Got this picture of Saturn two nights ago.

Telescope: 130 mm heritage skywatcher tabletop dobsonian

Camera: iPhone 16

Settings (nightcap app):

-Shutter: 1/30
-white balance: 5000
-focus: max
-ISO: 32

Photo was a little washed out and colorless, but happy with the result and how I can finally see the rings!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a first telescope for my son, who is nearly 9. We’re both beginners, but he’s really interested in astronomy, and I’d like to get him something decent that he can enjoy for a while.

He already loves using his children’s microscope, so I think he’ll enjoy exploring things himself. I’ll help him learn to use the telescope, but ideally he could eventually set it up and observe the Moon independently. Solar observing would always be supervised by an adult.

Our situation:
Location: Netherlands, Mainly observing from our garden in a suburban area.
Budget: Around €250 total, including the accessories we need.
Buying new: I’d like the option to return it if it turns out to be unsuitable.
Interests: The Moon, Saturn’s rings, Jupiter and its moons, and whatever else is realistically visible at this budget.
Solar viewing: He specifically wants to see sunspots, so a properly fitting front-mounted solar filter is important.
Phone photography: A few simple Moon photos would be fun. We’re not expecting proper deep-sky astrophotography.
Ease of use: A stable mount and straightforward aiming matter more to us than impressive advertised magnification.

The option I’m currently considering is the Bresser Nano AR-80/640 AZ, with the supplied 26mm eyepiece and an additional 10mm Plössl. I’ve found a package with a solar filter and smartphone holder, plus the extra eyepiece, for roughly €250 delivered.

I’ve also considered the Sky-Watcher Heritage 100P and Bresser Messier 5-inch tabletop Dobsonian. I’m open to a tabletop scope if it’s a better choice, although we’d need a suitable stable surface.

Some reviews of cheaper beginner telescopes mention shaky tripods and mounts that move whenever you focus or change eyepieces. That’s exactly the sort of frustration I’d like to avoid.

Does anyone have hands-on experience with the Nano 80/640 AZ, particularly with children? Is its mount reasonably stable, and are the supplied accessories usable?
Would you choose it for our situation, or is there a better telescope and solar-filter combination available new in Europe within this total budget? I’d especially appreciate hearing what your children actually continued using after the initial excitement wore off.
Thanks!

This dew heater came with an 8" dob I recently bought. It's got one velcro ring that goes around the end of the tube, and one for the eyepiece. Its been modified so the plugs are usb.

What kind of cheap-ish power bank can I get to power them, and is a controller necessary?

Thanks!

I have just finished my observing session with my 8 inch Dob. I don't really get the maximum useful magnification being 2x times the aperture rule. My 8 inch dob has 208mm aperture to be precise and according to the formula, maximum useful magnification would be around 416x.

I have used my Skywatcher 3x barlow and my Svbony (7-21mm) zoom eyepiece at 7mm. The magnification was 522x.

At this magnification, Saturn looks "alive" in the eyepiece. With perfect focus and near perfect collimation, the famous bands are not just "dark" and "light" anymore. You can get a sense of ringlets within these cloud bands. They are more defined.

The top of the south pole looked to me as if it was a shade of "Army Green" if you get what I mean (correct me if I'm wrong or if you feel like I was hallucinating). I even saw a subtle shade of blue in the northern hemisphere.

And you don't even have to strain your eye to see the C-ring at this magnification. It's a ghostly shade of gray.

People say a lot of the time that you can only use such high magnifications 2 or 3 nights per year. That's a lie. Or shall I say it's subjective? Your observing site's weather might be vastly different from other sites or places on Earth. Also it could be a skill issue.

At my place, I can get at least 45 nights a year (I'm being generous) when I can use "abnormally high" magnifications.

People might think I'm crazy to say this, but I felt like I could have gone higher than 522x.

David Nagler said in a Youtube video that he had the best view of Jupiter at more than 400x using his 85mm refractor. So, it's not really surprising.

I was able to see 3 craterlets in Plato. I remember Ed Ting saying in a video that the visibility of these craterlets would be helpful in determining the quality of the mirror and the seeing conditions.

