What is the most useless Astro device you've come across?

[Outcast]

With inspiration from another thread & a conversation I had with someone the other day, I thought I'd start a (hopefully) lighthearted thread about the most useless bit of Astronomy kit you have ever had the displeasure of purchasing or owning... Not everyone will agree with the opinion someone has on an item but, that's okay... we're all different & have different needs... so, what's useful for one is useless to another...

Would also be invaluable if you could briefly state why you thought it was useless & potentially, save others from spending hard earned on a potentially useless product... oh, & probably best we don't mention the brand publicly I spose...

Anyways, I'll get it rolling...

Straight through finderscopes... I have binned or onsold pretty much every single one that ever came with a scope I bought or whatever... Why: because I simply cannot contort my neck into the ridiculous positions necessary to actually be able to look squarely through one.. irrespective of what sort of mount I was using...

Anyways... hopefully a bit of fun... fire away... tell us what you found to be useless in your astronomy journey...

[sn1987a]

Meade Lightbridge 16 pos 💩

[Oddity]

- agree with straightthrough finders, I think you hit the nail on the head with that one!

- Also, handset replacement phone apps (for wifi dongles). While you are looking through the the scope trying to align or center a target, you have no idea where the arrow keys are under your fingers.

One major brand of wifi device's control app in particular, on iPhone and iPad won't run in background and won't let you use useful apps such as SkySafari on the same device. Meaning, unless you buy a 2nd phone or tablet, then in the end all you have is a substandard handset replacement that has no physical feedback and drops connections when the phone goes to sleep.

[LewisM]

Flip mirror diagonal

Skywatcher EQ3 mount

WO Zenithstar

North Group ED127

[raymo]

Peephole for polar alignment on star trackers when used in the southern hemisphere.
raymo

[RB]

Eyepieces (with the exception of the Illuminated Reticle Eyepiece).

:scared3: :lol: :lol:

[Startrek]

HEQ5 mount alt and az bolts
Pain in the butt !!

[astro744]

Reverse image right angle (not Right Angle Corrected Image - RACI) finders. They don't match a star chart and at low powers a chart is exactly what you want to match. Just as useless is reverse image star charts to match your reverse image finder because these charts do match the real sky above you.

I find straight through finders are only a problem on low to the ground Dobs as you have to twist your back to get that low just to look up. I used one for many years though on my 6" f5.5 Newtonian mounted on a Vixen Polaris because it was much higher and in this case a right angle (even RACI) is a pain unless you can rotate the rear (eyepiece/diagonal) end without upsetting the alignment as is the case with my Stellarvue F80M (RACI) that I now use on my C9.25.

[Outcast]

That's really interesting to hear Andrew because, I have been considering for sometime getting a wifi dongle for my Meade LX90, mainly because my current handset is getting a little old & I have to keep pulling the rubber mat out & running over the contacts with a lead pencil but, also because I don't carry around catalogue numbers in my head so, use skysafari on my phone to decide what I'm gonna look for then punch the catalogue number in... I had thought using a wifi dongle might make that whole process a little easier & save me the cost of a new handset.... now I'm not so sure...:shrug:



Let me guess... you're an AP guy only?? I get the attraction of AP but.... & it's a big but... what the hell do you do once you've got it all rolling...? I've watched another member do this & thought... hell, I'd be bored feckless once it's all running hence, I'm buying a large aperture 'portable' dob so I can do visual in a simplified way whilst the AP rig does it's thing...:lol:

[Outcast]

I have a TS Optics RACI 60mm, not only can you rotate the amici prism diagonal but, it accepts any 1.25" EP & has a helical focuser... Still messes with my head occasionally though when the movement of stars through it is slightly different to the movement through my SCT with a regular star diagonal... still find myself going the wrong way in one or the other... :rofl:

[RB]

:lol:
I was only kidding Carlton.
Yes I’m an AP but I love observing too.
Especially with friends or at Star Parties and I might add, I love my huge EP collection.
Wouldn’t part with any of my EPs.

RB

:thumbsup: :)

[Outcast]

Cool but, I do know guys who literally own pretty much no EPs coz all they do is AP... I mean, not for me to judge but....

EP Collections... yep.. mine is growing & I'm undecided if that is a good thing or not... to rationalise or not... I have moved a couple of EP's on in the past couple of years, good ones too, they'd just been replaced with something better...

I have a little seller's remorse at present for moving on my Meade S5000 80mm APO.... would have been perfect for the AP habit I'm forming but, alas it went & in came a solar scope & now... I'm on the lookout for another APO when I can afford it... sigh...

