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AstroZamboni posted:Get a manual scope and add aftermarket tracking. If you want to stick with an equatorial reflector, one I would strongly consider would be a Celestron Omni 150. What's a good option for aftermarket tracking? I'm wondering if I could go that route with my current scope and then upgrade the scope at a later date. Not ideal, I realize, but if the tracking is cheaper than a scope I think that might be a good stopgap solution. I'm even contemplating a DIY solution to tracking. Again, I'm not attached to the eq reflector, it's just what I know and am familiar with, so I'm partial to sticking with it. Though from what I read, it's one of the better options from a cost and quality standpoint.
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Jun 2, 2014 14:21
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I received my AstroEQ unit today and hooked it up to my computer and mount. Now I'm able to manually control it from my computer. By using it with the Cartes du Ceil software I can click on anywhere on the map and it'll slew there. Woho. Now just gotta wait for darker skies. 
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Jun 2, 2014 18:40
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DaveSauce posted:What's a good option for aftermarket tracking? I'm wondering if I could go that route with my current scope and then upgrade the scope at a later date. Not ideal, I realize, but if the tracking is cheaper than a scope I think that might be a good stopgap solution. I'm even contemplating a DIY solution to tracking. If you have a small spindly EQ reflector now, there really isn't a good option for aftermarket tracking. If you're looking for a new scope, skipping GoTo will allow you to get a much more robust scope with better optics where aftermarket tracking is more feasible. Just be sure to get either an equatorial scope for which the manufacturer offers a RA drive unit for the mount, or get a dob and build a poncet platform like the one linked below: http://astroshake.com/2012/10/diy-equatorial-platform-in-pictures/
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Jun 2, 2014 20:19
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I made a time-lapse video from the pics I took trying to catch a Camelopardalid. I was hoping I'd catch a fireball or two through the clouds, but it didn't happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTzNWnEmQRI
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Jun 3, 2014 01:28
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What are the criticisms of the NexStar 130SLT? I'm going to be in the market for a new scope soon as well, and one with a motorized mount that can plug right into Stellarium is really appealing.
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Jun 3, 2014 03:57
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It's seriously undermounted, the finder and focuser are garbage, the tripod is way too spindly for a scope of that aperture, the overall unsteadiness of the system makes it nearly impossible for the computer to hold a good alignment... Need I go on? Edited to add: My general rule is to avoid any goto scopes costing less than a thousand dollars. Invariably you're sacrificing stability and optics for a snazzy gadget which is rendered useless by the fact that you sacrificed stability and optics. You will, without exception, be better off getting a manual scope that will actually allow you to SEE something while you sock away the money to save up for a goto scope that will actually be useable. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 06:17
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What about a used CG-5 mount? I see them going for less than $500 fairly often on Cloudy Nights Classifieds, and I'm wondering if there's a reason a computerized motorized mount would be that cheap compared to new.
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Jun 3, 2014 13:49
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A CG5 is good if you get one without corrupted firmware. The NexStar computers sometimes go wonky, so be sure to meet with the seller and test it thoroughly before you buy.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:07
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Ah, ok. It's all hypotheticals right now, because I blew all my cash on a Z12. Which is great, except that the collimation commits suicide any time I so much as look at the telescope. :v But 12" for less than $450 is worth it to me.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:41
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The collimation stability can be improved by swapping out the springs in the mirror cell. Properly sized stronger replacements can be obtained cheaply from Opticsmart and Bob's Knobs.
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Jun 3, 2014 18:28
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Apparently my CEM60 is being air freighted over, hopefully by the end of the month. We shall see, lots of pictures and thoughts when it gets here of course! Thinking of saving up for an Altair Astro RC250-TT to go on it now.
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Jun 6, 2014 20:28
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illectro posted an updated asteroid discovery timeline rendering, which is pretty fun to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k2vkLEE4ko
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Jun 9, 2014 19:57
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I've been wanting a nice telescope, and I have a chance to buy an Orion XT8. Guy says it's excellent condition and has a '6x30 RI finder' , eyepiece rack and Bob’s Knobs installed. It also comes with "32mm Plossl and a laser collimator". He wants $350 for all of it, which is the price of a new one, but I figured with the accessories it might be an okay price. What do you think?   
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Jun 11, 2014 01:46
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Dr.Caligari posted:I've been wanting a nice telescope, and I have a chance to buy an Orion XT8. Guy says it's excellent condition and has a '6x30 RI finder' , eyepiece rack and Bob’s Knobs installed. It also comes with "32mm Plossl and a laser collimator". The only scope I've used is the stock version of the XT8. The only things I want to modify are the finder scope and the focuser, so if the upgrades that guy has done are any good (I have no idea), then yea it's probably worth it!
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Jun 11, 2014 01:50
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Bob's knobs are a pretty great upgrade, and the laser collimator is nice to have. I say go for it. I picked up a used XT8 last month for $75. Really love it.
