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Hello from the Southern hemisphere, below 40 South, I can't imagine that's too common here! I got the bug and almost before I started researching I've ended up with two telescopes from someone who was moving interstate. It was short notice (but also super cheap) so instead of asking what to buy, it's more like "how do these compare?" One is a Skywatcher Heritage 130P which, skimming the last few years of this thread, was mentioned positively. It's a collapsing 130mm Dobsonian, 650mm long when extended. It fits happily on a car seat (with the seatbelt around it, of course, safety first!). The other is a Bresser Messier AR127L. 127mm (achromatic?) refractor, 1200mm long, and if I hadn't driven two hours and was blinded by FOMO I probably wouldn't have bought it. It just fits in my car boot and is heavy and sturdy enough to bludgeon intruders. Came with an EQ(5?), and a 2X Barlow and a few eyepieces (9-25mm) that fit both scopes. Mount is manual but can be driven. I guess the main question is, is the Bresser significantly better? I don't have a backyard, and they're about the same aperture which seems to be the big factor; the small one is so much easier to transport that I'm not sure if it's worth keeping both. Obviously I'm the best-placed to know by using them but apart from lack of knowledge, I've been cloud cursed or busy since I got them and there's no local astronomy group. This is already long enough but I'll add a little trip report - the one free clear night was right after I bought them, so I took the Skywatcher and some old binocs to a coastal cliff lookout with a picnic table. Unfortunately the moon had set so that wasn't an option. I also wasn't prepared for the cold wind and couldn't see much through watering eyes - and mistook Sirius for an unfocusable planet after getting turned around, which didn't help. But just getting out to a dark sky for the first time in a while was neat, as was figuring out afterwards what I might have seen. Hopefully this weekend I'll take both out with more preparation.
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Oct 30, 2019 03:50
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 13:54 |
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Rolabi Wizenard posted:<great advice> Thanks for writing this. Sorry that I didn't bookmark the thread and forgot to check back! I've only had a few opportunities to go out but what you've said is bang on the money for my experiences so far. Though it's ended up like taking in a stray for the weekend until the animal shelter opens - I've grown attached to the big refractor and can't imagine selling it now. I haven't noticed chromatic aberration, but I've mostly just been finding things and going "wow!" so that'll probably be more noticeable later. One thing I need practice with is aligning the EQ mount, since I haven't got a Polaris to point at. Last night was perfect weather (calm & cloudless, and first time the moon wasn't up) and I even took a compass with me but I was still constantly having to use both knobs to keep things centred. It's crazy how fast the sky moves when you're paying attention to it. I'll have to try at least one of your suggestions for targets next time - and maybe some simple photos, without getting into the deep end of real astrophotography gear. My point&shoot struggles even on a tripod, and the phone eyepiece adapter I picked up has its clamp right where my phone's power button is. I'll figure something out though!  Quick merge of a flash photo and 30-sec exposure as I was packing up for the night - the camera itself has a great zoom but no optical viewfinder so it's impossible to point it at small targets at night
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Nov 20, 2019 07:24
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Golden-i posted:That's a really cool pic, I do love merged shots like that. You'll get the hang of aligning, are you in the southern hemisphere or is Polaris just obscured by something? In either case, search around for Drift Alignment and there's a lot of guides on how to compensate for the drift of the stars when you can't do a proper polar alignment. Thanks, though it's only because the telescope didn't show up in the long exposure (which is long as that camera can do in one go). I'm 41 degrees south - the pleiades are (is?) in my photo too, the other way up!
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Nov 24, 2019 00:25
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I popped outside earlier to see the ISS go almost perfectly right overhead in a cloudless sky just at the right time after sunset - and it was a pleasant surprise that about a minute later it crossed over what I assume was one of the Starlink chains, which I hadn't bothered to go look for specifically. So that was neat! Unfortunately I apparently forgot to turn everything off after my last session and my telescope red dot and little red lamp were both dead, so I didn't even try for a detailed view. And the output of my new smartphone's night mode isn't very impressive, either the built-in app or the Google Camera version I shoved in. I might be missing something there though. I'm glad I didn't rush into astrophotography, all the pictures posted here are lovely but I don't think I'd have the patience.
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Feb 17, 2020 12:22
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I'm jealous of your (hemisphere's) views of the comet, I didn't care much about astronomy in 2007 when we had McNaught and I'm not sure I ever even saw it (obstacles in the way IIRC and I never bothered to travel). I took my tabletop telescope over to parents' house recently, since their backyard is better than my apartment balcony, and got to show off Jupiter and Saturn and the moon. I kind of did everything "wrong" (full moon at the time, didn't wait that long after sunset or let the thing acclimate or whatever) but it's still cool to see planetary detail. I did try some photos with a smartphone adapter, but also did plenty "wrong" there... well, the output is amazing to me, and it was good practice for adjusting and focusing everything, but no photos worth sharing. Q's: This is perhaps a niche within a niche but does anyone here have opinions on good online shops in Australia for accessories? uvar fucked around with this message at 10:14 on Jul 10, 2020 |
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Jul 10, 2020 10:10
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