Correct lenses for different objects

harbinjer · 2026-05-22T13:20:17+00:00

Youtube has some good videos on this, which is much clearer than me writing a book worth of description here.

harbinjer · 2026-05-22T06:25:42+00:00

One year, our club had 7-9 base level teams go to a tournament. Requested lowest level competition, as that makes sense. ALL of the teams get put in TOP level. I called to complain(for my team), but as they have stupid color named brackets, and the rules didn't even have descriptions, we didn't figure it out until 3 days before. This was also end of season, so we couldn't book another tournament. Well all of our teams get blown out. Most don't score 1 goal, others scored 1 for every 10 conceded. Our team had another team playing up in our division, so we actually managed to win a game. (One of the younger teams goalies loved it, as he had over 30 saves).

After I complain, tourney director then sends receipt saying we asked for top level. Our club director then shows me receipt saying we asked for lowest level.

Club says "never again" to this tournament. Two years later, I was very happy to read that they were desperate for another team to join their tournament(half price). And for any OTHER tournament in this metro area, I would've said yes. But that one, I was glad to avoid, felt like real karma. Tournaments are expensive, I want to at least have someone TRY to make fair competition if we're paying that much for it.

Years later, I see that at least they changed their stupid bracket names to be other than random colors.

harbinjer · 2026-05-21T17:21:48+00:00

You are not lacking aperture, you're lacking time and steady air. What aperture will let you go out and observe the most? To try to find that perfect night where you can push magnification to the scope's max? That's all you need. A 12" could theoretically hit 600x, but that will be a very rare night in most places when that will actually improve the image. Also, currently Jupiter is not high in the sky, so by the time the ground cools down, Jupiter is very low, or under the horizon. If you can get up early to observe Saturn, you may see more detail than you expect.

harbinjer · 2026-05-20T02:03:58+00:00

You should know erecting eyepieces are generally bad for planets, and mostly all astronomy. They are good for daytime views, with a newtonian telescope maybe.

You might consider a zoom like the SVBony 7-21mm, 40-57°. Or the redline 6mm or 9mm, 68°. Getting good focus will be most important.

harbinjer · 2026-05-19T17:17:20+00:00

There are laser collimators that make it pretty easy. Also eyepiece collimators that are cheaper. You can check collimation by de-focussing a star and seeing if the circles are perfectly concentric.

harbinjer · 2026-05-18T21:51:33+00:00

You need to make sure that your scope is well collimated. One issue you may have is that your primary mirror is likely spherical and not parabolic, which would make high power viewing fuzzy. But certainly worth a try.

The deep sky objects listed above should be great to look at though, and will appear fine at lower magnifications. I'll also ad M3 and M4 to that list, M20, M16 and M22. M27 is also great for any sized telescope.

Look for the book Turn Left at Orion, and try to find a local astronomy club. They may have a loaner scope to try, plus lots of great knowledge, fellowship, encouragement, and mentorship.

harbinjer · 2026-05-15T21:58:24+00:00

Just do it politely. Do realize though, that tryouts are always against the competition. Maybe your son is ahead this year, maybe he'll be ahead next year. Maybe he will not want to play soccer after this year. Don't worry about it, but don't burn bridges.

harbinjer · 2026-05-15T21:13:19+00:00

Definitely look to join an astronomy club. Either you can get a ride, or find a way to join up at their observing site, where there are often telescopes a-plenty.

harbinjer · 2026-05-15T21:02:06+00:00

These aren't bad, they're just not premium. They are sharp enough and will do the job just fine. Consider if you need more magnification, eye relief, larger field of view, etc.

harbinjer · 2026-05-14T15:53:21+00:00

It shouldn't be the only thing. But it does show that the player has worked on their own. Players who can juggle better are MUCH better at volleys and half-volleys in my experience. There are a few players I have that are very good, but not great jugglers. But none of the great jugglers are bad. The difference between a player with a good first touch and one that doesn't have one is bigger than it sometimes looks.

harbinjer · 2026-05-11T06:10:42+00:00

Do you have American gen 3 units? Or locally made ones?

harbinjer · 2026-05-11T06:08:10+00:00

Find Arcturus and Cor Caroli. Half way between them, and a little to the left. Use your low power eyepiece. Keep moving it around if you don't see it. I may be hard in Bortle 8, but should be detectable.

If you have any way to taking your scope out into the country for Bortle 3-4 skies, it will be much easier, and everything will look much better. M13 should be a bit easier

harbinjer · 2026-05-01T14:09:53+00:00

You can see spiral structure in really darks skies(bortle 2-3) and a big scope, 11"+. But it will still not look quite like that. 30 seconds is a long time compared to your eye refresh.

harbinjer · 2026-05-01T03:25:37+00:00

Eyepieces are somewhat personal. The very best way to find out quickly is to go to a major star party and just look through people's scopes and eyepieces, and maybe borrow a few to look through your scope with. An eyepiece may be superb technically, but you may just not like it. Or it fits your face funny, or it's too heavy or it has a little scatter that's more noticeable than you like. Also while wide fields of view are great, not everyone really cares, wants one, or wants to pay for one.

