Who loves their computerized telescope? Why?

[AEAJR (Ed)]

Originally Posted by Mark

My first GoTo scope was an LX-90. The very first time I used it, I saw more galaxies in one night than in the previous 20 years of star hopping.

I have heard this kind of report before. Had you seen these galaxies before or was this the first time?

Seems you are a star hopper too. Many enjoy both methods. Did having the scope find the targets for you in any way diminish your enjoyment of the galaxies?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by AEAJR

I have heard this kind of report before. Had you seen these galaxies before or was this the first time?

Some I had seen before, it was just faster to find them. Some I had never seen before. To be brutally honest, I had tried and failed before on several. I suspect it was because I wasn't sure of what I was looking for. GoTo increased my confidence substantially.

Seems you are a star hopper too. Many enjoy both methods. Did having the scope find the targets for you in any way diminish your enjoyment of the galaxies?

No, the opposite in fact. I found star hopping infuriating at times.

[75BC (Brendon)]

I traded in my dob last year specifically for something with goto and tracking.

I’m a fairly casual observer. It can be anything from a few days, to a few months between sessions for me. I was finding that with my localized light pollution (big main street lights shinning into my back yard) it was difficult star hopping to targets. Especially anything really faint. I could spend a good few hours without any success. I’m also finding I have a choice now. If I want to, I can still star hop (everyone should know how) by manually slewing to a target instead of using the goto.

I also found the constant nudging and waiting for the vibrations to stop frustrating. My dob didn’t have the smoothest of movement which didn’t help matters. But being able to just sit at the eyepiece for extended periods and not having to do anything, far more comfortable and relaxing. I‘am now able to concentrate more on things like training my eyes to eke out fine details in objects.

I’m loving it.

[tonybarry (Tony)]

I love my LX90.

It's my third Goto scope - first was an ETX80. That was too small in aperture, but it convinced me that Goto was the right system for me.

Then I upgraded to an LX90-8 GPS. Goto was essential because I put a GStar-EX videocamera on it to hunt down galaxies, and I could not see the galaxies visually. With Goto and a videocam , I nailed a lot of galaxies, then went on to hunt occultations. For that, goto was absolutely essential.

After a lot of agonising, I got the LX90-10 ACF. It needed a fair bit of love to get it working, but once it was up to scratch, it became the scope to beat. Goto works a treat, and the unguided tracking gives me pretty round stars at 30 seconds exposure in Alt-Az (!)

I use it for outreach at the local Penrith Observatory. I give the kids the hand paddle, get them to key in an NGC number, and hit GOTO. They watch the monitor as the galaxies come up as a fuzzy blob (at 1 second exposure). And then we look for 10 seconds ... and see spiral arms and knots and all kinds of stuff.

Goto for the public is a great system.

Nowadays I know where a few things are (e.g. M1, NGC 2070, etc) - stuff that gets a lot of traction. But I would never choose star hopping as a means to get there. It's too likely to fail.

Of course you may see things differently. As is your right.

Regards,
Tony Barry
WSAAG

[AEAJR (Ed)]

75BC, tonybarry,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[madwayne (Wayne)]

Great topic Ed. I have an Orion XT12G, go to dob, and love it. It is my third goto after an 8" LX90 and an EQ6. I still have the EQ6 and an FSQ106N for photography when the bug bites again.

The convenience of the quick setup and pack up is a bonus but the quality time I get from it because of the goto makes it so much easier. My preferred eyepiece is a 16mm Nagler and living on the edge of a village of 1,500 people means I have very little light pollution. With that combination all objects land in the fov after a two star alignment. Scanning the field for planetaries or carbon stars or whatever takes my fancy is great.

The dob lives in our garage and I can be out observing within a few minutes. The fact I can then knock over 15 or 20 objects in a session or just one or two if the mood dictates. Being able to slew all over the sky makes life pretty easy.

How reliant have I become on the goto? Last Saturday night I took the dob out to observe comet P252. I left the power cable at home, I was out with our small observing group at our observing site, and could just not find the elusive comet as I only have a red dot finder and would have killed for a bit of magnification in my finder. Settled for some lovely views of Jupiter at 250x with my 6mm Delos, fine compensation ��

Great thread and clear skies

Wayne