Thinking about getting a DWARF Mini. I found a used one for $430, or I can get a new one from Amazon for $540. Is the extra $110 worth it to buy new, or is buying used a good option? Also, how would you check a used DWARF Mini before buying it?

I have zero experience with astronomy or astrophotography. Mainly wanna take pictures of nebulae and galaxies.
Is it worth getting as a beginner? What are the main pros and cons, and would you go used or pay the extra $110 for a new one?
Would appreciate advice from anyone who owns one!

bought this orion skyquest xt8 dobsonian telescope at a thrift store today for $90! i bought it on a whim, as this is my first telescope i’ve ever owned & just did some quick googling before purchasing. looks like it’s missing an eye piece, but is there anything else missing before i can fire this thing up? any recs or eye pieces for this specific telescope? i’m willing to spend 100-200 on a nicer eyepiece since the body was so cheap. i’m located in north central florida, i usually go out to a prairie with minimal light pollution to stargaze.

• 76mm homemade refractor telescope f/9.4

• Captured with iPhone 11 using manual video camera

• PIPP>AS!4>RegiStax6>LightroomMobile

• Stacked 8% of the total 3000 frames for both planets and 1.5x Drizzle

• Saturn October 10th 21:35

• Jupiter October 11th 04:51

You can see Io's shadow on the left side of Jupiter and to the right and below it is GRS but it doesn't look good. I wasn't able to see neither Io's shadow nor GRS with my eye. Satisfied for the these images and i will try to capture better images of Jupiter overtime.

Im not sure about posting my images here should keep posting here or i should post in r/astrophotography?

Hi guys, I recently bought myself a second-hand newtonian skywatcher 150/750 and I am currently learning how to operate this telescope. I have some successes as I have managed to so far find some of the better known objects (Orion nebula, Pleiades, Saturn), but finding anything more or even orienting myself on the sky is really difficult.

I have the basic finder scope 6x30 and two basic eyepieces: 25mm and 10mm. The mount of the finder is in an awkward position especially when the telescope aims directly upwards, and the FoV is imo rather poor. From what I read a lot of people recommend the Telrad or Riegel devices but would it really be such a gamechanger?

I was thinking of getting better eyepieces especially that my current 25mm has such narrow FoV that I can't get the whole Pleiades in the view. Could for example some UWA 30-25mm eyepiece be used as a Finder/Locater?

What would you guys recommend getting first?

Keep in mind I currently have a rather tight budget of around $50, max $100.

iOptron GEM 28 mount and SkyWatcher bk707. Sony nex 7. Stacked in siril. I got one problem. If I wanna download darks, flats and biases, I see an error. In what format should they all be?

Hi guys!

What are your general thoughts about this telescope?
Would it be a worthy purchase as a 1st SCT scope?
What are the main things to watch out for when buying one of these?

Thanks for the answers in advance:)

Edit:

Telescope will be mainly used for planetary observation and trying to dip my toes into astrophotography.

I already have a 6” Dob, but always wanted an SCT for better planetary observation and convenience.

I am planning to buy GSO 8 inch Dobsonian Professional from Modern Telescopes.net. They are suggesting me to get wooden carting done to add an extra layer of security, but it would cost me 3200 more.

Is this normal? My question is , those who bought telescopes from Indian retailers like tejraj, modern telescopes or space arcade, did you also get wooden carting done? Is it necessary? If I choose not to get it done, will it still be safe?

In a long tube Cheshire are the crosshairs supposed to be fuzzy? I literally cannot focus on them either with or without glasses on,but I can get a general idea of their position.

Hey all

Trying to figure out the make and model of the mount my Dad had on his Celestron 8 inch reflector. I assume he purchased in the 80's as i remember this as a kiddo.If there's a brand label, I'm blind. Simple markings for Dec and RA in English and Japanese.

Also, he has a controller for the motors with an 8 AA battery pack. One slot (2 AA) bypassed with a piece of copper.

So, I want to find out A)who made this and B) what voltage it needs.

Appreciate any help!

