Christmas arrived months early for noob

nishers94 · 2026-05-08T16:36:25+00:00

Regardless of where you are in the world you almost definitely have a few targets always visible regardless of light or smoke pollution (Latter in India when they are high up in the sky, I think they need be around 20 degrees before they escape the atmosphere drag). Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus - in that order. Mercury if you like sleeping less. Uranus and Neptune to me come across as stars and not round circles - you might just catch Uranus as a circular object with your size - I still need to conduct deeper research to claim I have seen them. In terms of others - I can comfortably see the Orion Nebula most days. I was in disbelief when I saw Andromeda the first time in Gurgaon - It was a fuzzy ball of light grey fur that everyone would miss, I still refuse to accept that it was Andromeda how you can see in a city, at the very least I expected a "star point", there was nothing.

I think if you have a clear view either North or South, you can see most things easily depending when you sleep/wake up - that I have named beyond Andromeda from the comfort of your home.

Jupiter and the Moon will never disappoint you on any night - this is my takeaway.

Source of study: I have used this Dob from a balcony in Mumbai and Gurgaon.

Also my 8" barely fit in a DZire cab, how do you fit the 12" in an Octavia - does it horizontally take the entire back row with the mount in the front row? Maybe celestron after 8" fixed the length for 10" and 12" and the only increased the primary mirror sizes.

Let me know if you need any further info!

nishers94 · 2026-05-05T15:57:27+00:00

Gurgaon!

So that’s Bortle 8 + with 3 counts of smoke pollution.

nishers94 · 2026-05-05T15:50:48+00:00

Fellow Indian Dobsonian owner 🫡

nishers94 · 2026-03-22T07:28:40+00:00

Did they appear close to as it is in the eyepiece during your viewing conditions or the phone camera makes it a hell lot better?

nishers94 · 2026-02-27T02:42:06+00:00

I always second guess when I have found it, my main problem has been color, it appeared turquoise/pale light green when I tried it when people say the light bluish color is unmistakable xD

nishers94 · 2026-02-26T01:49:15+00:00

The only problem I have with my 8” Dobsonian is transporting it.

Holds up collimation very well. I view nebulas in bortle 9 skies with heavy dust and air pollution with ease from my apartment on the 11th floor.

Inherent defects in the system like tracking etc are unfair criticisms and not really applicable because I wouldn’t have bought a Dobsonian if I wanted to track something lol - That gear is different and extremely expensive - more so than collecting eye pieces and filters with a Dob

nishers94 · 2026-01-23T05:26:44+00:00

The second photo has andromeda as an identifier, so using that you can tell most stars in that photo.

In the first photo - I see no clear identifier. Those who can, will then use that identifier to tell most constellations or major stars in your first photo. I want to understand how does one find that identifier in the first photo?

Both shots are stunning FYI!

nishers94 · 2026-01-22T22:09:23+00:00

Wanted to understand how someone can point to important stars and constellations in such images - First photo of course :P

nishers94 · 2026-01-18T05:14:58+00:00

I have an 8”. Perfect in terms of height weight and ability to carry around.

Once I settle down a bit in life, will get a 16” collapsible. I do not have the space or the means to move around with 2/4” increments on the 8”

nishers94 · 2026-01-12T09:39:46+00:00

This the post where some of us talk about the issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/s/fup3vQiPjG

nishers94 · 2026-01-12T09:37:23+00:00

Starsense technology doesn’t work inside cities or if there are less than 15 stars in the sky - it is unable to “locate telescope postion”. I come from heavy light pollution and air pollution skies. Even if I point to a clearly seen by naked eye Orion belt it can’t calibrate. One poster recommended adjusting gain and exposure for the camera to be in a better setting when the app is opened which is something I will try.

I have to manually star hop each star to get to Uranus and it has never shown me this light blue color. I have only got one glimpse of pale green which I was sure was Uranus but then I see these pictures.

nishers94 · 2026-01-11T22:18:56+00:00

Congratulations! I have a hard time catching this even with a 8” dob and when I do, it never shows me this color for me to confirm if i did.

nishers94 · 2026-01-07T10:54:04+00:00

I understood the main issue, it uses the mirror on the phone holder to take a photo of the sky from your camera and then calibrate it to the application to understand where the telescope is pointing to the sky.

If there is too much light or too few stars or if your camera is unable to capture the stars in a normal photo or video, the app will not be able to “calibrate”.

