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Old 06-18-2017, 09:43 PM   #1
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Anyone else a "Star Watcher"?

I've always been fascinated with astronomy. I've always had one form or another of cheap telescopes around.

Started with the cheapy dept store ones that weren't good for much of anything and moved into modifying them to at least, well....somewhat work. The night I actually found Saturn and could make out the Cassini Division was nearly a life changing moment for me. Another entire world, right there in the eye piece.



Now retirement is just around the corner (work asked me to stay on an additional year or I would have been done this fall) and the missus had decided to get me a retirement present. She says retirement only comes around once in your life and it's an important milestone. Well, you hope it only comes around once.....

She was looking at 6" and 8" dobsonian reflectors without me knowing about it. We were watching TV one night and I mentioned I might take a bit of my severance and buy a decent telescope now that I would have more time on my hands.

Well, she fessed up at that point that she had been looking for me and had a nice little bundle stashed away for it. Love that woman!

We talked and decided to combine her savings with a touch of my severance and yesterday we ordered this:



Sky Watcher 10" Newtonian, Dobsonian mount with SynScan (IE: punch in what you want to see, it motors to it). It's a good basic scope with enough power to see deep sky objects. 10" was always the minimum size I had in mind if I ever decided to buy a "real" telescope.

Bought a solar filter (Baader film, the good stuff) to use it with the eclipse in august and a lunar filter. Also bought the shroud for the trusses to help with dew problems. Order up a laser collimator too. Unfortunately, we're too far away for totality, Have to settle for a partial eclipse. 2024 is only a couple 100 KM's away though...

I'm thinking it might make a nice match with the trailer, especially since my 831 RLBSS is getting a bit more "boondocking friendly" for dark sky viewing. Doesn't hurt that I've pretty much got dark skies in my own back yard.

So, anyone else drag a telescope of any real size around? Any tips? Pointers?

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Old 06-18-2017, 09:49 PM   #2
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Nice. We have a cheapo kids telescope for DD stowed in the trailer. I have yet to be able to see anything through it. We also bought her a star book to go with it. We are taking her and her best friend to the Solar eclipse FROG rally in August. She is very excited about it.
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Old 06-18-2017, 10:09 PM   #3
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Nice. We have a cheapo kids telescope for DD stowed in the trailer. I have yet to be able to see anything through it. We also bought her a star book to go with it. We are taking her and her best friend to the Solar eclipse FROG rally in August. She is very excited about it.
If you want to make it a little more useful, take a 35mm eyepiece off a even a cheap set of binoculars and use some electrical tape to seal it to where the supplied eye pieces would go. The problem with the ones they supply is that they are so small, it's nearly impossible to get anything int to view and even if you do, it transits out of hte lens before you can get a decent focus.

The other problem with the "cheapies" is the mount and crap "tripod" they come with. They don't slew smoothly, they don't stay on target and they wobble and shake so much the image just generally sucks. You can fixt this stuff too, but it needs a bit of woodworking skills and willingness to drag a large wooden mount around.

They're just generally poor units all the way around. Better for use as a terrestrial telescope. You can use them celestially, but they need some serious work to see anything besides the moon.
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Old 06-18-2017, 10:14 PM   #4
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I tried to view the supermoon with it and didn't have much luck. I used to love astronomy as a kid. The planetarium was always one of my favorite field trips. I'm trying to foster this interest she has while I can... she just turned 10. Thanks for the tip on the eye piece.
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Old 06-18-2017, 10:44 PM   #5
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I tried to view the supermoon with it and didn't have much luck. I used to love astronomy as a kid. The planetarium was always one of my favorite field trips. I'm trying to foster this interest she has while I can... she just turned 10. Thanks for the tip on the eye piece.
Here's a couple quick reads on improving your viewing:

How to Fix a Cheap Telescope - DaveTrott.com

Tune Up Your Telescope - Sky & Telescope

https://wetbin.com/a-guide-to-improv...ore-telescope/

Hanging the 4 liter bottle of water off the cheapy tripod is a quick and easy idea.

