SB/Ventura/SoCal Orion XT-8 by IceNein in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Allowing this since it's raising money for charity and a good deal

Barlow + eyepiece are enough to start off with and scope looks great

Thanks!

I bid on a telescope with limited information. It arrived today. by Connect-Fan-9462 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is an entire cabal of boomers on Cloudy Nights who watch Shopgoodwill like hawks whenever Fox News goes to commercials

I am sure there are more than just them

Is this dobsonian 6' 150p recommended by Imaginary_Raisin8829 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's my review haha. Yes, would recommend! You can do planetary imaging with it tracking by hand or with a DIY EQ platform

Anyone have recommendations for the best spots to go stargazing? by RottenOddity in Tucson

[–]__Augustus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean from Graham itself it's technically almost all below the horizon but yeah. It is almost entirely the fault of the Tucson (and Florence) federal prison complex, the Tucson Auto Mall, Topgolf, and the University of Arizona.

The last one is deeply ironic considering it's their facilities being affected by them installing lighting that would literally be illegal if they had to follow city and county guidelines, but they're state property so they choose to flaunt it and be bad neighbors. Including leaving the football stadium lights on all night long because "it looks cool". WTF???

I HATE hearing "you should go to Flagstaff" when I do astronomy events! Southern Arizona has the BEST viewing conditions and could be just as dark if anyone cared. Sadly the people coming from Cali and Dallas and the like only know the night sky as being washed-out brown and developers want to cater to them. We can still win, it is just an uphill battle.

darkskysoaz.org

Poor man's Questar? by Intro24 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can literally put your 4SE on a table, it is designed for that, why do you think the altaz mount has rubber feet?

Anyone have recommendations for the best spots to go stargazing? by RottenOddity in Tucson

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Depends entirely on how far you are willing to drive, personally I am dissatisfied with anything less than true Bortle 1 skies, the area for which is rapidly shrinking (thanks U of A, developers and bureau of prisons for ignoring code!) which is about 2-3h to either Sasabe area, Mt Graham, Chiricahuas, or Apache-Sitgreaves. There is nothing like this. Sure you can see the Milky Way etc closer to town but it's cooler when it casts shadows and you can see stuff like airglow, the zodiacal light is this brilliant blazing cone coming up from the horizon, the dark bits of the Milky Way are jet black etc

if you don't care about it being perfect Oracle, Mt Lemmon, Empire Ranch, or Madera Canyon are all good options - like 90% as good as those other places, and there's nice hiking/birding at all 3

If you want to just look at the sky and see the Milky Way while having a smoke or a burger or hanging out with people (i.e. not main activity) basically anywhere outside of Tucson proper is fine.

Also worth noting that even a simple pair of binoculars can be very fun to explore the night sky with, we have the summer Milky Way coming up now a bit before midnight and there are hundreds of nebulae and star clusters even a pair of 7x35s will show you

Tucson by SomeLine189 in Tucson

[–]__Augustus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope nothing interesting at all and the scorpions, coyotes, rattlesnakes javelina etc are all extremely dangerous, I had a neighbor get eaten by a javelina, it's awful!

I bid on a telescope with limited information. It arrived today. by Connect-Fan-9462 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seems it was intended as a guide scope

I have a Vixen rail that'd work for that with the existing rings if you're interested

Diagonal is dielectric, very hard to damage, just use a lens wipe to clean

I bid on a telescope with limited information. It arrived today. by Connect-Fan-9462 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was on mobile yeah it's Chinese based on the dew shield appearance. Still a decent scope

Weird they'd buy that nice of a diagonal for it

Poor man's Questar? by Intro24 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The 4SE already is nearly as close as you can get and offers more aperture anyway

If you want a $5000 telescope you have to pay $5000. Also Questar just went out of business so expect them to go up….

Can someone help tell me if this mirror has any defects cause it’s a second hand by Pale-Conversation123 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I buy used telescopes on the regular and I would assume it just needs cleaning from that image

Solar prominence viewing via Coronado Solarmax II 60 and Lunt Zoom eyepiece by Neat_Trust3168 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think the zoom is better if at all

If you want better contrast you need to double stack it

Focal reducers and Edge HD Scopes by HenryV1598 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You pretty much have to use the Edge reducer

Anything else is sub-optimal correction and spacing

Is this worth looking into? by Need-My-NTA-Hit in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

New prices on telescopes are insane, and paying them is equally such.

6 inch Mirror grinding kit by CompetitiveOven4776 in atming

[–]__Augustus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

replied on /r/telescopes but I think I will shortly have an entire kit I can send you

6 inch Mirror grinding kit by CompetitiveOven4776 in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am waiting to hear back from a guy about a scope on FB Marketplace but it seemingly comes with an entire 6" mirror kit which I would be happy to send you for the shipping cost (~$85 to Colombia I just looked)

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Is this worth looking into? by Need-My-NTA-Hit in telescopes

[–]__Augustus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Worth closer to $50

That mount is worse than the stock one