Hello from Sweden

[SwiMatt]

Hey all, I just joined after seeing so many useful threads on here!

I'm Matt and I live on the West Coast of Sweden, but am originally from Switzerland. As a teenager I enjoyed stargazing with the naked eye, but only recently I got into it more seriously and bought myself a pair of binoculars - planning to buy a telescope after the summer. The binoculars have been giving me such pleasure and I'm not in a rush to expand for now - also because the sky won't get too dark for another 2 or 3 months...

I'm looking forward to participating in this community!

[carastro]

Welcome Matt, bet you have lovely dark skies.

Carole 

 

 

[bosun21]

Welcome to SGL Matt.

 

[davhei]

Welcome Matt! I spent a lot of time with binoculars and star charts as well. Great fun.

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[Albir phil]

Welcome Matt enjoy the sky with binoculars,they will help you find your way around the sky.

[cajen2]

Hi Matt and a warm welcome to the Lounge. Have you decided what scope you want or can we help you spend your money?😆

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun. 🙂

[Guest]

Welcome from Ohio is the USofA

[SwiMatt]

6 hours ago, carastro said:

Welcome Matt, bet you have lovely dark skies.

Carole 

 

 

Somewhere, maybe, reachable by car! Unfortunately even in smaller towns they have the bad habit to put artificial lights everywhere for "safety". The open courtyard in front of my apartment is lit like a prison yard. There are even lights in the closest forest. 

 

5 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Hi Matt and a warm welcome to the Lounge. Have you decided what scope you want or can we help you spend your money?😆

I am hesitating between a "classical" dobsonian 6 or 8 inches, or a more portable set to be able to walk somewhere darker to observe, maybe an achromat with fast optics such as the SkyWatcher 102/500 or the Bresser 102/600... time will tell. But don't worry, I'll need your help in deciding how to spend money sooner rather than later 🤣

 

Thank you all for your warm welcomes! 😁

Edited May 23, 2023 by SwiMatt
Typo

[Astronomist]

4 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

Unfortunately even in smaller towns they have the bad habit to put artificial lights everywhere for "safety".

Unfortunately they do this in the UK as well, anyone would think the population was scared of the dark...

Anyhow, welcome to SGL! 😀

[SwiMatt]

3 minutes ago, Astronomist said:

Unfortunately they do this in the UK as well, anyone would think the population was scared of the dark...

Anyhow, welcome to SGL! 😀

I dream of a dark world... 😏

[Guest]

3 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Somewhere, maybe, reachable by car! Unfortunately even in smaller towns they have the bad habit to put artificial lights everywhere for "safety". The open courtyard in front of my apartment is lit like a prison yard. There are even lights in the closest forest. 

 

I am hesitating between a "classical" dobsonian 6 or 8 inches, or a more portable set to be able to walk somewhere darker to observe, maybe an achromat with fast optics such as the SkyWatcher 102/500 or the Bresser 102/600... time will tell. But don't worry, I'll need your help in deciding how to spend money sooner rather than later 🤣

 

Thank you all for your warm welcomes! 😁

You really don't want to ask that question.  We are more then happy to spend your money, but what will happen is you will get opinions based on what we like, how we observe and what we like to look at.  So the first thing you need to do is find a astro club near you and go look at scopes.  Amature astronomers will be happy to show you their kit and explain how they work.  Take time looking at different targets through different kinds of scopes.  This will tell you what you like to look at, what kind of scope works on the targets you like and how the different scopes work for you.  From there you figure out a budget of what the scope and accessories will cost.  Buy once cry once are words to live by lol.

 

And before i forget.... Aperture in this game.... is king.  

Edited May 23, 2023 by Mike Q

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @SwiMatt and welcome to SGL. 

[SwiMatt]

9 hours ago, Mike Q said:

You really don't want to ask that question.  We are more then happy to spend your money, but what will happen is you will get opinions based on what we like, how we observe and what we like to look at.  So the first thing you need to do is find a astro club near you and go look at scopes.  Amature astronomers will be happy to show you their kit and explain how they work.  Take time looking at different targets through different kinds of scopes.  This will tell you what you like to look at, what kind of scope works on the targets you like and how the different scopes work for you.  From there you figure out a budget of what the scope and accessories will cost.  Buy once cry once are words to live by lol.

 

And before i forget.... Aperture in this game.... is king.  

Thanks for this great comment! Yes, I'm planning to join the local astronomy club to get my eyes in some eyepieces 🤩 even though I've had an interest in the night sky for more than a decade, I never looked through a telescope - that will need to change very soon.

And about aperture... if I could, I would buy something large without even thinking about it too much. But aperture is also the enemy of portability - which unfortunately I have to consider because, as mentioned, my place is surrounded by artificial lights and so I will probably have to take the bus and/or walk to go anywhere to observe. Plus, I live at the third floor of a building. So maybe I'll stay away from the 24 inches for now...

[Guest]

2 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

Thanks for this great comment! Yes, I'm planning to join the local astronomy club to get my eyes in some eyepieces 🤩 even though I've had an interest in the night sky for more than a decade, I never looked through a telescope - that will need to change very soon.

