Telescopes and star gazing.....

...if anything Deane I've been mistaken for a Kiwi......bit of a Maori look I guess.....Dad's Scottish Mum's Chinese (from Malaysia) so there's a bit of a mix in me for sure, and I see it as getting the best of both worlds!

We bought new bins while on holiday in Wales and they came in handy, Bushnell 10x42's, never thought to use them while we were lying on our backs under the stars though....was too busy taking in the panorama of the Milky Way!

Would love a little observatory for the house, and actually, gorgeous other half asked about using the scope through the velux window up in The Den, which probably isn't as daft and idea as it sounds!

Arf,

I was exactly where you are about 12 months ago and bought my first scope last Christmas. It's a Bresser Messier N203 8 inch reflector and cost about £360. I spent about £60 getting a twin axis drive kit for it too so it keeps the object centred. Bresser are the low cost arm of Meade and are manufactured in China but I have been delighted with it. I purchased from Telescope House near Maidstone and they were extremely nice, gave good advice and had a fabulous showroom.

I did a lot of research before taking the plunge and eventually settled on this because with telescopes of reasonable quality, aperture is everything so I wanted the widest aperture I could afford to ensure I wasn't disappointed by what I saw. I borrowed a Meade LX90 catadioptric scope with computer control and utterly loved it - it's what I would buy if money were no object but it's around £1500 and that's a lot of money on a hobby that you are just starting out in.

The Bresser Messier N203 is very well made (for the money)and the mount is particularly good for the price and has provided me with stable views and accurate planetary tracking once set up.

I think the 8" Newtonian is the limit of what is comfortably portable though so I wouldn't go any bigger than that unless you are planning a permanent observatory.

The scope came with a range of budget get you started eyepieces and they're OK but I have since bought a high quality wide field eyepiece by (Vixen LVV 6mm) and with that I think the planetary views equal the views I got on the LX90 at three times the price - however the LX90 has the benefit of computer control and is more compact though actually just as heavy to move around.

If I had my time again I'd buy the same scope again - it really does offer stunning value for money and the Orion Nebula was breathtaking even from suburban Surrey. Personally I think light pollution is only a major issue if you're in the middle of a large city or are wanting to view very faint objects. If you want to take a peek at the obvious stuff e.g. Orion, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, moon etc it hasn't been much of an issue for me in suburbia. The other competing brands worth looking out for are Skywatcher (also made in China) or TAL (Russian but very heavy) and if portability or go-to is important then there are some compact scopes such as the Meade ETX series that are very good for their aperture.

Hope this helps. Also worth joining the local astro society for good advice and secondhand bargains. A good book to start with is 'Turn left at Orion' which helps you find your way around if you don't have go-to. I'd also recommend the STarry night software for planning your observing and knowing what's up tonight.

I have also found 'Sky at Night' to be a worthwhile read for a beginner like me.

Hope this helps,

Jonathan

Patrick Moores "Stargazing without a Telescope"
is an excellent starting point highly recommended.

you can check the contents here

quote:

Originally posted by Deane F:
I haven't dome any observing for years. Deane

Me neither, but reading Ali's thread had made me want to drag my scope back out again. The problem is not only is the light pollution bad here but I am surrounded by buildings so unless it is directly above I don't get much to look at!

I would love to live in the country and get an observatory with a 16" Meade LX200 etc, but that's about as likely as a CD555!

I started my interest in astronomy, like so many things, along with my dad when I was a kid. He had a home-made 8" Newtonian made with a length of plastic drainpipe as the tube, but top quality mirrors and perched on a decent equatorial mount.

We spent many nights until the early hours looking up into the skies perched on top of a pair of steps, freezing our knackers off but not wanting to go to bed as we swung the telescope round to fix on "one last object".

Or days spent projecting images of the sun on to sheets of paper (never using a sun filter -too dangerous) and charting the progress of the sunspots across the 'face' of our nearest star.

Now you've bloody got me right at it!

Good luck with it Ali. Whatever you get I'm sure you will enjoy, but Deane makes a very valid point about losing interest if it is too difficult and the smaller GOTO catadioptrics are very user friendly.

Mark

No light pollution problems here will take some pics when there is no moon

I have a Meade. I take it some places when we go to stay somewhere rural - Norfolk, Scotland and it's great to set it up - three of us with our 'scopes and a sky chart.
Then one night, my buddy brought out his binoculars. I was amazed at how easy it was just to look at what you want to look at without the sodding about, and how clear and detailed they were. If I was going back to buying something now I wouldn't start off with a 'scope but a good set of Leica bins. Much easier to get into the car too!
For starting out, bins are the way to go. You will see more and spend much more time looking instead of fiddling. You can keep them in the car boot for when you drive through a really really dark piece of countryside, just pull over and spend 5 minutes looking at the sky.
That's my top tip anyway.

