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TortElvisII

TortElvisII

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"The viewing period for comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS began on Friday, Oct. 11 and is set to continue through Monday, Oct. 21, before it fades from naked eye visibility."
 
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HymanKaplan_rivals48997

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Hmmmm - this might just be the "in" I need, to justify buying this 8 inch Schmidt- Cassegrain scope, to the wife. LOL

Do NOT look at the price. 😆 😆

 
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*CatinIL*

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HymanKaplan said:
Hmmmm - this might just be the "in" I need, to justify buying this 8 inch Schmidt- Cassegrain scope, to the wife. LOL

Do NOT look at the price. 😆 😆

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Nice rig. I have the Edge 8 myself but it's currently sitting on the Explore Scientific 2 mount. The wife has given me the thumbs up to go ahead and get a Go-To mount for it. I do have to say I like the TW2 because I can put the Edge 8 and the ES 80 on the same mount. I love the Edge 8 but that ES 80 really produces clean sharp views of the stars.
 
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TortElvisII

TortElvisII

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HymanKaplan said:
Any of you all ever owned/used one of those enormous Dobsonian light bucket rigs?
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No, not me but one thing I would like to get, I think they're made in Germany, darkens the night sky and you can see a lot more. I heard about it on a UFO podcast of all things. There was a guy on there that said if you get these you'll see a lot more stars and lights in the sky. Sort of like the 1970s sky that I grew up with.
 
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*CatinIL*

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HymanKaplan said:
Holy crap. You'd think that if you're spending 2200 dollars on a telescope that they'd throw the tripod in.

Nope... LOL
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It's a hobby that can be had for a modest amount of money to crazy dollar amounts...just like any hobby.

If you want Bang-for-the-Buck, this isn't a bad option for <$700



It's not Go-To like the one you posted above but it pulls in quite a bit of light for you.
 
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Spica Orbit

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*CatinIL* said:
Nice rig. I have the Edge 8 myself but it's currently sitting on the Explore Scientific 2 mount. The wife has given me the thumbs up to go ahead and get a Go-To mount for it. I do have to say I like the TW2 because I can put the Edge 8 and the ES 80 on the same mount. I love the Edge 8 but that ES 80 really produces clean sharp views of the stars.
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You'll love the GOTO mount. With decent polar alignment, it'll easily put objects in the eyepiece field of view.

Also, aperture fever is real. I went from a Celestron 9.25, to a 11 inch EdgeHD & finally a 14 inch EdgeHD. The big scope sits on a permanently mounted Losmandy Titan mount. Scope & mount together weigh around 275 pounds. For lunar, planetary & wide-field observing, I've got a Telescope Engineering Company 140mm f/7 APO. The optical quality of that scope is incredible.
 
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HymanKaplan_rivals48997

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You all, with your fancy motor drives and star software.

Observing the wonders of the universe should be done the RIGHT way. And that means hours of miserable frustration, in the middle of a cold, god forsaken pasture, and ruining everyone's mood before you just point the f***ing scope at the moon, and tell the kids to shut up and stare at THAT for an hour, while you go to the car to try and find that flask you brought.

Crab Nebula my ***...
 
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LordEggForgotHisPassword_rivals

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To HK's point...

My best friend was/is a physics guy (worked on his PhD before going to law school - what a terrible decision re: law school). Anyway, he has a giant assed 10" newtonian he has had for years. I called him when i ordered this new telescope to get his thoughts (compromise on light intake for portability was the ultimate decision maker so i could take kids out to gorge, LBL, other dark places this winter, etc.). I asked him if he would come out. He said he couldn't allow us to flounder around in the dark trying to find stuff, so he would come, too. I asked him if he needed handwarmers since i had a box (for sports). He said his excitement would keep him warm. lol.
 
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*CatinIL*

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Spica Orbit said:
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You'll love the GOTO mount. With decent polar alignment, it'll easily put objects in the eyepiece field of view.

