Does anyone here use a computer controlled GOTO telescope? Which model do you prefer? I've seen a few models such as the Meade LX600-ACF 12" or 14" with Starlock. Have you used the Stella wifi adapter?

I use push to instead of goto. With the mount interfaced with an Ipad. I prefer to move the scope myself. I have both the Argo Navis and Skycomander and both work well. More important is a good mount for whatever telescope you choose to get.

I have a Celestron C8 on an AVX mount. Not having experience with any other mounts, I'd say this one does really well. It takes me about 7 minutes from the time I turn it on until I'm ready to start observing. If your finder scope is correctly aligned with your telescope, and the whole mount is pointing roughly at polaris, the alignment stars will be the brightest stars in the finderscope. It's just a matter of centering the star and moving to the next. After it's aligned, my GOTO's are nearly 100% spot-on.

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I have a Celestron C8 on an AVX mount. Not having experience with any other mounts, I'd say this one does really well. It takes me about 7 minutes from the time I turn it on until I'm ready to start observing. If your finder scope is correctly aligned with your telescope, and the whole mount is pointing roughly at polaris, the alignment stars will be the brightest stars in the finderscope. It's just a matter of centering the star and moving to the next. After it's aligned, my GOTO's are nearly 100% spot-on.

Where have you found is the best place to use your scope locally to avoid light pollution? Do you use it for astrophotography?

deepocean, do you have experience with a smaller scope or are you thinking of starting with a big Meade SCT?
Are you planning on doing astrophotography and if so what kind (DSLR, CCD, video)?
I recommend cloudynights.com as an excellent source of information on all things related to amateur astronomy. You will find very experienced amateurs but very willing to take questions from noobies.
There are subforums for beginners, for mounts, for astrophotography, even one specially for Meade scopes.

They also have a classified section where you can buy used astro equipment in excellent condition for less than new retail.
astromart.com is also a good source for used equipment, but you have to pay to join.

nhtagmember may be along to give more experienced opinion than I can.

Good luck, and keep watching the skies!

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:
I have a Celestron C8 on an AVX mount. Not having experience with any other mounts, I'd say this one does really well. It takes me about 7 minutes from the time I turn it on until I'm ready to start observing. If your finder scope is correctly aligned with your telescope, and the whole mount is pointing roughly at polaris, the alignment stars will be the brightest stars in the finderscope. It's just a matter of centering the star and moving to the next. After it's aligned, my GOTO's are nearly 100% spot-on.

Where have you found is the best place to use your scope locally to avoid light pollution? Do you use it for astrophotography?

I've only used it in my backyard, so the seeing is pretty poor. Still, I'm able to see most planets, Andromeda, Orion's Nebula etc. A bunch of us from work were trying to put something together for out in the west desert, but our plans fell through. That would be a great spot for viewing. I'm thinking something like the Camp Floyd cemetery parking lot would be nice and dark.

I bought this scope and mount to do astrophotography, but, this has become more of a 'minor' hobby, and I haven't really taken any pictures, except for a few through the eyepiece.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
deepocean, do you have experience with a smaller scope or are you thinking of starting with a big Meade SCT?
Are you planning on doing astrophotography and if so what kind (DSLR, CCD, video)?
I recommend cloudynights.com as an excellent source of information on all things related to amateur astronomy. You will find very experienced amateurs but very willing to take questions from noobies.
There are subforums for beginners, for mounts, for astrophotography, even one specially for Meade scopes.

They also have a classified section where you can buy used astro equipment in excellent condition for less than new retail.
astromart.com is also a good source for used equipment, but you have to pay to join.

nhtagmember may be along to give more experienced opinion than I can.

Good luck, and keep watching the skies!

I have some experience with a smaller scope. I am interested in DSLR or CDD astrophotography. I have read a bunch from the sites you mentioned, and looked with interest at astromart. Thank you for reminding me about cloudy nights. I need to check their subforums as I have a number of other questions.

