can use some of the leftover craft foam to make a circle the same size as the view through your 30mm plossl to overlay on the star chart to make things easier for navigating.  The first post in the link below has a file "Locating Objects in the Night Sky.pdf"  which shows what I mean:

https://stargazerslounge.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=105353

In fact if you ignore everything else I post, check out the guide.  It is super useful.

Now, we've blown about £30 and we've got £70 left.  The next thing you should do is wait for your scope to arrive and get out and observe with what you've got.  I bought a barlow and a zoom eyepiece with my scope and I've hardly touched them.  With hindsight I would rather have waited and gotten a shorter focal length EP and some thicker socks.  Excercise patience and pretty soon you'll know exactly what you need.

EDIT:  Forgot to add, one thing I find incredibly handy is a small folding table to setup by the scope!  I use Habitat Single Folding Tray Table from Argos.  It's £16, a good height and is a reasonable size.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Ratlet

[Mr Spock]

I'd second a laser collimator. I collimate my scope every session and the laser works just fine. I've yet to need any adjustment from a star test.

[Dadders]

28 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

When you do collimate, do not loosen more than one screw at a time!  Loosen one to get some give then tighten the others to adjust the collimation.  If you loosen 2 at a time the secondary can rotate which means you've just given yourself an extra step to do.

I'd get a cheap sketchbook with thick stock paper.  It'll be good for making observation notes and the thick card will help it not get dewed up.  You should also get a cheap compass (for drawing circles) and a cheap sketch kit so you can do some sketching.  That's £20.  Sketching DSO's is super fun and I find I can see more detail.  You might want to get a cheap head torch and put something in to dim it right down too (cheap gel filters, plastic sweet wrappers, etc).  So dim so it illuminates the sketchpad but not bright enough to illuminate the ground.  We'll call that another £10.  Your sketches will probably look awful, mine do, but it's a nice kick the next morning to match it up to Stellarium (or Cart Du Ciel).  I'll add that I've done a grand total of 3 sketches, but I'm enjoying it imensely.

Next get some black 2mm craft foam and some sticky back velcro to make a dew shield for the quickfinder.  Might just be my location, but mine dews up badly some nights.  I don't use my finder anymore because I prefer the quickfinder and 32mm plossl in the scope so the quickfinder dewing up is fairly inconvenient.  You could get a dew heater but honestly as bad as my quickfinder got my telephoto lens I had out was completely untouched with a lens hood.

If you get another sky atlas (or print your own from Carte Du Ciel) you can use some of the leftover craft foam to make a circle the same size as the view through your 30mm plossl to overlay on the star chart to make things easier for navigating.  The first post in the link below has a file "Locating Objects in the Night Sky.pdf"  which shows what I mean:

https://stargazerslounge.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=105353 360.7 kB · 6,499 downloads

In fact if you ignore everything else I post, check out the guide.  It is super useful.

Now, we've blown about £30 and we've got £70 left.  The next thing you should do is wait for your scope to arrive and get out and observe with what you've got.  I bought a barlow and a zoom eyepiece with my scope and I've hardly touched them.  With hindsight I would rather have waited and gotten a shorter focal length EP and some thicker socks.  Excercise patience and pretty soon you'll know exactly what you need.

EDIT:  Forgot to add, one thing I find incredibly handy is a small folding table to setup by the scope!  I use Habitat Single Folding Tray Table from Argos.  It's £16, a good height and is a reasonable size.

Thanks for the extensive feedback! I've got a nice thick stock sketchbook in a box somewhere - I'll dig it out and get sketching  I'll look into a red head torch to go with it too.

Thanks for the tip on the quickfinder too! Kind of surprising they don't come like that as stock really but it's easily remedied.

And yes, you're probably right about testing the scope out first and just being patient! I've never been the best at biding my time and I've been wanting a scope and a garden to use it in for a lifetime but you're right - another few weeks of waiting won't hurt me!

[Guest]

I have that same scope branded as an Orion Skyline.  Just tape the debit card to it and close your eyes.  The accessories you can get for it is an endless line of goodies.  

Dew control will be an issue. You can make a dew shield for a little bit of nothing.  Here they just delay the inevitable and i have a complete heating system.  

If you have not done it find a scope with a RACI finder and give it a try.  I find them so much easier to use then other finders.  Of course this is just my preference.  I have paired my finder with a green laser pointer.  Great way to get on the bright stuff quickly, you do have to be mindful of things flying around.  

Think about a setting circle and a angle gauge.  Once you figure out how to use them finding stuff becomes fairly quick and easy.  