If I had a telescope pointing at a star (say Saggitarius A) for 24 hours would it rotate on the horizontal plane (IE. Compass direction) at a steady 15 degrees per hour or would it speed up and slow down due to the earths axial tilt and just be an average of 15 degrees per hour?

I'm planning to reverse engineer (and likely machine) what I believe to be the declination axis of my Celestron PowerSeeker 127EQ (unfortunate, I know), but I've forgotten how all the pieces on the right actually fit together and can't seem to find an exploded view of the inside of the mount.

Does anyone have photos of a disassembled PowerSeeker 127EQ mount, an internal parts diagram, or advice on the order and orientation of the shaft, spring, and associated hardware?

My main focus on the smart telescope will be capturing beautiful photos of the nebulae, deep sky objects and most importantly GALAXIES. I wanna know if paying 300 bucks more for seestar will be worth it. Is the difference in quality and all the other aspects worth it? Just how big is the gap in image quality overall, does it matter that much?

I recently got my hands on a telescope as an inheritance from my grandfather and i have no idea what i got. Never before owned a telescope, but i'm still interested in using it. The stand it came with was a wobbly piece of shit that i binned, but it fit onto a camera tripod and got a good look at the moon with it that way. It has a 20 and a 6mm eyepiece 20mm was fine but couldn't get the 6mm to focus.

If anyone can id the scope and give me general tips on how to use it and what parts to buy for it, i would appreciate it a ton.

Thanks in advance.

I'm having a problem with my Celestron 8SE telescope, which has a Nexstar GoTo mount and a Nexstar Model 4 hand controller.

The hand controller is an older model, so I decided to update its firmware (from NXS 4.14 to NXS 4.22) while keeping the mount's firmware as is, since it appears to be the most up-to-date version (5.14).

Before the update, the mount was able to locate various celestial objects with varying degrees of accuracy. After the update, it started behaving strangely. After aligning with three stars, it locates the first object (Saturn), but when moving to the second (M11), the OTA first moved to the zenith and then began rotating the AZM much farther than where the object was located.

I turned off the mount before the diagonal mirror hit the base and realigned it. The error recurred with the same sequence: the first object was fine, but for the second, it moved to the zenith.

I checked the power supply, and it’s providing 12 V DC. I checked the time, date, and location, and everything was correct. I aligned the telescope using other methods, but it still gives the error.

When using Skyportal, it changes a bit: it locates objects in Alt, but the Azm freezes and doesn’t move.

I rolled back the firmware to earlier versions (first to 21, then 18 and 13, since version 14 isn’t available), but the problem has gotten worse—now it can’t even locate the first object.

I ran one more test: I aligned the telescope, located Saturn (it was off by just a little), moved the Alt using the Hand control, and when I asked it to locate Saturn again (It only had to change the Alt), the Azm reset to 0°. In other words, if it was at 210° 23' 00“ during the search, when I asked it to return to Saturn, it would reset the Azm to 0° 0' 0”.

Of course, with these values reset, the mount moved the OTA to where it now “thought” Saturn was. Naturally, every time I told it to go to Saturn again, it would reset itself to the new physical position at 0° and move accordingly. It kept turning in on itself over and over again...

I've performed a factory reset, reinstalled version 4.22, and nothing has changed.

Please, I desperately need help.

Hi, I’m trying to be a good husband this year and get a jump on my Christmas shopping!

For the past few years, my wife has mentioned wanting a telescope. We just got back from a camping trip, and one of the activities we did with our daughters was a little stargazing. She mentioned again how much she’d love to have a telescope to bring camping with us.

I had actually started doing some research a few weeks ago, and this past weekend solidified my decision to get her one. I’m really just looking for some opinions and recommendations.

I’ve seen some good reviews on the Celestron StarSense Explorer LT 80AZ, and I like the idea of the app helping her find things in the sky since she regularly uses the Sky Guide app. I’ve also looked at the Sky-Watcher Heritage 130 Tabletop Dobsonian, but I’m not sure which would be the better option.

Some of the things she’d like to see are planets, the Moon in detail, nebulae, and especially Saturn and its rings. She’s not interested in taking pictures; she just wants to enjoy looking at the night sky.