Hello again folks,

sorry I haven't replied in a while - I managed to shatter the tip of my finger on wednesday lunchtime while opening up a pig trap! Caught it between the trap lid and the handle of the ratchet I was using, with all my might behind it....
Result, well, see for yourself.....





Apparently there should be a defined white edge round the tip of my finger (in the x ray) instead of the mushy halo you can see, and as the doctor put it - "it looks like the tip of your finger has exploded" nice!

So, I am now back at home signed off work and need to see how it heals.......

But to get back on topic, it looks as though the budget might be stretched slightly (as usual) and we could be interested in a Meade ETX of some description.......but we won't be buying for a while yet, and there's plenty of reasearch (books, mags, web etc) for me to check out first.

Thanks again for all your input.

Cheers,
Ali

Been doing a bit of research and found these godd sites so far.....

British Astronomical Association
Sky Tonight
Aurora Watch
Sky View Optics
Telescope House

Cheers,
Ali

Ali, have you seen any aurora?

I ask because some time ago while camping in Denali National Park, Alaska friends and I spent a fair bit of time over a few evenings looking up at the sky watching yellow, pink, green, blue (and white?) sheets of soft glowing light flutter about the sky from just above the pine forest right up to the brightly shining Pole Star. This slow and lazy display was put to shame by one far brighter and faster moving seen a few years before while traveling by sea between Skagway, Alaska and Prince Rupert, BC. This first display was I guess at the time of a solar maximum hence the bright faster moving displays of light could be seen covering the whole Northern view from horizon to zenith and this display to my mind was filled with far more green and pink lights.

Did I take photographs? No, for anything I could have attempted would I am sure been just a pale imitation of nature's fine show and besides that I was too busy watching and soaking up the detail of something I might never ever see again.

Roy,
we have actually, and believe it or not, it was on the back roads behind our small town just outside Aberdeen! It was a pale white shimmer, floating about over Benachie and the town of Inverurie, slow moving but clearly visible....I actually managed to capture it on video with the camera set to nightshot, which gave the light a (false) green cast, but you could clearly see it was an aurora.

This was my second experience of the aurora in Scotland, the first being out by Old Meldrum, slightly further west of Aberdeen, where I was staying in digs for my first year of studies. There were hints of colour (red and green) but it was mainly white light again, although this time it was dancing above our heads - rising and falling in the night sky above us - quite spectacular and I remember it clearly to this day - it was about 13 years ago....

I visited Norway in December back in 2001 and was hoping to see the aurora then.....but it snowed the whole week and I didn't even see the sun let alone any stars!!

Your experience sounds amazing, and you were quite right not to try and capture it - the memory of the experience can be more powerful than a photo that can't do the experience any justice whatsoever!

Cheers,
Ali

Needs a slightly longer Exposure & its clouded over now !

In the voice of Rolf Harris ave-yeah guessed what it is yet?

I'd have a guess at - Sirius.....

Blueknowz - have you seen any geminid's...??

I saw one last night, when taking the dog out of her last pee, and was hoping to make a trip into the countryside for some proper viewing and possibly some photography......but tonight it's overcast and raining.....

The Geminid meteor shower is set to peak in the early hours of the 14th, so there's still time.......

Cheers,
Ali

Saw one last night on the way home and another tonight - wow!

Orion's belt?

Somewhere nearer the shoulder . . . the Tannhauser Gate perhaps?

Saw a few isolated ones tonight !
It is Sirius just below Orion's Belt ! have not cracked taking longish exposures with a digital camera yet ,if I get it sorted will post some more .......jim

Well - taking advantage of being signed off work (ie. not having to get up in the morning) I drove out last night at half past midnight......it wasn't planned, I was lying in bed struggling to get to sleep and suddenly thought - Geminids!!
One look out the window confirmed a clear sky and that was it. Hurriedly packed tripod, camera, water, banana, and warm clothing - although in my haste I forgot the binoculars, doh!! Then off I headed west of Aberdeen's orange glow....
Didn't really have a clue where I was going to stop but the closer I got I knew a spot near Tarland, where my Dad was born/raised, quiet B-road, and I stopped in a passing place.

Not the best night for viewing - some high cloud, and I had probably left it too late as the moon was rising, lighting up the cloud, so it wasn't pitch black and I could only just make out the Milky Way.... But I was rewarded with several meteors. A couple could have been randoms as they were too fast and coming from the wrong direction, but several were definitely Geminids - one left a trail that lasted a couple of seconds and got a ooooo outburst from me.....