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Jun 11, 2014 04:30
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I decided to buy a Celestron AstroMaster 70 on a whim because it was very cheap on Amazon and I was vacationing to a dark place. I've been using it here and there, picking out planets and stars and spending time learning constellations and, though it seems trivial, slowly getting a spatial understanding for how and why things move the way they do in the sky. Anyway, I've been trying to take pictures through this thing and haven't had much success. I have a point-and-shoot Powershot A2500. It's clear of course that both pieces of equipment in this equation are poorly suited for the task at hand--the lack of a tracking mount limits my exposure time and also relies a lot on my dexterity/luck. The camera allows me to set exposure time and ISO but not, as far as I can tell, focus. I've jury rigged the camera to the telescope eyepiece which allows me to take pictures, but also introduces another degree of mechanical and focusing uncertainty. Here is the best photo I've been able to take--the Moon is easy to target and large so it will stay in frame long enough for me to try a few things:  (f/6.9, ISO 1600, 1/30 sec) This photo is somewhat blurry. For everything smaller than the moon, that problem is amplified. For instance, here's Saturn:  (f/4, ISO 800, 1 sec) Both images were sharp to my eye, with e.g. Saturn's rings clearly visible, but on the moon and definitely on Saturn the focus issues are significant. I'm finding this hobby quite a bit of fun and I intend to buy more suitable equipment soon. However, a good part of the fun for me is trying to see how far I can stretch things on-hand, particularly tools not perfectly suited to a task. However, if what I'm trying to do is in fact impossible I'd like to know that too. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts, tips, or things I might try on the next clear night. I'm happy to give more information on the circumstances or things I've tried if that would help. Thanks!
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Jun 11, 2014 06:25
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I appreciate that "work with what you have" mentality, but the CG-2 mount on that Astromaster 70 is such garbage that I'm surprised you got what you did. I'd look for a used CG-4 or CG-5 to buy for any pictures. It's SUCH a difference and the mount is the most important bit. I use that same scope on a CG-5 with an old Canon DSLR and get quick shots of the moon like this. In terms of focusing, I'd make a Bahtinov Mask using one of the generators online. I made one from cardboard and while it's flimsy, it does exactly what that gif on the Wikipedia page does, and perfectly. The planets will be difficult as gently caress to get right, even in perfect focus. You want to take video of them and stack the frames using a post-processor to get any sort of reasonable picture. This will require a much more stable mount than you currently have. The CG-5 will automatically track as long as you get a good polar alignment, but the CG-4 will have to have motors added and still won't be as good. Look into a quality 2x or 3x Barlow lens as well if you want to up the magnification. Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 14:54 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 14:51
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AstroZamboni posted:Get a manual scope and add aftermarket tracking. If you want to stick with an equatorial reflector, one I would strongly consider would be a Celestron Omni 150. Well I went for this. Just arrived yesterday. Hopefully the sky will be clear enough tonight to use it. So, I have a few questions about setup. First, I've seen the pole alignment eyepiece for the CG-4 mount. Is this worth the $40? I suppose I should practice pole alignment before I get something like that, and there seem to be plenty of guides out there to line things up without this eyepiece, but I'd hate to waste time if this thing is going to change my life or something. Then I noticed that the eyepiece holder doesn't attach to the legs...the legs just kind of free-float. So am I supposed to crank the nuts down to keep the legs in place, or is the assumption that if all 3 legs are firmly on the ground, they're not going to budge? As it is, the legs aren't "loose," but it doesn't take much effort to move them. The whole thing is pretty stable when standing, though. I don't want to over torque the nuts, but at the same time I'd hate for one of the legs to just flop out mid-viewing and send the whole thing crashing to the ground. Also, as far as planetarium software, it comes with The Sky Level 1...or something. I have Stellarium on my computer and Sky Safari Pro on my phone. Any reason to install this stuff, or am I already doing better?
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Jun 14, 2014 20:24
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DaveSauce posted:Well I went for this. Just arrived yesterday. Hopefully the sky will be clear enough tonight to use it. The Sky Level 1 is small potatoes compared to SkySafari Pro and Stellarium. Not really worth the trouble. As for the eyepiece tray, it does brace the legs if it's used the correct way. The legs will only spread out to a certain amount, and when the spreader tray is tightened upwards to the correct amount it braces by pushing outward. Adds a fair amount of stability to the setup, but it doesn't attach directly to the legs. As for the polar alignment scope, I don't really think it's worth the money. It's a pain in the rear end to collimate with the polar axis, and you can get perfectly acceptable alignment for visual observation by parking the axes in the home position and adjust the latitude and azimuth while eyeballing it through the regular finderscope.
