If it ever stops raining...

[russ.will]

...then I could have some fun.

Although Stargazing Live may have been the catalyst for joining this forum, it certainly wasn't the start. Hell, that was going to see Star Wars aged 5 in 1977, but I guess I'm probably not the only sci-fi fan around abouts.

I used to be a smoker, but as I don't like smokey rooms, I was self-banished to my back garden for years. As I live in rural Cambridgeshire with relatively dark skies, I left a deck chair out year round to have somewhere to sit. At weekends, it didn't take long for a bottle of 'purified' grape juice to follow me out so that I could spend an hour or two outside, just to let my eyes adjust and just stare upward.

My regular hobby is AV and indeed I review speakers and subwoofers for Europes largest AV forum, but this year is my fortieth and thus I have reason to spend outside of my normal parametres and on something less transient than audio/video technology.

Initially, I was going to dump it all on an Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean as I have long dreamed of such a timepiece, but SGL made me realise that I have had other, longer lived interests that I should indulge and astronomy, or at least space in general had preceded the watch desire by decades.

I don't know where my interest lies. I had a worse-than-average-hand-me-down 4" (I think) reflector a few years ago, that with some patience allowed me to resolve Jupiter such that a I could see feint colour banding and Saturn such that I could see the plane of the rings, if not discern them as a separate. The unbridled excitement this provided me, may have have been lost on the others I invited to share the experience, but no matter; This is my year, not theirs!

I am thus a beginner, but not entirely oblivious to what is where and suspect that I'm more interested in looking a galaxies and nebula than planets nearby. I also travel a fair bit, tending to holiday near the sea or up mountains, so my interest is more than piqued by easily transportable telescopes that don't need recolumating after a couple of days in the back of a car.

When the opportunity (nearly - but I bought a house instead) last cropped up, I nearly bought a Meade ETX-125 as a starter scope and surfing again has lead me back to much the same point. The only difference in the ten years that elapsed is that DSLRs have come on strong and that it might be fun to plug one (or at least my Olympus EP-1) into the scope. I'm guessing that the wider field of the objects I'm interested in might make this a possibility?

If not guidance here, then pointers toward the forums/threads that address similar issues would be appreciated. I'm not giving up on the watch, but diverting £500-750 toward a scope would be a worthwhile trade in my book, unless of course I'm being a total n00b.....

Cheers,

Russell

[JamesM]

Hi Russell and welcome to the forum.

I think we've all been breast fed on the infamous 4" scope which surprisingly can show one or two things. I originally worked on the basis that if it showed more than I could see with just my eyes or a standard pair of binoculars then it was a good thing to use. The problem I had later with that aperture was that I was never sure if I was incompetent at finding an object or whether indeed I had found it but the scope was incapable of resolving the result.

Certainly, focusing (excuse the pun) on Deep Sky Objects (galaxies, nebula, etc) will provide you with more targets to choose from and more variety. Planets and let us not forget the Moon, are ideal targets where the observing location falls prey to the effects of light pollution. These targets can when 'seeing' allows, provide for a lot of detail and interest as will observing double stars under similar viewing conditions.

On the subject of astrophotography, images can be obtained typically via a web cam on the brighter celestial objects such as planets, moon etc as the image is made up from choosing the best 'frames' from those captured in order to cancel out the effects of thermals in the night's sky. However, for DSO's where the objects are faint, then a longer timed exposure is required which necessitates the use of a Equatorial Mount which can provide a smooth tracking path that an Alt-Azimuth mount found on scopes such as the ETX range cannot provide because they tracking rising and falling objects in a stepped liked fashion which would create distorted star shapes. The imaging section of the forum would provide more details on preferred kit that you might want to use.

The biggest recommendation I can give is to start looking through some of the different types of kit. This time of year there are many events going on in which astro societies and clubs put on public evening viewing sessions that allow people to look through different kinds of scope. This will certainly set you off in the right direction to see what will help meet your expectations.

James

[Nexus 6]

Hi russ, welcome from me to.

My regular hobby is AV and indeed I review speakers and subwoofers for Europes largest AV forum, but this year is my fortieth and thus I have reason to spend outside of my normal parametres and on something less transient than audio/video technology

very nice job

your budget will certainly get you a nice scope for observing with although for imaging you may need to buy one or two extra items. I am not an imager so wil leave that to others to comment on.