I have wanted for years to build a portable observatory. One of the limiting factors, as I understand it, involves making the pier portable yet level and stable onsite. It's been fascinating to read how various people have attempted to deal with this over the years.

I remember reading a story of a man who bought a surplus portable NASA observatory. It was relatively compact but IIRC had a concrete base for the pier which weighed on the order of several thousand pounds. It was surplus from a support program for Apollo. I remember it had a military tow hitch. I have been searching for photos of it, but I last saw info on it about 15 years ago.

I would be really interested to see the design NASA used for this project. If they have an archive of the Apollo project, I wonder if the design for it still exists.

You definitely need to get in touch with nhtagmember, he just built an observatory.
For me with my recent back problem and poor chances of major improvement, my major consideration is portability: small scope = small mount and tripod.

Deep

I will try to answer a few questions and offer a wee bit of advice.

I've been at this astronomy game now for 48 years and I cannot ever remember going more than 4 or 5 years without a scope.

So...

I have had everything from small refractor's such as a 1960's vintage Tasco up to Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cass beasts. My early scopes were all hand point, my later ones have been GOTO.

From my experience with a 10" SC telescope, you are pushing the limits of what we jokingly call portability. The scope is damned heavy and because of the design of the fork mounts and gear trains, the scope does not remove from the system so its exceedingly heavy. Now, try lifting it up by hand, in the dark, getting it on the tripod and then try to twist the lead screw into the bottom to hold everything in place. Its really a 2 person job for anything over a 10" scope.

GOTO scopes are great - but you don't need to use that feature if you don't want. Because of the gear trains, the hand controller will allow you to pan and tilt around the skies to find whatever strikes your fancy - it doesn't have to be in the database. The nice thing is that if you want to show a bunch of your friends Jupiter on a nice night, once you align the scope, you can find Jupiter yourself, and once set in the eye piece, the computer will track it for you so you're not constantly adjusting. Note that the larger Meade's and Celestron's are alt-az mounts which means they are constantly moving and adjusting in two directions. An equatorial mount will move in both directions, but once aligned only tracks along one axis.

So with a scope that size, if you're considering 'portability, you're going to have three large cases - one for the scope, one for the tripod and one for all the nifty accessories, books, maps, charts, filters....and we're not even talking about the computer or cameras yet.

I would suggest that you check out a site called Oceanside Photo and Telescope in California. Sharp techs and good deals, a very wide selection of new and used gear. I am buying my 16" astrograph from them in February.

Another place is Woodland Hills Astronomy (I've been to both, OPT is the better place to shop).

I've not dealt with Astromart so I cannot offer an opinion.

Find a local astronomy club and join. Might cost a whopping $15 but what it will allow you to do is go to their sky parties, where everyone brings their scopes and loves to show them off. So you can get a flavor for how big, how heavy, how clumsy, how good...looking through the real scopes you can get an idea about the quality of the optics before you make a decision. Most astro groups have a 'hidden' dark sky site where their members hang out and swap war stories about Messier Marathons.

Also, get yourself a good pair of binoculars. You can easily scan the skies with hand held binoculars, 7X35's or 8X50's to put you near where you want to look and then use the scope to get a better view. I have Nikon 8X50's on the wall next to my scope and I sue that for the broad-brush scan to find the region of the sky I want to explore - its the best way to hunt for faint fuzzies or comets if they're up there. A telescope has far too narrow a field of view for random searching.

Feel free to fire away with questions.

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Originally posted by nhtagmember:
Deep

I will try to answer a few questions and offer a wee bit of advice.

Thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer me advice with this.

quote:

From my experience with a 10" SC telescope, you are pushing the limits of what we jokingly call portability. The scope is damned heavy and because of the design of the fork mounts and gear trains, the scope does not remove from the system so its exceedingly heavy. Now, try lifting it up by hand, in the dark, getting it on the tripod and then try to twist the lead screw into the bottom to hold everything in place. Its really a 2 person job for anything over a 10" scope.