Also, aperture fever is real. I went from a Celestron 9.25, to a 11 inch EdgeHD & finally a 14 inch EdgeHD. The big scope sits on a permanently mounted Losmandy Titan mount. Scope & mount together weigh around 275 pounds. For lunar, planetary & wide-field observing, I've got a Telescope Engineering Company 140mm f/7 APO. The optical quality of that scope is incredible.
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^^^^^ Folks, that's an Observatory! ^^^^
I know that 14 Edge is incredible but I bet the view through that 140mm APO is crazy nice.
 
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HymanKaplan_rivals48997

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Best advice I ever received, when I told a coworker, years ago (who was heavy into the hobby) that I was thinking about buying a telescope, he said, "you'll get frustrated and quit within 2 weeks, put it in a closet, and never use it again. Do yourself a favor. Get a starwheel/chart, a decent set of binoculars, and stick with that until you REALLY know the sky. Then you can start looking for telescopes. I'll help you when you're ready, because the mount/tripod/controls are WAY more important for your first scope than the actual scope is, but we'll get to that later."

He was bang on...
 
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*CatinIL*

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HymanKaplan said:
Best advice I ever received, when I told a coworker, years ago (who was heavy into the hobby) that I was thinking about buying a telescope, he said, "you'll get frustrated and quit within 2 weeks, put it in a closet, and never use it again. Do yourself a favor. Get a starwheel/chart, a decent set of binoculars, and stick with that until you REALLY know the sky. Then you can start looking for telescopes. I'll help you when you're ready, because the mount/tripod/controls are WAY more important for your first scope than the actual scope is, but we'll get to that later."

He was bang on...
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Yep.
I mentioned above the site Cloudy Nights. They provide a free pdf download of the sky for each month. Print it off, study it, then look up at the sky and find your way around.

But I like the Stellarium download because it updates by the second.
 
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*CatinIL*

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@Spica Orbit do you have a solar scope? If so I would like to know your opinion on them. I've always wanted to look through one to see what the view is like. I get confused with the various eye-pieces and what they do.
 
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Spica Orbit

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*CatinIL* said:
@Spica Orbit do you have a solar scope? If so I would like to know your opinion on them. I've always wanted to look through one to see what the view is like. I get confused with the various eye-pieces and what they do.
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Well, you can add a mylar or glass solar filter to a scope for white light observations, but about the only visible solar features through those relatively inexpensive filters, would be sunspots, solar granulation & if you were very lucky, maybe a white light solar flare.

I suspect you're talking about a hydrogen-alpha solar scope or filter system. I've not had any experience with those, but there's definitely a lot more to see if you went that route, but a lot more expense, too!
 
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*CatinIL*

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Spica Orbit said:
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Well, you can add a mylar or glass solar filter to a scope for white light observations, but about the only visible solar features through those relatively inexpensive filters, would be sunspots, solar granulation & if you were very lucky, maybe a white light solar flare.

I suspect you're talking about a hydrogen-alpha solar scope or filter system. I've not had any experience with those, but there's definitely a lot more to see if you went that route, but a lot more expense, too!
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I was referring to.
 
TortElvisII

TortElvisII

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The comet was very impressive tonight.

Look between Venus and Arcturus. The two brightest objects in the western sky. It's a little above that line now and will continue to rise.

If you don't see it with your eye, put your phone on night sight and take a photo. It's almost 270°. About 10°.
 
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*CatinIL*

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the nail at the foul line said:
The comet was very impressive tonight.

Look between Venus and Arcturus. The two brightest objects in the western sky. It's a little above that line now and will continue to rise.

If you don't see it with your eye, put your phone on night sight and take a photo. It's almost 270°. About 10°.
Click to expand...
I'll give it a try tomorrow night. I saw Venus earlier tonight.
 
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KyCatFan_rivals45723

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I've only ever seen 1 comet. It was Hale-Bopp back in the late 90's. I don't recall getting to see Haley's Comet back in the mid 80's when I was in elementary school. This is why I'd like to move out to the country and up on some hill somewhere. Less light pollution and less obstructions.

I'm still waiting to be able to take my 3d printed telescope out somewhere and check out the sky. Still need to paint over a few places where I ran out of black filament. This setup is supposed to be able to get a pretty good view of Jupiter and Saturn.

 
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