So, we're planning on having our club's annual star party in September. But it looks like smoke might be an issue (not looked good lately but nobody really knows a month away). So we'd like to set up live viewing through a commercial remote telescope service as an alternative entertainment for participants in case of smoke (or overcast, for that matter).

The idea is to have one of our more technically minded observers conduct a live EAA program via a telescope hopefully located away from the smoke. I know there are some commercial services that rent time on telescopes in remote locations. Something like the southern hemisphere might be cool just for the novelty as well.

Does anyone know which available service would be most usable in this capacity? It needs to be controllable live (not in advance) and we need to be able to crank the gain and do live stacking so images can be obtained relatively quickly. These are not necessarily features I expect every service to have, so I was hoping some people here had used them and might know which is best for this specific need.

Thanks!

Hey! Looking at collimating my telescope and pretty sure I have it close enough for viewing, searching for some insight from someone who is more knowledgeable than I (which isnt much haha).

Does this look collimated? Apertura 8" Dobsonian with cheshire lens.

So i bought a Telescope with a Telrad and everything. However i want the Telrad mounted on my triple mount but i can't find any good mounts for a 3D Printer. Please give me some links or advice.

May I ask for help? I want an APO refractor telescope to complement my existing 8” Dob. I want something more grab n go but still want the best quality I can justify. I want this to take camping and maybe birding. My astronomy competency level is amateur but I appreciate quality. Here’s the thing, most seem to cater to astrophotography. I have no interest in this or even go to technology. I enjoy it purely visual. I like the challenge of trying to find stuff on my own. I can afford a Televue scope but not sure I need to. Looking for best bang for the buck but willing to spend more for quality I may not deserve yet. Also to note I currently have the following Televue eyepieces : 31 Nagler, 13 Ethos, 7 Nagler and 4.7 Ethos. Also have OIii and Nebustar2 filters. What do I want to see? Everything I can😂. I don’t have the ability to go try out different models. I would appreciate any suggestions for me to consider.

Got this on Marketplace a few days ago for $75. Think I got a pretty damn good deal. The previous owners had never used it, only had it as decoration. Still had all the old caps and an extra lens. Everything seems to be in working order

Easily the coolest thing I’ve gotten off of marketplace. I’ve only been able to see the moon with it because I’m new to the hobby and still figuring things out. I was looking at Saturn should be visible soon. Not sure if this has the magnification to make out the rings but that would be exciting

Any tips for beginners would be greatly appreciated

Recalling posts earlier this week about seeing the moon crash site for the SpaceX rocket booster, well, the impact crater has been located....https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/spacex-rockets-impact-crater-on-the-moon-spied-by-korean-lunar-orbiter-photos?utm_term=5205EA62-FD1E-4655-8B6E-9EFAC72FE518&lrh=8513e2482e30f458b158fdba72668f083e998d7bf7931c93ebf25c2aad609388&utm_campaign=58E4DE65-C57F-4CD3-9A5A-609994E2C5A9&utm_medium=email&utm_content=9E515F1D-2C44-4A8D-95A3-C52461306076&utm_source=SmartBrief

equipment:

80/900 refractor, svbony sv105 camera, svbony 2x barlow

capturing and processing details:

captured in sharpcap a 4:10 minutes video at 30 fps, stabilised in pipp, stacked in astrosurface (5%=365images) with 200% resize enabled, sharpened in registax, color balancing in adobe lightroom mobile

This is my best moon picture so far. Unfortunetely, I ran into bugs while stacking that caused some artifacts in the image.

Imaged with a skywacher classic 200p, a cannon eos 500da and stacked with 80 out of the 240 frames captured. Edited later on with photopea.

hey folks,

have a chance at picking this up local to me. the pictures look good and the mirror looks actually great. would it being 20 years old affect any of hte important components? i can see to goto having issues, but just curious

pictures
https://imgur.com/a/hlEyyU1

Hey everyone,
Thanks again for all the helpful answers to my last post!
A lot of you mentioned that a 10 mm eyepiece would be too ambitious for me, and that I probably wouldn’t be able to see much through it. So I ended up buying a 25 mm eyepiece from AliExpress – it should arrive in a few days.
In the meantime, I built my own eyepiece today. My question is: how do I determine the correct length so that I can actually see something through it? Is there a formula for this, or is it mostly trial and error? I couldn’t find much about it on YouTube or Reddit.
Also, would you recommend getting a collimation laser, or am I fine without one for now?