I've always found this book to be very helpful and easy to use:



Just make sure to get one that's current. Lot's of iphone apps out there too. Usually just point at the sky and it shows you what you are looking at and what's nearby...
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Old 06-18-2017, 10:47 PM   #6
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asquared We have a phone app called skyview free that is neat your DD may like it
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Old 06-19-2017, 02:33 AM   #7
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8" Celestron "C8" (Schmidt-Cassegrain) owner here. I've had it for almost 35 years. Enjoyed every minute of it. Kind of heavy to move around but I've seem some amazing stuff over the years. My favorite BY FAR is the always beautiful Orion Nebula. Doesn't get any better.
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Old 06-19-2017, 04:26 AM   #8
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I travel with a Celestron Nexstar 8SE. it's an 8" Scmidt-Cassegrain scope with a computerized goto mount. I've got a ZWO ASI185MC camera that I use for astrophotography. I can't wait to set up while camping out west next month or the eclipse on August 21st. I'm traveling to SW Kentucky to see totality.

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Old 06-19-2017, 04:45 PM   #9
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The one I keep in the RV is like the one on the book cover. That was a retirement present from that Four Letter Word which I wont say!
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Old 06-19-2017, 04:53 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by great white View Post


Sky Watcher 10" Newtonian, Dobsonian mount with SynScan (IE: punch in what you want to see, it motors to it). It's a good basic scope with enough power to see deep sky objects. 10" was always the minimum size I had in mind if I ever decided to buy a "real" telescope.


That's a BEAUTY!

Way out of my league though. I still have my old Edmonds Scientific Astroscan. If you remember those, it's the red reflector telescope with the round ball shape bottom.

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Old 06-19-2017, 06:22 PM   #11
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Telescope envy

Quote:
Originally Posted by great white View Post
I've always been fascinated with astronomy. I've always had one form or another of cheap telescopes around.

Started with the cheapy dept store ones that weren't good for much of anything and moved into modifying them to at least, well....somewhat work. The night I actually found Saturn and could make out the Cassini Division was nearly a life changing moment for me. Another entire world, right there in the eye piece.



Now retirement is just around the corner (work asked me to stay on an additional year or I would have been done this fall) and the missus had decided to get me a retirement present. She says retirement only comes around once in your life and it's an important milestone. Well, you hope it only comes around once.....

She was looking at 6" and 8" dobsonian reflectors without me knowing about it. We were watching TV one night and I mentioned I might take a bit of my severance and buy a decent telescope now that I would have more time on my hands.

Well, she fessed up at that point that she had been looking for me and had a nice little bundle stashed away for it. Love that woman!

We talked and decided to combine her savings with a touch of my severance and yesterday we ordered this:



Sky Watcher 10" Newtonian, Dobsonian mount with SynScan (IE: punch in what you want to see, it motors to it). It's a good basic scope with enough power to see deep sky objects. 10" was always the minimum size I had in mind if I ever decided to buy a "real" telescope.

Bought a solar filter (Baader film, the good stuff) to use it with the eclipse in august and a lunar filter. Also bought the shroud for the trusses to help with dew problems. Order up a laser collimator too. Unfortunately, we're too far away for totality, Have to settle for a partial eclipse. 2024 is only a couple 100 KM's away though...

I'm thinking it might make a nice match with the trailer, especially since my 831 RLBSS is getting a bit more "boondocking friendly" for dark sky viewing. Doesn't hurt that I've pretty much got dark skies in my own back yard.

So, anyone else drag a telescope of any real size around? Any tips? Pointers?

Telescope envy!!!!
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Old 06-19-2017, 06:38 PM   #12
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How much does one of those run you? I'd love to get one to see the stars and hook it to my DSLR.
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Old 06-19-2017, 06:44 PM   #13
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Anyone else a &quot;Star Watcher&quot;?