Alan

[johnh]

Welcome Russell, yes simple imaging of planets/moon can be done cheaply but long exposure as James says needs a bit more equipment like an EQ mount and a guidescope, long Expopsure of galaxies is advanced stuff. Start simply with lunar/planetary and webcams, but you need tracking motors on your mount even for simple imaging. Second hand section will get you these things at reduced price but do the research before purchasing and best of luck, the Lounge should make the learning curve a bit easier.

JohnH.

[Mr Spock]

Hi Russell, welcome to SGL

[nightfisher]

welcome to sgl. the dso imaging is a tough call, but you have a decent camera, so looks like if you got an 80mm ED refractor and an eq5 mount you would be able to give it a go, there is always a trade of with imaging and observing, the 80 ed is not best for observing

[brantuk]

Hi Russ and welcome to SGL

[glowjet]

Hello Russell, a very warm welcome to the SGL forum, if you are interested in the ETX range, have a look at Weasner`s Mighty ETX site if you have not come across it before.

John.

[Rusty Strings]

Hi and welcome to SGL

[Bizibilder]

Hello Russell and welcome to SGL!!

[GrahamS]

Welcome and Hello.

[russ.will]

Can I just give a quick thanks for the welcome and having lurked here for a while, it's refreshing to see a forum that is a little less, shall we say, combative than the one I frequent most.

I took the opportunity tonight to pop along to the Star Gazing Live event at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge and well organized it was. As a complete n00b, I was surprized to see easily a couple of hundred people attending, many with their kids. If one tenth of that lot stick, then Star Gazing Live has done it's job - Making astronomy accessible and interesting. I know nothing, but ended up standing next to a woman (who had lost her husband and kids to the Northumberland queue) and as a result of her questions realized that my back yard, naked eye observation means I know a little bit more than I thought I did. I at least have half, okay, maybe a quarter of an idea what's where, but more later. What I liked was when, having pointed out the Orion Nebula so she could relate the on screen image to an actual point in the sky she turned, looked at me genuinely agog and said "I had no idea all of that is up there". The moment was destroyed by her first born arriving back and wanting to go home because he'd wet himself in the cold, but that's parenthood all over. I left mine at home.

The 12" Northumberland refractor was trained on Jupiter and the queue throughout the night was never less than 30mins long. Members from the Institute and the Cambridge Astronomical Assoc. were handing out 12x50 binos to those in the queue and this proved interesting. Know-nothings like me think why the hell would you want binos? But even with the light polution of Cambridge, I was very surprized at what you could see.

What you could see was well demonstrated by CAA who had set up five scopes with cameras to be projected onto an arc of three screens and whilst it wasn't quite seamless, the presentation amply demonstrated the amount of stuff you could basically pinpoint with the naked eye and then resolve to a greater degree with a scope. The presentation leader was laser pointing at subjects (why is this frowned upon?) that made it easy for us great unwashed to relate the images to a star, smudge or dark patch. The invaluable lesson for me was that I got to see a lot of images of various types of subject and therefore got an idea in what interests me and what doesn't.

Scratch that; I found it all very interesting, but I found out what floats my boat, as opposed to what is merely cool. For me, star clusters and planets are cool, but nebulea and galaxies are what make me giggle like a school girl. I will admit that they showed a binary star with it's yellow and blue companions that nearly converted me as that is weird to near galactic virgin, even more so when I found out that the apparently triangular blue star was in fact three. Answers on a postcard as to which star we were looking at but I, again, was genuinely fascinated by a subject type I thought I wouldn't be.

So, there wasn't really any time to nail Society members down to discussing what I want (like I know what that is!) and to be fair, that would have been a touch selfish with a couple of hundred of other people there, but the night was valuable. For instance, I looked through the Northumberland Telescope and noted that I couldn't see much more detail in Jupiter and it's moons than I saw through a Society members ETX-90. That was a surprise; It was the same pale pink disk with the same single dark band and the same four satellites crisply resolved. The biggun might have been easier to look through, but ultimately, the ETX-90 showed as much detail with a bit more concentration. I wonder what the difference would be on fainter objects?