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Jun 14, 2014 21:43
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After using binoculars for the last couple years and shooting with a barn door tracker for the past few months, I think I'm willing to get my first telescope. Searching on craigslist, I found a 10" dobsonian on for $150. The craigslist ad says it comes with a different eyepiece than what it was originally packaged with, a "7-35mm multi-coated tele-vu knockoff that was $130 when [he] bought it." Now, going from binoculars to this thing seems like a huge leap for me. Then again, for $150, it seems prettty great to me. I see just shortly above that AstroZamboni says he loves the XT8. But is this telescope going to be too much for me? Is the jump going to be too big where I'll get frustrated with it? I've never had a telescope before.
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Jun 15, 2014 20:03
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On a whim I bought a celestron nexstar 114gt at best buy ($217) having never used a telescope before and last night was the first clear(ish) night since I got it so I took it out on my severely light polluted balcony in Boston, easily figured out the auto-alignment and marveled at the fact that I could see saturn's rings so clearly. I'm totally hooked having never really been all that interested in space before. Actually Saturn was the brightest available thing at the time when I was doing the 3 star alignment so I went for that one first, not even knowing what it was. When I brought it into focus I immediately realized what I was looking at and had a real mind-blown moment. Once I was all aligned the clouds revealed the moon so I basically drooled over that for the next couple hours. GutBomb fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Jun 15, 2014 |
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Jun 15, 2014 20:40
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Rotten Cookies posted:After using binoculars for the last couple years and shooting with a barn door tracker for the past few months, I think I'm willing to get my first telescope. For $150? I say go for it and sell it if it's too much hassle. A 10" dob may be a bit ambitious initially, but it will show you a hell of a lot.
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Jun 15, 2014 21:05
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I think a 10" is the upper limit of portability unless you have a truss dob, and it's still got plenty of aperture to look at faint things. I have a solid tube 12" and I honestly have to convince myself to haul it out on clear nights- the view is great, but carrying something the size of a hot-water heater outside is annoying as hell. A 10" is perfect.
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Jun 15, 2014 22:57
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GutBomb posted:
The first thing I looked at with mine was Jupiter. Being able to make out the stripes and then realizing that I could see the 4 Galilean moons strung out in a row was mind blowing.
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Jun 16, 2014 14:35
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Happy 2014 me. One CEM60, standard version.  Factory PEC chart blows my CGEM out of the water, completely different league.  Mounted in the shed.  And with the 10" reflector.  I got about ten minutes of clear sky this evening which at least gave me the change to get a basic polar alignment and one star align run completed. So far so good, sounds so much better than the CGEM.
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Jun 17, 2014 00:02
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AstroZamboni posted:The Sky Level 1 is small potatoes compared to SkySafari Pro and Stellarium. Not really worth the trouble. Thanks. I didn't realize that the legs had hard stops on them...that's good to know. So I took out out on Saturday night, just on my balcony, and got some good views of Saturn. I'd have to say that the image quality wasn't much better than my other scope, but I'm going to blame atmospheric conditions for that...when we looked at the moon we could easily see the "heatwaves" of distortion. The biggest difference was stability. It was rock solid. It was nearly impossible to focus my old telescope at high magnifications, because if you even looked at the focuser the scope shook violently for several seconds. This one barely moved, and I'm quite pleased with that. A few things: The set screws that connect the knob cables to the mount tend to come loose after a short while. Frankly, I had this problem with my old telescope as well, and I was hoping that it wouldn't be the case with this new scope. I'm not one to over-torque screws, so I don't want to just crank on them because that usually makes things worse. Is this a common problem? If so, what's the solution? Loctite? Next, what's the strategy for viewing objects that are too faint for the finder scope? We were looking at Antares on Saturday, and I noticed on Sky Safari Pro that there's a star cluster nearby, M4, between Antares and Al Niyat. I couldn't see it in the finder scope, but I knew it was near by...unfortunately, I wasn't able to find it. I thought I was close, but nothing showed up. Part of it was probably that I didn't polar align the scope, so I had to do weird combinations of RA/Dec movements to get to where I was trying to go. I didn't do a polar alignment because my balcony is south facing, so I had nothing to line it up to. But I think mainly I just don't have a feel for navigating, especially with the view flipped. Any thoughts? Would polar aligning the scope help? Is there a strategy to sweeping the sky in search of something?
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Jun 17, 2014 02:43
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My suggestion is to swap out the stock finder for a Telrad reflex finder. Once the Telrad is aligned, you can use the bullseye reticle to find things. There's a setting in SkySafari that will allow you to superimpose a Telrad reticle on the displayed chart. Match up the orientation of the rings with the stars visible within the pattern on your chart and you should have success. It'll be a bit tricky at first but afterwards it should become second nature.
