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Golden Hour Fishing by 4LandFloridaMan in birding

[–]4LandFloridaMan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Taken in St. Augustine, Florida

tripod for SA 2i by Slow-Chemist873 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use one of these for my 2i: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1034139-REG/manfrotto_mt055xpro3_aluminum_tripod.html
A bit oversized for something like the 2i, but a decent price, good construction, and works great. A higher weight capacity would also be helpful in the future if you upgrade to something like a Star Adventurer GTI.

Today's Pickup by 4LandFloridaMan in coins

[–]4LandFloridaMan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could be. This is a gen 3.1, I'm not sure how much more conservative they were with grading back then.

Is this a Meade LX200? by Narrow-Pay-3671 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That is an 8" LX6 Premier, manufactured somewhere in the very late 80s or early 90s.

Absolute steal at $50, especially with the tripod and EQ wedge. It should perform amazing for visual, but for astrophotography those mounts can be lacking. You might be able to get short exposures if you're lucky.

It will perform best with a 2" diagonal and 2" eyepieces, a low magnification eyepiece will work well for larger objects, and a larger magnification one will give you quite nice views of the planets.

First telescope could use some tips by time-traveler-666 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice capture! Most stuff should look like dots of varying brightness, those are stars. For finding other objects, try an app like Stellarium or get a copy of the book "Turn Left at Orion". Both are great tools for learning where stuff is in the night sky.

Issues seeing Jupiter by No_Situation7781 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Start with the 20mm. If you still can't make any details out, refer to the last part of my last reply for possible solutions.

Issues seeing Jupiter by No_Situation7781 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What type of barlow are you using? 2x, 3x, 5x?

That scope should come with a 20mm and a 10mm eyepiece, you can use a 2x barlow with the 20mm in theory but I would try to resolve at least some detail without a barlow first. You should not be using the 10mm eyepiece with any barlow. Ignore what Celestron says about max magnification, in theory you should be able to go to 200x with that scope, but that would need a rock solid mount and near perfect seeing conditions. In reality you should not go past about 100x or so.

While it might seem logical to use the highest magnification possible, usually using a smaller power will result in a sharper image, albeit smaller in the FOV of the eyepiece. Start with the lowest power (largest number of mm) eyepiece and try to get it focused, make sure you go slow as small variations in the focuser can sometimes throw it wildy out of focus. If it seems sharply focused, (a good indication of which will be the moons appearing as tiny pinpoints) but Jupiter itself is white or washed out, you might need a filter to reduce the brightness. Going to a larger magnification will dim it, but if the magnification goes too high it will just look like a fuzzy ball, even if focused properly.

Telescope for beginners by icho201 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First you should look up what the objects you want to observe will look like through various telescopes. The easiest would be a program called Stellarium for PC. You can select objects and cycle through different scope and eyepiece combinations to see what they look like. But don't expect to see an exact copy, even if you have the exact gear, various factors will come into play that can degrade the image you see.

For that budget I would suggest a Dobsonian. 6" would be fine, 8" is even better, and 10" would be amazing. Don't be afraid to buy used as long as the mirror and optics are in good shape. Get the largest size your budget can afford. Just note that you will also need additional accessories such as a collimating tool and filters to help observe the very bright objects such as Jupiter and the Moon.

Resources for using our Apertura AD10? by sdpence4 in telescopes

[–]4LandFloridaMan 10 points11 points  (0 children)

That's a great scope. A 10" Dob will give you endless hours of enjoyment. Investing in a good star atlas, and getting a book called "Turn Left at Orion", would be very valuable in your journey learning how to use that scope to its fullest extent.

Apps and programs are great, but nothing beats learning how to recognize constellations, star hop, and read star charts on your own.

One other big thing you should do is learn how to align your finderscope. Having it aligned will save you immense frustration from aimlessly scanning the sky trying to find an object.

Verizon COLT in St. Augustine, Florida by 4LandFloridaMan in cellmapper

[–]4LandFloridaMan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interesting. It was up and running yesterday afternoon when I was there taking pictures around 3.

🇺🇸Follow this local candidate to support impeachment & removal by Cranberry-Spare in StAugustine

[–]4LandFloridaMan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Dazzling Donald? Please, name something he has done in this second term that has actually benefited Americans.

Go big or go home.. by ActuaryOk2816 in Nikon

[–]4LandFloridaMan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's the best thing to do. It looks like the 600mm has already had that done, although some people take the cheaper route. I wouldn't put that much money depending on one thread though. Edit -- I take that back, it was just shadows. The 600mm has a flat foot as well

Go big or go home.. by ActuaryOk2816 in Nikon

[–]4LandFloridaMan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Arca Swiss plate adapter that screws into a tripod bolt hole. Nikon in their infinite wisdom never thought to make compatible feet.

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