A guy from the Institute had a DIY 8" reflector trained on Jupiter (clearly a theme running throughout the night) that I noticed was exceptionally easy to look through, I presume because the eyepiece had a wider exit pupil, but the image of the planet seemed no more impressive than the pocket sized Meade a few feet away. Kudos to the bloke for having built it, even though I note he 'borrowed' parts from the Institute to make it - I was about to fall on my knees if he had actually ground the mirrors which would be analogous to building your own loudspeaker drivers in the world I habitually inhabit, but this was not the case.

So, what have I learned? Well, I like the larger astronomical phenomena and as a long time photographer who has always delved into the left field subjects (I was stitching wide angle landscapes and creating QTVRs years ago), I probably want to photograph stuff. By stuff I mean nebulea, galaxies, etc. If my research is right, then I'm probably less fussed about magnification than I am about light gathering or, if I understand this right, I realise the quality of mount is of paramount importance.

The journey continues and I shall attend the CAA meet on Wednesday and ask a LOT of questions.

Russell

[russ.will]

I forgot to mention that when I got home, I picked up 10x25 Nikon binos that are only really there for something compact to fit in my camera bag and strode purposefully into my garden.

I'm a few miles from Cambridge and my village is small and therefore thankfully dark.

The pocket Nikons, combined with a dark background were a revelation, now that I had a couple or three things to look at. I looked at the Orion Nebula at the SGL function through 12x50 binos (after the projected demo) and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

I now realize that what I saw in both instances was hamstrung by the background light of Cambridge and I must say, it was a VERY clear night and the Society members were making noise about what a good viewing night it was. Regardless, getting back out into the county and putting another 6 or 7 miles between me and the biggest source of local light polution, allowed me to see the Orion Nebula in crisp, if minature detail for the first time.

I'm hooked and I need a scope. I'm not about to rush it though. Any advice refined by my personal revalations appreciated, although I still suspect I'm about to spend more on a mount than I expected. Did someone at the back just say EQ5?........

Russell

[Ford Prefect]

Hi Russell

I also live a couple of miles from Cambridge, so a welcome to the Forum from me.

as far a scope choice goes, I would recommend 127mm (5") f11.81 Maksutov-Cassegrain on a heq5 syntrek mount for just over £800. This will give you some great views of the planets and DSO's. I must say I haven’t used one myself but a quick Google search and you will find plenty of reviews of this scope:)

Maksutov

Here some links to pictures taken with the Mak 127

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/121784-m1.html

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-planetary/122603-jupiter-18-dec-127-mak.html

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Mars_2005_10_22_MJA.jpg

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/M27%202005_08_28%20MJA.jpg

[Brendan of Borg]

Hello and welcome!

[Pete Presland]

hi welcome to sgl from bedfordshire

[kris h]

Welcome to SGL Russell

[russ.will]

Hi Russell

I also live a couple of miles from Cambridge, so a welcome to the Forum from me.

as far a scope choice goes, I would recommend 127mm (5") f11.81 Maksutov-Cassegrain on a heq5 syntrek mount for just over £800. This will give you some great views of the planets and DSO's. I must say I haven’t used one myself but a quick Google search and you will find plenty of reviews of this scope:)

Maksutov

Here some links to pictures taken with the Mak 127

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-deep-sky/121784-m1.html

http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-planetary/122603-jupiter-18-dec-127-mak.html

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/Mars_2005_10_22_MJA.jpg

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/M27%202005_08_28%20MJA.jpg

Thanks for that little lot. I see that astronomy is another hobby moneypit, but much like AV it seems to be better to buy right and enjoy, rather than make do and wonder what if....

I'm guessing the HEQ5 is a heavier more stable mount than the EQ5 and this is more important with imaging in mind? If so, is it that much better than the EQ5 which can be had for less with Synscan?

Just another quicky - Are there any decent second hand dealers or market places. I'm not precious about owning new if it delivers extra VFM?

Russell

[oldfruit]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[BAZ Senior]

Hi Russell, welcome to the forum.

[Donkeyears]

Hi Russell and welcome aboard

[todd8137]

hi russ russ welcome

[SeedyF]

Hello and welcome from me too