And about aperture... if I could, I would buy something large without even thinking about it too much. But aperture is also the enemy of portability - which unfortunately I have to consider because, as mentioned, my place is surrounded by artificial lights and so I will probably have to take the bus and/or walk to go anywhere to observe. Plus, I live at the third floor of a building. So maybe I'll stay away from the 24 inches for now...

Yeah up and down stairs pretty much eliminates and meaningful aperture that is for sure.  I transport my 10 inch to various outreach programs in the area pretty easily, but i have the advantage of having a 4x4 truck to do it with.  

[SwiMatt]

1 hour ago, Mike Q said:

Yeah up and down stairs pretty much eliminates and meaningful aperture that is for sure.  I transport my 10 inch to various outreach programs in the area pretty easily, but i have the advantage of having a 4x4 truck to do it with.  

They told me astronomy was gonna be expensive, but not "4x4-truck expensive" 🤣

[cajen2]

Astronomy only becomes expensive if:

1. You buy expensive kit. This is NOT NECESSARY if you manage your expectations, or

2. If you get into Astrophotography. So don't! At least, not at first.

You can get a portable, high-quality rig for under £300, plus say £200 for eyepieces. It will not suffer optically, even in comparison with some very pricey stuff.

[Elp]

Welcome. If you're surrounded by light pollution I don't think you'll benefit from any aperture really which will be practical in your usage case. I mostly use in bortle 7 and have gone up to a six inch aperture scope, still can't see stuff like Hercules globular cluster, it's there but it is very very very very faint and you need to use averted vision, looking directly at it it's invisible, yet with a camera attached 10s and it's on screen. You need to assess your expectations a bit more. For solar system objects and open star fields the above scope, even my short focal length refractor are fine (open clusters are better in short focal lengths if you want to capture more of them in a single field of view). Going to a dark site transforms the experience, especially when the moon is absent, you don't realise how bright the moon is until you've experienced a dark sky location.

Edited May 24, 2023 by Elp

[SwiMatt]

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

Astronomy only becomes expensive if:

1. You buy expensive kit. This is NOT NECESSARY if you manage your expectations, or

2. If you get into Astrophotography. So don't! At least, not at first.

You can get a portable, high-quality rig for under £300, plus say £200 for eyepieces. It will not suffer optically, even in comparison with some very pricey stuff.

 From the little I've seen so far, I completely agree. And I'm not too interested in astrophotography, so that does not apply to me at the moment.

I think I start with low expectations: I never looked through a telescope - hence basically anything will be amazing for me. For many beginners like me, there is a lot of FOMO involved, as in: "sure, an 8" dobs is not very usable where I am, but WHAT IF I get to go to a dark sky?". But I realize that it's mostly due to not knowing much. Eventually, like you say, I will probably settle for a telescope that is portable and as cheap as possible, and invest e.g. in better eyepieces that will always get used 🤣

56 minutes ago, Elp said:

Welcome. If you're surrounded by light pollution I don't think you'll benefit from any aperture really which will be practical in your usage case. I mostly use in bortle 7 and have gone up to a six inch aperture scope, still can't see stuff like Hercules globular cluster, it's there but it is very very very very faint and you need to use averted vision, looking directly at it it's invisible, yet with a camera attached 10s and it's on screen. You need to assess your expectations a bit more. For solar system objects and open star fields the above scope, even my short focal length refractor are fine (open clusters are better in short focal lengths if you want to capture more of them in a single field of view). Going to a dark site transforms the experience, especially when the moon is absent, you don't realise how bright the moon is until you've experienced a dark sky location.

I figured that bortle 7 (same situation for me soon) would make any search difficult. I also feel that online one finds too much content for beginners dedicated to how to see DSOs, which pushes many to think that you need aperture to enjoy astronomy. I bought 10x50, instead of 8x42, for that exact reason, and then realized that it wouldn't really matter in polluted skies. On the other hand, I'm discovering so many other things like double stars (I split something easy like Nu Draconis last week, and it was SO exciting) but one has to search for that kind of content, and it's a shame.

[Elp]

The book Turn Left at Orion is a good place to start.

[wimvb]

Välkommen till SGL.

[cajen2]

You can split the difference between large aperture and portability with something like a Skywatcher Heritage 130p or 150p. I have the latter and I can carry it around with one hand and yet you can see plenty with it. A 6" aperture allows you to see plenty of double stars, planets and the brighter DSOs, especially if you travel to a dark site.

[SwiMatt]

40 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

You can split the difference between large aperture and portability with something like a Skywatcher Heritage 130p or 150p. I have the latter and I can carry it around with one hand and yet you can see plenty with it. A 6" aperture allows you to see plenty of double stars, planets and the brighter DSOs, especially if you travel to a dark site.

What kind of mount would that require for visual use? I'm asking because I'm concerned with weight: to me portability will probably mean more than just taking it downstairs to the backyard. Where I am, the only place that has no street lights that I could find for comfortable observation takes a 20 minutes walk to reach.

[SwiMatt]

9 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

What kind of mount would that require for visual use? I'm asking because I'm concerned with weight: to me portability will probably mean more than just taking it downstairs to the backyard. Where I am, the only place that has no street lights that I could find for comfortable observation takes a 20 minutes walk to reach.

Whoops I looked it up, no mount involved. Sorry 🤣 Would a setting like this ever be comfortable out in a field? Realistically, I will mostly go find some isolated fields out of town for my observations.