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Hi im disabled and use a wheelchair. I have limited mobility to which I need help with doing various things. I have a ETX-90 without autostar spotting scope mounted on a manfrotto heavy duty tabletop mount (I can’t remember what it’s called.) It has a trigger which I squeeze to pan the scope and It’s easy to use for me. It also has a bowl which the scope rests on to give it extra tilt. Also i've got an electronic focusser, as i can only use one hand.

I have my telesciope in the conservatory on a table that faces a window which faces south. I’m unable to get outside due to my situation so I look out of the closed window with my scope. I have seen the moon and I’ve tried to focus on Jupiter but it didn’t, it only showed a fuzzy green donut shape. I was there an hour or so focusing but it didn’t show the planet. I live near the mountains of Snowdonia in north wales and the skies are hardly ever clear here. I’m interested in stargazing and I have a few books on astronomy. Should I carry on with reading about astronomy? I can’t go out to stargaze, I’m limited to the conservatory window. If I want to find a star or nebula in the northern sky, should I look on stellarium?

Ash

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a fuzzy green donut shape

This says out of focus to me, but I can't understand why you were unable to focus, what power eyepiece were you using?

If I want to find a star or nebula in the northern sky, should I look on stellarium?

that is definitely a good idea.

You say you have a bowl to tilt the ETX, so you are only able to use the scope manually and no chance of a polar alignment. Is there no-one who could set it up outside for you. I ask this because I think something like a Minitron might be good for you as you can relay the image to a laptop, and then you are not restricted to having to have it close enough to look through.

In addition, if you were able to polar align it outside (with help), you could get and use an Autostar (you would obviously need an extra long cable), and do GOTO and tracking which would be a big step up for you. (Even progressing to imaging some of these things eventually).

Good luck in sorting something out, I hope you manage to get there in the end.

Carole

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Hi Ash,

As long as when you look through the scope you still get that "wow" feeling, i would say keep at it. Perhaps give jupiter another go. I got far too cold in december so i sat behind a window with my by far inferior 3inch reflector and managed to focus in. granted it was only a spec of light, but the moons were aligned perfectly and it was really quite a sight to behold.

wrapping up a bit and opening a window to lower the temperature of the conservatory could help too.

definitely download and have a go with stellarium but also if you just want to see what's out there, download google earth and have a look at the google sky module, it has the lot! they have even added maps for the moon and mars and i can spend numerous hours looking at all the various Apollo landing sites.

we just need some clear skies now! I myself have been waiting for over a week to try my new scope out again.

Cheers - and happy new year.

Ben

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Don't be disheartened! Astronomy can be a bit frustrating sometimes but I think once you can sort out this focussing issue you will be able to really enjoy views of planets and DSOs. Although it is often cloudy where you are when it isn't you will probably have very dark skies and this will make DSOs more visible to you than to others in more built up parts of the country. Many of us travel miles to get to places like where you live so you have an advantage there from the start.

As Carole says, if you find you are enjoying the planets and moon and want to get better views of DSOs a Mintron video camera would show you excellent views of DSOs through your telescope using a monitor or TV.

The southern skies will vary much more than northern ones throughout the year so your view to the south is also ideal in many ways.

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Hi Ash,

You say the window is closed. I believe it is advised not to do this because window glass will horribly mangle the incoming light. This means that only very low-power viewing will be possible. Binoculars, for instance, should be fine. I should note that I've not ever tried setting up a telescope indoors and looking through a window. Just going on what I've read. So keep at it! I'm sure, however, that it would be better if you can use an open window, ideally from an un-heated room. Is this possible?

Another possibility comes from a diagram I saw in an old astronomy book. Here a refractor is pointed down towards the ground through a hole in an exterior wall. Instead of pointing to the sky it points towards an adjustable flat mirror. The flat reflects starlight towards the lens of the refractor. Changing the angle of the flat allows you pan across the sky. I don't know if anyone has actually built such a set up but it could be a nice solution.

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Have you considered a remote controlled telescope with a minitron or watec camera and electronic focuser. These can be controlled by cable (usb) and/or wireless network. If someone can set the scope up outside for you, you could be directing the scope round and watching the images from it on tv in the comfort of your conservatory. It would of course demand considerable investment but I've seen this sort of system working well in the field. :(

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A mintron or watec is a frame-accumulating video camera which you can attach to the telescope instead of an eyepiece and which will feed video into a PC or TV so you can watch it. There is a load of info here. Depending how much money you have to throw at the whole system, a robotic telescope controlled by a PC with such a camera would give you the ability to see huge amounts of detail on DSOs from your house on your PC. The camera basically shows you a video which is made of short exposures "stacked" together so you see a lot more than you could with the naked eye.

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is it ok do you think if i use the mintron video camera on my scope facing south in the conservitory whilst watching on my pc? how do i set it up, what do i need?

I think this would rather defeat the object of having a Minitron as you will only be able to do what you can do now, except you would look at the TV instead of down the eyepiece.

If you are really keen to find out more about the Minitron, click on the link above on Angusb1's post, and this will give you a link to Modern Astronomy. Bernard at Modern Astronomy is very knowledgeable and will explain it all to you over the telephone. Or you can E mail him. If you decide to buy he does a very fast mail order service.

The advantage of having the telescope outside is that:

a) You will not be looking through glass.

:( The telescope will be cooler.

c) You will have a wider area of sky to look at.

d) You can do a polar alignment and track (follow the Earth's rotation so things don't drift out of view) if you bought yourself an Autostar handset (with long cable). Once you have learnt to use this and the alignment procedure has been done accurately, you can tell it to GOTO an object (or even taken you on a guided tour of the nights highlights), and it should take you right to it. (Some days works better than others).

e) The Minitron can be attached so you can look at what it is seeing when you are still indoors.

Obviously if you don't have any-one to help set it all up for you then this won't be an option. I do hope you have, but they will need to learn how to find polaris.

Carole

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