Replace the secondary screws with thumbscrews, so much easier to align.  No tools necessary.  The springs under the primary, you may want to replace them with a stiffer spring.  Combined with the thumbscrews collimation holds so much better. 

Whatever you decide, concentrate on what makes the scope easier to use for you. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Mike Q

[cajen2]

The StellaLyra already comes with a RACI finder, Mike.

The setting circle and angle gauge are a good shout if you have the patience! 😄 Mike lives in a very humid area, so try a few nights out first before shelling out on a complete dew heater system. I have the 8" SL and don't have many dew problems.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

The StellaLyra already comes with a RACI finder, Mike.

The setting circle and angle gauge are a good shout if you have the patience! 😄 Mike lives in a very humid area, so try a few nights out first before shelling out on a complete dew heater system. I have the 8" SL and don't have many dew problems.

I didn't look to see what comes with it.  Probably should have.  I have seen that scope with straight through finders and reflex sights.  Just depends on who sells it as to what is included with it 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Mike Q

[Orange Smartie]

8 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

The StellaLyra already comes with a RACI finder, Mike.

The setting circle and angle gauge are a good shout if you have the patience! 😄 Mike lives in a very humid area, so try a few nights out first before shelling out on a complete dew heater system. I have the 8" SL and don't have many dew problems.

Likewise, no issues with dew for me except on the finder. I got round that by making a tube out of some stiff paper I found lying around. I just slide it on when I take the scope out and remove it at the end of the evening.

[Spile]

A Cheshire eyepiece and sight tube combination tool for aligning your secondary and a cap for your primary would be my recommendation as per https://astro.catshill.com/collimation-guide/

Other accessories elsewhere on the blog.

[Ricochet]

I know it is a lot of the budget but I would recommend the Stellalyra premium Cheshire if you are going to buy one. The quality and accuracy of construction is top drawer and once bought you will never need to upgrade it. 

I would also recommend looking into getting an adjustable observing chair. I use a drum stool with my dob, and if you go down this route look for one that spins up and down to adjust rather than one where you have to align a pin with a hole in the dark. You can also get astronomy observing chairs but one of these will probably use up your budget even on the second hand market. 

If you want an eyepiece then sub-£100 options are a bit more limited these days due to price rises. The 5/8/12 Starguiders or 5/7/9/12 X-Cel LXs would be good options. The APM UFF/Celestron Ultima edge should work well a bit over budget for the shorter ones and quite a bit for the longer. OVL Nirvanas are good for the money, but the range is quite limited. 

[Ratlet]

7 hours ago, Orange Smartie said:

Likewise, no issues with dew for me except on the finder. I got round that by making a tube out of some stiff paper I found lying around. I just slide it on when I take the scope out and remove it at the end of the evening.

I think somone once told me that Newtonians are there own dew shield.  Last session I was out everything was so wet I ended up just using the wet on the outside of my Newtonian to stick the finder charts to the tube like wallpaper and then peeled them off when I was done.  Good job I used works laser jet to print them.

This thread also gave me the push to sort the dew problems I have had so far (quickfinder and guidescope on my imaging rig).   Craft foam and superglue.

[Louis D]

I've never had dewing problems inside or out with the Sonotube exterior of my Dob.  It must be something about metal tubes.  We regularly have dew points just below 80 degrees F, so it's not like it's a desert here.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I think somone once told me that Newtonians are there own dew shield.  Last session I was out everything was so wet I ended up just using the wet on the outside of my Newtonian to stick the finder charts to the tube like wallpaper and then peeled them off when I was done.  Good job I used works laser jet to print them.

This thread also gave me the push to sort the dew problems I have had so far (quickfinder and guidescope on my imaging rig).   Craft foam and superglue.

I don't know what it would take to dew over a primary mirror, but the secondary is another matter completely.  I have lost nights to dew in as little as 45 minutes.  A dew shield might work for you, for me here, that just delays the inevitable, so heaters it is.  

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Louis D said:

I've never had dewing problems inside or out with the Sonotube exterior of my Dob.  It must be something about metal tubes.  We regularly have dew points just below 80 degrees F, so it's not like it's a desert here.

Next time i am out i will send you pictures of my tube.  It goes from dry to soaked in a couple of hours. 

[Louis D]

I wonder if wrapping the tube in an insulating blanket would help prevent dew formation on the tube as discussed in the below thead:

Here's an SCT entirely wrapped in insulation on CN:

[Guest]

You see people wrapping scopes.  They claim it works.