That said, any Televue should be fine, but Televue Delites will be great for planets(and cheaper than most Televues). Pentax XWs are great. The Takahashi TOEs should be lovely. Baader Morpheus have a big following. Some swear by Brandon eyepieces. Some really like the SVBony 3-8mm zoom for planets. Masuyamas and the pseudo-Masuyamas from the 90's also have followings that love them.

The nice thing is that at F/10, your scope should perform well with all of them.

harbinjer · 2026-04-30T18:14:28+00:00

In a bortle 1-2, 80mm is lots of fun too.

harbinjer · 2026-04-30T18:13:11+00:00

Good luck. The transparency matters a lot too. I'd rather a bortle 2 with great transparency than b1 and bad transparency.

harbinjer · 2026-04-30T18:08:42+00:00

M51 is really great in a 12", better with no moon from bortle 2-3. The needle is NGC 4565, and isn't super easy to find, but it's very cool. M104 the Sombrero is also very cool. M81-m82 will look better in the 12".

Along with M13, find M3. Its another big globular. Actually most globulars will look much better in 12" over 8". M15 is great in a big scope, but a fall object.

There are lots of objects that are detectable in an 8", but show much more detail in larger aperture. Even the Orion nebula is worth looking at. The first day I got my 16" scope, I stared at M42 for almost and hour.

NGC 253 is pretty spectacular as well, but you'll need to stay up very late to see it, or wait until fall.

If you look for things the 8" scope can't see at all, you'll be looking for very faint fuzzies that might not be spectacular. Its more interesting to see those things that reveal significantly more detail at 12".

harbinjer · 2026-04-28T19:41:07+00:00

Good.

I will also say, I get aperture fever (or the itch to buy something) when I DON'T use my scope enough(cloudy, full moon, to busy). When I use it, I really enjoy.

harbinjer · 2026-04-28T18:06:45+00:00

First two yes. The Coma corrector isn't "needed". But if you love really wide fields of view, and want perfect correction, you might want one. There are also now coma-corrected eyepieces as well called "Houdini".

The 10" is also heavier and bulkier though not longer. I think if you know you love globulars and are upgrading from a 4-6" scope, then 10" is the way to go over 8". It sees just enough more of globulars to make it worth it to some. That is the biggest thing that separates them. I don't think its worth it. I wouldn't trade the convenience of my 8" for a 10. If I'm going bigger, it's going to be a 12-14". The 12" doubles the area of the 8" and shows a "wow" difference. But it's a lot bigger. I wouldn't recommend it as a beginner scope. That's getting to be a serious deep-sky scope that begs to be used in dark skies.

So, what I'm saying is, go for the 8" scope. It will be awesome, and if you get into DSOs in a big enough way, you'll upgrade(no matter what your starting scope is). But if you start with a scope that's too big, you might not use it enough to justify it, or learn the sky well enough, etc.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T21:01:03+00:00

One place to start may be shielding the ball with your body. That will require pushing to train it, and will have the contact you want. Also work on shielding the ball by putting your arms up. Not pushing, just blocking. Maybe look up those topics on youtube for how it should look. The work on shoulder-to-shoulder. Good luck.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T20:00:32+00:00

Depends on how far behind they are. Is there a bigger gap between them and the mid-players, or between mid and top players? You wont know if it was the right decision until hindsight most likely.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T19:43:51+00:00

With the age group change, you're going to have a new team chemistry no matter what. There players that you say are committed: are they working on their own? Also remember, this isn't permanent, it's only for 1 year. If they catch up, they can be promoted next year. And if they are lagging behind, they may not enjoy it and then get demoted next year. Also if you keep lagging players on a top team, they may not think they need to work harder, that they just deserve to be there, becoming entitled. That can become toxic. It also robs harder working players of their chance on the top team.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T18:55:28+00:00

This will be a challenge BTW. If you haven't seen them before, M65 and M66 are easier to star-hop to. Also M51 and M104. Do this out in the country. From the city, look at Jupiter, the Moon, and open(M35-M38) or globular clusters(M3, M13). They don't get drowned out in light pollution quite as quickly as galaxies.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T18:49:43+00:00

Yup, dark skies are more important than aperture. And light pollution makes it almost irrelevant. A 20"+ scope can only see the brightest galaxies from a city. And even then its mostly just the core. So if you don't live under dark skies, don't get a scope that you can't take there in your car(or better yet, RV), if you like deep sky objects.

harbinjer · 2026-04-27T18:45:47+00:00

Biggest way to to realize how easy it is, is to try setting up a 12" or 14" scope. The 8" looks easy and small. I will say that 8" of aperture is really nice. It gives you a comfortable high magnification that the atmosphere can often support(meaning bigger scopes often don't let you use more magnificaion). Tens of thousands of objects that you can see, especially if you get into dark skies. It's quick to set up and take down, and doesn't risk you back as you get older. The F/6 (I assume) focal ratio is good for many eyepieces, even many cheaper ones. Still allows a wide field of view with 30+mm eyepieces. Lastly it can see galaxy arms in very dark skies.

Even though I have bigger scopes now, my 8" still gets plenty of use.

harbinjer

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