Telescopes, Telescopes, Telescopes, why do astronomers have so many telescopes, one isn't enough yet if you have two then it is never enough so two turns into three, then four and so on then if thats not enough you have the accessories, all of the goodies we drool over while reading the astronomy magazines converting the pages in the glossy mag into worthless pulp, I mean just how many eyepieces do you really need? The astronomy books of yesteryear solemnly preached to us that you only need three eyepieces, a low power for sweeping, a medium-high for general viewing and a high power for those special nights where the seeing allows such power, seems times have changed as most of us have a case filled with the things, one for every day of the week and more!
Of course I can preach but I am just as guilty as everyone else as I have my fair share of goodies accumulated over the years and some I'm ashamed to say gathering dust locked away in dark corners of various drawers, I should revisit that magical place called EBAY and purge myself of my sins!
Of course I can preach but I am just as guilty as everyone else as I have my fair share of goodies accumulated over the years and some I'm ashamed to say gathering dust locked away in dark corners of various drawers, I should revisit that magical place called EBAY and purge myself of my sins!
22cm F/6 Newtonian reflector
This was my first real telescope bought from Dark Star telescopes in the 1980's for a sum of £333. This was originally on a Dobsonian base which served me well for many years, its amazing how you get use to constantly nudging the scope a little this way and a little that way whilst observing at high magnifications as the universe quietly drifts by through the eyepiece but most of the observations on this site were made with this scope...brings back fond memories :-)
The scope was originally painted blue (dark star never seemed to make white telescopes for some reason, they were always blue, red and even gold) painted with Hammerite paint.
After many years of use I had a friend make me a heavy duty equatorial mount made from aircraft grade aluminium and brass, it weighed a bloody ton but served its purpose though you couldn't fit any clock drive to it so it was still undriven but at least I only needed to nudge it in one direction to follow the stars instead of two when it was a Dobsonian!
This telescope ended up in storage for many years gathering dust and in the end (about 2 years ago) I took it along to my local astronomical society the Cleveland and Darlington astronomical society (CADAS) and gave it away to the first person who said they would like it, as you may imagine it went quicker than the speed of light!
The scope was originally painted blue (dark star never seemed to make white telescopes for some reason, they were always blue, red and even gold) painted with Hammerite paint.
After many years of use I had a friend make me a heavy duty equatorial mount made from aircraft grade aluminium and brass, it weighed a bloody ton but served its purpose though you couldn't fit any clock drive to it so it was still undriven but at least I only needed to nudge it in one direction to follow the stars instead of two when it was a Dobsonian!
This telescope ended up in storage for many years gathering dust and in the end (about 2 years ago) I took it along to my local astronomical society the Cleveland and Darlington astronomical society (CADAS) and gave it away to the first person who said they would like it, as you may imagine it went quicker than the speed of light!
Eclipse 6 inch F12.5 Maksutov Cassegrain
This is a telescope I used for planetary and Lunar observing its small, compact and packs a punch!
The brand is Eclipse but as with most telescopes today they are all manufactured in the same factory then are re-branded for the different vendors. This scope was sold by I think Astronomica and was reviewed in a sky at night magazine a few years ago and received a 90+% score.
The lunar and planetary detail I have seen with this scope is absolutely mind blowing but the only down side of this type of telescope is the long cool down times as it is a closed tube .
The brand is Eclipse but as with most telescopes today they are all manufactured in the same factory then are re-branded for the different vendors. This scope was sold by I think Astronomica and was reviewed in a sky at night magazine a few years ago and received a 90+% score.
The lunar and planetary detail I have seen with this scope is absolutely mind blowing but the only down side of this type of telescope is the long cool down times as it is a closed tube .
Celestron 3 inch F7.5 apo refractor
This is a scope I do use, its a great get up and go scope and great for solar and lunar work, even some double star work but alas the aperture is quite limited for deep sky but you can get some good views with a 25mm plossl which gives a 2.1 degree field of view and a UHC nebula filter, objects like the Veil nebula, North American nebula and the Orion nebula are very nice.
I do all my solar observations with this telescope with a homemade Baader solar filter though I do sometimes think what a Herschel wedge would be like.....Oh no more astronomical goodies!
