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Old 28-10-2018, 10:12 PM
Greggles (Gregory)
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Beginner - Next steps

Hello every one,

August last year I bought a cheap natgeo telescope on special from aldi to start my astronomy hoby and I'm hooked. You all gave me heaps of advice that I followed and I think it's time to take my next steps.

I live at botany in sydney and at the moment most of my viewing is done on my east facing balcony, haven't ventured away from home much as I would be alone in a dark place at all hours of the morning :p so to solve this I have been looking for a astronomy club to join.

Sydney city sky watchers would be "my local" but finding it very hard to find information about when/if they regularly meet up to star gaze. I know they meet for talks every month which is cool.

The NSAS is my other option but I'm just getting further away from home. Although they seem to meet monthly at Terry hills which is only about an hour away.

Any advice and tips on astronomy clubs would be greatly appreciated. Also is there any informal catch ups that happened around sydneys east? Safety in numbers :p

P.s My other big step is to get a new scope. will be getting a 10" Dobsonian for Christmas. Just need to decide between Bintel/GSO or skywatchers solid tube. The thousand posts I've read about them dont seem to make the choice any easier! So unless I'm missing a key peice of information I will most likely be going with bintel as it's closer to home and open weekends.

Thanks every one.

Greg
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  #2  
Old 28-10-2018, 10:31 PM
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Rkonrad (Richard)
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Welcome Greg and enjoy your Dobs when it arrives
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Old 29-10-2018, 08:02 AM
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Allan_L (Allan)
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Hi Gregory,
Congratulations on your move to a 10" Dobsonian.
If you are going to be transporting it to dark sky sessions, I would not hesitate in recommending the Skywatcher 10" collapsible Dob.
I believe Bintel carry these as well.
And BTW you are welcome to come our informal dark sky sessions at Mangrove Mountain if you have transport. (see star parties forum).

Whatever you choose, I am sure you will enjoy it.
clear skies
Allan
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Old 29-10-2018, 10:16 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Well done Greg, the difference between the Aldi scope and a 10" dob will be breathtaking!



And +1 for the collapsible dob - unless you've got a ute/large wagon, space is at a premium when transporting larger scopes about the place.
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Old 29-10-2018, 06:51 PM
Greggles (Gregory)
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Thanks every one,

Yeah, i cant wait to see the difference I've got a ute with plenty of space hence why i was thinking of the solid tube so i don't need to worry about a shroud and fogging.

Thanks for the offer. ill have to check out how far mangrove mountain is from me. Lucky if you live close to a good observing spot!

Greg
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Old 18-11-2018, 05:36 PM
Greggles (Gregory)
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Look what I got?! Yep 10" bintel dobsonian. Only there is a catch... it's going under the Christmas tree so 5 weeks till I'll be using it.

Also turns out the Sutherland astronomical society has an observation site that is bu far the closest to me. Going to look into heading down when I get a chance. Any one a member there?

Cheers,

Greg
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Old 20-11-2018, 02:59 PM
PSALM19.1 (Shaun)
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Wow Greg, you will need a big Chrissie Tree....
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Old 25-11-2018, 06:59 PM
astroturf (Bryan)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Greggles View Post
Look what I got?! Yep 10" bintel dobsonian. Only there is a catch... it's going under the Christmas tree so 5 weeks till I'll be using it.

Also turns out the Sutherland astronomical society has an observation site that is bu far the closest to me. Going to look into heading down when I get a chance. Any one a member there?

Cheers,

Greg
Hi Greg
its going to be a tough old 5 weeks

I used to belong to the sutherland club (SASI)
nice bunch of folks, they have an observatory at oyster bay

most weekends they head to a cricket pitch in the middle of the bush at Waterfall, everybody is quite helpfull and friendly

I enjoyed my times down there & I think you will
roll on Christmas

Bryan
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Old 26-11-2018, 11:30 AM
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FlashDrive (Poppy)
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Hi Gregory ...Congratulations for you new 10" inch Dob.
You'll enjoy this when you look thru' it.

Col...
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Old 02-12-2018, 07:02 PM
ausastronomer (John Bambury)
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Hi Greg,

Congratulations on your 10" dob. It's a serious telescope that you should get several years of enjoyable observing from. When I started observing 47 years ago a 10" telescope was considered "huge".

In all honesty you could spend 2 lifetimes trying to observe every astronomical target that was within reach of a 10" telescope.