[RB]

I'm terrified of seller's remorse.
That's the most useless Astro 'device'.

:lol:

[Wavytone]

Hmm...

The Celestron 8 I traded my old-school f/7 Newtonian for, decades ago, the Newtonian was vastly superior but big and heavy at a time when I had to live rather frugally in student digs;
The 130mm APO I bought during a bought of refractoritis... nice scope for a refractor - but an (excellent) SW 180 Mak duly outshone it in every way possible;
The push-to rig.. Losmandy AZ8, Wild Heerbrugge tripod... encoders and Nexus II; should have bitten the bullet and bought an AZEQ6 from the outset...

Two altaz mounts I bought out of curiosity - looked like an interesting idea - but never used. Didn't have the heart to sucker someone else to recover some of the cost, and trashed them.

After 5 years of buying and selling I've stopped, having reached the best scope I can usefully manage. The SW Mak was good but the MK91 is in a league of its own.

[astro744]

Yes my Stellarvue F80M has the same arrangement, I use a 16mm Nagler or 19mm Panoptic in mine for a 4deg field at 19x and 16x respectively. I'm still not used to reversed images in refractors and SCTs when using a standard diagonal but at higher powers it's not so much a problem. I still prefer the views through a Newtonian though because at worst they are only upside down (usually sideways) and not reversed so it's just a matter of tilting the head or rotating the star chart.

[Startrek]

Make the HEQ5 bolts like mini EQ6-R bolts
A no brainer !!

[doppler]

Meade cardboard tube dobs, with their plastic focusers.

[Oddity]

I don’t know about the Meade, this is for the Skywatcher wifi. If SkySafari can connect directly to the Meade wifi then you’re all good.

[brian nordstrom]

:eyepop: A red plastic see through cover for a laptop used out doors outside at night ! ,, you struggled to see mag 3 stars on the screen , don't try to see the milky way or read any script !. Optically inferior at 1x .

It's only saving grace was I cut it up and made red torch filters for my friends ,,, ;) and I still have and use mine , it was Y2K so we have come a long way since ,,, hopefully . :shrug: .

Thanks for this light heart'd :thumbsup: romp down memory lane .

Brian

[Outcast]

Cheers

I'm actually looking at a wifi dongle made by a chap in the Ukraine (yep.. sounds dodgy I know) but, general reports on other forums such as Cloudy Nights, etc... are extremely positive plus, he's charging USD$49 posted anywhere in the world...

As far as I know, you still need to use a handset for alignments but, after that... connect to skysafari, sync the scope posn to the reticule on skysafari & you're off & running... or so folk claim...

At USD$49, verse $199 for a new handset.. this still might just be worth the gamble...

[Outcast]

Your Welcome... I was hoping it would be well received... & hey... it might save some folk an expensive mistake...

[JeniSkunk]

The 6mm Plössl eyepiece from the Skywatcher Eyepiece And Filter Kit (Skywatcher branded version of the Celestron Astromaster Accessory Kit). 15mm Kellner, 6mm Plössl, 2x Barlow, and 3 filters, lunar; #80A blue; and #25 red.
Straight after unpacking the kit, I tried using the 6mm Plössl eyepiece, looking at the moon, as it was nearly a full moon. Dim image, even before I used the lunar filter from the kit. Add to that its poor eye relief, which made it a pain to try to use. After trying the eyepiece, I put it back in the case and have never considered using it again. It just sits in the case, wasting space.

[AstralTraveller]

I'll defend straight-through finders. I grew up using one, fortunately on a very tall scope. By keeping both eyes open I can use them as a zero-power finder and then close one eye when the target is in the fov. RA finders are useless for this, so unless I use the laser as a zero-power finder I can't find a thing with an RA finder.


My wife once borrowed one of those 'point it at the sky and it will tell you what you are looking at' devices. Worse than useless. Firstly, the display overwhelms the sky so you can't even see the star/area you are trying to identify. Despite that the display is too faint to be easily read. Then the pointing accuracy is lucky to be 5* so you could aim it at M7 and be told you are looking at M6, or M8 or some mag 14 galaxy.

[Outcast]

I will acknowledge that you do indeed make a very valid point on the duality of their usefulness. Unfortunately for me though I could just never get my head around (literally) using one. You are quite right about the limitation of an RA finderscope as I discovered the first time out under truly dark skies... I now have a red dot finder fitted as well...

