Telescopes and Stargazing

[LONEWOLF]

Anyone into Stargazing? After sitting outside and watching the Asteroid 2018 MB7 tonight... Im thinking I might get a telescope... Any Ideas on something that you can use your IPhone on? To take a pic of what you see while watching.. I had a bit of a search on the net but I don't really understand the tec talk about them...

LW....

 

[moeee]

Pretty sure someone out there has much better equipment than what you would consider getting , and is streaming vision of what you intend viewing on YouTube right now.

 

[LONEWOLF]

No Net when im camping...

LW

 

[Rockhunter62]

Hi LW,

Carol has the app "Sky Guide" on her I Pad that we use to see what is up there when we are out camping. It has all those sought of things as well has satellites etc.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Doug and Carol

 

[LONEWOLF]

I will look into that one, Thanks Doug and Carol.... :Y:

LW...

 

[Hotrob]

Hi LW.
My opinion only.
I own a Tasco celestial scope (celestial means it is really only for stargazing) & it is a POS. It is hard to focus & by the time it is focused the image you are chasing has moved across the sky out of screen. Because of the internal mirror settings everything (the image) is 180 degrees out & I generally just don't like it. It wasn't a cheapy but wasn't exxy either ....... about $300 a few years ago. It came with removable magnifying lenses of different strengths .... 20x, 40x,60x etc.
It is nearly 1 meter long & awkward to handle.

I also own a Kowa spotting scope & I love it. Easy to focus & follow what you're looking at/for. Variable magnification from 20 to 60x. It's clearer to look through & because it doesn't invert everything 180 degrees you can use it as a normal scope. It's very compact at about 30 to 40cm but was a lot more expensive .....just under $1000.

HTH.

Rob.

 

[LONEWOLF]

Yes I have herd about the ones that invert the image.. Im looking at something like the spotting scope you mentioned as I can use it for looking at mountains and things like that ....

LW....

 

[reefer]

I've got an Explorascope 114AZ.a Gift for my 70th....I just cannot seem to focus this thing. Ithink it has come out of the box with a quality issue!.So frustrated on starry nights. Blow-out that others here have the same Star Gazing Pastime!... :Y: :Y: ]

 

[PabloP]

I have 2 astronomical telescopes (invert the image).
One is a Newtonian that I built myself, including grinding the mirror, making the equatorial mount, 5 foot long tube, etc.
The other is a Schmidt Cassegrain 200mm, with motor driven tracking. I have camera attachment for this one and a range of eyepieces for both units.

But what with all the other things that have been doing since retiring, neither has been used for 4-5 years.

I also have a couple of Android Apps for tracking the heavens.

Rob P.

 

[Mike70]

Hi Lonewolf, I have a large Celestron telescope that I have hardly used, also have the extra lenses for it. I have not got the details for it with me, as I am away from 'home' at the moment, but you are welcome to try it out. Send me a PM and I can let you know next time I am back on the Coast so you can pick it up.

Mike.

 

[Ridge Runner]

I have used my Spotting scopes for star gazing I have about 3 or 4 of them but if want to use one for looking at the stars you need one at Leased X125 power to be in with a chance I have a 12-36 and a Leupold Mk4/GR HD 12-40x60 and a 20-60x, even the smallest one can see a heck of a long way and the moon appears as big as the Lens and it only takes a matter of minutes for it to disappear from view but to be honest the moon is the only thing where you can see any detail, you need a lot more power to see any detail on any of the stars, So be prepared to spend some big bucks, My Leupold Mk4/GR HD came in a case with a small tripod and camera adapters and In Australia you might pick one up for about 2500-4000K.

I know Tasco make some good cheap scopes that a better suited for star gazing and they are pretty cheap too, for that kind of thing you want something between 125x-275x as a starting point any lower and it just won't work,

hope that helps,

John,

Oh and a word of warning, Beware of Owls and Bats etc, I was looking at the moon one night and an Owl flew between my Scope and the Moon and frightened the crap out of me It filled up the whole Lens and blocked out the moon :lol: :lol:

 

[LONEWOLF]

Thanks Fellas, That's the kind of Info I need to decide on what to purchase... :Y: :Y:
That's a very Kind offer there Mike 70... I too will be away for a few days and I will make contact when I return next week... :Y:

Yes it would scare the Bejesus out of you RR.. :lol: ] And I have plenty of Bats here, as we are close to a very large Colony of Fruit Bats...

Thanks for the tips, I looked at some yesterday and all they wanted was to make a sale.. No advise at all... :| I have lots to consider...

LW...

 

[MartinM]

Ridge runner, the only star you can see detail in is our own star the sun.
All other stars are point sources because they are too far away.
I have been imaging for years now and for visual stargazing you can't beat an dob.
A dob is an reflector scope on an stand and makes it easy to look at galaxies and nebulea.
I started with an 10" dob and when i started imaging i got an computerized mount (eq6).
Now i have an backyard observatory with a EQ8 in it and sitting on top of it is an ED80 and a GSO 8" scope with cooled camera etc.
LoneWolf, i recommend getting a small dob to start with and use the eyepieces that come with it.
And please don't expect to see any colors in nebulea, you might see some color in m42 (in Orion's belt).
For a look at some photo's, here is my web site http://www.martinsastro.net

 

[PabloP]

LW, it is surprising how good the photos will come out by just manually positioning a smart phone camera at the appropriate focal point of a largish telescope. The following image and a stack of others were taken from a 10" Newtonian scope on a Dobsonian mount.

You can also see some moons of several of the larger planets with a reasonable sized scope and the rings of Saturn, red spot on Jupiter, etc.

One of the reasons that Astronomical telescopes images are inverted is that it takes an extra lens to do the inversion and that cuts back on some of the light, so astronomers would prefer the extra light as they can always invert the images.

Great photos there Martin, they would take a while to process with your tracking system.

Rob P.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Ridge runner, the only star you can see detail in is our own star the sun.
All other stars are point sources because they are too far away.
I have been imaging for years now and for visual stargazing you can't beat an dob.
A dob is an reflector scope on an stand and makes it easy to look at galaxies and nebulea.
I started with an 10" dob and when i started imaging i got an computerized mount (eq6).
Now i have an backyard observatory with a EQ8 in it and sitting on top of it is an ED80 and a GSO 8" scope with cooled camera etc.

Well my spotting scope is great for looking at the Moon but there is no way would I point it at the Sun even with filters, lol.

 

[MartinM]

The photo of the sun is made thru an full aperture filter specifically made for photographing the sun.
Even a filter has to be checked for small pinholes before using and never buy any of these small filters from Ebay.