The critical thing if you live in urban Sydney is to get yourself to some proper dark skies. Newcomers often have trouble grasping the benefit of proper dark skies. Those don't really exist within 50km of the Sydney CBD and if you can get further away the better.

Cheers
John B
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Old 03-12-2018, 12:01 PM
Greggles (Gregory)
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In January i'm going "Glamping" with my wife down near Jervis Bay and will be taking my new scope. Hopefully get some clear nights and dark skies!


But yes, definitely understand the importance of dark skies! I was on a rooftop in Peakhurst over the weekend so thought id have a quick look for the Andromeda galaxy. Zero chance of seeing andromeda or any of the surrounding stars that low in the horizon with all that orange sky glow.
Even getting my camera out with 200mm lens and a high ISO etc I could only just, and I mean just, see its extremely faint core.

Anyway, thanks for all the feedback. Look forward to reporting back. I guess getting a telescope for Christmas will mean a cloudy Christmas night :S. fingers crossed for clear skies!

Greg
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Old 28-12-2018, 10:37 PM
Greggles (Gregory)
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It came!! Its huge! But I can manage. I've taken in out the last couple of nights and have been relatively pleased, however I do have a question about collimation.

I've been bad and fiddling around with collimating the scope. I have a cheap laser collimator from Ebay (which I've collimated also) and used it to collimate the scope but noticed when sound around in the focused it gave different readings. I then put a barlow on it and used that method to the best I could. The laser and barlow produces a very unclear Image to work with.

Anyway I am unsure if it is collimated properly. Low magnification everything looks sharp. However, on high magnification (9mm, 7mm) the stars in orion's nebulae as well as other dull stars were not sharp.

Focusing on brighter stars like Sirius was easier and produced a round extrwmwly bright spot, I guess I would call the sound spor sharp but I really cant compare with any other veiws from large dobsonian.

Could this be collimation or just bad seeing conditions (today was extremely poor with light cloud cover on and off).

Any tips for collimating? Should I upgrade my collimating gear?

P.s Are telrads the greatest or what?! Bought one today and am loving it!

Cheers,

Greg
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Old 29-12-2018, 07:28 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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I find those laser collimators are harder to align than the scope itself. There are several threads on collimating in the bowels of the archives. The softness of the stars at higher powers suggests poor seeing and/or insufficiently cooled mirror, but that's not to say the collimation may not be out also. A quick test is to gradually defocus a bright star at med-high magnification. You should get the shadow of your secondary mirror presenting as a dark circle surrounded by the light airy disk of the defocused star - if they are concentric, then you're on the right track. If the secondary shadow is not centred, then your collimation is out. Others will be able to explain this much better than I can.
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Old 29-12-2018, 08:06 AM
Greggles (Gregory)
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Originally Posted by gaseous View Post
I find those laser collimators are harder to align than the scope itself. There are several threads on collimating in the bowels of the archives. The softness of the stars at higher powers suggests poor seeing and/or insufficiently cooled mirror, but that's not to say the collimation may not be out also. A quick test is to gradually defocus a bright star at med-high magnification. You should get the shadow of your secondary mirror presenting as a dark circle surrounded by the light airy disk of the defocused star - if they are concentric, then you're on the right track. If the secondary shadow is not centred, then your collimation is out. Others will be able to explain this much better than I can.
Thanks for the response. Yeah this is why I shouldnt be writing posts at almost midnight. I was meant to mention star testing as you have reminded me. When I defocus a bright star at high magnification the mirror seems to be pretty dead center. But all the photos online show multiple perfect concentric rings around the mirrors shadow. I dont get that on mine it looks more like A bubbling ball of gas :p
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Old 29-12-2018, 08:30 AM
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gaseous (Patrick)
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Originally Posted by Greggles View Post
Thanks for the response. Yeah this is why I shouldnt be writing posts at almost midnight. I was meant to mention star testing as you have reminded me. When I defocus a bright star at high magnification the mirror seems to be pretty dead center. But all the photos online show multiple perfect concentric rings around the mirrors shadow. I dont get that on mine it looks more like A bubbling ball of gas :p

If the seeing is alright and you only slightly/gradually defocus, you should hopefully see some tight concentric rings (albeit they may still be a bit wobbly), but the more you defocus, the rings will present just as a large greyish sphere, I've found. I'd be more concerned about the concentric secondary shadow, and it sounds like you've got that sorted. I may be wrong, but if the secondary is concentric with the star outline, then the appearance of rings is hopefully more an artifact of your seeing conditions and mirror cooling than your collimation.
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