On the other point, I use my phone with skysafari plus which enables you to point at the sky to identify things... It's not too bad but, doubt it has the real discrimination necessary for objects that are close together. I find I tend to use it to identify bright stars during alignments (or even the not so bright for calibration stars on the Celestron mount) & as a handy reference for looking up catalogue numbers & gauging what I should be looking for

[AndyG]

This is a very good point. I've often stuggled with the ergonomics of my straight through finder when using the C6 on it's Nexstar mount. I've always used it "both eyes open", as you can train your brain to overlay the crosshair on the sky directly. Yeah, I have enough light pollution that the black cross is quite visible against the sky. This is just how I used to aim when shooting with a red dot scope.

I'm hoping to get a RACI finder one day, to save my neck from the pain. Your point makes it appear this may be "one step forward, one step back". Perhaps a RACI AND a red dot would be ideal?

Carlton's thread intention has already been delivered :) Thankyou :)

[blink138]

me!
pat

[middy]

Meade DSI Pro.


I never did get a good image out of it. It is working great as a guide camera nowadays though, so it has redeemed itself a little. :)

[Renato1]

I partly agree. I find 6X30 straight-through finders pretty good if mounted at the top end of the telescope where one can easily look through it with both eyes open. I have them mounted that way on one refractor and two Newtonians.

Certainly, the classic refractor finder - placed next to the focuser - is often pretty useless, unless looking at something near the horizon or one has no problem with being a contortionist.
Regards,
Renato

[Merlin66]

Lewis,
Why the "issue" with a flip mirror diagonal??
I have both the 1.25" and 2" Meade flip mirror systems and they are great!
A quality mirror which can be used both for visual and imaging...

I also make use of Vixen flip mirrors - I have many!!! The mirror is absolute rubbish - OK as a visual "finder" but no good as an image mirror.
(I remove the mirrors and turn them into beamsplitters for spectroscope guiding. The vixen body with T threads is great.)

[LewisM]

I had the Vixen ones Ken - pure yak.

[FlashDrive]

Stop Bragging ....:P:lol:

[Ukastronomer]

Why please ???

[GrahamL]

All astrophotography related gear , many pics over and over and over and ..wait for it over again of the same stuff all are amazing but endlessly boring to .. thankfully its quite cheap to pull off :D:D:D

[skysurfer]

* Eyepiece solar filters. They crack when overheated and when an eye is behind the eyepiece this will result in blindness and no opthomalogist can help you. Furtunately they are not sold anymore - as new.
* Straight-through large binoculars on tripod. Only useful for terrestial viewing or astronomical objects low in the sky. Otherwise, you have to be in a very acrobatic position to look through the eyepieces and the tripod is in the way as well.
* Many finderscopes, as these easily become misaligned with the main scope, I have a simple 1/2" PVC pipe opticsless peephole mounted on my 16" Dobson which makes finding easier. For smaller scopes (my 110 and 80mm) I use no external finder at all: use the telescope itself as finderscope by popping in the eyepiece with the largest TFOV (2.5-3º).
* Sigma Octantis finding tools for polar alignment. I use my polar scope and put the less known +6.9 BQ Octantis (10' off the real Pole) in the center of the field. Even at 600mm (Fullframe) I can track up till four minutes per frame without noticeable trails.

[raymo]

You can[unfortunately] still buy eyepiece solar filters on ebay.
raymo

[speach]

Skypod, very hard to properly water proof, can't view the zenith (without spending more) to small for a 10" reflector. Could go no but they are the main things.

[drylander]

I reckon clouds are the worst. They must be an accessory as every time I take the scope out lately they arrive. If I could find the cord attached to the scope I'd cut it.
Pete

[Outcast]

:D:lol::rofl:

[Startrek]

Polar scopes on my HEQ5 and EQ6-R mounts
Never ever used them , never needed to use them and if I did my neck would be in brace for two weeks recovering from neck strain
Totally useless for an older person

[skysurfer]

Is the mount on such a low tripod ? I have a Vixen SP and, coming from N Europe (52 N) where I live, it is a relief that I use it on 34S (Sydney) or even less latitude so that the pole is not that high in the sky.
But I have found a solution for that: use an angle finder for a camera. Lots of cheap ones ton ebay or Aliexpress. And a DIY adapter of 32mm PVC plumbing sockets will attach it to the finderscope.

Or move to Bali (only 8 degrees latitude).