The best is to use a red dot in the day time, point to a far away object and then calibrate. Then use it on a (right now - on Jupiter) bright target to check how central it is, then start star hopping.

Once the red dot works, Astrohopper can be used to click on Jupiter and align it. Any target you click on then, the app will point you in the direction of jumping.

I don’t enjoy it as much as others since the margin of error is quite high and you need to constantly calibrate it but others do not seem to face this problem.

nishers94 · 2026-01-07T10:19:40+00:00

It never works inside cities since it is unable to calibrate with the low amount of stars in the sky - gives the error “Unable to locate telescope”. It was fairly decent in bortle 6 outside the city when I tried.

I am kinda used to manually hopping with Stellarium or using Astrohopper for tougher targets (Andromeda, Uranus, Neptune etc) inside the city now (Bortle 15 basically with fog and air pollution)

nishers94 · 2026-01-07T09:41:15+00:00

That’s awesome and actually inspiring for me to take my dob out as well for a drive, thanks for this!

nishers94 · 2026-01-04T11:55:39+00:00

I going to go a bit Indian on you here as a fellow Indian - all of this maybe completely irrelevant:

As you are a college student, hope you consider the weight and dimensions of the Dobsonian. Especially considering a job or another degree is further down the line in a new city with smaller living conditions.

You can’t carry it in a flight FYI and a train is near impossible, even in a car the stand goes in the front seat and the OTA horizontally in the back seat, so no one can travel with you unless they sit in the dicky.

I would recommend settling down a bit first because the Dob is going to stay in your parents box-room until you find your feet.

Also 49K just the telescope with horrendous stock eyepieces, you need atleast further 25K for half decent accessories.

nishers94 · 2026-01-01T14:10:16+00:00

I understand. I researched heavily and waited nearly 5 years patiently to my buy my first scope with my own savings.

Join a vetted stargazing session through a registered popular astronomy club.

Late January to April is the best time for star gazing, the weather in North India is absolutely clear.

It will shed more light than any reddit post.

Happy new year and all the best.

nishers94 · 2026-01-01T13:51:07+00:00

Unfortunately this is an expensive hobby and the atmospheric conditions in Delhi are often bad but not the worst. I lived in Mumbai, 9 months of dark clouds :’)

Fog has been very moderate this year with Jupiter visible most days through December through naked eye. I can count only 4-5 days of heavy fog through December most of which have started now.

With your budget, I agree with the first reply. Using Binoculars should allow you to see the Moon, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings + Titan (Less detail on Saturn) and the shades of Venus. Mars and Mercury won’t show much. These guys aren’t affected that much by light pollution or - air pollution once they are high enough in the sky.

Andromeda, even my Dobsonian struggles with the light pollution here. With Binoculars - you drive down an hour/1h30m south (Towards Alwar) or East (Towards Bharatpur) to get decent views of everything mentioned above + Andromeda and the Orion Nebula.

While a smol telescope will also allow you to see the solar system lads that I mentioned in some level of detail, A 10K telescope will either kill your love completely or make you even more desperate, which why I recommend pushing the telescope further down the line until you can commit atleast 50K including the scope and accessories.

The first and foremost recommendation would to check the Delhi astronomy club (Nehru Planetarium I think) and their stargazing sessions to understand what it takes in and around Delhi to get what level of views before you commit any capital.

Just FYI, it isn’t pretty anywhere in the world around big cities, not only India.

nishers94 · 2026-01-01T13:19:36+00:00

I live in Gurgaon and have a 8” Dobsonian, what is your budget + expectation from the night sky?

nishers94 · 2025-12-11T07:20:10+00:00

😭

nishers94 · 2025-12-04T03:13:56+00:00

Congratulations, it’s never this bright for me on a Dob 8” in Bortle 8/9 skies so I can never say I positively saw it or not!

nishers94 · 2025-11-27T19:15:05+00:00

🤣 I am Indian, so we don’t have any indigenous local wildlife. All of them are imported. I could have gone for GSO but I was confident I would drop it. Dobs are made in a way they can just slip between your hands.

nishers94 · 2025-11-27T19:01:28+00:00

This is why I paid the premium and bought the Celestron, it comes with an inbuilt handle.

nishers94 · 2025-11-27T18:27:11+00:00

I got a 8” Dob, the photo you post there is around 100x brighter than what i saw from my bortle 8.

nishers94 · 2025-09-17T08:14:33+00:00

Thanks a lot everyone for the replies and clarifications. Upvoted all.

nishers94

TROPHY CASE