The mount is a skywatcher alt-az goto mount which I bought seperately and works a treat, spot on goto's every time and really handy if I ever use the scope for deep sky by attaching my Watec 120N+ astro camera as it converts the 3 inch aperture to minimum 6 inch, usually more.
I do all my solar observations with this telescope with a homemade Baader solar filter though I do sometimes think what a Herschel wedge would be like.....Oh no more astronomical goodies!
The mount is a skywatcher alt-az goto mount which I bought seperately and works a treat, spot on goto's every time and really handy if I ever use the scope for deep sky by attaching my Watec 120N+ astro camera as it converts the 3 inch aperture to minimum 6 inch, usually more.
Helios 6 inch F8 refractor
This was my previous scope before I bought the one I use now on a EQ6 pro mount.
This scope was fantastic, it produced superb views of celestial objects especially the moon and planets, the views of jupiter through this telescope still makes me drool!
The dew shield was made from a 2cm thick foam matting ..shame about the colour but is was light as a feather and the original dew shield was made of metal and was quite a few pounds in weight!
This served me well for several years until I Contracted a bout of aperture fever so it had to go and I bought my next telescope, the telescope I use today.
This scope was fantastic, it produced superb views of celestial objects especially the moon and planets, the views of jupiter through this telescope still makes me drool!
The dew shield was made from a 2cm thick foam matting ..shame about the colour but is was light as a feather and the original dew shield was made of metal and was quite a few pounds in weight!
This served me well for several years until I Contracted a bout of aperture fever so it had to go and I bought my next telescope, the telescope I use today.
Skywatcher 10 inch F4.7 Newtonian
This is the scope I use today...how they can make telescopes of this quality for the piddling amount of money it costs to buy one is just beyond me!
The optics are top quality, I remember sketching the Alpine valley on the moon one night and seeing very clearly for the first time in my life the thin rille that runs down the length of the valley, I then knew how good a telescope it was...you can see the sketch in the moon section on this site.
I rarely look through the eyepiece these days because of the terrible light pollution I have to endure I use my Watec 120N+ video camera to pass a live video stream from the telescope to my computer and I simply sketch from the monitor plus the Watec has the ability of doubling or even nearly tripling your aperture depending on the conditions but put it this way I have compared my observations with other observers who use 22 inch apertures who live in Texas and I have seen more detail in deep sky objects with my little 10 inch reflector coupled with the Watec magic box !
I still prefer to observe the planets through an eyepiece and usually the moon but it is still nice to observe to moon on the monitor and double stars have to be observed visually because the Watec is a B&W camera you can't observe the fantastic colours otherwise.
The scope is on an EQ6 pro mount and I attach my laptop via the ascom interface through a EQDIR box so the scope is completely driven by the computer via Skytools 3 software.
The optics are top quality, I remember sketching the Alpine valley on the moon one night and seeing very clearly for the first time in my life the thin rille that runs down the length of the valley, I then knew how good a telescope it was...you can see the sketch in the moon section on this site.
I rarely look through the eyepiece these days because of the terrible light pollution I have to endure I use my Watec 120N+ video camera to pass a live video stream from the telescope to my computer and I simply sketch from the monitor plus the Watec has the ability of doubling or even nearly tripling your aperture depending on the conditions but put it this way I have compared my observations with other observers who use 22 inch apertures who live in Texas and I have seen more detail in deep sky objects with my little 10 inch reflector coupled with the Watec magic box !
I still prefer to observe the planets through an eyepiece and usually the moon but it is still nice to observe to moon on the monitor and double stars have to be observed visually because the Watec is a B&W camera you can't observe the fantastic colours otherwise.
The scope is on an EQ6 pro mount and I attach my laptop via the ascom interface through a EQDIR box so the scope is completely driven by the computer via Skytools 3 software.
Books: a few books that give a warm feeling in the heart.
Over the years I have accumulated a vast library of astronomical literature from the simplest books intended for absolute beginners to quite advanced works all by various authors but there are some books they hold a special place in the heart, the literature that has been used and abused, taken to many star parties and generally helped my in my travels throughout the universe. The following list are some of my personal favourite’s.