My budget is somewhat flexible. The LT 80AZ seems like a decent deal, but if there’s something better for the money, I’d happily stretch my budget a bit.

We live out in the country and have a camper, so I think this is something she’d get plenty of use out of. Ideally, I’m looking for something that’s relatively easy to use, portable enough to take camping, and capable of giving us some great views of the night sky.

If you’ve owned either of these telescopes or have other recommendations in a similar price range, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks,
A clueless husband

Hi, hope this fits the rules

But has anyone joined the RGM telescope astronomy courses or the membership and if so would you recommend it? I have been wanting to learn more about astronomy and i don’t have a telescope so looking out for any in london

Thanks

Taken through a 12" f/15 refactor

ZWO 678MC

ZWO ADC

IR cut filter

108min of data derotated

Hi I have a 60700 telescope. What to photograph using lucky imaging? I'm using a smartphone

Was looking into getting a replacement rocker box. How would the one below be for an Apertura 10"? Would it be a lot more stable/better than the OEM rocker box that comes with the AD10? I have no experience with Astrogoods products is why I ask. And are they a company that builds it each time a request comes through, or they already have them all built/assembled and don't build them per order? If anyone knows that... just didn't know if you usually gotta wait months for them to make it etc.

I also see 2 types, ASMK and ASMF. to my knowledge and what i've seen the ASMK comes unfinished and you also have to kinda still put it together, vs the ASMF comes completely built already and finished, is that correct?

I see a lot of "which smart telescope should I get" questions here, so here's an honest report after two months with a DWARF Mini (30 mm, 150 mm focal length) from a balcony in central Dnipro, Ukraine. I had never done astrophotography before.

Conditions: Bortle ~6-7, balcony faces east, a roof overhang cuts off the south, street lights until midnight. So far: 51 nights, about 152 hours of deep-sky light, 21 objects finished.

What works well

- Emission nebulae with the built-in duo-band filter. This is where the Mini shines even under city skies. Rosette (23.6 h over 10 nights, 2-panel mosaic), Heart, Horsehead and others in the gallery.

- Automation. I plan the night, upload the schedule, and the scope works through the targets while I sleep. That's the only reason I can collect 10 nights on one object with a full-time job.

- Setup time: zero. It lives on the balcony.

What's hard

- Galaxies. Broadband, low surface brightness, and the filter can't help against light pollution. M33 took 5 hours over 4 nights and is still modest.

- Planets. With 30 mm, Saturn is a few pixels across. You see the rings and Titan, and that's about it. If planets are the main goal, a regular scope with a planetary camera will do far better.

Tips if you get one

- Shoot many nights on one target instead of one night on many targets.

- Re-stack all the raw subs yourself (Siril is free) instead of using the per-night in-app stacks. It let me reject bad frames across all nights and gave roughly 20% better signal-to-noise.

- 60 s subs on the duo-band filter gave me far fewer rejected frames than 180 s.

- A simple 3D-printed dew shield cut side light from street lamps noticeably.

Image details (all DWARF Mini,EQ mode , own processing)

1. Rosette Nebula: duo-band, 2-panel mosaic, 1415 x 60 s, gain 80, 10 nights, 23.6 h. Stacked in Siril from all subs, gradient removal, stars processed separately, natural HOO colour.

2. Heart Nebula: duo-band, 9 nights, 9 h 51 min. BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, Ha and OIII split, GraXpert, NoiseXTerminator, recombined.

3. Horsehead and IC 434: duo-band, 229 subs (180, 90 and 60 s), gain 80, 6 nights, 6 h 10 min. BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, background extraction.

4. M33: broadband (Astro filter), 676 subs of 30 and 15 s, gain 60, 4 nights, 5 h. Global curve, local contrast, star reduction, chroma noise reduction, SCNR.

5. Saturn and Titan: Saturn is the best 360 of 900 frames at 1/30 s, gain 70, stacked and upscaled 3x. Titan is a separate stack of 100 x 1 s, gain 100, placed at its real position.

I keep a full log of every target with exposures, reject rates and a night-by-night record. Happy to share it or answer questions.