I read a story last night of a guy who was taking down a large Meade scope, fell, and had to decide to drop the scope or land on his back with the scope hitting him in the chest. He chose to have the scope fall on him and was OK, but I understand completely what you are talking about.

quote:

GOTO scopes are great - but you don't need to use that feature if you don't want. Because of the gear trains, the hand controller will allow you to pan and tilt around the skies to find whatever strikes your fancy - it doesn't have to be in the database. The nice thing is that if you want to show a bunch of your friends Jupiter on a nice night, once you align the scope, you can find Jupiter yourself, and once set in the eye piece, the computer will track it for you so you're not constantly adjusting. Note that the larger Meade's and Celestron's are alt-az mounts which means they are constantly moving and adjusting in two directions. An equatorial mount will move in both directions, but once aligned only tracks along one axis.

I really want to do astrophotography. I've read stories of people with GOTO scopes who never learn the night sky. I do not want to be that guy, but I want to have the ability to find an object, track it accurately, and image it. The moon and planets in the solar will be nice, but I'm much more interested in galaxies and other things.

My approach will be more of a scientific/educational one than that of a hobby. I've been interested in astrophysics and astronomy since I was a kid. If it were practical for me to build an infrared telescope, I'd have done that already. That does not seem to be something that will work for me as a non-institution, for a variety of reasons.

My first question is which type/style scope will fit my needs. At the moment, I do not have a good location to build an observatory, but if I did, I would. There's too much light pollution to make that practical here.

If you have a moment, please tell me about your 16" astrograph.

I plan to join SLAS, and to go see their new 70" telescope, which should be worth the hour drive.

I have a pair of the Steiner Police 10x50 binoculars that were on sale a few years ago. If those would work, I'd be grateful.

I have an old, (1998) Meade 12" LX200, its friggin heavy, probably close to 200 pounds. I bought a wheeled tripod cart to mount the tripod on. I wheel it in and out of the garage to view. It works well and I have to do very little manipulation of the wedge each viewing session. If you plan on doing any serious, (long exposure) photography you need an equatorial mount. The Meade wedge does a pretty good job with some mods. Its pretty quick to set it up for shorter exposures but to take longer exposures it will take me an hour or so to get it dead on.

those binoculars will work just fine, and if they get shaky, go find a tripod adapter and put them on a camera tripod - its great for being able to get a wide field view - sort of in stereo

This is what I plan on getting



I already have a 75" high pier with a 2 ton base, I will be getting a new German Equatorial Mount (GEM) and replacing my Vixen 4-1/2" APO. I will likely convert the Vixen into a guide scope for the astrograph.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:

This is what I plan on getting



I already have a 75" high pier with a 2 ton base, I will be getting a new German Equatorial Mount (GEM) and replacing my Vixen 4-1/2" APO. I will likely convert the Vixen into a guide scope for the astrograph.

I hope we will be able to see photos of this when it is installed. This is truly fascinating.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: deepocean,

I have the Celestron Nexstar 8", with a motorized GOTO finder (Starfinder maybe?). THe GOTO was the best $300 I have spent. No more trying to find elusive stars--just find them and hit enter and it goes to them. Saves hours every night. I use my Nikon D3200 with simple adapter instead of the lens, and have great shots of the moon and the Orion nebula. Fun, expensive hobby.

quote:

Originally posted by TAllen01:
I have the Celestron Nexstar 8", with a motorized GOTO finder (Starfinder maybe?). THe GOTO was the best $300 I have spent. No more trying to find elusive stars--just find them and hit enter and it goes to them. Saves hours every night. I use my Nikon D3200 with simple adapter instead of the lens, and have great shots of the moon and the Orion nebula. Fun, expensive hobby.

Does this GOTOscope track an object once it finds it? What do the images of the Orion nebula look like with an 8" scope and your Nikon D3200?

I've been thinking I will probably end up with a few scopes, an 8" or 10" to start with, and later, something larger. For the moment, given I live in an area with an incredible amount of light pollution, I need to be realistic with regard to my ability to transport it to a suitable location.

I have been fascinated by the solar observation section of Cloudy Nights. Does anyone here image the sun through solar telescopes?