[Startrek]

I have no view of the SCP at both viewing and imaging sites so my polar scopes are a redundant accessory

[croweater]

I found the setting circles that most mounts have pretty useless. I never used mine anyhow :P

[JeniSkunk]

I'll likely be decried as a heretic for saying this, but here in badly light polluted suburbia, a planisphere is useless, since we're lucky to see barely a fifth or less, of the stars displayed in it.
At a dark site, or at least somewhere not badly light polluted a planisphere might be usable. Unfortunately, no-one makes planispheres for the various Bortle levels of light pollution, so the worse the light pollution is where you are, the less useful a planisphere becomes, because it shows so many stars that are simply not visible.

[raymo]

Saying that a planisphere might be usable is a huge understatement, they
having been many an observer's right hand man, as it were, for many decades.
How much one pays largely decides what limits the star magnitude shown
on the planisphere. I have one which goes to mag 6 which would obviously be
useless to you, but I have one that goes to mag 4, and unless you live in
Shanghai or somewhere similar, enough of the stars shown on it would be visible to you to make it useful. Over my 70+ yrs of observing I have always
had one in my bag of tricks.
raymo

[JeniSkunk]

Where I live in Brisbane, I have to set Stellarium to emulate Bortle 8, to make it show how few stars are visible to the naked eye here. Comparing what I see in planispheres, to what my naked eyes can see, the vast majority of those stars do not exist in the sky here. They're washed out from visibility due to the light pollution.
Look at the light pollution map, and then look at Nundah, Brisbane in it.
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

[raymo]

If you let your eyes become reasonably dark adapted [say 20-30mins] at
Bortle 8 you can see down to around mag 3.5, which means that the majority of stars on a mag 4 planisphere will be visible with a little effort. It helps a
lot of course if you have a reasonable working knowledge of the sky.
Your astro experience is not going to be that good anyway at B8.
raymo

[Renato1]

True but....if you have a tripod with a handle that easily raises the height of the binoculars, you can just bring the tripod back to stand on two legs and raise the height of the binoculars to match your eyes. Then you can see much higher, and still have a steady image.

But if you want to go higher still, just pick up the tripod and look through the binoculars - the image is a lot steadier than hand-holding the binoculars.
Regards,
Renato

[Ukastronomer]

Never used one, can't get used to it

[mental4astro]

The AZ3 mount... :scared:

Seems like a good idea, but oh my goodness, what a horrible bit of gear when you actually start using it :(

Puts the scope in a very precarious unbalanced position when pointing towards zenith, at terrible risk of toppling back on itself! Happened to me one time and thankfully was able to catch the scope, with my face!! Can't reach zenith anyways! Can overcome most of the unbalanced issue with a bit of DIY and still can't reach zenith, and for the DIY effort involved best to chuck the AZ3 and buy a better az mount.

Alex.

[skysurfer]

Not quite. I use them for pointing to an object for astrophotography when a clip in filter is installed in my 6D and hence the optical finder is blocked. In that case, I can only see the brightest stars on Live View and then I use the setting circles to move the mount to the target.

And I use it in daylight viewing of bright stars or planets.

[croweater]

Fair enough Skysurfer :) I just found it easier to starhop for visual but with your situation makes sense. Cheers, Richard

[Ukastronomer]

I was given one of these, I agree it is terrible, you have to manually set the gears 1/2 way, point the scope and then you can track.............. for a while you then have to rewind the gears manually point the scope again then track again and keep repeating this.

[Ukastronomer]

Binoviewers, after finally getting them working what a waste of money :(

[thunderchildobs]

Ultra bright red led torches and headlamps.
Why does anyone want to light up a scope from 20m away?

[Oddity]

I have found one very useful scenario for a setting circles with goto mounts. I use it in conjunction with SkySafari to find true astronomic (rather than magnetic) level north, when 2-star aligning my mount in alt-az mode. It's very simple, too:

- In SkySafari, point your phone at any bright star and select it
- Go to Object Info, scroll down to find the azimuth and altitude values
- Manually point the scope at the object, centering it an eyepiece
- Set and lock each setting circle to the respective value reported by SkySafari
- Move the scope to point at 0,0 on both circles.
- Switch on your mount

Done! Your scope is now astronomically level north.

I've found this to result in a significant accuracy improvement with my gotos over using a compass and spirit level. In conjunction with an illuminated reticle and proper star selection criteria, it's nearly perfect.

[multiweb]

I love my polar scope. I'd chop a tree any day for it. :lol:

[iborg]

Hi Oddity



Thanks for mentioning this, I'll have to try it!


Philip