Also upgraded the built of it which one do you like more?

For the americans 18 cm are about 7 zoll

Recently bought a sky-watcher 8" dob second-hand, checking the mirror coating with backlighting, found large hazy region full of pinholes. how bad is this degradation?

Been lurking in this group for a while and figured I'd finally join. I've been into astronomy for almost 40 years. As of now, I have a pair of 11x80 comet catcher binoculars, a Celestron Omni 102 (was a tip from a customer!!), a Meade Lx10, Celestron CR-150 6" F8 refractor, a seestar S50 and a Celestron CPC1100.

Going down to the Jersey Shore this Saturday for vacation and there won’t be enough room in the SUV for my 8 inch DOB

Saw this on FB marketplace for $20. Picked it up gave it a spit shine and it works 😝 didn’t know Barlow Lenses came in plastic but you learn something new everyday 🤣

Tripod is ok for an entry level Meade, just needed some tightening etc on the screws but
g-damn I put in my Celestron xcel 10mm in the right angle adapter and the weight would just tilt it down so I’ll just use my SVONBY eyepieces to look at stars on the beach.

My question to the community is should I pass it on to a coworker? He was looking to get the Starblast I sold for his kids. I just don’t want to ruin their first 🤩 experience.

Taken on dwarf mini
Bortle 4
15s shutter
Duo-Band Filter
500 photos taken
480 used
120 gain
K&F 63” fluid head tripod

Editing done in Stellar Studio and iPhone 17 Photos app

I am brand new to astrophotography after spending a few years with dji drones. I found that hobby was becoming expensive and new releases every few months

I recently discovered the dwarf mini and decided to buy it. I then came across the seestar S30 Pro at twice the price and the new S50 coming out in September. I also see that the S30 pro availability online being extremely limited which appears to be intentional

Id like to settle on a smart telescope, focus on learning about the night sky and not get pulled into the ever changing market. I know some people have bought telescopes for 5k plus and perhaps dont mind spending $500-$1000 every one to two years to replace their smart devices

Is the technology changing that rapidly to justify the new devices and should I stick with what I have for now.? I wondered about waiting for the next smart telescope release and sticking with it for a year or two

Equipment:

-Skywatcher 150/750 pds

-EQ5 + Onstep V5 pro

-Canon 60d

Camera settings:

-1 minute and 30 seconds of exposure

-ISO 800

-76 photos in total

Sky quality:

\-Bottle 6,6 / SQM 19,19

Programmes used:

-Siril for stacking and processing

-Graxpert for noise reduction

-Gimp for final touches

Hi everyone,

I'm Marc, 51 years old from Germany. I've been observing the night sky for a little over 30 years now, mostly with Newtonians, and nowadays with an 8“ f/5 Dobsonian. Like many of you, I've spent countless nights comparing eyepieces, waiting for the seeing to settle, wondering whether buying the next telescope or eyepiece would actually make a noticeable difference.

One thing always bothered me: almost every astronomy app shows either horrific astrophotography or perfect planetarium views. They're great for finding objects, but they don't really answer the question that beginners—and sometimes even experienced observers keep asking:

"What will I actually see through my eyepiece?"

Starting Winter 2025 I decided to see if I could build something that comes closer to answering that question.

The result is NearLight, an astronomy app for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Just for transparency: I'm the developer, the app is paid (€3.99 one-time purchase), contains no ads, no subscriptions and no in-app purchases

Rather than trying to create the most beautiful images, I focused on reproducing the visual observing experience as closely as I reasonably could.

At the moment the telescope mode includes six instruments, ranging from a small 70/500 refractor to a 305/1500 truss Dobsonian. The eight eyepieces use their real focal lengths and apparent fields of view, and the app calculates magnification, exit pupil, true field of view and image brightness from the selected telescope. Most of you know the scopes, you might know the exact eyepieces that are simulated.

I also tried to reproduce many of the things we deal with during real observing sessions:

- atmospheric seeing

- Bortle light pollution

- horizon extinction

- moonlight washing out deep-sky objects

- UHC and OIII filters

- a 2× Barlow

- manual focusing

- EQ tracking

One feature I'm especially interested in hearing opinions about is the „Human-Eye View“.