As far as the photography went, well, I'm still learning......
Unlike the shots in Wales I was using max ISO (1600) and each exposure was only a couple of minutes or so. Initially I forgot to lower the tripod and make it as stable/sheltered as possible resulting in blurred images, I did get a couple after that.....but no meteors......


The North Star (Polaris) and the Plough (Ursa Major and a few others) 2 min exposure at f/3.5 ISO 1600


Orion in motion, totally over-exposed (it's been adjusted as best I could in Capture/Photoshop) 6 min 45 secs exposure at f/3.5 ISO 1600

I was hoping to do the same again tonight, and after sleeping in this morning I will be wide awake, but it's overcast and miserable today and the forecast is for much the same tonight.......which is a shame as the Geminids are set to peak (up to 30/40 per hour) sometime in the small hours of the morning......bummer!!!!

If you get a clear night where you are, try and catch them......

Cheers,
Ali

quote:

Initially I forgot to lower the tripod and make it as stable/sheltered as possible resulting in blurred images,

Ali,
you could always try suspending something heavy such as your bag of kit from the tripod head so that the additional weight is directly below the head, between the extended legs and off of the ground. You should find that the additional weight will steady your tripod by lowering the centre of gravity, I have often used this method when taking long exposure shots (in conjunction with a stack of ND filters and a cable release) of landscapes where I wished to capture the movement of water or flowers. I expect that this idea may well help with your star shots.

Thanks Roy, I normally would but I packed light last night.....lowering the tripod was the best option....

What's the weather like where you are...???

Unbelievably it's beginning to clear up where we are!!

Cheers,
Ali

I am somewhere not too cold but somewhere far too orange, not so good as viewing is restricted to high days, holidays and vicarious experditions around the globe via monthly editions of The Sky at Night.

This thread had slipped to the bottom of the padded cell, but people are still viewing it so you must be interested, which is cool.

I was out again the other night, when the Geminids were meant to peak, and I was rewarded with LOADS on what was a bizarrely mild night for December up here in Aberdeenshire!! I went to the same spot as the previous night and while the rest of Scotland was coping with floods (so glad we live on a hill) I had my head stuck in the heavens!

Again, it wasn't a perfect night - some high cloud, but less moonlight this time, although there were spots of drizzle at the end of my two hour stint in the darkness.....it's amazing how your eyes adjust isn't it....
And, I remembered the bins this time.....lets you see so many more stars than you can with the naked eye, and the faint glow of M42 (the Orion Nebula) was clearly visible, much to my fascination.....

As for the Geminids, well I said loads, and to be honest, between faffing about with my camera and using the bins, I lost count.....a shame because some boffin somewhere probably could have used the info.....

Aye, and they were falling everywhere but where my lens was pointing!!!

In the end I didn't think I'd captured any, until I got home and went through the pics.....can you spot them.....??



That pink noise is back again (the orange glow is clowd) same as in the star trail shot in Wales (on page1 of this thread) and I’m still not sure what it is……??? I attached the viewfinder cover this time, and had lens hood on/off which made no difference at all, the same pink effect top left of frame is in every shot……anybody any ideas….???

Does this crop make it any easier to find them......



I'm not going to win any awards with the shot, but for all that I took I'm glad I at least captured not one but two Geminids in it......

Anybody else have a clear sky.....???

Cheers,
Ali

Ali

You've inspired me to renew my subscription to 'Astronomy Now'. I am away this weekend but I shall be dragging my telescope out again and finding a nice hill nearby to view from next week. I'm going to my dad's this weekend and he has a 10" Meade LX55 so should have some good gazing tomorrow.

We should make this the official stargazers' thread!

Keep the pictures coming they're brilliant.

Regards

Mark

Thanks Mark, enjoy your weekend - hope you get clear skies!

Mark - how was your weekend, did you manage to get much viewing done....???

Funny you mention 'Astronomy Now', on Friday I bought their 2007 Yearbook and this months mag, a couple of weeks ago I bought 'Sky at Night' and 'Sky and Telescope' as my first mags about astronomy.

I found Sky at Night very good to read with a broad subject matter and well written.

I thought Sky and Telescope was a bit too 'American' (no offence guys) and I haven't gone back to it much since - although I found their article about sleep deprivation and star gazing (or working lots of nightshifts, like I do) very interesting.

The Astronomy Now purchases have been very enjoyable and one (this months mag) is by my bed, and the yearbook is in the loo - where I do the rest of most of my reading.....

Would you say Astronomy Now was better than Sky at Night, or was it a while ago that you had a subscription and Sky at Night didn't exist...??

Cheers,
Ali