My scope with camera, mount, lenses, battery pack, carry case etc ran me around $2300
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Old 06-19-2017, 06:46 PM   #14
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I'm an amateur astronomer and never travel without astronomy gear. I have an 8" f/5 solid tube Newtonian that goes on a GEM mount, an 80mm refractor, and a 60mm Ha solar scope. The refractor and PST solar scope usually take turns on a small alt-az goto mount. In addition to the scopes, my gear is set up for imaging which, for the travel gear can be a Canon camera or a small monochrome astro camera. I have solar filters for the 8" and 80mm scopes and the 7x35 binoculars that also travel. One of the basement compartments in the RV is dedicated to all of the miscellaneous astronomy gear I carry.

For the last three years, I've also been carrying a full electronics shop and a decent set of construction hand tools to help get my remote observatories built and functioning. (Yes, observatories plural, because my observatory partner and I lost our first building when the property owner lost the property.)

I've occasionally run impromptu star parties and solar viewing sessions when staying at an RV park. It's a lot of fun to dio this, especially for kids and young adults who have never seen a telescope or even seen more than a couple dozen stars at night.

Power for my gear comes from either a 17AH gel cell or a 100AH deep cycle battery that can also be hooked into the RV's 12V system as a third battery. I recently came across a recommendation in one of the astronomy forums that a Harbor Freight lithium jump start battery makes a good lightweight power source for scopes like yours. It's 5AH at 12V, which should be plenty for an evening's use with your dob since many users of those scopes end up using a 7AH 12V gel cell. The lithium battery has better low temperature performance than the gel cell and can be discharged much further without causing long term damage to the battery. I think that HF's lithium ends up with a little more usable capacity than the 7AH gel cell when it's warm out and lots more capacity when it's cold.

Phil
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Old 06-19-2017, 07:46 PM   #15
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My scope with camera, mount, lenses, battery pack, carry case etc ran me around $2300
Ok, like any other hobby... It can add up.. 1300 for my DSLR, 1500 to 2000 in lens.. Filters blah blah..
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Old 06-19-2017, 08:04 PM   #16
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How much does one of those run you? I'd love to get one to see the stars and hook it to my DSLR.
That was just under 2500 CAD, taxes in.

It's not the best choice for Astro photography, even though it has a camera adapter. It will track, but it says you can't do very long exposures so it's not suitable for deep sky objects.

It's been a "want" pretty much my whole life. Now I'm going to scratch that itch!

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Old 06-20-2017, 12:50 AM   #17
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A great place for stargazers is southern Arizona. The area around Tucson is a 'dark sky' area where lights shining up are prohibited. I spent a winter in Benson, AZ at the Butterfield RV Park. They present a nightly show for visitors when the skies are clear. Their observatory has a 16-inch Meade telescope and I was one of the presenters. I also have an 8-inch version that I travel with in my motorhome and present free shows once in a while at the RV park I happen to be in.
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Old 06-20-2017, 01:50 AM   #18
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That was just under 2500 CAD, taxes in.



It's not the best choice for Astro photography, even though it has a camera adapter. It will track, but it says you can't do very long exposures so it's not suitable for deep sky objects.



It's been a "want" pretty much my whole life. Now I'm going to scratch that itch!





I use stacking software. I can take numerous short exposures and stack them on top of each other to get fairly respectable results.
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Old 06-20-2017, 09:57 AM   #19
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You might also want to check out the "Dark Sky" program/projects/areas in the Mackinaw and Harbor Springs, in Michigan's "upper" Lower Peninsula. They are specially designated areas for sky viewing in northern lower Michigan.
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Old 06-20-2017, 10:15 AM   #20
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There are some Apps that make astronomy accessible ... google sky is easy; SkyView will overlay 'pictures' of the constellations over the stars.

Satellite spotting is also fun, the ISS Detector app is an easy in. Watching the SpaceX Dragon chase the International Space Station was almost too easy a couple weeks ago.
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