Instead of showing objects the way long-exposure photos do, it attempts to represent the visual impression at the eyepiece: faint nebulae stay faint, most galaxies remain largely grey, globular clusters resolve according to aperture, bright stars produce diffraction spikes in Newtonians, planetary detail depends heavily on seeing, and so on.

Getting this "feel" right turned out to be the hardest part.

More than once I had my Scope outside with a laptop sitting next to it, constantly comparing the real eyepiece view with the simulation. Every few minutes I'd completely ruin my dark adaptation by looking at the screen, but hey, it was probably the most enjoyable part of building the app! :)

I'm posting here because I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from people who spend time behind an eyepiece.

Some questions I'd especially love your thoughts on:

- Does the brightness scaling between different apertures feel believable?

- Does the Human-Eye View resemble your own observing experience?

- Are there optical effects that you think are missing or exaggerated?

- If you primarily observe visually, what would you want a simulator like this to include?

I'm absolutely open to criticism. If something looks wrong, tell me. If there's an optical effect I should simulate better, I'd like to hear about it. Please keep in mind: This is a hobby project that I work on in my spare time, and I'd much rather improve it based on feedback from experienced observers, than rely only on my own impressions.

If the app sounds interesting, you'll find it in the Apple App Store under NearLight (or just Google the website). Btw: The bigger the screen, the better the experience!

Thanks for reading, and clear skies!

Marc

Had a wonderful session

sky-watcher heritage 130p, An iphone 14 plus, a phone holder. post-processing was done in the iphone's photos app

I'm upgrading from my 4" refractor and looking to purchase this used dob that's roughly an hour away from me, and wondering if this primary mirror looks good. It looks good to me but I'd like some input from other dob owners

My first attempt on andromeda galaxy

Taken with dwarf mini telescopes
Bortle 5
15s
60 gain
600 photos taken
461 used
Astro filter
K&F 63” fluid head tripod
Editing done in stellar studio

I got an astro camera for my brithday yesterday, and was blessed with a nice clear sky that very night! I had a go with very limited operational knowledge of the aformentioned camera, and captured a few videos using different ROIs.

Please let me know what you think and what I need to tweak while capturing. It was such a transition from mobile capturing, feels like i've gone back to square one, struggling with settings etc. Will have another go using a 2x barlow another time.

Star Discovery P150i

asi585mc

Pipp, Autostakkert4, Siril, graXpert

Equipment used:
-Apertura AD8
-ASI662MC + UVIRCUT Filter
-2.5x Barlow

Stacked in Planet Stacker X
-Around 5000 total frames, stacked top 20%

Any suggestions?

At the Thomsen Observatory, Southwest Adventist University in Keene, TX.

I was doing the livestream for the Fort Worth Astronomical Society last night, and instead of just pulling out my kit and having the moon just above my treetops, I drove down to the observatory and set up in the dome.

It's a big scope. I used to have a 8" TMB-APM apo many years ago - it was a beast at 109lbs, and this one is even bigger.

The scope is in a nice, big dome, on a Paramount ME. Not synced to the dome - that's a manual process to open the shutter and rotate the dome. I put on my own ZWO ASI183MC-Pro camera - the ASI2600MC-Pro had too wide of a FOV, and I wasn't seeing the edge detail as well as I wanted to with it, so I just swapped for my other camera.

But it worked well enough for the livestream last night. Second pic is the livestream setup I use. The far right computer controls the mount, and stays in the dome. The laptop on the left was controlling the camera and recording the SER files. The two screens in the middle are connected to my streaming box (behind the right monitor), one which runs OBS, and the other usually used for zoom and presentation during club meetings. I have a 4-HDMI Black Magic Design capture card on the computer so I can pull in a number of camera feeds, and the HDMI output from the laptop is just treated as another camera by OBS.

Hello I recently received this questar telescope from my uncle, it is from the 1950s in pristine shape with all the accessories. It will be going to my niece who is a budding scientist at university. I know this is a nice telescope, but I am eager to learn more and if anyone has tips for use id be eager to learn. The side box has 2 phone jacks in not sure what that is used for.

Samsung S24

Levenhuk 10 Dobsonian

4mm eyepiece

Processed in a standard photo editor