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Jun 17, 2014 04:35
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Observing report: Got a chance to go out with my 6" and look at stuff before the Moon came up. I got a nice view of PANSTARRS C/2012 K1 in Leo Minor, although even though the comet is like magnitude 7.8 it's right next to a brightish star so it was hard to view the dimmer bits of it. Also got a quick view of M51 (which was interrupted by a bright satellite streaking right through the FOV and ruining my night vision for a few seconds). I spotted M106 as well, which is mostly just cool to me because that's the galaxy I'm doing research on at the moment. A successful night, methinks.
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Jun 17, 2014 05:11
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Is Sky Safari Pro much better than Pocket Universe? I purchased PU a few years ago, but the price of Sky Safari has been putting me off of purchasing it. I had the free version and it didn't seem all that different.
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Jun 17, 2014 14:13
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SkySafari Pro is pretty much all the star atlas you would EVER need, and will be useful if you ever get a computer controlled scope with a wifi adapter. Edit: they also have occasional sales where they offer deep discounts on the app. Keep an eye out for those. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Jun 17, 2014 |
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Jun 17, 2014 14:33
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Would replacing the tripod that came with my nexstar 114gt with this give me what I need to smoothly track the sky for use with my dslr? The mount has a polar align mode. I want to be able to do exposures of more than 7 or 8 seconds
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Jun 18, 2014 06:18
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The 114 has a different nexstar mount than what that tripod's for. That's for the straight fork arm, not the canted one that attaches to its tripod a completely different way. Also, the spur gear drives on those mounts really rule out any exposures longer than a couple of seconds. They're just not built for the accuracy needed for long exposure imaging.
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Jun 18, 2014 06:21
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AstroZamboni posted:The 114 has a different nexstar mount than what that tripod's for. That's for the straight fork arm, not the canted one that attaches to its tripod a completely different way. Balls, that's what I was afraid of. I'm going to have to just deal with what I've got for now unless I can pick up a good mount with a motor fairly cheaply since soon there isn't going to be any spending cash (baby's coming) Also this is the second hobby related thread that I've seen you in that spurred me to spend money. You inspired a flurry of spending on shortwave gear a few years back.
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Jun 18, 2014 06:30
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Mea culpa.
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Jun 18, 2014 06:37
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AstroZamboni posted:My suggestion is to swap out the stock finder for a Telrad reflex finder. I didn't understand the hype for the Telrad until I used one, it's great. I use it in combination with an Orion 9x50 right-angle correct-image finder scope on my XT8. I accidentally left the Telrad running for almost a week in its box and was surprised to see it still running just fine.
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Jun 18, 2014 20:50
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It really is the best of the best, and cheap as hell too. I put off buying one for the longest time until I realized my Orion 9x50 finder was useless at my club's dark sky site because it was too drat dark to see the crosshairs. Now I have two Telrads. I've used every other unit power finder on the market and nothing compares.
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Jun 19, 2014 01:58
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I think they both do their own thing extremely well. The Telrad will put your scope really close to where it needs to be and I can often spot DSOs in the 9x50 so when I go to my eyepiece I don't have to hunt much. Plus the parallel finders make my XT8 look really cool. The Telrad was about half the price of the 9x50 and for anyone with a new scope I'd recommend the Telrad first, it's a huge time saver and makes finding stuff a lot less frustrating. As AstroZamboni mentioned if you're using SkySafari or Stellarium it has a Telrad scope built in so you can plan your star-hopping ahead of time. When I first got my telescope and took it out complete strangers would stop by and tell me to get a Telrad.
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Jun 19, 2014 04:11
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It's summer Milky Way time! I wish it hadn't been so late when the clouds broke up last night, I would have pulled out my telescope and pointed it at the Lagoon Nebula and stuff. I don't think I've ever seen the Milky Way this clearly from home, since the haze had pretty much been rained out earlier in the evening. Milky Way by venusian-weasel, on Flickr
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Jun 29, 2014 01:44
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I know this isn't exactly what this thread is for but I'm hoping you guys can help me out with my telescope. I have an 8" dob that I use in the Phoenix area and due to light pollution and laziness, I really only look at the planets and Orion's Nebula. I'm taking it on a road trip with me to the middle of nowhere in Missouri this week and would love to take advantage of the dark skies there. Can someone recommend a good cheat sheet or guide for finding stuff in the Summer sky?
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Jun 30, 2014 16:49
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Trampus posted:I know this isn't exactly what this thread is for but I'm hoping you guys can help me out with my telescope. I have an 8" dob that I use in the Phoenix area and due to light pollution and laziness, I really only look at the planets and Orion's Nebula. I'm taking it on a road trip with me to the middle of nowhere in Missouri this week and would love to take advantage of the dark skies there. Can someone recommend a good cheat sheet or guide for finding stuff in the Summer sky? What about an app? There are a lot of apps you can point at the sky and it will tell you what's up there to point your telescope at. I use Sky Guide for iphone. These apps typically don't require internet access.
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Jun 30, 2014 17:27
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