Hi there,
I came across an Omegon 70 700 az2 for pretty cheap (40€) and it rekindled my urge to start stargazing,
Should I go for it or spend this on a good pair of binoculars instead to start out?
Thank you,
Best regards.
Been noticing quite a bit of glare around some bright objects like Saturn and seems like a little bit of loss of contrast. Popped the mirror cell out and notice this. I think it's time to do at least a light dusting on this. Think I ought to do a good deep cleaning too? 3rd picture shows a small spot at the edge cleaned with a q-tip soaked in lens cleaner.
Celestron Origin Mark II - first attempt at a dual stack with the clear filter (60 mins) and the nebula filter (20 mins) and overlay the images. Not perfect but fun to try.
Captured with iPhone 17 Pro
Sky Watcher Classic 200P
Celestron 25mm eyepiece less
Acquisition Details:
Nikon D90 at 200mm
ISO 200, Variable Exposures at F/13
Processing details:
5-15 frames stacked (PIPP, AutoStakkert!4)
Blend of 3 images for totality
Registax 6: Sharpening and Wavelets
GIMP: Color balance and collage
Celestron powerseeker 70AZ, time-lapse taken from home. Filter edited
I currently own a Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 mount with a 127 Maksutov on it. Right now a local elderly astronomer has two Maksutovs for sale, the Sky-Watcher Skymax 150 and Sky-Watcher MAK 180/2700 in great condition at 1/3 the price. Even 150mm is a step forward from my 127mm, but naturally I would like the 180mm which would be a leap forward relatively speaking to my current 127mm.
My question is - from technical documentation for this mount I know it will be able to carry the Skymax 150mm (weight wise), but will it be okay with a 180mm Mak? After all it's heavier. Are the drive motors and their gears going to be okay? Considering I balance the tube perfectly of course.
The largest I have seen on this mount is Sky-watcher Explorer 150P which weights 5.9kg and APM-LZOS 105/650 which is a bit over 7kg.
7.8kg of 180mm isn't that far from this weight, right?
Sky-Watcher AZ-Go2 mount's max stated payload is 5 kg.
127mm weights 3kg
150mm weights 5.6kg
180mm weights 7.8kg
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Naturally I want to grab 180mm as it's an amazing deal at 1/3 the price of new, but only under a condition I can use it on my current mount. Since it's right here locally, I can mount it on my mount right now and I'm sure it will work, but I'm asking here whether it can possibly cause damage long term (motor/gear wear ending in a mechanical failure).
Please share what you think, seen or have experienced.
Attaching photos of my mount:
Recently have went from a Seestar S30 Pro to a full setup.
This is my first full Astro image taken on my new setup.
This was taken with a Redcat 51, AM3N and a 585mc air. Exposure was roughly 30 x 120secs. Hope you like!
My eyepiece tray is black. Would it be a good idea for me to buy some wide reflective tape, and place it over the whole tray, then cut out the openings and edges? I have 1.25" and 2" eyepieces that I switch between a lot, and it's hard to make out the different sized holes in the dark.
This has been a bit of a passion project of mine. I started last February\march time, wanting to do astrophotography on a budget. My last scope was a powerseeker so obviously I wanted a dobsonian.
The panels and trunnions are fully hand shaped as I don't own power tools, I obviously bought many parts like the mirrors, focuser and az bearing, but beyond those little bits I built the reduction gears myself with belt trains to end up with overall 3.1 arcsecond tracking, which isn't all that, but once I swap from drv8825s to TMC drivers I can go to 1\64 and I'll be dropping to 0.8 with an alt tracking of 0.27 arcsecond.
I'm very pleased with it. Here's some build pictures and a few untracked space pictures to show why I needed tracking.
Still gutted I didn't get a good image of Saturn on the flat pass though.
(Also if it's raining near you, this is why, sorry bout that)
Hi all! I just got a StarSense explorer 8 dobsonian and finally had a clear night! I got it second hand with eye piece and 2x Barlow lens. I just am wondering, will I be able to see much? I’m super duper new to all this and just don’t know what to expect. When I look at stars that I can see without the telescope it’s just tiny dots. No idea how to see nebulas or anything aside from the moon. I’ll take any advice including eyepieces or just general things to keep in mind. Thanks guys!
Equipment: Telescope (Orion XT8), Orion Shorty 2x Barlow, Camera (ASI662mc), UV/IR cut filter.
Captured in ASICAP 5x3 minute videos at ~150 fps, best 25% of frames stacked and sharpened (used PIPP for stabilization, stacked in autostakkert4 and sharpened in registax6 then measured and derotated in WinJUPOS, then a final sharpen back in registax6) final touches in affinity photo 2 for getting the moons in the final photo.
P.S. Astrophotography is hard. I've been tinkering for months (dating back to November 2025) with recording and editing and the whole process, and this is the only result that I am actually happy to have captured as far as Saturn is concerned. It only takes one thing to go wrong to make a less than ideal result, and there are many things that can go wrong.
I'm a solar chicken. I'm reluctant to look through a telescope pointed at the Sun regardless of how well the filter is fixed to the FRONT of the telescope. However, I wanted to share this super fun solar reflector that is not only cheap, but it magnifies. It needs a small piece of mirror and a ball. A billiard ball works great.
Materials:
Summary:
The reflection of the Sun off the mirror focuses a nice large image of the Sun on a dark wall in your garage or shed.
Tips:
During the 2024 total eclipse, I built three and aimed them all at the same paper (photos included here).
Here's a tutorial video that shows you all the steps:
https://youtu.be/WwLBqhds2F0
I personally like messier✨🔥
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will soon launch to unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.
Pic taken with iPhone at the eyepiece
ES 8” dob
25mm 70degree 2” EP
edited~ Lightroom
First time doing anything DSO. I don’t have a UV/IR filter yet so that’s affecting the image. I don’t really have an eye for it nor know how to edit these so any advice on how to do better next time is appreciated.
Star Discovery P150i
ASI585MC
Siril, GraXpert, Seti Astro.
Hi all ! yes, I did read the beginner's guide. Big issue is, I'm not in America or anywhere near it- I'm in Sharjah.
I've been looking to buy a telescope for a while, but I can't justify paying the prices in the guide. The telescopes themselves, fine, but the shipping is the same price or almost double that of the telescope.
I just really need some guidance on what to get with what I can access. My budget is up to 1500 AED (though obviously I'd like to stay on the lower end if possible) which is about 400 USD.
Amazon either shows cheaply made ones or massive ones that cost.. way more than what I can make this year as a broke uni student, lol. No beginner friendly in between ones.
I'm looking at a used Celestron astromaster 130eq , but I have heard that the spherical mirror isnt the best. Is it still worth it given most reccomendations in that price range arent available due to shipping? or should I keep digging?
Theres dubaitelescope.com to look at, just incase anyone spots something good that I didnt notice while skimming through it. (feel free to ask me to edit out the link if I need to , not sure if its allowed to link stuff in this context)
edit: forgot to add ! light pollution is abhorrent in the UAE. I don't have a car yet, but I will this year. So when I do, I don't mind driving further out to get to a desert or mountain area. I'm not too picky, as long as I can see the planets and some stars that would be wonderful, but seeing as much as possible would be great, of course.
I’ve seen people post with the sun looking like the first photo, and i was recently watching a lot of reviews of seestar s30, and the second image is what they all capture, is it because of the telescope or do they do some stacking, or, they have ”solar telescopes” which are designed for the sun?
